Framing of Russia-Ukraine War: Comparisons of Global News

This study examined the news framing of the Russia-Ukraine war in global news media outlets. Using the framing theory, a literature review of prominent news frames covering wars and conflicts was drawn. Two hypotheses were set for the major news frames more than others and the relationship between the emphasis on the frames and news organizations’ national interests. Based on predicted framing themes, news frames were obtained from topic modeling with 48,364 news stories. An analysis with a verification sample was implemented to compare the topics with news publishers’ national interests. Five news frames from topic modeling were found: humanism, politics, peace, war, and the economy. In the coverage of the news about the war by global news organizations, the humanism and peace frames were related to Ukraine, whereas the war frame was associated with Russia. The relationship between national interests and pronounced news frames found that European news emphasized humanism more than other regions. The national interest of news outlets was reflected in the news of the war. Study implications and suggestions in terms of news framing and national interests were discussed.