Media Framing of the July 2024 Uprising in Bangladesh: Testing the Boundaries of Galtung’s Peace Journalism Model
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: The July 2024 uprising in Bangladesh sparked weeks of unrest and ultimately led to the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. This study examines how eight leading English-language newspapers framed the crisis, using Johan Galtung’s Peace and War Journalism model as a guiding framework. Relying solely on quantitative content analysis, the research analyses 98 news reports published between 14 July and 14 August 2024. While The Daily Star and Dhaka Tribune leaned toward peace journalism, and Daily Sun, The Asian Age, New Age, and The Business Standard reflected war journalism traits, coverage in The Daily Observer and The Bangladesh Today defied clear classification. These two outlets consistently blended elements of both models showing people-centred reporting alongside elite sources, or combining de-escalatory language with victory-oriented framing. This pattern, which the study terms “mixed framing,” challenges the dominant binary lens used in peace journalism research, particularly in South Asia. Rather than forcing news coverage into either peace or war categories, the findings point to a hybrid style that reflects the complexity of contemporary reporting during political upheaval. The paper argues for expanding Galtung’s model to better account for this emerging middle ground.
Institution: Bangladesh University of Professionals
Language: English
Subfield: Communication
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7124240097