Media Tone, Affective Framing, and Western Public Support for a Two-State Solution in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Abstract

Due to Western journalists conveying not only information but also emotional valence when reporting on Middle East peace efforts, this thesis investigates whether the affective tone of that coverage operates as an independent influence on public support for a two-state solution. Synthesizing media effects theory, the political psychology of hope (particularly the affect heuristic and appraisal tendency frameworks), and verified public opinion data, the core argument demonstrates that hopeful media tone functions as a form of affective framing that primes citizens to evaluate the two-state solution more favorably, even after accounting for substantive content. Published content analyses of Western outlets reveal systematic framing asymmetries in emotional vocabulary, source selection, and victim humanization that structurally constrain the tonal range of coverage. I utilize survey data document partisan, generational, and ideological cleavages that align with predictions derived from the theoretical framework, underscoring the salience of affective tone as an underspecified variable in existing models of policy opinion formation.