The main purpose of this study is to map out how leading newspapers in the U.S.
are framing different ethnic groups in the Middle East in their daily reporting. For
this analysis, a systematic random sample was drawn from published articles
focused on two main ethnic groups in the Arab region, namely, Amazigh “Berbers,”
and Copts. There are 391 news stories in The New York Times and 408 news stories
in Washington Post about Berbers and Copts during the last eight years (2011-2019).
The study came out with the findings that American newspapers dedicated large
spaces to cover the issues of minorities in the Middle East, and there was a
greater tendency in the newspapers to cover Coptic minority compared to the Berber
minority. The study newspapers heavily relied on minorities sources, both NYT
and WP relied on 61% Coptic sources and 67% on Berbers sources. However, the
data showed that Arabic sources were the least cited in stories published about
minorities in the Middle East (6% in both NYT and WP). Different frames were used
by NYT and WP, while NYT focused more on presenting Copts issues through
international frames, WP tends to present Berbers through the cultural frame.