Conflict Coverage Promotion: High Quality or High Concept? A multimodal analysis of claims-making in conflict coverage promotional spots of Al Jazeera English and CNN International

Today even the war and conflict coverage of 24-hour news networks is subject to heavy promotion and part of the networks’ advertising and branding campaigns. These commercial aspects of news production, however, seem to oppose concepts of journalistic quality. This study analyses claims of journalistic quality and ‘high concept’ in conflict coverage promotion spots and how they are linked to better understand the ideological complexes of CNN International and Al Jazeera English. The findings show an equal number of quality and ‘high concept’ claims with differences in the nature of the claims between the two networks. Strong patterns are found in quality and ‘high concept’ claims of both 24-hour television news networks. The largest number appears in the visual mode. The research also shows that analysing this kind of media text needs to be multimodal and that a social semiotic approach is appropriate for analysing claims-making and linking in conflict coverage promotional spots.