خلال ظهـور روايـات مضـادة قويـة أسـهمت في إعـادة تشـكيل التعدديـة في الرؤيـة حـول هـذه الصراعـات والحـروب، وعـزََّزت إمكانيـة الوصـول إلـى منظـورات بديلـة. الخطـاب الإعلامـي الغربـي، الحـرب الروسـية-الأوكرانية، الحـرب كلمـات مفتاحيـة: على غـزة، ازدواجيـة المعاييـر، الإعلام الرقمـي. Abstract: This study examines the linguistic registers of Western media discourse and the narratives it constructs in its coverage of wars—their conditions, trajectories and repercussions. It probes the extent of this discourse’s commitment to representing lived reality, as well as the limits of its instrumentalisation in service of specific political and geopolitical agendas. The study is grounded in a central hypothesis: that Western media discourse deploys a range of linguistic strategies, including metaphor, selective categorisation, and emotionally and politically charged vocabulary. It also relies on binary framing devices such as “ humanitarianism ” versus “ threat ” , and “ legitimate victim ” versus “ conditional victim ” . The study analyses a purposive sample of Western media discourse during the Russia- Ukraine war (2022) and the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip (2023), adopting a comparative approach rooted in critical discourse analysis. It also draws on the concept of “ cultural hegemony ” to unpack how media narratives produce unequal representations of the self and the other. The comparison reveals a deep duality in the structure of these discourses. Coverage of the Russia– Ukraine war relied on frames tied to principles of international law and the ideological legacy of the Cold War, presenting Ukraine as a victim deserving of unconditional support. In contrast, coverage of the war on Gaza was marked, particularly in its early stages, by relative silence or implicit endorsement, alongside a deliberate neglect of the historical context of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories and its settler-colonial dimensions. The study concludes that this duality effectively turns Western media into powerful instruments of propaganda, utilised by Western political, military and economic elites to advance their geopolitical interests. This occurs through shaping public opinion by manipulating facts, distorting concepts and excluding the historical and local contexts of conflicts and wars. At the same time, the study highlights the role of digital expansion and the proliferation
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