News Framing on the America-Iran Feud in the Coverage from Two American Online Newspapers

News media framing has been explicated as a way to construct social realities by persuading readers with the schematics of differently construed proceedings and events. Hence, this study engages in a critical discourse analysis examining the social representation of America and Iran in the coverage from two American online newspapers, namely The New York Times (NYT) and The New York Post (NYP). Since the United States has incited decades of simmering conflict with Iran that involves a global concern, this study also illustrates the polarisation of ideologisation in the coverage in relation to the two newspapers’ political leanings. The findings disclose a disparity of representation of social agents and ideological bias between the two news outlets, with the NYT presenting a balance of positive and negative ‘Us’, while the NYP exhibiting a prejudiced and one-sided ideology towards Iran. Consequently, this study sheds light on the critical role of news framing and highlights academically a systematic analysis of online news coverage considering their political dependency.