"This is, and will be, one of New Zealand's darkest days" : A qualitative framing analysis of the mosque attacks in Christchurch 2019

The 15th of March 2019, the city of Christchurch in New Zealand was exposed to two mosque attacks that left at least 50 people killed and many people wounded. The attacks were described as a terrorist attack performed by a 28-year-old Australian man with right-wing extremist views. The two mosque attacks were broadcast live by the perpetrator on his social media accounts. By using a qualitative text analysis, the author has studied the reports of the attacks of three news channels, CNN, RT English and al- Jazeera English, with a selection of nine articles. The study has investigated the description and the framing of the mosque attacks by each news channel. With the aid of a framing analysis, the author was able to identify which frames that has occurred in the reports by CNN, RT English and al-Jazeera English. The aim of the study was to study the framing of the mosque attacks by the news channels with different culture valuations and whether there were any similarities or differences in their descriptions of the attacks. The result of the analysis could show that there were both similarities and differences in the reports of the news channels. CNN and al-Jazeera English used the affective and attributive framework and RT English used the descriptive framework in their reports of the mosque attacks