Framing Breaking News: The Mumbai Terror Attacks of 2008

The November 2008 terror attacks on Mumbai received widespread media coverage in both the national and international press. After nearly 60 hours of gun battle, the siege ended leaving over 230 injured and 183 dead, including 20 foreigners. For the first three days of coverage, the attacks were the lead stories in all national and most international newspapers, after which there was a shift in frames. This study analyses the similarities and differences in the frames over a five day sample period in two Indian and two British national dailies. This is done by analysing the labels used to describe the attacks and its perpetrators and examining how the ideologies of the newspapers affected their coverage. A content analyses of the sample newspapers found that while the British newspapers used a strong label like Islamist militants to describe the perpetrators, the Indian newspapers leaned towards establishing their Pakistani identity. This book is a must-read for all media and journalism students and academicians who are interested in the field of terrorism and how the international media frames this global issue.