Ethiopia and the international press: A comparative analysis of media headlines in times of conflict and political instabilities

This article assesses how the headlines of international media outlets – Al Jazeera, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Cable News Netwrok (CNN) and China Global Telesion Netwrok (CGTN) – with distinct geographic, political and economic perspectives – represent contemporary Ethiopia, a country that has faced various crises, conflicts and political instability between 2020 and 2025. Over 1000 stories were collected from these outlets through keyword searches and analysed using natural language processing and machine learning techniques. The findings indicate that all four outlets prioritise different issues and frame them according to their respective countries’ political and geographical interests. The results reveal variations in narrative emphasis, regional perspectives and potential ideological leanings, as well as the influence of geopolitics. While BBC and CNN primarily focus on conflict, war and humanitarian crises, CGTN tends to highlight political and economic partnerships between Ethiopia and China. Conversely, Al Jazeera focuses more on the Nile dam, conflict and political crises from the Horn of Africa’s perspective. This suggests that, in analysing the current Ethiopian situation, it is possible to gain insight into broader global political narratives and their evolution.