Today even the war and conflict coverage of 24-hour news networks is subject to heavy promotion
and part of the networks advertising and branding campaigns. These commercial aspects of news
production however seem to oppose concepts of journalistic quality. This study analyses
claims of journalistic quality and high concept in conflict coverage promotion spots and how
they are linked to better understand the ideological complexes of CNN International and Al
Jazeera English. The findings show an equal number of quality and high concept claims with
differences in the nature of the claims between the two networks. Strong patterns are found in
quality and high concept claims of both 24-hour television news networks. The largest number
appears in the visual mode. The research also shows that analysing this kind of media text
needs to be multimodal and that a social semiotic approach is appropriate for analysing
claims-making and linking in conflict coverage promotional spots.
