Media is an essential tool in politics and shaping our understanding of political events. Framing Theory, CNN Effect, and Manufacturing Consent and Propaganda Module are used in this thesis to explore how Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya as political media tools of their own sponsored governments, Qatar and Saudi Arabia respectively, have covered the murder of the Saudi journalist in Istanbul Jamal Khashoggi.

Through the use of qualitative methods on Al Jazeera's and Al Arabiya's published articles, this study found that Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya's coverage of the murder of Khashoggi has been significantly different. Al Jazeera emphasized a detailed premediated murder with responsibility of top Saudi officials. According to Al Jazeera, this murder was based on Khashoggi's critique of Saudi authorities and policies and they highlighted that Saudi Arabia's reputation is internationally worsened and Western economic and political sanctions against the kingdom are a serious threat now. Such a threat might lead to more freedom of speech and expression in Saudi Arabia and it also could put an end to the war on Yemen which was led by Saudi Arabia few years ago.

On the contrary, Al Arabiya's coverage was very short, limited, poorly informative, sometimes contradictory, and ignored different parts of the story of Khashoggi's murder. Al Arabiya also focused on finding any possible shortcomings in other news coverage of the murder, and later put the responsibility of the murder on a team of 18 Saudis who only had the mission to negotiate with Khashoggi to return home. According to Al Arabiya, such an event would not affect Saudi Arabia's international relations or reputation notwithstanding an aggressive media campaign and propaganda led by Qatar and Turkey against the kingdom. Instead of focusing on Khashoggi's murder, Al Arabiya calls for an international media focus on the Iranian threat against the regional stability of the Middle East and the world.