War Narratives in Metaphorical Framing: An Analysis of Connotative Meanings in CNN Arabic News Headlines on the Russia–Ukraine Conflict

This study aims to understand the meanings of words and phrases that carry connotative meanings and to identify the types of words or phrases used in CNN Arabic news headlines about the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. The research method is qualitative with a descriptive-analytical approach. The data for this study includes all news headlines related to the Russia-Ukraine conflict under the world news section on the CNN Arabic website. The data source is the CNN Arabic website. The theory used for data analysis is the theory of denotative and connotative meanings proposed by Ahmad Mukhtar Umar in his book ‘Ilmu al-Dilalah’. The results of the study show that there are 33 CNN Arabic news headlines that contain connotative meanings. Among the 33 headlines, there are 22 types of word choices, phrases, and sentences used. 6 dictions contain metaphors of place names and geographical areas, 5 dictions contain metaphors of human body parts, 4 data metaphorical narratives containing expressive emotions, 4 data that figure situations in war, and 3 data that describe the form and condition of a character. This dominance emphasizes the media’s goal to attract public attention with concrete narratives that are in line with the implications of this study for public awareness of metaphorical meanings.