Purpose: Drawing on Jean Baudrillard’s theory of simulation and hyperreality, this study analyzes the role of the media in representing the Twelve-Day Iran–Israel War (June–July 2025). The central question is how the media functioned not merely as mirrors of battlefield events but as active constructors of reality itself.



Method: The dataset consists of news headlines from three media clusters: Iranian outlets (IRNA, ISNA, Press TV, and Tehran Times), Israeli outlets (The Jerusalem Post, The Times of Israel, Ynet, and Israel Hayom), and international outlets (Reuters, Al Jazeera, France 24, and Associated Press). A mixed-methods approach was adopted: first, Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) was employed to identify central signifiers and semantic frames; second, computational text analysis was conducted using three indices—Self-Referentiality Ratio (SR), Narrative Replication Rate (NRR), and Narrative–Reality Gap (NRG).



Findings: Analysis of 150 headlines (50 per cluster) revealed that Iranian media exhibited the highest Narrative Replication Rate (5.4) and the widest Narrative–Reality Gap (27%), reflecting a discourse of resistance and the amplification of victory. Israeli media showed high self-referentiality (38%) and a moderate gap (25%), emphasizing deterrence and minimizing losses. International media displayed lower self-referentiality (21%) and a narrower gap (15%), with a focus on humanitarian and diplomatic dimensions.



Conclusion: The findings indicate that contemporary wars are increasingly constructed in the realm of signs and images rather than determined solely on the battlefield. The study’s main innovation lies in operationalizing Baudrillardian concepts through quantitative indices and linking them to linguistic analysis. In doing so, hyperreality is transformed from an abstract theoretical notion into an analytical tool for understanding public perception and political legitimacy in short-term conflicts.