scholarly journals News Framing of the Arab Spring Conflict from the Lens of Newspaper Editorials

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 352
Author(s):  
Naeem Afzal ◽  
Minah Harun

News framing of events often restricts us to either ‘oppose’ or ‘favour’ a particular side/party involved in a conflict. This paper examines the print media framing of the Arab Spring in the editorials of The News International (NI) of Pakistan and Arab News (AN) of Saudi Arabia. The coverage sample consists of newspaper editorials published from January 2011 to December 2012 when the uprising received phenomenal attention from the media worldwide. Qualitative content analysis of 48 newspaper editorials (24 NI/24 AN), demonstrates how senior media workers constructed the Arab Spring as an international conflict. Specifically, the lexical choices of editorial writers reveal that mainstream newspapers in both the countries positively framed the pro-Arab Spring protesters (public), who reportedly desired to bring the ‘change’. On the contrary, the media framing of the uprising also reflects that the newspapers negatively framed the anti-Arab Spring authorities (ruling elite), who reportedly resisted the ‘change’. A future research is recommended to investigate readers’ perspectives, as well, on the media portrayals of the Arab Spring or other similar conflicts which can give insights into how language use can impact and is impacted by ideology, cultural nuances and identity of diverse individuals.

2019 ◽  
pp. 175063521989461
Author(s):  
Hanan Badr

Eight years after the ‘Arab Spring’, literature is still marked by techno-deterministic interpretations. This article contributes to examining the role of agenda-building processes just before the outbreak of the Egyptian uprising in 2011 within authoritarian systems. Using the ‘hybrid media system’ concept, the article not only focuses on new media effects but, by including print media, it takes into consideration the media system in its entirety. Focusing on Khaled Said’s case as a counter-issue, the qualitative content analysis investigates how challengers in Egypt successfully pushed the media salience of police torture onto the mainstream media agenda. By reconstructing the issue cycle and intermedia spill-over effects, the author investigates the agenda-building processes within hybrid media systems in Arab authoritarian contexts. The qualitative content analysis includes 415 articles and posts from 12 diverse print, online and social media outlets between June 2010 and January 2011. The central finding is that successful spill-over effects occurred from online media to private print media, even though state media tried to ignore the issue. The coverage transferred the issue’s salience from new media into mainstream media, thus reaching wider non-politicized audiences. These proven interlinkages between old and new media are often an overlooked aspect in the literature on media and the ‘Arab Spring’.


Author(s):  
Hossein Taghdar ◽  
Zaid Ahmad ◽  
Abdolreza Alami

Egypt has experienced drastic changes in government recently. Studying these changes can lead to more understanding of the revolutions caused by the Arab Spring in other countries and can also explain the hegemonic conduct of the United States. This qualitative study was conducted through 1) reviewing scholarly published documents and other relevant official news resources that were published on the relationship between Egypt and the United States after the 2011 revolution, and 2) interviewing 12 key informants (ethnic, academic, and administrative elites). Qualitative content analysis was the main approach to data analysis. The results with a focus on both Obama’s administration and Trumps’ administration revealed that Egypt and the United States relations were affected due to Egypt’s anti-western agenda. Later, the United States’ main strategies in maintaining its hegemony in Egypt were discussed. Among these factors, 1) the United States’ aid policy, 2) the United States’ tolerance policy, 3) aborting FJP, 4) imposing the western culture, and 4) the United States’ support of street protests can be mentioned. Areas for further research are discussed at the end of the study.


2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdullah K. Al-Kindi

The central aim of this paper is to critically analyze the role of the media during public protests that occurred in the GCC countries during 2011. These protests were part of what came to be called the “Arab Spring”, which started in late 2010. Particular focus will be on how the Arab Spring resulted in fundamental changes and how various institutions played roles in this. The study draws on Gulf region literature about the Arab Spring in order to offer a critical and informed overview on the topic under discussion. The paper’s main question is: what are the main roles played by the GCC media (old/new) during the public protests of 2011? The paper argues that the role of the media in the 2011 protests, while important, was rather limited and affected by the unique contextual characteristics of the media environment in the GCC countries. 


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 14-20
Author(s):  
Hani Albasoos ◽  
Buthaina Al Hinai

Following the Arab Spring in 2011, Yemen’s devastating conflicts have deepened even further, leading the country to be the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Despite the international community's multiple attempts to resolve this conflict, the conflict seems to have reached a stalemate. To make matters worse, resolving the conflict is made difficult by the large number of parties involved, internally and externally, and by the complex, dual and fluid nature of the relationships they share. Although the media and international community's focus is directed towards the binary conflict between the Hadi government and Saudi Arabia on one side and Iran and the Houthis on the other, the conflict is greatly multifaceted and far from being binary. This paper critically analyzes and explores other participating actors to comprehend the root causes of the conflict entirely. Although this conflict has been advertised as a proxy war, while others trace back the motivation to sectarianism, this paper argues how this analysis can be misleading and hindering the peace process.


2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Brownlee ◽  
Tarek Masoud ◽  
Andrew Reynolds

Attempting to understand the complexities of the Arab Spring is a challenge both methodologically and evidentially. Over a three year period we evolved a problem-driven attempt at theory building and came to see historically rooted structural factors as more satisfying explanatory variables than some of the more proximate arguments proposed to explain the causes and consequences of the Arab Spring. We found that antecedent variables could account for the contrast between countries that experienced successful uprisings and those countries that experienced no uprising at all or an unsuccessful uprising. We found two variables provided significant explanatory leverage. The first was the extent of non-tax hydrocarbon (mainly oil) rents, the second, the nature of the ruling elite and whether the incumbent had inherited power.


2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 124-139
Author(s):  
Akber Ali

Scholars in the arena of media and communication have paid attention to the news framing of the controversial US drone policy in the post 9/11 mainly from the Western media perspectives. Scant scholarly heed has been given to examine the media framing of the US drone strikes from the national media perspectives of the targeted countries. The current study attempts to build on the existing scholarship on US drone policy by exploring the news media framing in two elite national newspapers of Pakistan. Using inductive framing as methodological approach and qualitative analysis as methodology, the study analyzed the editorial discourse in the selected dailies on the US drones. The findings reveal that both the newspapers covered the drones using strikingly different frames. The Daily Times constructed the discourse on US drones using the efficacy frame predominantly- that the drones are effective and doing ‘good job’ against the militants. The Express Tribune framed the drones as violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and counterproductive. The discussion elaborates the possible factors for the differential framing of US drones in the two national dailies of Pakistan.


POLITEA ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 129
Author(s):  
Ihsan Hamid ◽  
Ozi Setiadi

<p class="06IsiAbstrak">Saudi Arabia and Iran: Ideological Contest and Its Impact in the Middle East Region after The Arab Spring. Tensions surround the Middle East region, especially between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The Sunni-Shia ideological factor contributed to the conflict in the region and also attracted these two countries. This research will answer the question how is the form of contestation of Sunni-Shia ideology represented by Saudi Arabia with Iran in the Middle East? What are the factors and impacts of the conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran on countries in the region after the Arab Spring? The historical approach (historical analysis) was chosen to explain the two research questions above, using qualitative methods. Saudi Arabia and Iran represent both a Sunni-Shia ideological contestation, both of which try to support each other's ruling government, as well as conflicting oppositions based on ideological backgrounds. This support is carried out in the form of military assistance, weapons, or direct involvement which is marked by various statements that appear in the media. The disharmony of Saudi Arabia and Iran is driven by several factors, namely first, the Sunni-Shia ideological struggle between the two. Second, the claim to be the holder of the Islamic religion in each version. And third, oil. While the impact of this is political instability in the Middle East region after the Arab Spring, to the "cold war" involving Saudi Arabia and Iran.             </p><p class="05Abstrak">.</p>


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