Headlines and Hegemony: Unraveling Ideological Narratives in Arab and Western Media's Portrayal of Arab Women

Abstract

This study investigates the ideologies and strategies used in the news discourse on Arab women. Initially, it aims to analyze the macro strategies and then highlights the micro strategies used to achieve the macro strategies proposed by van Dijk. It also identifies the ideologies of the selected newspapers regarding Arab women. Four newspapers were selected: the Washington Post, Daily Mail, Arab newspaper, and Gulf Times. The findings reveal that the selected newspapers employed four macro-strategies. It was also found that the selected newspapers employed ten micro strategies to achieve the four macro strategies. More importantly, the analysis showed that the selected newspapers had different ideologies. For instance, the ideologies of Arab newspapers include defending the stand of Arab regimes and Islam regarding women’s rights. However, the ideologies embraced by Western newspapers encompass the promotion of Arab women's advocacy for enhanced rights, urging Western authorities to impose sanctions on Arab nations that do not uphold women's rights and advocate for their governments to sever diplomatic ties with countries that fail to ensure adequate rights for women.