Abstract
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.
Highlights
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
We examine the print media framing of the Arab Spring in the editorials of The News international (NI) of Pakistan and Arab News (AN) Saudi Arabia
We argue that the construction of such events can be explored by examining various strategies and ideologies which are involved in the production of news and the way social contexts are reproduced by newsmen
Summary
We examine the print media framing of the Arab Spring in the editorials of The News international (NI) of Pakistan and Arab News (AN) Saudi Arabia. This paper will offer useful insights into the editorial lens of the two mainstream newspapers. Based on their religious and cultural proximities, the mainstream media in both the countries seriously covered the Arab Spring, which first broke out in Tunisia in the aftermath of the act of self-immolation committed by a vegetable seller, who faced harassment by municipality officials. This act catalysed revolt in the country against the authorities. The media have been held responsible for escalating unrest and by giving different explanation of the uprising (Karyotakis, Panagiotou, Antonopoulos, & Kiourexidou, 2017)
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