The Middle East is watching: Iranian and Saudi Arabian newspaper framing of the 2020 US presidential elections

Abstract

Despite its importance, there has been little research into how Middle Eastern news outlets cover American politics. This content analysis uses framing theory to explore coverage of the 2020 US presidential election in two Middle East dailies, Iranian Hamshahri and Saudi Arabian Al-Watan. Because Iran and Saudi Arabia are rivals and take different approaches to American politics, hypotheses predicted meaningful framing differences. While some findings were consistent with researcher expectations, most findings were not. As predicted, Al-Watan was less likely to frame Trump negatively. However, contrary to expectations, the examined newspapers did not differ in terms of how they framed Biden, the 6 January breach of the Capitol or allegations of voter fraud. The newspapers also did not differ in terms of how likely they were to use pro-Trump and pro-Biden sources. The unexpected findings suggest a cautious approach by Al-Watan, which may not have wanted to show strong support for a US president, Trump, who was likely outgoing. More generally, and as the ‘Discussion’ section explains, Al-Watan’s approach likely reflected the Saudi government’s perceptions about ongoing developments on the US political scene. In one sense, then, Al-Watan’s editorial line was an extension of Saudi foreign policy towards the United States. The ‘Discussion’ section also attempts to make sense of Hamshahri’s framing patterns, which seemed to reflect larger Iranian distrust in the American political system.