The reconstruction of Arab women role in media: a critical discourse analysis

Abstract

Arab women and the patriarchal culture are two things that cannot be separated. The influence of globalization and the rate of information and the Arab Spring revolution have such a profound impact on the identity of Arab women. The issue of discrimination and emancipation as a manifestation of the effort to re-actualize the identity of Arab women is widely reported in the media that we can see its progress day by day. This study shows how the media represents the identity of Arab women in Midan Al-Jazeera, Al-Ittihad, and mawdoo3 which contain problems in the social life of Arab women. As for the social reality of Arab society, women are positioned as individuals who can begin to actualize themselves. The data were analyzed by combining the concept of critical discourse analysis approach by Norman Fairclough and Teun A. Van Dijk who divided the analysis into three dimensions: text (micro), practical discourse (meso), and sociocultural (macro). The results show that the articles in Arab Media represent the re-actualization of Arab female identity using a specific discursive strategy in each of the articles. Through the texts in the article, Arab women are represented as free individuals, regardless of the role of wife and mother, and to have an active contribution to the social and autonomous sphere. It is under the conservative Arab government agenda toward a more moderate country in the twenty-first century.