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A Study of Reporting about Terrorism on Two Pan-Arab Television News Channels
thesis
posted on 2016-04-11, 10:01 authored by Saeed Ali N. AbdullahThis study examined TV coverage of terrorism from Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya using media
framing analysis. The study attempted to address two main objectives. These objectives are
exploring the terrorism issues in both Arabic news channels under the period of study and the
extent to which the two networks differ or agree; and identifying the factors that might have
influenced each of these two news providers’ news selection processes and the framing of
terrorism on broadcast networks. Using a framing approach, this study initially used content
analysis to examine a number of framing devices based on past literature such as types of news
frames, framing perspective, geographical location of terrorism coverage, sources used,
perpetrators of terrorism, victims of terrorism, episodic versus thematic frame, and responsibility
frames. Furthermore, discourse analysis was applied to understand the link between discursive
practice and the broader social and cultural developments and structures. Language extracts taken
from both TV networks’ broadcasts were compared, taking into consideration different contextual
factors that contribute to the production and consumption of news discourse about terrorism.
This study found that the stereotype that ‘the terrorist is a Muslim’ prevailed in the news
coverage that was analysed. Furthermore, contrary to the pattern among western news sources,
both networks were consistent in at least implying that the majority of terrorism victims are
Muslims. In addition, the findings reveal that too much media focus was placed on disseminating
and supporting official positions and decisions, and that humanitarian suffering from terrorism is
seldom brought to the attention of the public.
History
Supervisor(s)
Gunter, BarrieDate of award
2014-09-01Author affiliation
Department of Media and CommunicationAwarding institution
University of LeicesterQualification level
- Doctoral
Qualification name
- PhD
Language
enAdministrator link
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