The series of revolts, protests, violent clashes and revolutions that occurred in the North Africa & Middle East (MENA) region between 2010 and 2012, which was later tagged the ‘Arab Spring’, received abundant media coverage within its region and on a global scale. On a regional level; according to Noura Alalawi, a 24-hour, round-the-clock coverage of the civil unrest and protests was made available by Al Jazeera, a Qatari state-funded broadcaster (Alalawi, 2015). By the same token, according to the Pew Research Center, “this wave of unrest dominated news coverage and propelled international stories to the forefront of the U.S. news agenda” (Anderson, 2012). Coupled with the prominence of social media as a means of mobilization by the protesters,
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Sumaya Al Nahed interviewed a BBC Arabic correspondent in Libya to investigate the difference in the news coverage between BBC Arabic and Al Jazeera. According to her reports, “…BBC reporters were instructed not to use the word ‘revolution’ or ‘revolutionaries’ when covering the uprising, as doing so would indicate bias and affect the BBC’s neutral and objective stance on covering this uprising and ensuing intervention” (Al Nahed, 2016). This is an important factor to consider as western media sources such as BBC and CNN might attempt to be non-partisan in the reporting of the delicate issues of the MENA region. Nevertheless, as Al Nahed subsequently identifies, “...the lack of bias does not imply an absence of framing” (Al Nahed, 2016) therefore, it is still important to analyze how they report the events of the Arab Spring, irrespective of their attempt to be neutral about the series of …show more content…
The Al Jazeera article featured a photo of Hosni Mubarak with a hanging rope around his neck as if to imply that the trial was going to result in a death sentence. This portrayed the hope of the oppressed Egyptians who had suffered in the hands of Hosni Mubarak that the dictator will be sentenced to death. In contrast, the CNN article was accompanied by a video, with the cover image of the video being Hosni Mubarak on his sick bed in the cage at the trial. This photo presented a more neutral perspective of the trial and provided a less emotionally charged narrative of events compared to Al Jazeera’s
Sumaya Al Nahed interviewed a BBC Arabic correspondent in Libya to investigate the difference in the news coverage between BBC Arabic and Al Jazeera. According to her reports, “…BBC reporters were instructed not to use the word ‘revolution’ or ‘revolutionaries’ when covering the uprising, as doing so would indicate bias and affect the BBC’s neutral and objective stance on covering this uprising and ensuing intervention” (Al Nahed, 2016). This is an important factor to consider as western media sources such as BBC and CNN might attempt to be non-partisan in the reporting of the delicate issues of the MENA region. Nevertheless, as Al Nahed subsequently identifies, “...the lack of bias does not imply an absence of framing” (Al Nahed, 2016) therefore, it is still important to analyze how they report the events of the Arab Spring, irrespective of their attempt to be neutral about the series of …show more content…
The Al Jazeera article featured a photo of Hosni Mubarak with a hanging rope around his neck as if to imply that the trial was going to result in a death sentence. This portrayed the hope of the oppressed Egyptians who had suffered in the hands of Hosni Mubarak that the dictator will be sentenced to death. In contrast, the CNN article was accompanied by a video, with the cover image of the video being Hosni Mubarak on his sick bed in the cage at the trial. This photo presented a more neutral perspective of the trial and provided a less emotionally charged narrative of events compared to Al Jazeera’s