The Ethiopian conflict in the eyes of the media: Case study: How Al-Jazeera news agency represents and frame the Tigray war of 2020
2022 (English)Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor), 10 credits / 15 HE credits
Student thesis
Abstract [en]
In today's world, mass media plays a key role in shaping public opinion and influencing foreign policies of states. Global news agencies have become powerful entities in this aspect; not only by reporting but also by the way they represent and frame events such as conflict situations and wars. They have the potential to create or construct the understanding of the spectator, by the way they represent events of significance. Representation, which is done through the use of language, can be considered as the production of the meaning in the minds of the spectators, while news framing is used by the media to place the facts inside a frame that provides clarity and consistency to the news.This thesis attempted to analyse how Al-Jazeera English news site represented the on-going Tigray war in Ethiopia. A qualitative approach was adopted in achieving the overall research objective, whereas 46 news reports published within one month since the outbreak of the war were subjected to discourse analysis. In addition, six news reports that were published exactlyone year after its commencement were analysed to explore whether there is any difference inAl-Jazeera’s representation on the Tigray war.From the beginning and even after one year, Al-Jazeera defines the problem within two frames; i) a political conflict between two groups followed by military confrontation, and ii) human interest associated with the problem or the humanitarian consequences of the problem. The major cause for the problem or the Tigray war is represented as political disputes between Ethiopia’s federal government and Tigray’s regional government. The moral judgment of the war is conveyed by way of a covert ‘blame judgement’ directed at the Prime Minister and the leader of the federal government. From the beginning and even one year after, Al-Jazeera has strongly represented dialogue and negotiation as the solution to the problem. The need for a third-party intervention in peace making has been represented throughout.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2022. , p. 58
Keywords [en]
Ethiopia, Al-Jazeera, media, representation, framing
National Category
Political Science (excluding Public Administration Studies and Globalisation Studies)
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hv:diva-19122Local ID: EIS501OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hv-19122DiVA, id: diva2:1694366
Subject / course
Political science
Educational program
International Programme in Politics and Economics
Supervisors
Examiners
2022-09-232022-09-092022-09-23Bibliographically approved