A Critical Discourse Analysis of Al Jazeera’s Online Coverage of the War in Yemen Before and After the 5 June 2017 Qatar Crisis

Abstract

In this study Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) was utilized to examine Al Jazeera Arabic news website’s reporting on the war in Yemen leading up to and following the Qatar crisis on 5 June 2017. The objective was to examine how Al Jazeera’s news coverage represented the social actors in the Yemen war, that being the (KSA, UAE, Egypt and Bahrain) and the opposition (Houthis). The data comprised of a total of 32 news articles related to the war in Yemen – 16 articles covering the period prior to the Crisis, from 2015-2017 and 16 news articles that cover the period following the onset of the crisis from 2017-2019. The overall aim was to uncover the ideological implications of linguistic elements, such as lexical choices, news headlines, and de-legitimisation strategies. The results revealed identifiable and distinct changes in tone and angles of representation relating to social actors and their actions. Leading up to the Qatar crisis, the coalition was represented positively as a savior of a neighboring country, while the Houthis were presented negatively as an aggressor targeting Mecca and civilian areas; following the start of the crisis, the coalition was reported about in a negative light, while the Houthis were reported positively. The change coincides with the Qatar crisis, suggesting that this change is not random, thus casting doubt on Al Jazeera’s claims of being an objective news source and an independent media institution that is unaffected by Qatari interests.