The Ideological Square of the British press during the Arab spring in the coverage of Tunisia and Egypt.

Abstract

This study examines how the press coverage of Egypt during the Arab spring was wider and more detailed than that of Tunisia. This might be due to the geopolitical interests of British and western in Egypt. The project will discuss the Arab Spring from the British press perspective in the first three months of the event by applying the quantitative method of content analysis. Moreover, the press will be studied in terms of the political attitude by employing the ‘Ideological square’ theory of Teun Van Dijk (1998). In addition, we will compare the coverage of the Arab Spring in both tabloid and broadsheet papers, taking into consideration the number of news stories, the most covered issue and examine some headlines and how these support one side (protesters or government) more than the other.