Critical Discourse Analysis of Online Publications Ideology: A Case of Middle Eastern Online Publications:

Raeda Tartory

doi:10.1177/2158244020941471

Critical Discourse Analysis of Online Publications Ideology: A Case of Middle Eastern Online Publications:

Tartory, Raeda 2020-07-22 00:00:00 This study assesses the reflection of Middle Eastern media networks on the states and the news concerning the oil crisis and Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) conditions. A critical discourse analysis approach is adopted to analyze 22 articles from Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya regarding the Qatar withdrawal from OPEC. The ideological choices vary as Al Jazeera is focused on the Qatar economy, while Al Arabiya on Saudi Arabia. These online publications have presented a positive self-presentation of their funded country while the negative representation of the other. Al Jazeera has pointed that the exit of Qatar from the OPEC is to focus on its other non–oil production sector, while Al Arabiya has pointed that this exit is due to the primary role of Saudi Arabia, with which Qatar has an on-going conflict. Qatar is symbolic to broaden regional division, which may later diffuse to other OPEC members and will leave no mark on the decision-making process of the alliance. Keywords Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya, critical discourse analysis, CDA, online publications ideology, Middle Eastern, online publications region) countries. Generally, the relationship with news Introduction media and journalism are found challenging (Hinnebusch, In the present era of globalization, media sources constitute a 2018). Historically, the MENA region has always had state- unique and prime role in communicating the discourse to the controlled media (Bruns et al., 2015), which initiated using reader (Hidayatullah, 2017). Various researches have empha- printed online publications. sized the substantial role of the media outlets in the dissemi- Despite the increase in the development prospects, MENA nation of the information (Castello, 2013; Sharifi et al., has experienced numerous conflicts in the form of political 2017). Every news or event in the world becomes interna- disputes and instability, which led to the upsurge of media in tional; the moment it occurs because of the power relations the region (Koch & Stivachtis, 2019). The socioeconomic of leading players across the globe (Moscato, 2016). Parker and political networks described the purpose and way of dis- (2015) adds that media acts as a stimulus for the dissemina- semination adopted by these media corporations, which is tion of the ideas of a certain group by constructing particular represented in coverage of every single event (Radcliffe & meaning using genres and narratives. Castello (2013) Lam, 2018). Therefore, confront over the insulation of media addresses the media ideology defining it as a form of social from economic as well as the political side is constantly process, which allows the circulation of the idea on a mas- growing, notably for states where the supersession of the sive scale. Media sources constitute the potential to impact basic rights exists (Akpojivi, 2018). The degree of ideologi- the perception of the world and drive them toward a certain zation reaches its pinnacle point for the two media giants in direction (Berger, 2012). the Middle East, such as Al Arabiya in Saudi Arabia and Al Text in the online publications is biased, convincing, and Jazeera in Qatar. The increased political influence impacts an official evocative of public opinion through which readers and researchers are attracted (Chen et al., 2018). The ideol- Al-Ahliyya Amman University, Amman, Jordan ogy of these online publications is primary as the discourse Corresponding Author: of media is legislated as a prominent supplier of public opin- Raeda Arafat Tartory, Department of English Language and Literature, ion (Happer & Greg, 2013). This problem further becomes Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Al-Ahliyya Amman University, Al-Saro, more complex when the region is vulnerable to various crises, Amman 19328, Jordan. such as found in MENA (the Middle East and North Africa Email: r.tartory@gmail.com Creative Commons CC BY: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). 2 SAGE Open the discourse of the media, which often led to the deviation society (Fairclough, 1995; van Dijk, 1998; Wodak & Meyer, of the ethical goals to that of manipulation (Abdulmajid, 2009). A total of 27 ideological strategies were proposed by 2019). van Dijk, which are influential to identify the important strat- The stability of the region is jeopardized due to the immense egies of positive self-presentation and negative presentation contribution of the media to the ideological representation of (p. 67). According to van Dijk (2006), the positive self-pre- the conflicts in the region. Furthermore, the frequent crisis sentation is an ideological aspect used for referring to an within the MENA states, such as withdrew of Saudi Arabia, individual as superior as compared with others, whereas the the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Bahrain ambassadors negative other-representation considers others as inferior. from Qatar based on the past rivalry that dates back to 1995. These discursive strategies enhance or reduce bad aspects of This further intensified the adverse response to these conflicts, an individual and report discourse ideologically. along with its representation in the news media. Until now, the CDA proposed by Fairclough provides research to gain its conflicts of the news media and its promoted ideology have insights on discursive, linguistic, and social aspects. According been investigated by Jones (2019) and earlier research of to Fairclough (1993), text analysis involves a comprehensive Carpentier and Spinoy (2008) on the Western media outlet. understanding of language forms. Fairclough categorizes text An assessment for the MENA regional news outlet and its analysis under four major tenants; cohesion, text structure, ideology construction mechanism remain dearth requiring grammar, and vocabulary. Force of utterances, the intertextual- more research. Therefore, the study investigates the role of the ity of the text, and coherence of the text are involved in these Arabic News outlet and its reporting on the OPEC issues from concepts (Ghannam, 2011). The sociocultural analysis is the 2018 to 2019 in the region. The study assesses the two media third level of analysis, which is accomplished through the power outlets such as Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya, which hold a sub- relations examination prevailing in any society. Furthermore, stantial consumer base. Following research questions are con- the prevailing hegemonies are reproduced, restructured, or chal- structed to examine the role of the Arabic News outlet on the lenged through imbalanced power relations (Hassan, 2018). OPEC issues comprehensively: Fairclough (1995), in media discourse, reported that media sets a platform for the audience and then stresses its Research Question 1: How headlines are reflected from power. The power of media is undeniable in shaping percep- its reporting title in both the Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya tion, values, social relations, and beliefs of people. Media is online publications? further considered as a significant power, which is majorly Research Question 2: Does the text of the news logically manifested in framing the news story and manipulating the represent and justify the Qatar–Saudi conflict and exit of language (Sivandi & Dowlatabadi, 2015). The rationale Qatar from OPEC in both the Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya behind the selection of CDA in this article is to examine the online publications? ideological development of Arabic articles, which is well- Research Question 3: How the role of the United States articulated by the fact that CDA helps in examining the broad is reflected from the title and text of both the Al Jazeera news categories. Fairclough (1993) summarized that the and Al Arabiya online publications? CDA of news media headlines assists to find the answers to the questions that are presented in the study. The incorporation of multiple approaches and disciplines Theoretical Framework make CDA a diverse area of study. The discourse perception of Fairclough is summarized as linguistically oriented discourse Critical Discourse Analysis analysis and social and political perception associated with lan- The study has employed critical discourse analysis (CDA) guage and discourse. It is presented in the form of a framework, for assessing the conflict discourse in the region. The study which is appropriate in social scientific research, and particu- has followed methods proposed by Richardson (2006), due larly in the study of social change (Fairclough, 1993). Fairclough to its practical nature of online publications analysis. Using and Wodak (1997) have argued that discourse is both socially this approach, a comparative analysis of the two news net- conditioned and socially constitutive. The audience is unaware works (Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya) was carried out concern- of the frameworks of power relations, nature of social practices, ing its ideology and power. CDA assess online publications and social structures, while their practices mark an impact on discourse based on three aspects, that is, linguistic analysis, the social struggles and structures around them. discursive practices, and social analysis (Richardson, 2006). van Dijk’s (2005) analytical framework is applied in this Linguistic Analysis study for finding out implicit and explicit discursive steps for representing “us” with positive characteristics and “them” In this analysis, the research focuses on the article’s choice of with negative characteristics. CDA is an effective tool to ana- words, sentence structure, modal verbs, and combination of lyze a discourse or language as its core focus is to decon- different propositions to a narrative (Richardson, 2006). struct those implicit and explicit ideologies of discourses that Example of linguistic analysis as exemplified in Richardson assist in producing and reproducing unequal relationships in (2006, p. 95), book constitute of the following way. Tartory 3 Structuring of propositions Words (lexis) Micro-textual analysis Sentences 1 (syntax and transitivity) Sentences 2 (modality) Presupposition Propositions combining Rhetoric Macro-textual analysis Narrative The rationale for selecting this analysis is to examine how in originating and propagating the ideological campaigns that the two online publications (Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya) posi- orient and manipulate the audience (Mahmood et al., 2018). tion one country’s importance at the expense of others using The online publications are likely to give importance to certain words (Richardson, 2006). opinions and assessments by selecting a topic of the day; although, there might be some exceptions. van Dijk (2011) conducted a study considering the dialogue as a social associa- Discursive Practices tion, which is one of the major characteristics of media dia- Discursive practices refer to the sources which are inclusive logue. The dialogue refers to the language used for in the news reporting. Such as the use of politicians quotes as communicating with the news recipients. The media dialogue a headline by a journalist. This enables the journalist to incor- outlines the language used in the context of social practices, porate the opinion in the paper without reflecting his opinion. more simply, “language as a social practice” (Kopytowska, Moreover, the use of supportive or background information 2012, p. 1). Its significance of the media ideology of online can help influence the text objectivity (Richardson, 2006). In publications is also significant due to its impact on the social the discursive practices, both institutional and organizational actions and relations, globally (Kopytowska, 2012). practices (Richardson, 2006) are studied as to how OPEC is Kopytowska (2012) further argued that it is the principle com- impacting the region, notably for the hub of two networks, municational determinant of discourse, which describes the that is, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which impact the text produc- concept of social interaction in such societies. Elewa (2019) ing rather than text consumption. has compared the ideologies, cultural values, and social sys- tems enlightened in the linguistic strategies and structures applied by online media sources to present quoted Arabic Social Analysis expressions. Elewa (2019) recommended, based on this It is related to the analysis of the journalism practices that are enlightenment, that ideology of target readers or publishers adopted at a social level (Richardson, 2006). For instance, should be reflected by editors or translators of these newspa- this incorporates more social relations, that is, unequal, dis- pers as CDA is a medium to reflect sociocultural differences. criminatory, and iniquitous power relations (Richardson, Haider (2019) was of the view of the representation of leaders 2006). It is because journalism constitutes of different state through online news channels, and revealed that both social practices concerning its economy, political control, and ideo- and political contexts are viewed by newspapers either posi- logical practices in the context of the Middle East trade cli- tively or negatively. In the case of Qaddafi, newspapers por- mate. It is inclusive of different statements made and trayed him as a negative leader despite of his efforts in discussed on different actors involved in the OPEC. Through revolutionizing Libya. these tools of CDA, the news outlet such as Al Jazeera and Al Furthermore, Fairclough (2001) describes dialogue as a Arabiya can highlight the ideological beliefs of the two language or speech that is a societal practice identified by regions, that is, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. social infrastructure. He further claimed that dialogue pos- sesses a region and has an impact on society. This is because the language is considered to be a socially structured process Literature Review by the non-linguistic part of the population. While the asso- CDA is a specific element of discourse analysis that empha- ciation of language with the society is internal, showing a sizes on the role of language in political procedures and soci- dialectical association between these two variables. In this ety, which targets conventionally texts produced by context, Mahmood et al. (2018) have presented a CDA of the institutions and elites including political speeches and news. newspapers (Dawn and the New York Times) in the aftermath It is also apparent that new methods are needed for data col- of Peshawar attacks, specifically referring to “Army Public lection as content takes new moves and forms from texts to School.” Mahmood and colleagues were of the view that the language that is integrated with images, data, and design word “Taliban” was majorly emphasized by the New York (Bouvier & Machin, 2018). Times for the attackers, whereas the word “militants” was In recent times, media has emerged as an important pillar of often claimed by Dawn for the attackers. This shows the the state, along with the executive, judiciary, and legislature impartialness approach created by the New York Times in aspects. The online publication articles play an influential role dealing with such events as compared with Dawn. 4 SAGE Open Alrefaee et al. (2019) have revealed the representation of of (a) lack of professional media practice, (b) weak economic two newspapers events for serving the ideology and objective foundation, (c) shattering in the Arab media, and (d) lack of of Yemen. The authors have claimed that the agency of proce- media expression. dures is highly mystified by printed materials through differ- Ali et al. (2017) have categorized thematically the ideo- ent strategies including passivation and nominalization. This logical values using a CDA. It was observed that direct quo- refers to the fact that CDA allows writers to manipulate the tations of politicians’ statements were used in the newspapers, realizations of power and agency in the representation of which comprise possessive and plural personal pronouns action for producing specific meanings that are not always when referring to their activities. The ideological values comprehensive for audience. Likewise, Persson and Neto were revealed in the news event through quotations of event. (2018) have investigated the embedded ideologies in discur- Similarly, the objectivity improved the sociopolitical ideolo- sive practices throughout the public sphere, specifically those gies using the quotations of politicians. Abdulmajid (2019) committed by the bureaucratic approaches of the federal gov- has explored the media discourse ideologization in the ernment for mystifying reality, promoting, and legitimizing Middle Eastern countries by examining political effects over essential interests and actions with respect to the public leading media companies in the region. The author has indi- spheres. The authors have organized these ideologies in five cated that local political agendas appear in violation with the categories including participationism, neoliberalism and impartiality of news reporting and the journalistic commit- managerialism, ideology and pragmatism, double standard ment to objectivity. policy, and the fallacy of choice and the policy of terror. Khan et al. (2019) have focused on Trump’s ideological An investigation on the power of language influences statements against Muslim discourses during the American was conducted by Ahmadian and Farahani (2014) by mainly Presidential Election 2016. The authors have indicated that focusing on the online publications: The Los Angeles Times several rhetoric strategies were presented by Trump in his and Tehran Times helped in examining the ideological dif- speeches including number game, polarization, populism, ferences displayed in the depiction of Iran’s nuclear pro- victimization, authority, presupposition, and evidentiality. gram. They used the application of van Dijk’s (2013) Moreover, Donald Trump has portrayed Muslims and Islam framework of positive and negative self-presentation that as a negative phenomenon and presented himself as revealed the same issues in a different pattern. Another Islamophobe by negatively targeting Islamic aspects such as study on Iran’s nuclear program in British online publica- Jihad and Shariah. Aazam et al. (2019) have adopted tions by Atai and Mozaheb (2013) revealed that the media Fairclough three-dimensional model for investigating prejudice in the online publications representations of the Trump’s constructed ideology from the viewpoint of Michael issue is likely to be built through the ideological circles of Wolf. The author in his book, “Fire and Fury: Inside the the West and the East. Considering the political conflicts, White Trump House,” wrote that Trump was an incompetent Matar (2017) proposed that the pattern displayed by these and ineligible person for the president of the United States. conflicting events provides an in-depth representation of This also showed that Wolf manipulated the working ideol- the culture and values as well as the reality of the political ogy and sentence structuring of this book to portray an anti- crises that the online publications attempt to build in the Trump representation. minds of their consumers. It is because of this, this study is The foundation of GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) was based on the OPEC crisis, and its’ reporting, to identify the held in the year 1981 as the result of multiple establishments realities that Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera are structuring in within the regions (Bojarczyk, 2013), which include the the minds of individuals. Iran–Iraq war held between the years 1980 and 1988, Israel– Besides, when emphasizing the concept of ideology and Egypt interactions, Islamic Iranian Revolution 1979, and its impact on news dialogue, the terms inclusive of framing, Cold War establishments. Moreover, the failure of the Arab bias, representation, and partiality are utilized very often. League and the correspondence between the social, eco- The majority of the studies conducted in the context of media nomic, and political values of the state members of the state accept that all the news portrayed on television, online pub- of Arab league are considered as some of the factors for the lications, and radio are biased, and which is the explanation development of GCC. As discussed earlier, it is a combina- of the circumstances and not the concept of political crises as tion of six different and significant countries that are situated recommended by Fowler (1991). As the news reporting and in the Arab Peninsula. Naheem (2017) claimed that the amal- representation corporations are constructed socially, politi- gamation of these six countries is referred to as the signifi- cally, and economically, however, almost all the news is por- cant and core part of maintaining social and economic trayed from specific areas. Fowler (1991) added that the sustainability in the Gulf. Besides, the British Encyclopedia same ideology is expected to be implemented in other news Britannica on social media also postulated that the aim of the media, which includes news articles on social media. By union is to acquire unity between the state members, which undertaking the effect of Al Jazeera, El-Ibiary (2011) has depends on their general objectives. Also, the similarity claimed that the role of Arab media channels is limited to between their cultural and political traits is found to be the enlighten and inform the oppressed Arab individuals because key factor in Islamic ideology (Gulf Cooperation Council, Tartory 5 n.d.). However, the state has undergone a fair share of trade The past events in Qatar have demonstrated the practice and political crisis. of suppressing the freedom of the press, such as authorities in Rababah and Hamdan (2019) have expressed that the Qatar disabled accessibility to the Doha news, which representation of the self and other in the political leaders’ enlighten and discourse the information on sensitive topics speeches portray two different opposing ideologically gov- (Clark et al., 2017). The concept of self-censorship prolifer- erned insights on the Gaza conflict. The “self” was repre- ated in the region due to the substantial restrictions imposed sented as honorable, human, and strong in political on the media corporation (Freedom of the Press 2017 Qatar, speeches as compared with the “other,” which is consid- 2017). This case further intensified for the region of Saudi ered to be an only risk and an agent of demolition. Guzman Arabia, which has created a suppressed environment for all (2016) has presented CDA of two online media giants: its media outlets. It is because the media figures in the region FoxNews.com and CNN.com for reflecting the ideological along with bloggers, writers, and journalists are always at a steps taken by the U.S. government and Egyptian govern- risk of legal prosecution where the outcome is generally ment under the presidency of Hosni Mubarak. Both editors imprisonment for a lengthy period. The recent issue of the have reflected a positive image of U.S. government’s World Press Freedom (2018) ranks Qatar at 125th position, democracy and support of U.S. people toward these steps while Saudi Arabia rests at 169th position among the 180 taken, whereas authoritarian rule or Hosni Mubarak was countries. The same scenario is found for other MENA usually the main discursive element portrayed in the news- regions. papers. Lee Ludvigsen (2018) has portrayed the drone warfare in Arabian Peninsula using a qualitative CDA. The Method author, in this paper, has critically opined that drones were the ultimate cause of oppression and death of Muslims in Study Design this territory. The United States was the only one inspired A comprehensive methodology was developed to investigate by such warfare, but a negative image of inhumanity and the ideological foundation in Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya news cowardliness was created among other nations for such articles covering headlines and text and aimed to discuss the events. conflict between Qatar and Saudi Arabia toward Qatar’s Furthermore, one primary example of the press freedom withdrawal from OPEC. In this regard, qualitative analysis scandals within the MENA was the joint venture between was conducted by the following framework of Fairclough Orbit and BBC, which was supported by the citizens of Saudi that emphasizes majorly on textual analysis, lexical choices, Arabia. This was developed by an Arabic BBC channel. and social analysis in the two online publications: Al Jazeera However, the BBC insisted that this joint venture should and Al Arabiya. In total, 22 articles were analyzed from the have similar values as that practiced by the world services two online publications on the respective topic. which was conflicted by Orbit, initially censored an inter- An analytical framework is provided by the CDA version, view, and then a documentary. This led to the breakdown of for qualitative analysis, which includes three different analy- the venture (Miles, 2006; Thussu, 2006). Soon after the sis levels such as linguistic analysis, discursive analysis, and adaptation of 24 novel BBC channels, several Arab media social analysis. However, the focus of this study was on the scholars and journalists moved to other novel Arab channels, linguistic analysis of headlines, text, and sections with selec- which include Al Jazeera (Thussu, 2006). According to the tive sociocultural analysis. Data were collected for 1 year study postulated by the Committee to Project Journalists (December 2018 to December 2019). Furthermore, this study (CPJ), Egypt, for example, was considered as the third-larg- focused on the exit of Qatar from OPEC as the event just est state consisting of numerous journalists among other occurred in December 2018, and this explains why the countries in the year 2016 (Beiser, 2016). majority of the selected articles are published in December In the year 2016, various media outlets were shut closed 2018 or months after. Therefore, the framework selected in the MENA region along with 10 journalist’s imprisonment comprised of only 1 year. Each news headline and text were for opposition to be silenced. Similarly, press freedom is at considered as a unit for analysis. In addition, lexical choice, stake in many parts of the MENA region, which is reflected cohesion, rhetoric, and bias were included as variables that through journalism imprisonment. The existence of several assist in examining the data through CDA. ideological discrepancies may also account for the compli- cated position of the press and its freedom (BBC Report, 2011; Jayasekera, 2016). Allagui and Akdenizli (2019) also Study Data Collection acknowledged this fact in their research, stating that these The study comprises of 22 articles that are published by the two media outlets generally receive their funding from the gov- media outlets, that is, Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera, and posted ernment and thus represented a government stance through online. The sample of the articles is presented in Table 1. their content. Moreover, the region also composes certain The selection of the 22 online publications articles was unstable regions that use the media as a channel for the dis- made after comprehensive research and their relevance to the sident of the voice. 6 SAGE Open Table 1. Selected Articles From Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya. Serial Serial no Date Al Jazeera articles no Date Al Arabiya articles 1 December 6, OPEC members expected to agree to 1 April 30, Oil tops $73 on Venezuela turmoil, Saudi support 2018 an oil production cut (Link: https:// 2019 for OPEC cuts. (Link: https://english.alarabiya. www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/12/ net/en/business/energy/2019/04/30/Oil-tops-73- opec-members-expected-agree-oil- on-Venezuela-turmoil-Saudi-support-for-OPEC- production-cut-181206080627446.html) cuts.html) 2 December 6, Why Qatar left OPEC (link: https://www. 2 December Goodbye, Qatar: What next for OPEC? (Link: 2018 aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/qatar-left- 4, 2018 http://english.alarabiya.net/en/business/ opec-181206102112634.html) energy/2018/12/04/Goodbye-Qatar-What-next- for-OPEC-.html) 3 June 5, 2019 Qatar blockade: the US shows support 3 June 3, 2019 Al-Jubeir: Qatar’s distortion of facts is not for both Qatar and Saudi Arabia. surprising (Link: http://english.alarabiya.net/ (Link: https://www.aljazeera.com/ en/News/gulf/2019/06/03/Al-Jubeir-Qatar- news/2019/06/qatar-blockade- distortion-of-facts-is-not-surprising.html) shows-support-qatar-saudi- arabia-190605114032465.html) 4 February 2, Saudi Aramco: A story of oil, wealth and 4 December Saudi Arabia: OPEC seeking “sufficient cut” to 2019 power. (Link: https://www.aljazeera. 6, 2018 balance the oil market. (Link: https://english. com/programmes/specialseries/2019/01/ alarabiya.net/en/business/energy/2018/12/06/ saudi-aramco-company- Saudi-Arabia-OPEC-seeking-sufficient-cut-to- state-190126125553856.html) balance-oil-market.html) 5 December 9, Qatar dispute overshadows Gulf summit 5 December After 57 years, Qatar’s withdrawal from OPEC 2018 as emir stays away. (Link: https://www. 3, 2018 expected to have a limited impact. (Link: https:// aljazeera.com/news/2018/12/qatar- english.alarabiya.net/en/features/2018/12/03/ dispute-overshadows-gulf-summit-emir- After-57-years-Qatar-s-withdrawal-from-OPEC- stays-181209151801066.html) expected-to-have-limited-impact.html) 6 December 8, Qatar’s break-up with OPEC. (Link: 6 December UAE energy minister: Qatar’s exit from OPEC 2018 https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/ 10, 2018 will not affect production. (Link: https://english. countingthecost/2018/12/qatar-break- alarabiya.net/en/business/energy/2018/12/10/ opec-181208080831667.html) UAE-energy-minister-Qatar-s-exit-from-OPEC- will-not-affect-production.html) 7 December 5, Saudi king extends an invitation to Qatari 7 December Energy minister: Qatar to withdraw from OPEC 2018 emir to attend the GCC summit. 3, 2018 as of Jan 2019. (Link: https://english.alarabiya. (Link: https://www.aljazeera.com/ net/en/News/gulf/2018/12/03/Qatar-says-it-will- news/2018/12/saudi-king-extends- withdraw-from-OPEC-beginning-of-2019.html) invitation-qatari-emir-attend-gcc- summit-181204193515224.html) 8 December 4, Saudi Arabia refuses to engage in WTO 8 September OPEC secretary general: Saudi Arabia, Aramco 2018 dispute brought by Qatar. (Link: https:// 16, 2019 have risen to the challenge. (Link: https://english. www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/12/saudi- alarabiya.net/en/News/gulf/2019/09/16/OPEC- arabia-refuses-engage-wto-dispute- secretary-general-We-are-in-touch-with-Saudi- brought-qatar-181204141931031.html) Arabia-no-need-for-panic.html) 9 December 4, Qatar quits OPEC as Saudis walk 9 May 1, 2019 Qatar speaks out against tightening Iran sanctions. 2018 tightrope on oil prices. (Link: https:// (Link: https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/ www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/12/qatar- middle-east/2019/05/01/Qatar-says-tightening- quits-opec-saudis-walk-tightrope-oil- Iran-sanctions-harms-oil-consuming-nations. prices-181203222739862.html) html) 10 December 3, Why is Qatar leaving OPEC? (Link: 10 March 17, Iran’s oil minister blames US for market tensions. 2018 https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/ 2019 (Link: https://english.alarabiya.net/en/business/ insidestory/2018/12/qatar-leaving- energy/2019/03/17/Iran-s-oil-minister-blames- opec-181203173619211.html) US-for-market-tensions.html) 11 December 3, Qatar to withdraw from OPEC in January 11 December OPEC+ cuts, low oil prices to weigh on Saudi 2018 2019. (Link: https://www.aljazeera.com/ 16, 2019 Arabia’s 2020 revenue. (Link: https://english. news/2018/12/qatar-withdraw-opec- alarabiya.net/en/business/energy/2019/12/16/ january-2019-181203061900372.html) Deeper-OPEC-cuts-lower-oil-prices-to-weigh- on-Saudi-Arabia-s-2020-revenue-.html) Note. OPEC = Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries; GCC = Gulf Cooperation Council; WTO = World Trade Organization. Tartory 7 research in terms of the oil crisis that followed the withdrawal particular picture. Also, the current study assessed the repre- of Qatar from OPEC and recent low oil prices in the Gulf sentation approach used by the two online publications. It region. The terms used for searching comprise of Qatar, Saudi was found that the focus and emphasis of the two articles Arabia, Gulf region, OPEC, and Oil Crisis. The discourse were on the same reporting diverge based on their inclina- analysis includes everything in the article from the title of the tion and center, which was noticeable in the title. Such as the online publications to the text. The rationale behind the selec- reduction of oil prices according to both online publication tion of the two online publications, namely, Al Arabiya and Al networks were represented as: Jazeera, was that both outlets print just news online (Elmasry et al., 2013). Second, the collection of online media sources Al Arabiya: Oil tops $73 on Venezuela turmoil, Saudi support was due to the easy and free collection of the data. for OPEC cuts. (Article 1) Moreover, the ideological construction of Al Jazeera was studied due to its influential power, and it is one of the most Al Jazeera: OPEC members expected to agree to an oil production cut. (Article 1) significant media outlets globally, which is located in Doha, Qatar. It has been claimed by the Saudi Arabia news outlets It can be observed that Al Arabiya emphasized the Saudi that terrorist “plots” are encouraged by (Al Jazeera) who role and support to the oil reductions, whereas Al Jazeera supplement the actions of Houthi militias, in Yemen, which presented a generalized idea stating the support of the OPEC, are being fought by Saudi Arabia, and have shown increased as a whole. However, Al Arabiya provides a more Saudi inclination to “break the Saudi internal ranks,” as BBC Center image while also explicitly detailing the issue using depicted (Ponniah, 2017). The neighbors of Qatar have statistics for support. Likewise, the second article for the two demanded the suspension of Al Jazeera in the Gulf region. Al online publications: Arabiya, located in the UAE was selected based on its sub- stantial contribution to the existing conflict. Moreover, the Al Jazeera: Why Qatar Left OPEC. (Article 2) two media outlets, namely, Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya, were considered as parallel in the global media landscape. As the Al Arabiya: Goodbye, Qatar: What next for OPEC? (Article 2) two outlets were stated funded, therefore, they served as an excellent source for the representation of the ideology in the In these headlines, the hint of ideology representation was two disputed regions. also observed where Al Arabiya article focused on what is next for OPEC while stating goodbye to Qatar, whereas Al Results Jazeera states the reason which led Qatar to exist from OPEC. The positive self-representation is particularly evident from The ideological representation of the online publications has the Al Jazeera reporting, which has centered its attention on a substantial impact on the discourse-analytical studies as a reason to form a positive image and overcome any query pioneered by van Dijk (2013). The ideological representation related to Qatar exit from the OPEC: was more central on reflecting positive attributes of one and negative attributes of the other (Richardson, 2006, p. 51). It Al Jazeera: Qatar dispute overshadows Gulf summit as emir is perceived to be represented in a positive square that is stays away. (Article 5) applicable across all discourse levels. It focuses on major trends and insights of an article by employing different lan- Al Arabiya: After 57 years, Qatar’s withdrawal from OPEC guage assessing tools (linguistics, discursive, and social expected to have limited impact. (Article 5) analysis). Such as the discursive tool varies in terms of their focus; for instance, one presents the description of the prob- The preceding headlines were focused on the Qatar’s lem, other on the degree of details, and contrast, and last on “non-participation” in the Gulf summit. The headline in Al the actors involved. The focus of this discourse analysis was Jazeera article focuses on the absence of Qatari leader from on the role of Saudi Arabia and Qatar in OPEC, the with- the Gulf summit as mentioned in the words “emir stays drawal of Qatar from OPEC, and the lowering oil prices. away.” However, Al Arabiya’s article focused on the reason of exclusion of Qatar from the OPEC as evident from the Research Question 1: How Headlines Are words “limited impact,” thus representing the 57 years of Reflected From its Reporting Title in Both the Al Qatar’s stay in OPEC in a negative manner that focuses only on this phrase: Jazeera and Al Arabiya Online Publications? One aspect that deserves particular attention is the headline Al Jazeera: Qatar blockade: the US shows support for both preceding the content and how the authors have used it for Qatar and Saudi Arabia. (Article 3) reporting on a particular issue. The researcher focused on the choice of words and their structuring, which were made Al Arabiya: Al-Jubeir: Qatar’s distortion of facts is not by the two included online publications for representing a surprising. (Article 3) 8 SAGE Open The title of the Al Arabiya focused on destabilizing of the focus was on the exclusion of Qatar as evident from the word Qatar economy, and toward the diplomatic crisis of the state “quits,” whereas the focus of Al Arabiya’s article was on the (Qatar) as evident in the words “distortion of facts,” whereas support of Qatar for Iran as evident from the words “speaks Al Jazeera has not stated a single word that negatively out against.” reflected Qatar but instead focused on the positive words such as support. This analysis of the headline sheds light to Research Question 2: Does the Text of the News the representation approach and corroborates that online Logically Represent and Justify the Saudi–Qatar publication network is inclined to positively represent one- Conflict and Exit of Qatar from OPEC in Both the self while negatively represent the other. Moreover, the role Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya Online Publications? of the United States was emphasized due to its position as a net oil exporter. As Al Jazeera has it headquarter in Qatar, it In this section, the primary focus was on the text of the arti- did provide information within the article stating the exit of cles. The issue of oil price fluctuation and OPEC reduction of Qatar from OPEC. Moreover, the tone of Al Jazeera was the production has adopted a political agenda based on the found to be more neutral, while Al Arabiya was found to be striking reporting difference for both news networks. The exit more manipulative and dominant as evident from the words of Qatar from the OPEC has been a focal point of analyzed “facts are not surprising.” news articles. From the evaluation of first articles in Table 1, Both online publications have outlined the exclusion of that is, Al Arabiya (Oil tops $73 on Venezuela turmoil, Saudi Qatar in similar patterns. For instance, support for OPEC cuts) and Al Jazeera (OPEC members expected to agree to an oil production cut), it was found that Al Jazeera: Qatar’s break-up with OPEC. (Article 6) as one reads, a general to specific approach was revealed in both articles. For instance, Al Arabiya, though reflecting a Al Arabiya: Energy minister: Qatar to withdraw from OPEC as generalized idea, goes more specific where initially, OPEC of Jan 2019. (Article 7) and the United States were emphasized, such as “The govern- ment in Venezuela, an OPEC member whose oil exports have In these headlines, the focus of both the articles was on the been hit by US sanctions and an economic crisis, dismissed word “break-up” or “withdraw,” which clearly leads to the any suggestion of an insurrection.” The start has been more subject of this news. The focus in this analysis is on the word specific where attention was centered on establishing Saudi “break-up” by Al Jazeera, which reflects a decision made by Arabia’s production of oil. It has emphasized the position of Qatar being independent and knowledgeable of what is right Saudi Arabia as the key producer of oil and its neglection for its own benefit. On the contrary, the headline of Al Arabiya toward the pressure raised by the U.S. President Trump for represents the exit of Qatar from OPEC in a negative way by lowering the production cuts. The article has been completely talking about the matter in a way similar to talking about a oil-price-oriented. However, Al Jazeera, despite maintaining foreigner country and not a member of the GCC: a neutral tone, raises a controversial issue by mentioning the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi Arabian journalist, and Al Jazeera: Saudi Arabia refuses to engage in WTO disputes critic, and links its price reductions to it, that is, “One issue brought by Qatar. (Article 8) that might complicate relations between the US and OPEC is the murder of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Al Arabiya: OPEC secretary general: Saudi Arabia, Aramco people linked to the government in Riyadh . . .” (Al Jazeera). have risen to the challenge. (Article 8) Doing this, it makes the position of Saudi Arabia questionable as Jamal Khashoggi was a critic of the Saudi government and From the aforementioned headlines, both news articles publicly criticized the actions of Saudi Arabia. Doing this, it have demonstrated the dispute rose between Saudi and Qatar. draws negative attention on Saudi Arabia while simultane- Al Jazeera article’s headline shows the lack of interest of ously neutralizing the position of Qatar for leaving OPEC, Saudis in resolving the dispute brought by Qatar by refusing which includes an explanation to focus on its already large to attend World Trade Organization (WTO), while Al Arabiya reserves of gas. This is reflected in the sentences: article’s headline emphasized on the challenges brought by Saudi Arabia and ARAMCO on OPEC forum: “. . .the first country from the Middle East to withdraw from OPEC, saying it wanted to focus more on gas production. . .” Al Jazeera: Qatar quits OPEC as Saudis walk tightrope on oil and “as it played only a small role in the organization, providing prices. (Article 9) just under two percent of OPEC’s total output.” (Al Jazeera) Al Arabiya: Qatar speaks out against tightening Iran sanctions. The discussion of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi has (Article 9) been highlighted to position Saudi Arabia negatively, whereas discussion on the huge gas reserves positively posi- The ongoing issue between Saudi-Qatar has been the core tion the other country, that is, Qatar. focus in both articles. As in Al Jazeera’s article headline, the Tartory 9 Reflecting upon the second articles (Al Jazeera article It’s very difficult to understand the rationale for countries to be either in or not in the organization. Of course, there’s a “Why Qatar left OPEC” and Al Arabiya article “Goodbye, concentration of power for bigger players, they have something Qatar: What next for OPEC?”) from both the networks, it to say and their decisions of a huge impact. was found that only 2 days difference exists on the report- ing of the issue (article ‘Al Jazeera article was published on The most important segment stressed upon by the article December 6, while Al Arabiya article was published on was the word “encouragement” for the rest of the OPEC December 4). Al Jazeera reporting has stated the motivation members. According to the insights, it was of extreme impor- of the exit of Qatar, which was on the expansion of its gas tance that other members of the organization will think of reserves, providing a generalized statement, while the becoming an independent player in the oil production world reporting of Al Arabiya highlights another aspect of the exit rather than being a component of an oil-based organization. based on the primary role of Saudi Arabia in the OPEC Likewise, another difference between the two online pub- along with its control of oil prices. The exit of Qatar was lications was central to the use of modal verbs, the context in driven by the control of Saudi Arabia without naming it. which they are used, and the way the story was told. As per The difference can be observed that both have used the Fairclough (2003, p. 171), the use of model verbs was gener- statement of the same individual, that is, Saad al-Kaabi, the ally made in different ways and was not only restricted to energy minister of Qatar; however, the reporting text (may, could, should, and more) and expanded to the contex- varies. tual impact (as per the van Dijk [1998] analysis), such as Al Jazeera highlighted the significant reserves of gas in semantic derogation (which uses negative words for repre- Qatar, while Al Arabiya focused on the declining oil senting other), euphemism (which uses vague words for pre- reserves of Qatar in contrast to non-OPEC countries senting something in a positive context), and otherness (Russia). These aspects emphasized on the disparity of the (which reflects egocentricity indicating negative connota- focus of the two news networks. Al Arabiya formed a con- tion). Considering the use of model verbs in terms of nection between Qatar exit with the diplomatic crisis of Semantic derogation, the Al Jazeera article writes (Why Saudi Arabia, representing a cause and effect scope of the Qatar left OPEC) “. . . the decision was taken in the context prevailing crisis. It showed the exit of Qatar from the of the on-going Saudi-led blockade on Qatar, many commen- OPEC was indeed a blessing. Al Arabiya particularly tators interpreted it as a political act and a rebuke of an orga- focused on the lack of investment capital for the oil nization increasingly seen as a tool of Saudi power projection reserves to the exit of Qatar, while simultaneously men- . . .” This statement negatively portrays the power of Saudi tioning the concrete figures for the contribution of Saudi Arabia and its political influence. A similar practice was Arabia. In contrast, a positive picture was emphasized for observed for Saudi Arabia, Al Arabiya (Goodbye Qatar: the Al Jazeera article, where the emphasis was on the large What next for OPEC?) with a statement such as, “. . . with gas reserves with further estimation linked to its expan- one of OPEC’s members smallest producers—Qatar . . .” (Al sion. Another Al Arabiya article (nos 4 and 6) showed their Arabiya), which of the semantic derogation approach of rationale toward the withdrawal from OPEC in this state- Saudi Arabia, negatively positioning the economy of Qatar ment, “We’re looking for a sufficient cut to balance the and labeling it as the smallest. market, equally distributed between countries.” Concerning the euphemism context, Al Jazeera article The analysis of the two articles (Al Arabiya; Goodbye states (Why Qatar left OPEC), “. . .What defines the coun- Qatar: What next for OPEC? and Al Jazeera: Why Qatar left try’s energy sector is not its oil production, but its capacity OPEC) constructed different viewpoints, where Al Jazeera and global presence in the natural gas sector . . .,” which emphasized the positive and neutral aspects as compared hints to the positive image of Qatar reflecting its global con- with Al Arabiya. Al Arabiya used manipulative words “want tribution in terms of gas. This demonstrated the strategic use to become Saudi Arabia . . .” for representing Qatar as evi- of modal verbs and how the political influence of Saudi dent in its labeling of Qatar in place of Saudi Arabia. The Arabia posed an adverse impact on the economy. Without diplomatic crisis and unequal representation and treatment of highlighting Saudi Arabia, the energy minister of Qatar states Qatar have been represented in Al Jazeera more descriptively Saudi Arabia as the reason behind the withdrawal of Qatar as compared with Al Arabiya, which only drew attention from OPEC, stating, “. . .without naming Saudi Arabia, toward it while concluding the article, and that too positively, Qatari Minister of State for Energy Affairs Saad al-Kaabi such as “In this sense, Qatar’s exit from OPEC makes sense said, ‘We are not saying we are going to get out of the oil not only from a business perspective but also from a strategic business, but it is controlled by an organization managed by one. All things considered; it is the right decision made at the a country. . .’” (Al Arabiya; Article 2). right time.” A similar perspective was shared by another arti- Another Al Jazeera’s article (Saudi Aramco: A story of cle (Qatar’s break-up with OPEC) with a statement, “Fears oil, wealth and power) negatively framed Saudi Arabia by that Qatar’s pull-out may encourage other countries to leave targeting one of the major organizations in the Kingdom; OPEC are unfounded,” according to Johannes Benigni, Aramco with a statement such as “So Aramco shedding its chairman of JBC Energy Group: 10 SAGE Open cloak of secrecy and deciding to go public is a huge deal— prominent in either of the two markets to cease its monopolis- especially for Saudi Arabia which is run by a monarchy and tic pricing mechanism. Likewise, this otherness aspect was its affairs cannot be publicly evaluated or scrutinized.” also visible in the Al Jazeera article (Why Qatar Left OPEC), Similarly, in Article 8 of Al Jazeera online publications “OPEC remains essentially a Saudi-led cartel whose global (Saudi Arabia refuses to engage), a negative tone of Saudi relevance is in significant decline after the so-called ‘shale Arabia can be observed where the country enlightening the revolution’.” This demonstrated how articles have used the “national security concerns” to withdraw from dispute settle- modal verbs in forming the contextual meaning for positively ment arranged in Qatar. The following excerpt is the example portraying the place to which they belong, such as Al Jazeera of Saudi’s lack of interest; “Riyadh says it cannot engage in for Qatar and Al Arabiya for Saudi Arabia. Similar findings dispute settlement procedures because of ‘national security have been gained from Al Jazeera Articles 9, 10, and 11. concerns’.” However, the statements made by the general For instance, in Article 9 of the Al Jazeera online publica- secretary of OPEC regarding the challenges risen by Saudi tions, it was reported that the exit of Qatar from the cartel Arabia and ARAMCO in Al Arabiya’s Article 8 showed how was symbolic and was majorly based on the conflicts with significantly Saudi Government tackled this situation: “Saudi Saudi Arabia and its allies. “More than anything, we suspect authorities and Aramco have risen to the challenge, and the that Qatar’s withdrawal from OPEC has been spurred by its way and manner in which they have handled this develop- on-going dispute with Saudi Arabia and its allies.” Another ment is commendable.” This clearly showed that Saudi’s quote portrayed that Saudi Arabia’s diversity and globaliza- interest was merely toward their national security and reputa- tion might act as a blockade for Qatar. Similarly, the exit of tion, but their interest lacks in the matter of the WTO dis- Qatar from the cartel allowed Saudi Arabia and Russia to putes brought by Qatar. strongly concentrated on the issues of oil policy. Al Jazeera (Why Qatar left OPEC) has also stated the Article 10 of Al Jazeera Online publications has presented small economy, but has used neutralized structuring, that is, a better emphasis on the exit of Qatar. The reason for exiting “. . . particularly the smaller producers like Qatar (whose oil the organization was to focus on the production of LNG to output is just 2 percent of that of the organization) . . .” (Al 110 million tons per year from 77 million tons per year. Jazeera), which reflected the discrepancies in both the news According to the statements of Qatari oil minister, “Qatar pro- network. In the semantic derogation context, Al Arabiya duces around 600,000 barrels of oil per day, which is less than (Goodbye Qatar: What next for OPEC?) also sheds light on 2 percent of OPEC’s total production of 32.9m bpd in the statement of Qatar Energy Minister; though, it does it October,” which showed that the concentration of Qatar was negatively, “to put efforts and resources and time in an orga- switching from oil to natural gas. This indicated that the exit nization that we are a very small player in and I don’t have a of Qatar was not because of any political or regional issues, say in what happens.” A similar approach of negative repre- but to increase the generation of natural gas in the region. sentation of the other can be observed this time for the Al However, in the Al Arabiya’s article, a political conflict can Jazeera online publications article (Why Qatar left OPEC), be observed where Iran’s oil minister transparently stated that which reflects on the declining power of Saudi Arabia: Americans talk a lot and I advise them to talk less. They (have) . . . As Riyadh’s ability to manipulate the market through OPEC caused tensions in the oil market for over a year now and they has weakened, and the future of the organization and the are responsible for it, and if this trend continues, the market will effectiveness of its decisions necessitate Russian support. For be tenser. example, when US President Trump pressed Saudi Arabia to increase oil output and bring down the price of oil ahead of the Despite of Qatar’s intention to produce LNG, Iran, being US midterms, the Saudi leadership had to seek Russia’s a major ally of Qatar and member of OPEC, has blamed cooperation to do so . . . United States to increase market tensions in the region. Article 11 of Al Jazeera’s online publications has shown Concerning the otherness aspect, Al Arabiya article the preference of Qatar toward natural gas and Saudi’s block- (Goodbye Qatar: What next for OPEC?) writes, ade on Qatar. Article 11 supported the subject of Article 10 specifically about the statement of Qatari oil minister. For . . . However, in a perverse way, should Qatar ever become the instance, “The withdrawal decision reflects Qatar’s desire to equivalent of Saudi Arabia in the LNG and gas sector in the focus its efforts on plans to develop and increase its natural future and dominate that market, then that country could gas production from 77 million tonnes per year to 110 mil- conceivably one day may also be faced by legal anti-trust lawsuits on the ground that it dominates the gas market and sets lion tonnes in the coming years.” Article 11 focused on the monopolistic prices . . . blockade implied in Qatar and resembles the content pre- sented in Article 9, “They say it has nothing to do with the This indicated the negative connotation of the Qatari dom- blockade on Qatar and that they have been thinking about it inance and its futurist potential in a negative way, which for several months now.” Likewise, similar explanations directs the thinking of the reader that Qatar should remain were observed in Al Arabiya’s article 11 where Saudi Arabia Tartory 11 was focusing on to raise its production by 513 billion riyals controversial tone again emerged concerning the role of the in 2020 due to low oil prices and deal with OPEC+. From United States and Qatar, such as reasoning U.S. Congressional the statement, “Saudi Arabia pledged to continue cutting threats as the reason for Qatar to leave OPEC: 400,000 barrels a day if other producers remained committed . . . US Congressional threats such as the proposed NOPEC Act to their part of the agreement.” ensures that OPEC members have to take such legal action seriously and some have made the observation that Qatar has decided to leave OPEC so as not to face such future litigation Research Question 3: How the Role of the against it if it remained within the organization . . . United States Is Reflected in The Title and Text of Both the Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya Online The role of the United States has been dual-sided in the Publications? Qatar–Saudi Arabia conflict and has been frequently observed in different contexts. For instance, Al Jazeera has Another aspect evident from the reporting of the two online reported in its Article 7 (Saudi king extends invitation to publications (such as Article 3: Al-Jubeir: Qatar’s distortion Qatari emir to attend GCC summit) with a statement, of facts is not surprising on June 3, 2019, and Qatar block- ade: the US shows support for both Qatar and Saudi Arabia The United States, a GCC ally, has also tried to mediate in the on June 5, 2019) was about the role of the United States in Gulf dispute, which it sees as a risk in its efforts to contain the region. This section also considered the findings drawn regional power Iran. Qatar is home to the largest US airbase in from another article of Al Jazeera (Article: OPEC members the Middle East. expected to agree to an oil production cut on December 2018) which substantially contributed to the role of the Being a major ally of Gulf Countries, the United States United States. Both the Article 3 (i.e., Al Arabiya on June 3, attempted to play a crucial role in resolving the dispute 2019, and Al Jazeera on June 5, 2019) are recent and have between the two oil-producing economies, keeping in mind presented that the role of Qatar was again up surging based that both economies are important from an economic on its alliance with Iran. In Al Jazeera, a neutral tone was perspective. reflected where the focus was on stabilizing the relationship Another important aspect evident from the Al Arabiya between Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The blockade of the good online publications was the support of Iran for Qatar regard- from Qatar side has promoted the U.S. leaders for emphasiz- ing the involvement of the United States in the organization. ing on reducing tensions between Iran and Qatar. For Al As evident from Article 10, Arabiya, a more dominating aspect was provided where the tension between the two regions was reflected in the context Americans talk a lot and I advise them to talk less. They (have) of Saudi Arabia Foreign Affairs minister. caused tensions in the oil market for over a year now and they Similarly, in the first article (Table 1), Al Jazeera are responsible for it, and if this trend continues, the market will (Article: OPEC members expected to agree to an oil pro- be tenser. duction cut) has presented the statement which zooms into the controversial statement of the Saudi oil minister, rein- These statements reflected the negative involvement of forced a negative image of Saudi Arabia for the United the United States, which intentionally created massive ten- States and impacted the relationship between the two coun- sion in the Gulf region, specifically among OPEC members. tries (the United States and Saudi Arabia). Similar to the Likewise, this statement was publicized just after Qatar made earlier findings (Representation and Justification), analysis a statement against the external pressure of the United States of the mentioned Article 1 (Al Arabiya, that is, Oil tops $73 on Iran (Article 9). It should be noted that both Qatar and on Venezuela turmoil, Saudi support for OPEC cuts and Al Iran are major allies and always stand in their bad times. This Jazeera, that is, OPEC members expected to agree to an oil can be viewed from this statement, “Unilateral sanctions production cut) revealed that focused is on the state which were unwise because they hurt the countries that rely on the it presents. Such as it was reflected in Al Arabiya’s third supplies.” The position of Iran and Qatar against unilateral article (Al Arabiya article: Goodbye Qatar: What next for sanctions was in impairment as remaining OPEC members OPEC?) concerning the control on the oil prices in the strongly supported the unilateral sanctions imposed by the Saudi context; though, it clarified its position of not declin- United States. ing the oil output due to a detrimental impact it caused on Another important aspect was the inclusion of Russia in the countries that are dependent on oil. the OPEC+, which was negatively sought among OPEC The position and statement neutralized with the inclusion members. It should be noted that Russia was one of the lead- of another country, Russia, which addressed that decision ing oil suppliers and supported OPEC at the time of Qatar’s was not only restricted for Saudi Arabia but also Russia. It exit. However, Article 11 of Al Arabiya has emphasized that highlighted the cause–effect relationship of the decisions and the decayed OPEC gives birth to a new OPEC+, which enlightened the possible consequences. However, the allowed non-OPEC members to give input in OPEC’s 12 SAGE Open decisions. This might not be beneficial for OPEC members, Saudi Arabia even in a major international body such as but to balance the global oil prices, both the United States OPEC. Therefore, the Qatari government has decided to exit and Russia have intervened purposively in the OPEC. the oil organization after 57 years. Al Jazeera’s online publications have shown the reasons for the exclusion of Qatar from the oil cartel after six decades. The Discussion and Conclusion articles have positively presented that the emphasis of Qatar The study has examined the news reporting by two online was not political, but sought to enlarge the capacity of natural publications such as Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya on the OPEC gas. Also, the article discussed that the exclusion of Qatar countries, the oil price fluctuations and the exit of Qatar. The from OPEC will not be an influential step for other members main focus of the study was on the text production and the to opt leaving the oil cartel. Similar thoughts were underlined ideology followed by the two networks. In this regard, the in the Al Arabiya online publications where the exclusion of critical discourse analysis was adopted, which analyzed the Qatar was discussed. Another interesting element found in the 22 articles, eleven selected from each (Al Arabiya and Al articles of both online publications was the introduction of Jazeera). The analysis of discourse covered how the linguis- Russia who was a strong contender in the global oil supply. tic, discursive, and social practices were reflected in the two This showed that the exclusion of Qatar from the OPEC will news media outlets (Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya). The study not affect the oil cartel and other members. has covered three major parts, which included a reflection of The study added value to the media studies, the role of the headlines from its reporting title; representation and justifi- OPEC countries and to some extent, the change of prices. It cation of Saudi–Qatar conflict and exit of Qatar from OPEC; demonstrated how the perspective of the media network was and reflection of the role of the United States from the title imposed through its reporting and how it excluded certain and text of both the online publications. The critical dis- specific information for deemphasizing the focus on others course adopted in the paper showed how the two differ and and their development. As the shift in the oil prices was an the way they employed the techniques. It also emphasized ongoing subject, the research area was wide and can be the role of the OPEC countries along with the fluctuations of expanded for examining the difference in the reporting style the oil prices. It also showed the way they conveyed informa- and news on other networks than Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera. tion and idea while also reflecting their political inclination. Consequently, other news networks can also be analyzed for The paper argues that issues of OPEC were not trade-cen- understanding their inclination, emphasis, and focus. Finally, tered but were more focused on the political orientation for the findings implied that a critical approach should be the two online publication networks. The analysis showed adopted for reading the news to understand the primary aim that each article produced was centered on safeguarding the or motive behind text production as well as its consumption. position of their funded country as well as their economic Even though, the two claims to be new sites representing the interest based on their oil export and production, their eco- region as while, the interest, alignment, and the ideology of nomic standing as well as profit motivated. The study rea- two directing their news production. sons that OPEC issue was influenced by various factors; It should be noted that approximately 600,000 barrels of such as decision-making, both internally and externally, and crude oil per day were produced by Doha, while 10 million its impact on the global economy, where the political stance barrels a day were produced by Saudi Arabia. This comparison was high. The primary finding of the analysis on the two reveals that there was a limited contribution of Qatar to the networks showed the disparity of reporting on the same news overall oil production of OPEC, and it was clear that this con- using different viewpoints and perspectives to meet their pri- tribution was not essential to OPEC. Indeed, it will affect a mary audience and ideology. 60-year-old organization that can consequently lead to its The loss of Qatar was not crippling for OPEC as oil demise. The message transmitted from the withdrawal of reserves of the country were restricted and its production lev- Qatar was that “it may be better to regulate outside the organi- els have flat lined. On the contrary, OPEC membership for zation as compared to work within the organization.” By con- Qatar was indispensable. A gradual increase in the gap cre- cluding, Qatar was symbolic to broaden regional division, ated in OPEC has been continuously observed. For instance, which may later diffuse to other OPEC members and will Qatar has been boycotted by four Arab countries including leave no mark on the decision-making process of the alliance. the UAE, Bahrain, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia by banning trade and travel regulations on Qatar. Among these countries, Acknowledgments Saudi Arabia is the most important member of OPEC. The author is very thankful to all the associated personnel in any Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Egypt launched a dip- reference that contributed in/for the purpose of this research. lomatic and economic boycott of Qatar to change its behav- ior, with tensions increasing between Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Declaration of Conflicting Interests However, tensions between Saudi Arabia and Qatar resulted in the separating of associations between the two economies. The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect This showed the reluctance of Qatar in cooperating with to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Tartory 13 Funding Bruns, A., Enli, G., Skogerbo, E., Larsson, A. O., & Christensen, C. (Eds.). (2015). The Routledge companion to social media and The author(s) received no financial support for the research, author- politics. Routledge. ship, and/or publication of this article. Carpentier, N., & Spinoy, E. (Eds.). (2008). Discourse theory and cultural analysis: Media, arts, and literature. Hampton Press. ORCID iD Castello, D. (2013). Immigration articles in two online publica- tions: A multimodal discourse [Master’s thesis]. University of Raeda Tartory https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4786-8846 Birmingham. Chen, W.-F., Wachsmuth, H., Al Khatib, K., & Stein, B. (2018). References Learning to flip the bias of news headlines. In Proceedings of Aazam, F., Baig, F. Z., Baig, T., Khaliq, S., Azam, A., Shamshad, the 11th International conference on natural language genera- S., & Aslam, M. Z. (2019). A critical discourse analysis of “Fire tion (pp. 79–88). Association for Computational Linguistics. and Fury: Inside the Trump White House” by Michael Wolff. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445613490010 International Journal of English Linguistics, 9(4), 192–199. Clark, J. D., Faris, R. M., Morrison-Westphal, R. J., Noman, H., Abdulmajid, A. (2019). Media and ideology in the Middle East: Tilton, C. B., & Zittrain, J. L. (2017). The shifting landscape of A critical discourse analysis. Digest of Middle East Studies, global internet censorship. Berkman Klein Center for Internet 28(1), 23–47. & Society Research Publication. Ahmadian, M., & Farahani, E. (2014). A critical discourse analy- Elewa, A. (2019). A critical discourse analysis of ideological sis of the Los Angeles Times and Tehran Times on the repre- translations of Arabic quotations in English language news- sentation of Iran’s nuclear program. Theory and Practice in papers. Language and Intercultural Communication, 19(5), Language Studies, 4(10), 2114–2123. https://doi.org/10.4304/ 393–406. tpls.4.10.2114-2122 El-Ibiary, R. (2011). Questioning the Al-Jazeera Effect: Analysis of Akpojivi, U. (2018). Media reforms and democratization in emerg- Al-Qaeda’s media strategy and its relationship with Al-Jazeera. ing democracies of Sub-Saharan Africa. Springer. Global Media and Communication, 7(3), 199–204. Ali, M. K., Christopher, A. A., & Nordin, M. Z. F. B. (2017). Elmasry, M. H., Shamy, A. E., Manning, P., Mills, A., & Auter, Pronouns and ideology in newspaper discourse. International P. J. (2013). Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya framing of the Israel– Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature, 6(3), Palestine conflict during war and calm periods. International 168–179. Communication Gazette, 75(8), 750–768. Al Arabiya English News. Al-Jubeir: Qatar’s Distortion of Facts is Fairclough, N. (1993). Critical discourse analysis and the mar- Not Surprising. (2019, June 3). Al Arabiya. http://english.alara- ketization of public discourse: The universities. Discourse & biya.net/en/News/gulf/2019/06/03/Al-Jubeir-Qatar-distortion- Society, 4(2), 133–168. of-facts-is-not-surprising.html Fairclough, N. (1995). Media discourse. Edward Arnold. Allagui, I., & Akdenizli, B. (2019). The Gulf Information War| The Fairclough, N. (2001). Language and power. Pearson Education. Gulf Information War and the role of media and communica- Fairclough, N. (2003). Analyzing discourse: Textual analysis for tion technologies: Editorial introduction. International Journal social research. Psychology Press. of Communication, 13, 1287–1300. Fairclough, N., & Wodak, R. (1997). Critical discourse analysis. Alrefaee, Y., Abdul-Ghafour, A. Q., Alazzany, M., & Alrefaee, In T. A. van Dijk (Ed.), Discourse studies: A multidisciplinary S. (2019). A critical discourse analysis of the selected oppo- introduction (Vol. 2: Discourse as Social Interaction, pp. 258– sition and state printed media on the representation of south- 284). Sage. ern mobility in Yemen. International Journal of Linguistics, Fowler, R. (1991). Discourse and ideology in the press. Routledge. Literature and Translation (IJLLT), 2(2), 116–124. https://doi. Freedom of the Press 2017 Qatar. (2017). Freedom house. https:// org/10.32996/ijllt.2019.2.2.18 www.refworld.org/docid/5a01a21ba.html Atai, M. R., & Mozaheb, M. A. (2013). The representation of Iran’s Ghannam, N. (2011). Online publications ideology: A critical dis- nuclear program in British online publications editorials: A course analysis of an event published in six Lebanese online critical discourse analytic perspective. International Journal of publications [Master’s thesis]. University of the Witwatersrand. Society, Culture & Language, 1(2), 15–33. Gulf Cooperation Council. (n.d.). Encyclopædia Britannica. http:// BBC Report. (2011). Censorship and social activism in the Middle academic.eb.com/levels/collegiate/article/Gulf-Cooperation- East and North Africa. https://www.secdev-foundation.org/ Council/438729 wp-content/uploads/2016/07/MENA.pdf Guzman, A. L. (2016). Evolution of news frames during the 2011 Beiser, E. (2016, December). Turkey’s crackdown propels a num- Egyptian revolution: Critical discourse analysis of Fox News’s ber of journalists in jail worldwide to record high. Committee and CNN’s framing of protesters, Mubarak, and the Muslim to Protect Journalists. https://cpj.org/reports/2016/12/journal- Brotherhood. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, ists-jailed-record-high-turkey-crackdown/ 93(1), 80–98. Berger, A. A. (2012). Media and society: A critical perspective. Haider, A. S. (2019). The representation of Al-Megrahi’s release in Rowman & Littlefield. Arabic and English newspapers in 2009 and 2010: A corpus- Bojarczyk, B. (2013). The Gulf Cooperation Council—Regional assisted discourse study. Dirasat: Human and Social Sciences, integration mechanism. Annales Universitatis Mariae Curie- 46(1), 297–317. Skłodowska, Section K: Politologia, 20(1), 69–85. Happer, C., & Greg, P. (2013). The role of the media in the construc- Bouvier, G., & Machin, D. (2018). Critical discourse analysis and tion of public belief and social change. Journal of Social and the challenges and opportunities of social media. Review of Political Psychology, 1(1), 321–336. https://doi.org/10.5964/ Communication, 18(3), 178–192. jspp.v1i1.96 14 SAGE Open Hassan, A. (2018). Language, media, and ideology: Critical dis- OPEC Members Expected to Agree to an Oil Production Cut. course analysis of Pakistani News Bulletin Headlines and its (2018, December). Al Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/ impact on viewers. SAGE Open, 8(3), 1–15. Advance online news/2018/12/opec-members-expected-agree-oil-production- publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244018792612 cut-181206080627446.html Hidayatullah, M. S. (2017). The Khilafah discourse on Aljazeera Parker, S. (2015). “Unwanted invaders”: The representation of and Alarabiya: A valuable lesson for Indonesian Online refugees and asylum seekers in the UK and Australian print Media. In International Conference on Culture and Language media. eSharp, 23. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/id/eprint/79108 in Southeast Asia (ICCLAS 2017). Atlantis Press. Persson, E., & Neto, L. M. (2018). Ideology and discourse in the Hinnebusch, R. (2018). Introduction to the international politics of public sphere: A critical discourse analysis of public debates the Middle East. In The International politics of the Middle at a Brazilian public university. Discourse & Communication, East (pp. 1–13). Manchester University Press. 12(3), 278–306. Jayasekera, R. (2016). The Arab Spring snaps back: The state of the Ponniah, K. (2017, June 8). Qatar crisis: Can Al Jazeera survive? media after the revolution. Index on Censorship, 45(2), 51–53. BBC. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-40187414 https://doi.org/10.1177/0306422016657026 Qatar Blockade: The US Shows Support For Both Qatar and Saudi Jones, M. O. (2019). The Gulf Information War| Propaganda, Fake Arabia. (2019, June). Al Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/ News, and Fake Trends: The weaponization of Twitter Bots in news/2019/06/qatar-blockade-shows-support-qatar-saudi-ara- the Gulf Crisis. International Journal of Communication, 13, bia-190605114032465.html Article 27. Rababah, A. G., & Hamdan, J. M. (2019). A contrastive critical Goodbye, Qatar: What next for OPEC? (2018, December). Al Arabiya. discourse analysis of Netanyahu’s and Abbas’s speeches on http://english.alarabiya.net/en/business/energy/2018/12/04/ the Gaza War (2014). Journal of Language Teaching and Goodbye-Qatar-What-next-for-OPEC-.html Research, 10(1), 178–189. Khan, M. H., Adnan, H. M., Kaur, S., Khuhro, R. A., Asghar, Radcliffe, D., & Lam, A. (2018). Social media in the Middle East: R., & Jabeen, S. (2019). Muslims’ representation in Donald The story of 2017; Key developments, stories and research Trump’s anti-Muslim-Islam statement: A critical discourse findings. University of Oregon Libraries. http://hdl.handle. analysis. Religions, 10(2), Article 115. https://doi.org/10.3390/ net/1794/23036 rel10020115 Richardson, J. (2006). Analysing online publications: An approach Koch, B., & Stivachtis, Y. A. (2019). Introduction: Regional from critical discourse analysis. Palgrave Macmillan. security in the Middle East: Sectors, variables, and issues. In Sharifi, M., Ansari, N., & Asadollahzadeh, M. (2017). A criti- Regional security in the Middle East: Sectors, variables and cal discourse analytic approach to discursive construction of issues. E-International Relations. Islam in Western talk shows: The case of CNN talk shows. Kopytowska, M. (2012). Editorial: Critical perspectives on ideol- International Communication Gazette, 79(1), 45–63. https:// ogy, identity, and interaction. Critical Approaches to Discourse doi.org/10.1177/1748048516656301 Analysis Across Disciplines, 5(2), 1–14. Sivandi, Z., & Dowlatabadi, H. R. (2015). A critical discourse Lee Ludvigsen, J. A. (2018). The portrayal of drones in terrorist analysis on online publications: The case study of nuclear propaganda: A discourse analysis of Al Qaeda in the Arabian program of Iran. International Journal of Research Studies in Peninsula’s Inspire. Dynamics of Asymmetric Conflict, 11(1), Education, 4(5), 93–103. 26–49. Thussu, D. K. (2006). Media on the move: Global flow and contra- Mahmood, T., Kausar, G., & Khan, G. Z. (2018). A critical dis- flow. Routledge. course analysis of the editorials of “Dawn” and “The New van Dijk, T. A. (1998). Opinions and ideologies in the press. In York Times” in the aftermath of Army Public School attack. A. Bell & P. Garret (Eds.), Approach to media discourse The “Us” versus “Them” ideology. Journal of Research in (pp. 21–63). Blackwell. Social Sciences (JRSS), 6(2), 1–17. van Dijk, T. A. (2005). Discourse analysis as ideology analysis. Matar, D. (2017). Media coverage of the migration crisis in Europe: In C. Schäffner & A. Wenden (Eds.), Language and peace A confused and polarized narrative. In IEMed Mediterranean (pp. 41–58). Routledge. Yearbook (pp. 292–295). Panorama. van Dijk, T. A. (2006). Ideology and discourse analysis. Journal of Miles, H. (2006). Al-Jazeera: The inside story of the Arab news Political Ideologies, 11(2), 115–140. channel that is challenging the West. Grove Press. van Dijk, T. A. (Ed.). (2011). Discourse studies: A multidisci- Moscato, D. (2016). Media portrayals of hashtag activism: A fram- plinary introduction. Sage. ing analysis of Canada’s #Idlenomore Movement. Media and van Dijk, T. A. (2013). News analysis: Case studies of interna- Communication, 4(2), Article 3. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac. tional and national news in the press. Routledge. https://doi. v4i2.416 org/10.4324/9780203357828 Naheem, M. A. (2017). The dramatic rift and crisis between Qatar and Why Qatar left OPEC. (2018). Al Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera. the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) of June 2017. International com/indepth/opinion/qatar-left-opec-181206102112634.html Journal of Disclosure and Governance, 14(4), 265–277. Wodak, R., & Meyer, M. (2009). Critical discourse analysis: Oil Tops $73 on Venezuela Turmoil, Saudi Support for OPEC Cuts. History, agenda, theory and methodology. Methods of Critical (2019, April). Al Arabiya. Reuters, London. http://english. Discourse Analysis, 2, 1–33. alarabiya.net/en/business/energy/2019/04/30/Oil-tops-73-on- World Press Freedom. (2018). 2018 World Press Freedom Index— Venezuela-turmoil-Saudi-support-for-OPEC-cuts.html RSF. https://rsf.org/en/ranking/2018 http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png SAGE Open SAGE http://www.deepdyve.com/lp/sage/critical-discourse-analysis-of-online-publications-ideology-a-case-of-4EfUcrkT6d

Loading next page...

References (74)

A. Rababah, Jihad Hamdan (2019)
A Contrastive Critical Discourse Analysis of Netanyahu’s and Abbas's Speeches on the Gaza War (2014)
Journal of Language Teaching and Research
Evolution of news frames during the 2011 Egyptian revolution: Critical discourse analysis of Fox News’s and CNN’s framing of protesters, Mubarak, and the Muslim Brotherhood
(2011)
Censorship and social activism in the Middle East and North Africa
04/30/Oil-tops-73-on-Venezuela-turmoil-Saudi-support-for-OPEC-cuts.html OPEC Members Expected to Agree to an
Ilhem Allagui, Banu Akdenizli (2019)
The Gulf information war and the role of media and communication technologies
International Journal of Communication, 13
What next for OPEC?
University of Oregon Libraries
Ufuoma Akpojivi (2018)
Media Reforms and Democratization in Emerging Democracies of Sub-Saharan Africa
T. Dijk (2011)
Discourse studies : a multidisciplinary introduction
M. Moussa (2007)
Al Jazeera: The Inside Story of the Arab News Channel That is Challenging the West
Canadian journal of communication, 32
B. Bojarczyk (2013)
The Gulf Cooperation Council – regional integration mechanism
, 20
T. Dijk (2011)
News Analysis: Case Studies of International and National News in the Press
Andrea Guzman (2016)
Evolution of News Frames During the 2011 Egyptian Revolution
Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 93
N. Fairclough (1993)
Critical Discourse Analysis and the Marketization of Public Discourse: The Universities
Discourse & Society, 4
Damian Radcliffe, Amanda Lam (2018)
Social Media in the Middle East: The Story of 2017; Key developments, stories and research findings
Qatar's Distortion of Facts is Not Surprising
Jonathan Zittrain, Robert Faris, Helmi Noman, Justin Clark, Casey Tilton, Ryan Morrison-Westphal (2017)
The Shifting Landscape of Global Internet Censorship
Harvard Law School
Monika Kopytowska (2012)
Editorial: Critical Perspectives on Ideology, Identity, and Interaction
The US Shows Support For Both Qatar and Saudi Arabia
(2018)
2018 World Press Freedom Index— RSF
Aaminah Hassan (2018)
Language, Media, and Ideology: Critical Discourse Analysis of Pakistani News Bulletin Headlines and Its Impact on Viewers
SAGE Open, 8
D. Moscato (2016)
Media Portrayals of Hashtag Activism: A Framing Analysis of Canada’s #Idlenomore Movement
Media and Communication, 4
Raymond Hinnebusch (2018)
Introduction to the international politics of the Middle East
The international politics of the Middle East
Ilhem Allagui, Banu Akdenizli (2019)
The Gulf Information War | The Gulf Information War and the Role of Media and Communication Technologies: Editorial Introduction
International Journal of Communication, 13
D. Thussu (2006)
Media on the Move : Global Flow and Contra-Flow
A. Bruns, G. Enli, E. Skogerbø, A. Larsson, C. Christensen (2016)
The Routledge Companion to Social Media and Politics
T. Mahmood
A Critical discourse analysis of the editorials of “Dawn” and “The New York Times” in the aftermath of Army Public School attack. The “Us” versus “Them” ideology
Turkey’s crackdown propels a number of journalists in jail worldwide to record high
Bettina Koch, Y. Stivachtis (2019)
Introduction: Regional Security in the Middle East: Sectors, Variables and Issues
M. Khan, H. Adnan, Surinderpal Kaur, Rashid Khuhro, Rohail Asghar, Sahira Jabeen (2019)
Muslims’ Representation in Donald Trump’s Anti-Muslim-Islam Statement: A Critical Discourse Analysis
Religions
Marwah Ali, A. Christopher, M. Nordin (2017)
Pronouns and Ideology in Newspaper Discourse
International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature, 6
U. Lublinie (2001)
Annales Universitatis Mariae Curie-Skłodowska
A. Elewa (2019)
A critical discourse analysis of ideological translations of Arabic quotations in English language newspapers
Language and Intercultural Communication, 19
Gwen Bouvier, D. Machin (2018)
Critical Discourse Analysis and the challenges and opportunities of social media
Review of Communication, 18
S. Parker (2015)
'Unwanted invaders': The representation of refugees and asylum seekers in the UK and Australian print media
E. Persson, Luís Neto (2018)
Ideology and discourse in the public sphere: A critical discourse analysis of public debates at a Brazilian public university
Discourse & Communication, 12
Seyyed Erfani (2011)
Theory and Practice in Language Studies
Rasha El-Ibiary (2011)
Questioning the Al-Jazeera Effect: Analysis of Al-Qaeda’s media strategy and its relationship with Al-Jazeera
Global Media and Communication, 7
Magdalena Wojcieszak (2007)
Al Jazeera
International Communication Gazette, 69
R. Wodak (2009)
Critical discourse analysis: an example
(2016)
December). Turkey’s crackdown propels a number of journalists in jail worldwide to record high. Committee to Protect Journalists
Vaia Doudaki (2019)
Analysing discourse
Discourses of Legitimation in the News
S. Davis, Amanda Deliman, Breanya Hogue (2019)
Critical Discourse Analysis
Research Methods for Classroom Discourse
(2013)
The representation of Iran’s nuclear program in British online publications editorials: A critical discourse analytic perspective
M. Talbot (2007)
Media Discourse
Ahmad Haider (2019)
The Representation of Al-Megrahi ’ s Release in Arabic and English Newspapers in 2009 and 2010 : A Corpus-assisted Discourse Study
Cristian Cabalin (2013)
Analyzing Discourse: Textual Analysis for Social Research
Comunicación y Medios
M. Ahmadian, E. Farahani (2014)
A Critical Discourse Analysis of The Los Angeles Times and Tehran Times on the Representation of Iran’s Nuclear Program
Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 4
M. Jones (2019)
The Gulf Information War| Propaganda, Fake News, and Fake Trends: The Weaponization of Twitter Bots in the Gulf Crisis
International Journal of Communication, 13
M. Hidayatullah, Yuliani (2018)
The Khilafah Discourse on Aljazeera and Alarabiya: a Valuable Lesson for Indonesian Online Media
(2011)
Online publications ideology: A critical discourse analysis of an event published in six Lebanese online publications [Master’s thesis
T. Essilfie (1995)
Language in the news: discourse and ideology in the press
Marang: Journal of Language and Literature, 11
M. Naheem (2017)
The dramatic rift and crisis between Qatar and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) of June 2017
International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, 14
L. Rojo (2017)
Language and Power
Qatar crisis: Can Al Jazeera survive? BBC
(2013)
Immigration articles in two online publications: A multimodal discourse
R. Jayasekera (2016)
The Arab Spring snaps back: The state of the media after the revolution
Index on Censorship, 45
M. Elmasry, A. Shamy, P. Manning, Andrew Mills, Philip Auter (2013)
Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya framing of the Israel–Palestine conflict during war and calm periods
International Communication Gazette, 75
Fareeha Aazam, F. Baig, Tanveer Baig, Shumaila Khaliq, Amna Azam, Sarah Shamshad, Muhammad Aslam (2019)
A Critical Discourse Analysis of ‘Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House’ by Michael Wolff
International Journal of English Linguistics
Wei-Fan Chen, Henning Wachsmuth, Khalid Khatib, Benno Stein (2018)
Learning to Flip the Bias of News Headlines
Yasser Alrefaee, Abdul-Qader Abdul-Ghafour, Murad Alazzany, Sara Alrefaee (2019)
A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Selected Opposition and State Printed Media on the Representation of Southern Mobility in Yemen
SSRN Electronic Journal
T. Dijk (1997)
Opinions and ideologies in the press
Mahdi Sharifi, Nafiseh Ansari, Mina Asadollahzadeh (2017)
A critical discourse analytic approach to discursive construction of Islam in Western talk shows: The case of CNN talk shows
International Communication Gazette, 79
T. Dijk (1995)
Discourse analysis as ideology analysis
A critical discourse analysis on online publications: The case study of nuclear program of Iran
C. Happer, Greg Philo (2013)
The Role of the Media in the Construction of Public Belief and Social Change
Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 1
Dina Matar (2017)
Media Coverage of the Migration Crisis in Europe : a Confused and Polarized Narrative
Teun Dijk (2005)
Ideology and discourse analysis
Journal of Political Ideologies, 11
Critical discourse analysis: History, agenda, theory and methodology
Adib Abdulmajid (2019)
Media and Ideology in the Middle East: A Critical Discourse Analysis
Digest of Middle East Studies
A. Berger (2003)
Media and Society: A Critical Perspective
N. Carpentier, Erik Spinoy (2008)
Discourse Theory and Cultural Analysis. Media, Arts and Literature
Jan Ludvigsen (2018)
The portrayal of drones in terrorist propaganda: a discourse analysis of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s Inspire
Dynamics of Asymmetric Conflict, 11
Zohre Sivandi, Hamidreza Dowlatabadi (2015)
A critical discourse analysis on newspapers: The case study of nuclear program of Iran
International Journal of Research Studies in Education, 5

Publisher: SAGE
Copyright: Copyright © 2022 by SAGE Publications Inc, unless otherwise noted. Manuscript content on this site is licensed under Creative Commons Licenses.
ISSN: 2158-2440
eISSN: 2158-2440
DOI: 10.1177/2158244020941471
Publisher site: See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

This study assesses the reflection of Middle Eastern media networks on the states and the news concerning the oil crisis and Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) conditions. A critical discourse analysis approach is adopted to analyze 22 articles from Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya regarding the Qatar withdrawal from OPEC. The ideological choices vary as Al Jazeera is focused on the Qatar economy, while Al Arabiya on Saudi Arabia. These online publications have presented a positive self-presentation of their funded country while the negative representation of the other. Al Jazeera has pointed that the exit of Qatar from the OPEC is to focus on its other non–oil production sector, while Al Arabiya has pointed that this exit is due to the primary role of Saudi Arabia, with which Qatar has an on-going conflict. Qatar is symbolic to broaden regional division, which may later diffuse to other OPEC members and will leave no mark on the decision-making process of the alliance. Keywords Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya, critical discourse analysis, CDA, online publications ideology, Middle Eastern, online publications region) countries. Generally, the relationship with news Introduction media and journalism are found challenging (Hinnebusch, In the present era of globalization, media sources constitute a 2018). Historically, the MENA region has always had state- unique and prime role in communicating the discourse to the controlled media (Bruns et al., 2015), which initiated using reader (Hidayatullah, 2017). Various researches have empha- printed online publications. sized the substantial role of the media outlets in the dissemi- Despite the increase in the development prospects, MENA nation of the information (Castello, 2013; Sharifi et al., has experienced numerous conflicts in the form of political 2017). Every news or event in the world becomes interna- disputes and instability, which led to the upsurge of media in tional; the moment it occurs because of the power relations the region (Koch & Stivachtis, 2019). The socioeconomic of leading players across the globe (Moscato, 2016). Parker and political networks described the purpose and way of dis- (2015) adds that media acts as a stimulus for the dissemina- semination adopted by these media corporations, which is tion of the ideas of a certain group by constructing particular represented in coverage of every single event (Radcliffe & meaning using genres and narratives. Castello (2013) Lam, 2018). Therefore, confront over the insulation of media addresses the media ideology defining it as a form of social from economic as well as the political side is constantly process, which allows the circulation of the idea on a mas- growing, notably for states where the supersession of the sive scale. Media sources constitute the potential to impact basic rights exists (Akpojivi, 2018). The degree of ideologi- the perception of the world and drive them toward a certain zation reaches its pinnacle point for the two media giants in direction (Berger, 2012). the Middle East, such as Al Arabiya in Saudi Arabia and Al Text in the online publications is biased, convincing, and Jazeera in Qatar. The increased political influence impacts an official evocative of public opinion through which readers and researchers are attracted (Chen et al., 2018). The ideol- Al-Ahliyya Amman University, Amman, Jordan ogy of these online publications is primary as the discourse Corresponding Author: of media is legislated as a prominent supplier of public opin- Raeda Arafat Tartory, Department of English Language and Literature, ion (Happer & Greg, 2013). This problem further becomes Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Al-Ahliyya Amman University, Al-Saro, more complex when the region is vulnerable to various crises, Amman 19328, Jordan. such as found in MENA (the Middle East and North Africa Email: r.tartory@gmail.com Creative Commons CC BY: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). 2 SAGE Open the discourse of the media, which often led to the deviation society (Fairclough, 1995; van Dijk, 1998; Wodak & Meyer, of the ethical goals to that of manipulation (Abdulmajid, 2009). A total of 27 ideological strategies were proposed by 2019). van Dijk, which are influential to identify the important strat- The stability of the region is jeopardized due to the immense egies of positive self-presentation and negative presentation contribution of the media to the ideological representation of (p. 67). According to van Dijk (2006), the positive self-pre- the conflicts in the region. Furthermore, the frequent crisis sentation is an ideological aspect used for referring to an within the MENA states, such as withdrew of Saudi Arabia, individual as superior as compared with others, whereas the the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Bahrain ambassadors negative other-representation considers others as inferior. from Qatar based on the past rivalry that dates back to 1995. These discursive strategies enhance or reduce bad aspects of This further intensified the adverse response to these conflicts, an individual and report discourse ideologically. along with its representation in the news media. Until now, the CDA proposed by Fairclough provides research to gain its conflicts of the news media and its promoted ideology have insights on discursive, linguistic, and social aspects. According been investigated by Jones (2019) and earlier research of to Fairclough (1993), text analysis involves a comprehensive Carpentier and Spinoy (2008) on the Western media outlet. understanding of language forms. Fairclough categorizes text An assessment for the MENA regional news outlet and its analysis under four major tenants; cohesion, text structure, ideology construction mechanism remain dearth requiring grammar, and vocabulary. Force of utterances, the intertextual- more research. Therefore, the study investigates the role of the ity of the text, and coherence of the text are involved in these Arabic News outlet and its reporting on the OPEC issues from concepts (Ghannam, 2011). The sociocultural analysis is the 2018 to 2019 in the region. The study assesses the two media third level of analysis, which is accomplished through the power outlets such as Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya, which hold a sub- relations examination prevailing in any society. Furthermore, stantial consumer base. Following research questions are con- the prevailing hegemonies are reproduced, restructured, or chal- structed to examine the role of the Arabic News outlet on the lenged through imbalanced power relations (Hassan, 2018). OPEC issues comprehensively: Fairclough (1995), in media discourse, reported that media sets a platform for the audience and then stresses its Research Question 1: How headlines are reflected from power. The power of media is undeniable in shaping percep- its reporting title in both the Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya tion, values, social relations, and beliefs of people. Media is online publications? further considered as a significant power, which is majorly Research Question 2: Does the text of the news logically manifested in framing the news story and manipulating the represent and justify the Qatar–Saudi conflict and exit of language (Sivandi & Dowlatabadi, 2015). The rationale Qatar from OPEC in both the Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya behind the selection of CDA in this article is to examine the online publications? ideological development of Arabic articles, which is well- Research Question 3: How the role of the United States articulated by the fact that CDA helps in examining the broad is reflected from the title and text of both the Al Jazeera news categories. Fairclough (1993) summarized that the and Al Arabiya online publications? CDA of news media headlines assists to find the answers to the questions that are presented in the study. The incorporation of multiple approaches and disciplines Theoretical Framework make CDA a diverse area of study. The discourse perception of Fairclough is summarized as linguistically oriented discourse Critical Discourse Analysis analysis and social and political perception associated with lan- The study has employed critical discourse analysis (CDA) guage and discourse. It is presented in the form of a framework, for assessing the conflict discourse in the region. The study which is appropriate in social scientific research, and particu- has followed methods proposed by Richardson (2006), due larly in the study of social change (Fairclough, 1993). Fairclough to its practical nature of online publications analysis. Using and Wodak (1997) have argued that discourse is both socially this approach, a comparative analysis of the two news net- conditioned and socially constitutive. The audience is unaware works (Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya) was carried out concern- of the frameworks of power relations, nature of social practices, ing its ideology and power. CDA assess online publications and social structures, while their practices mark an impact on discourse based on three aspects, that is, linguistic analysis, the social struggles and structures around them. discursive practices, and social analysis (Richardson, 2006). van Dijk’s (2005) analytical framework is applied in this Linguistic Analysis study for finding out implicit and explicit discursive steps for representing “us” with positive characteristics and “them” In this analysis, the research focuses on the article’s choice of with negative characteristics. CDA is an effective tool to ana- words, sentence structure, modal verbs, and combination of lyze a discourse or language as its core focus is to decon- different propositions to a narrative (Richardson, 2006). struct those implicit and explicit ideologies of discourses that Example of linguistic analysis as exemplified in Richardson assist in producing and reproducing unequal relationships in (2006, p. 95), book constitute of the following way. Tartory 3 Structuring of propositions Words (lexis) Micro-textual analysis Sentences 1 (syntax and transitivity) Sentences 2 (modality) Presupposition Propositions combining Rhetoric Macro-textual analysis Narrative The rationale for selecting this analysis is to examine how in originating and propagating the ideological campaigns that the two online publications (Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya) posi- orient and manipulate the audience (Mahmood et al., 2018). tion one country’s importance at the expense of others using The online publications are likely to give importance to certain words (Richardson, 2006). opinions and assessments by selecting a topic of the day; although, there might be some exceptions. van Dijk (2011) conducted a study considering the dialogue as a social associa- Discursive Practices tion, which is one of the major characteristics of media dia- Discursive practices refer to the sources which are inclusive logue. The dialogue refers to the language used for in the news reporting. Such as the use of politicians quotes as communicating with the news recipients. The media dialogue a headline by a journalist. This enables the journalist to incor- outlines the language used in the context of social practices, porate the opinion in the paper without reflecting his opinion. more simply, “language as a social practice” (Kopytowska, Moreover, the use of supportive or background information 2012, p. 1). Its significance of the media ideology of online can help influence the text objectivity (Richardson, 2006). In publications is also significant due to its impact on the social the discursive practices, both institutional and organizational actions and relations, globally (Kopytowska, 2012). practices (Richardson, 2006) are studied as to how OPEC is Kopytowska (2012) further argued that it is the principle com- impacting the region, notably for the hub of two networks, municational determinant of discourse, which describes the that is, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which impact the text produc- concept of social interaction in such societies. Elewa (2019) ing rather than text consumption. has compared the ideologies, cultural values, and social sys- tems enlightened in the linguistic strategies and structures applied by online media sources to present quoted Arabic Social Analysis expressions. Elewa (2019) recommended, based on this It is related to the analysis of the journalism practices that are enlightenment, that ideology of target readers or publishers adopted at a social level (Richardson, 2006). For instance, should be reflected by editors or translators of these newspa- this incorporates more social relations, that is, unequal, dis- pers as CDA is a medium to reflect sociocultural differences. criminatory, and iniquitous power relations (Richardson, Haider (2019) was of the view of the representation of leaders 2006). It is because journalism constitutes of different state through online news channels, and revealed that both social practices concerning its economy, political control, and ideo- and political contexts are viewed by newspapers either posi- logical practices in the context of the Middle East trade cli- tively or negatively. In the case of Qaddafi, newspapers por- mate. It is inclusive of different statements made and trayed him as a negative leader despite of his efforts in discussed on different actors involved in the OPEC. Through revolutionizing Libya. these tools of CDA, the news outlet such as Al Jazeera and Al Furthermore, Fairclough (2001) describes dialogue as a Arabiya can highlight the ideological beliefs of the two language or speech that is a societal practice identified by regions, that is, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. social infrastructure. He further claimed that dialogue pos- sesses a region and has an impact on society. This is because the language is considered to be a socially structured process Literature Review by the non-linguistic part of the population. While the asso- CDA is a specific element of discourse analysis that empha- ciation of language with the society is internal, showing a sizes on the role of language in political procedures and soci- dialectical association between these two variables. In this ety, which targets conventionally texts produced by context, Mahmood et al. (2018) have presented a CDA of the institutions and elites including political speeches and news. newspapers (Dawn and the New York Times) in the aftermath It is also apparent that new methods are needed for data col- of Peshawar attacks, specifically referring to “Army Public lection as content takes new moves and forms from texts to School.” Mahmood and colleagues were of the view that the language that is integrated with images, data, and design word “Taliban” was majorly emphasized by the New York (Bouvier & Machin, 2018). Times for the attackers, whereas the word “militants” was In recent times, media has emerged as an important pillar of often claimed by Dawn for the attackers. This shows the the state, along with the executive, judiciary, and legislature impartialness approach created by the New York Times in aspects. The online publication articles play an influential role dealing with such events as compared with Dawn. 4 SAGE Open Alrefaee et al. (2019) have revealed the representation of of (a) lack of professional media practice, (b) weak economic two newspapers events for serving the ideology and objective foundation, (c) shattering in the Arab media, and (d) lack of of Yemen. The authors have claimed that the agency of proce- media expression. dures is highly mystified by printed materials through differ- Ali et al. (2017) have categorized thematically the ideo- ent strategies including passivation and nominalization. This logical values using a CDA. It was observed that direct quo- refers to the fact that CDA allows writers to manipulate the tations of politicians’ statements were used in the newspapers, realizations of power and agency in the representation of which comprise possessive and plural personal pronouns action for producing specific meanings that are not always when referring to their activities. The ideological values comprehensive for audience. Likewise, Persson and Neto were revealed in the news event through quotations of event. (2018) have investigated the embedded ideologies in discur- Similarly, the objectivity improved the sociopolitical ideolo- sive practices throughout the public sphere, specifically those gies using the quotations of politicians. Abdulmajid (2019) committed by the bureaucratic approaches of the federal gov- has explored the media discourse ideologization in the ernment for mystifying reality, promoting, and legitimizing Middle Eastern countries by examining political effects over essential interests and actions with respect to the public leading media companies in the region. The author has indi- spheres. The authors have organized these ideologies in five cated that local political agendas appear in violation with the categories including participationism, neoliberalism and impartiality of news reporting and the journalistic commit- managerialism, ideology and pragmatism, double standard ment to objectivity. policy, and the fallacy of choice and the policy of terror. Khan et al. (2019) have focused on Trump’s ideological An investigation on the power of language influences statements against Muslim discourses during the American was conducted by Ahmadian and Farahani (2014) by mainly Presidential Election 2016. The authors have indicated that focusing on the online publications: The Los Angeles Times several rhetoric strategies were presented by Trump in his and Tehran Times helped in examining the ideological dif- speeches including number game, polarization, populism, ferences displayed in the depiction of Iran’s nuclear pro- victimization, authority, presupposition, and evidentiality. gram. They used the application of van Dijk’s (2013) Moreover, Donald Trump has portrayed Muslims and Islam framework of positive and negative self-presentation that as a negative phenomenon and presented himself as revealed the same issues in a different pattern. Another Islamophobe by negatively targeting Islamic aspects such as study on Iran’s nuclear program in British online publica- Jihad and Shariah. Aazam et al. (2019) have adopted tions by Atai and Mozaheb (2013) revealed that the media Fairclough three-dimensional model for investigating prejudice in the online publications representations of the Trump’s constructed ideology from the viewpoint of Michael issue is likely to be built through the ideological circles of Wolf. The author in his book, “Fire and Fury: Inside the the West and the East. Considering the political conflicts, White Trump House,” wrote that Trump was an incompetent Matar (2017) proposed that the pattern displayed by these and ineligible person for the president of the United States. conflicting events provides an in-depth representation of This also showed that Wolf manipulated the working ideol- the culture and values as well as the reality of the political ogy and sentence structuring of this book to portray an anti- crises that the online publications attempt to build in the Trump representation. minds of their consumers. It is because of this, this study is The foundation of GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) was based on the OPEC crisis, and its’ reporting, to identify the held in the year 1981 as the result of multiple establishments realities that Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera are structuring in within the regions (Bojarczyk, 2013), which include the the minds of individuals. Iran–Iraq war held between the years 1980 and 1988, Israel– Besides, when emphasizing the concept of ideology and Egypt interactions, Islamic Iranian Revolution 1979, and its impact on news dialogue, the terms inclusive of framing, Cold War establishments. Moreover, the failure of the Arab bias, representation, and partiality are utilized very often. League and the correspondence between the social, eco- The majority of the studies conducted in the context of media nomic, and political values of the state members of the state accept that all the news portrayed on television, online pub- of Arab league are considered as some of the factors for the lications, and radio are biased, and which is the explanation development of GCC. As discussed earlier, it is a combina- of the circumstances and not the concept of political crises as tion of six different and significant countries that are situated recommended by Fowler (1991). As the news reporting and in the Arab Peninsula. Naheem (2017) claimed that the amal- representation corporations are constructed socially, politi- gamation of these six countries is referred to as the signifi- cally, and economically, however, almost all the news is por- cant and core part of maintaining social and economic trayed from specific areas. Fowler (1991) added that the sustainability in the Gulf. Besides, the British Encyclopedia same ideology is expected to be implemented in other news Britannica on social media also postulated that the aim of the media, which includes news articles on social media. By union is to acquire unity between the state members, which undertaking the effect of Al Jazeera, El-Ibiary (2011) has depends on their general objectives. Also, the similarity claimed that the role of Arab media channels is limited to between their cultural and political traits is found to be the enlighten and inform the oppressed Arab individuals because key factor in Islamic ideology (Gulf Cooperation Council, Tartory 5 n.d.). However, the state has undergone a fair share of trade The past events in Qatar have demonstrated the practice and political crisis. of suppressing the freedom of the press, such as authorities in Rababah and Hamdan (2019) have expressed that the Qatar disabled accessibility to the Doha news, which representation of the self and other in the political leaders’ enlighten and discourse the information on sensitive topics speeches portray two different opposing ideologically gov- (Clark et al., 2017). The concept of self-censorship prolifer- erned insights on the Gaza conflict. The “self” was repre- ated in the region due to the substantial restrictions imposed sented as honorable, human, and strong in political on the media corporation (Freedom of the Press 2017 Qatar, speeches as compared with the “other,” which is consid- 2017). This case further intensified for the region of Saudi ered to be an only risk and an agent of demolition. Guzman Arabia, which has created a suppressed environment for all (2016) has presented CDA of two online media giants: its media outlets. It is because the media figures in the region FoxNews.com and CNN.com for reflecting the ideological along with bloggers, writers, and journalists are always at a steps taken by the U.S. government and Egyptian govern- risk of legal prosecution where the outcome is generally ment under the presidency of Hosni Mubarak. Both editors imprisonment for a lengthy period. The recent issue of the have reflected a positive image of U.S. government’s World Press Freedom (2018) ranks Qatar at 125th position, democracy and support of U.S. people toward these steps while Saudi Arabia rests at 169th position among the 180 taken, whereas authoritarian rule or Hosni Mubarak was countries. The same scenario is found for other MENA usually the main discursive element portrayed in the news- regions. papers. Lee Ludvigsen (2018) has portrayed the drone warfare in Arabian Peninsula using a qualitative CDA. The Method author, in this paper, has critically opined that drones were the ultimate cause of oppression and death of Muslims in Study Design this territory. The United States was the only one inspired A comprehensive methodology was developed to investigate by such warfare, but a negative image of inhumanity and the ideological foundation in Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya news cowardliness was created among other nations for such articles covering headlines and text and aimed to discuss the events. conflict between Qatar and Saudi Arabia toward Qatar’s Furthermore, one primary example of the press freedom withdrawal from OPEC. In this regard, qualitative analysis scandals within the MENA was the joint venture between was conducted by the following framework of Fairclough Orbit and BBC, which was supported by the citizens of Saudi that emphasizes majorly on textual analysis, lexical choices, Arabia. This was developed by an Arabic BBC channel. and social analysis in the two online publications: Al Jazeera However, the BBC insisted that this joint venture should and Al Arabiya. In total, 22 articles were analyzed from the have similar values as that practiced by the world services two online publications on the respective topic. which was conflicted by Orbit, initially censored an inter- An analytical framework is provided by the CDA version, view, and then a documentary. This led to the breakdown of for qualitative analysis, which includes three different analy- the venture (Miles, 2006; Thussu, 2006). Soon after the sis levels such as linguistic analysis, discursive analysis, and adaptation of 24 novel BBC channels, several Arab media social analysis. However, the focus of this study was on the scholars and journalists moved to other novel Arab channels, linguistic analysis of headlines, text, and sections with selec- which include Al Jazeera (Thussu, 2006). According to the tive sociocultural analysis. Data were collected for 1 year study postulated by the Committee to Project Journalists (December 2018 to December 2019). Furthermore, this study (CPJ), Egypt, for example, was considered as the third-larg- focused on the exit of Qatar from OPEC as the event just est state consisting of numerous journalists among other occurred in December 2018, and this explains why the countries in the year 2016 (Beiser, 2016). majority of the selected articles are published in December In the year 2016, various media outlets were shut closed 2018 or months after. Therefore, the framework selected in the MENA region along with 10 journalist’s imprisonment comprised of only 1 year. Each news headline and text were for opposition to be silenced. Similarly, press freedom is at considered as a unit for analysis. In addition, lexical choice, stake in many parts of the MENA region, which is reflected cohesion, rhetoric, and bias were included as variables that through journalism imprisonment. The existence of several assist in examining the data through CDA. ideological discrepancies may also account for the compli- cated position of the press and its freedom (BBC Report, 2011; Jayasekera, 2016). Allagui and Akdenizli (2019) also Study Data Collection acknowledged this fact in their research, stating that these The study comprises of 22 articles that are published by the two media outlets generally receive their funding from the gov- media outlets, that is, Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera, and posted ernment and thus represented a government stance through online. The sample of the articles is presented in Table 1. their content. Moreover, the region also composes certain The selection of the 22 online publications articles was unstable regions that use the media as a channel for the dis- made after comprehensive research and their relevance to the sident of the voice. 6 SAGE Open Table 1. Selected Articles From Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya. Serial Serial no Date Al Jazeera articles no Date Al Arabiya articles 1 December 6, OPEC members expected to agree to 1 April 30, Oil tops $73 on Venezuela turmoil, Saudi support 2018 an oil production cut (Link: https:// 2019 for OPEC cuts. (Link: https://english.alarabiya. www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/12/ net/en/business/energy/2019/04/30/Oil-tops-73- opec-members-expected-agree-oil- on-Venezuela-turmoil-Saudi-support-for-OPEC- production-cut-181206080627446.html) cuts.html) 2 December 6, Why Qatar left OPEC (link: https://www. 2 December Goodbye, Qatar: What next for OPEC? (Link: 2018 aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/qatar-left- 4, 2018 http://english.alarabiya.net/en/business/ opec-181206102112634.html) energy/2018/12/04/Goodbye-Qatar-What-next- for-OPEC-.html) 3 June 5, 2019 Qatar blockade: the US shows support 3 June 3, 2019 Al-Jubeir: Qatar’s distortion of facts is not for both Qatar and Saudi Arabia. surprising (Link: http://english.alarabiya.net/ (Link: https://www.aljazeera.com/ en/News/gulf/2019/06/03/Al-Jubeir-Qatar- news/2019/06/qatar-blockade- distortion-of-facts-is-not-surprising.html) shows-support-qatar-saudi- arabia-190605114032465.html) 4 February 2, Saudi Aramco: A story of oil, wealth and 4 December Saudi Arabia: OPEC seeking “sufficient cut” to 2019 power. (Link: https://www.aljazeera. 6, 2018 balance the oil market. (Link: https://english. com/programmes/specialseries/2019/01/ alarabiya.net/en/business/energy/2018/12/06/ saudi-aramco-company- Saudi-Arabia-OPEC-seeking-sufficient-cut-to- state-190126125553856.html) balance-oil-market.html) 5 December 9, Qatar dispute overshadows Gulf summit 5 December After 57 years, Qatar’s withdrawal from OPEC 2018 as emir stays away. (Link: https://www. 3, 2018 expected to have a limited impact. (Link: https:// aljazeera.com/news/2018/12/qatar- english.alarabiya.net/en/features/2018/12/03/ dispute-overshadows-gulf-summit-emir- After-57-years-Qatar-s-withdrawal-from-OPEC- stays-181209151801066.html) expected-to-have-limited-impact.html) 6 December 8, Qatar’s break-up with OPEC. (Link: 6 December UAE energy minister: Qatar’s exit from OPEC 2018 https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/ 10, 2018 will not affect production. (Link: https://english. countingthecost/2018/12/qatar-break- alarabiya.net/en/business/energy/2018/12/10/ opec-181208080831667.html) UAE-energy-minister-Qatar-s-exit-from-OPEC- will-not-affect-production.html) 7 December 5, Saudi king extends an invitation to Qatari 7 December Energy minister: Qatar to withdraw from OPEC 2018 emir to attend the GCC summit. 3, 2018 as of Jan 2019. (Link: https://english.alarabiya. (Link: https://www.aljazeera.com/ net/en/News/gulf/2018/12/03/Qatar-says-it-will- news/2018/12/saudi-king-extends- withdraw-from-OPEC-beginning-of-2019.html) invitation-qatari-emir-attend-gcc- summit-181204193515224.html) 8 December 4, Saudi Arabia refuses to engage in WTO 8 September OPEC secretary general: Saudi Arabia, Aramco 2018 dispute brought by Qatar. (Link: https:// 16, 2019 have risen to the challenge. (Link: https://english. www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/12/saudi- alarabiya.net/en/News/gulf/2019/09/16/OPEC- arabia-refuses-engage-wto-dispute- secretary-general-We-are-in-touch-with-Saudi- brought-qatar-181204141931031.html) Arabia-no-need-for-panic.html) 9 December 4, Qatar quits OPEC as Saudis walk 9 May 1, 2019 Qatar speaks out against tightening Iran sanctions. 2018 tightrope on oil prices. (Link: https:// (Link: https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/ www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/12/qatar- middle-east/2019/05/01/Qatar-says-tightening- quits-opec-saudis-walk-tightrope-oil- Iran-sanctions-harms-oil-consuming-nations. prices-181203222739862.html) html) 10 December 3, Why is Qatar leaving OPEC? (Link: 10 March 17, Iran’s oil minister blames US for market tensions. 2018 https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/ 2019 (Link: https://english.alarabiya.net/en/business/ insidestory/2018/12/qatar-leaving- energy/2019/03/17/Iran-s-oil-minister-blames- opec-181203173619211.html) US-for-market-tensions.html) 11 December 3, Qatar to withdraw from OPEC in January 11 December OPEC+ cuts, low oil prices to weigh on Saudi 2018 2019. (Link: https://www.aljazeera.com/ 16, 2019 Arabia’s 2020 revenue. (Link: https://english. news/2018/12/qatar-withdraw-opec- alarabiya.net/en/business/energy/2019/12/16/ january-2019-181203061900372.html) Deeper-OPEC-cuts-lower-oil-prices-to-weigh- on-Saudi-Arabia-s-2020-revenue-.html) Note. OPEC = Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries; GCC = Gulf Cooperation Council; WTO = World Trade Organization. Tartory 7 research in terms of the oil crisis that followed the withdrawal particular picture. Also, the current study assessed the repre- of Qatar from OPEC and recent low oil prices in the Gulf sentation approach used by the two online publications. It region. The terms used for searching comprise of Qatar, Saudi was found that the focus and emphasis of the two articles Arabia, Gulf region, OPEC, and Oil Crisis. The discourse were on the same reporting diverge based on their inclina- analysis includes everything in the article from the title of the tion and center, which was noticeable in the title. Such as the online publications to the text. The rationale behind the selec- reduction of oil prices according to both online publication tion of the two online publications, namely, Al Arabiya and Al networks were represented as: Jazeera, was that both outlets print just news online (Elmasry et al., 2013). Second, the collection of online media sources Al Arabiya: Oil tops $73 on Venezuela turmoil, Saudi support was due to the easy and free collection of the data. for OPEC cuts. (Article 1) Moreover, the ideological construction of Al Jazeera was studied due to its influential power, and it is one of the most Al Jazeera: OPEC members expected to agree to an oil production cut. (Article 1) significant media outlets globally, which is located in Doha, Qatar. It has been claimed by the Saudi Arabia news outlets It can be observed that Al Arabiya emphasized the Saudi that terrorist “plots” are encouraged by (Al Jazeera) who role and support to the oil reductions, whereas Al Jazeera supplement the actions of Houthi militias, in Yemen, which presented a generalized idea stating the support of the OPEC, are being fought by Saudi Arabia, and have shown increased as a whole. However, Al Arabiya provides a more Saudi inclination to “break the Saudi internal ranks,” as BBC Center image while also explicitly detailing the issue using depicted (Ponniah, 2017). The neighbors of Qatar have statistics for support. Likewise, the second article for the two demanded the suspension of Al Jazeera in the Gulf region. Al online publications: Arabiya, located in the UAE was selected based on its sub- stantial contribution to the existing conflict. Moreover, the Al Jazeera: Why Qatar Left OPEC. (Article 2) two media outlets, namely, Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya, were considered as parallel in the global media landscape. As the Al Arabiya: Goodbye, Qatar: What next for OPEC? (Article 2) two outlets were stated funded, therefore, they served as an excellent source for the representation of the ideology in the In these headlines, the hint of ideology representation was two disputed regions. also observed where Al Arabiya article focused on what is next for OPEC while stating goodbye to Qatar, whereas Al Results Jazeera states the reason which led Qatar to exist from OPEC. The positive self-representation is particularly evident from The ideological representation of the online publications has the Al Jazeera reporting, which has centered its attention on a substantial impact on the discourse-analytical studies as a reason to form a positive image and overcome any query pioneered by van Dijk (2013). The ideological representation related to Qatar exit from the OPEC: was more central on reflecting positive attributes of one and negative attributes of the other (Richardson, 2006, p. 51). It Al Jazeera: Qatar dispute overshadows Gulf summit as emir is perceived to be represented in a positive square that is stays away. (Article 5) applicable across all discourse levels. It focuses on major trends and insights of an article by employing different lan- Al Arabiya: After 57 years, Qatar’s withdrawal from OPEC guage assessing tools (linguistics, discursive, and social expected to have limited impact. (Article 5) analysis). Such as the discursive tool varies in terms of their focus; for instance, one presents the description of the prob- The preceding headlines were focused on the Qatar’s lem, other on the degree of details, and contrast, and last on “non-participation” in the Gulf summit. The headline in Al the actors involved. The focus of this discourse analysis was Jazeera article focuses on the absence of Qatari leader from on the role of Saudi Arabia and Qatar in OPEC, the with- the Gulf summit as mentioned in the words “emir stays drawal of Qatar from OPEC, and the lowering oil prices. away.” However, Al Arabiya’s article focused on the reason of exclusion of Qatar from the OPEC as evident from the Research Question 1: How Headlines Are words “limited impact,” thus representing the 57 years of Reflected From its Reporting Title in Both the Al Qatar’s stay in OPEC in a negative manner that focuses only on this phrase: Jazeera and Al Arabiya Online Publications? One aspect that deserves particular attention is the headline Al Jazeera: Qatar blockade: the US shows support for both preceding the content and how the authors have used it for Qatar and Saudi Arabia. (Article 3) reporting on a particular issue. The researcher focused on the choice of words and their structuring, which were made Al Arabiya: Al-Jubeir: Qatar’s distortion of facts is not by the two included online publications for representing a surprising. (Article 3) 8 SAGE Open The title of the Al Arabiya focused on destabilizing of the focus was on the exclusion of Qatar as evident from the word Qatar economy, and toward the diplomatic crisis of the state “quits,” whereas the focus of Al Arabiya’s article was on the (Qatar) as evident in the words “distortion of facts,” whereas support of Qatar for Iran as evident from the words “speaks Al Jazeera has not stated a single word that negatively out against.” reflected Qatar but instead focused on the positive words such as support. This analysis of the headline sheds light to Research Question 2: Does the Text of the News the representation approach and corroborates that online Logically Represent and Justify the Saudi–Qatar publication network is inclined to positively represent one- Conflict and Exit of Qatar from OPEC in Both the self while negatively represent the other. Moreover, the role Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya Online Publications? of the United States was emphasized due to its position as a net oil exporter. As Al Jazeera has it headquarter in Qatar, it In this section, the primary focus was on the text of the arti- did provide information within the article stating the exit of cles. The issue of oil price fluctuation and OPEC reduction of Qatar from OPEC. Moreover, the tone of Al Jazeera was the production has adopted a political agenda based on the found to be more neutral, while Al Arabiya was found to be striking reporting difference for both news networks. The exit more manipulative and dominant as evident from the words of Qatar from the OPEC has been a focal point of analyzed “facts are not surprising.” news articles. From the evaluation of first articles in Table 1, Both online publications have outlined the exclusion of that is, Al Arabiya (Oil tops $73 on Venezuela turmoil, Saudi Qatar in similar patterns. For instance, support for OPEC cuts) and Al Jazeera (OPEC members expected to agree to an oil production cut), it was found that Al Jazeera: Qatar’s break-up with OPEC. (Article 6) as one reads, a general to specific approach was revealed in both articles. For instance, Al Arabiya, though reflecting a Al Arabiya: Energy minister: Qatar to withdraw from OPEC as generalized idea, goes more specific where initially, OPEC of Jan 2019. (Article 7) and the United States were emphasized, such as “The govern- ment in Venezuela, an OPEC member whose oil exports have In these headlines, the focus of both the articles was on the been hit by US sanctions and an economic crisis, dismissed word “break-up” or “withdraw,” which clearly leads to the any suggestion of an insurrection.” The start has been more subject of this news. The focus in this analysis is on the word specific where attention was centered on establishing Saudi “break-up” by Al Jazeera, which reflects a decision made by Arabia’s production of oil. It has emphasized the position of Qatar being independent and knowledgeable of what is right Saudi Arabia as the key producer of oil and its neglection for its own benefit. On the contrary, the headline of Al Arabiya toward the pressure raised by the U.S. President Trump for represents the exit of Qatar from OPEC in a negative way by lowering the production cuts. The article has been completely talking about the matter in a way similar to talking about a oil-price-oriented. However, Al Jazeera, despite maintaining foreigner country and not a member of the GCC: a neutral tone, raises a controversial issue by mentioning the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi Arabian journalist, and Al Jazeera: Saudi Arabia refuses to engage in WTO disputes critic, and links its price reductions to it, that is, “One issue brought by Qatar. (Article 8) that might complicate relations between the US and OPEC is the murder of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Al Arabiya: OPEC secretary general: Saudi Arabia, Aramco people linked to the government in Riyadh . . .” (Al Jazeera). have risen to the challenge. (Article 8) Doing this, it makes the position of Saudi Arabia questionable as Jamal Khashoggi was a critic of the Saudi government and From the aforementioned headlines, both news articles publicly criticized the actions of Saudi Arabia. Doing this, it have demonstrated the dispute rose between Saudi and Qatar. draws negative attention on Saudi Arabia while simultane- Al Jazeera article’s headline shows the lack of interest of ously neutralizing the position of Qatar for leaving OPEC, Saudis in resolving the dispute brought by Qatar by refusing which includes an explanation to focus on its already large to attend World Trade Organization (WTO), while Al Arabiya reserves of gas. This is reflected in the sentences: article’s headline emphasized on the challenges brought by Saudi Arabia and ARAMCO on OPEC forum: “. . .the first country from the Middle East to withdraw from OPEC, saying it wanted to focus more on gas production. . .” Al Jazeera: Qatar quits OPEC as Saudis walk tightrope on oil and “as it played only a small role in the organization, providing prices. (Article 9) just under two percent of OPEC’s total output.” (Al Jazeera) Al Arabiya: Qatar speaks out against tightening Iran sanctions. The discussion of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi has (Article 9) been highlighted to position Saudi Arabia negatively, whereas discussion on the huge gas reserves positively posi- The ongoing issue between Saudi-Qatar has been the core tion the other country, that is, Qatar. focus in both articles. As in Al Jazeera’s article headline, the Tartory 9 Reflecting upon the second articles (Al Jazeera article It’s very difficult to understand the rationale for countries to be either in or not in the organization. Of course, there’s a “Why Qatar left OPEC” and Al Arabiya article “Goodbye, concentration of power for bigger players, they have something Qatar: What next for OPEC?”) from both the networks, it to say and their decisions of a huge impact. was found that only 2 days difference exists on the report- ing of the issue (article ‘Al Jazeera article was published on The most important segment stressed upon by the article December 6, while Al Arabiya article was published on was the word “encouragement” for the rest of the OPEC December 4). Al Jazeera reporting has stated the motivation members. According to the insights, it was of extreme impor- of the exit of Qatar, which was on the expansion of its gas tance that other members of the organization will think of reserves, providing a generalized statement, while the becoming an independent player in the oil production world reporting of Al Arabiya highlights another aspect of the exit rather than being a component of an oil-based organization. based on the primary role of Saudi Arabia in the OPEC Likewise, another difference between the two online pub- along with its control of oil prices. The exit of Qatar was lications was central to the use of modal verbs, the context in driven by the control of Saudi Arabia without naming it. which they are used, and the way the story was told. As per The difference can be observed that both have used the Fairclough (2003, p. 171), the use of model verbs was gener- statement of the same individual, that is, Saad al-Kaabi, the ally made in different ways and was not only restricted to energy minister of Qatar; however, the reporting text (may, could, should, and more) and expanded to the contex- varies. tual impact (as per the van Dijk [1998] analysis), such as Al Jazeera highlighted the significant reserves of gas in semantic derogation (which uses negative words for repre- Qatar, while Al Arabiya focused on the declining oil senting other), euphemism (which uses vague words for pre- reserves of Qatar in contrast to non-OPEC countries senting something in a positive context), and otherness (Russia). These aspects emphasized on the disparity of the (which reflects egocentricity indicating negative connota- focus of the two news networks. Al Arabiya formed a con- tion). Considering the use of model verbs in terms of nection between Qatar exit with the diplomatic crisis of Semantic derogation, the Al Jazeera article writes (Why Saudi Arabia, representing a cause and effect scope of the Qatar left OPEC) “. . . the decision was taken in the context prevailing crisis. It showed the exit of Qatar from the of the on-going Saudi-led blockade on Qatar, many commen- OPEC was indeed a blessing. Al Arabiya particularly tators interpreted it as a political act and a rebuke of an orga- focused on the lack of investment capital for the oil nization increasingly seen as a tool of Saudi power projection reserves to the exit of Qatar, while simultaneously men- . . .” This statement negatively portrays the power of Saudi tioning the concrete figures for the contribution of Saudi Arabia and its political influence. A similar practice was Arabia. In contrast, a positive picture was emphasized for observed for Saudi Arabia, Al Arabiya (Goodbye Qatar: the Al Jazeera article, where the emphasis was on the large What next for OPEC?) with a statement such as, “. . . with gas reserves with further estimation linked to its expan- one of OPEC’s members smallest producers—Qatar . . .” (Al sion. Another Al Arabiya article (nos 4 and 6) showed their Arabiya), which of the semantic derogation approach of rationale toward the withdrawal from OPEC in this state- Saudi Arabia, negatively positioning the economy of Qatar ment, “We’re looking for a sufficient cut to balance the and labeling it as the smallest. market, equally distributed between countries.” Concerning the euphemism context, Al Jazeera article The analysis of the two articles (Al Arabiya; Goodbye states (Why Qatar left OPEC), “. . .What defines the coun- Qatar: What next for OPEC? and Al Jazeera: Why Qatar left try’s energy sector is not its oil production, but its capacity OPEC) constructed different viewpoints, where Al Jazeera and global presence in the natural gas sector . . .,” which emphasized the positive and neutral aspects as compared hints to the positive image of Qatar reflecting its global con- with Al Arabiya. Al Arabiya used manipulative words “want tribution in terms of gas. This demonstrated the strategic use to become Saudi Arabia . . .” for representing Qatar as evi- of modal verbs and how the political influence of Saudi dent in its labeling of Qatar in place of Saudi Arabia. The Arabia posed an adverse impact on the economy. Without diplomatic crisis and unequal representation and treatment of highlighting Saudi Arabia, the energy minister of Qatar states Qatar have been represented in Al Jazeera more descriptively Saudi Arabia as the reason behind the withdrawal of Qatar as compared with Al Arabiya, which only drew attention from OPEC, stating, “. . .without naming Saudi Arabia, toward it while concluding the article, and that too positively, Qatari Minister of State for Energy Affairs Saad al-Kaabi such as “In this sense, Qatar’s exit from OPEC makes sense said, ‘We are not saying we are going to get out of the oil not only from a business perspective but also from a strategic business, but it is controlled by an organization managed by one. All things considered; it is the right decision made at the a country. . .’” (Al Arabiya; Article 2). right time.” A similar perspective was shared by another arti- Another Al Jazeera’s article (Saudi Aramco: A story of cle (Qatar’s break-up with OPEC) with a statement, “Fears oil, wealth and power) negatively framed Saudi Arabia by that Qatar’s pull-out may encourage other countries to leave targeting one of the major organizations in the Kingdom; OPEC are unfounded,” according to Johannes Benigni, Aramco with a statement such as “So Aramco shedding its chairman of JBC Energy Group: 10 SAGE Open cloak of secrecy and deciding to go public is a huge deal— prominent in either of the two markets to cease its monopolis- especially for Saudi Arabia which is run by a monarchy and tic pricing mechanism. Likewise, this otherness aspect was its affairs cannot be publicly evaluated or scrutinized.” also visible in the Al Jazeera article (Why Qatar Left OPEC), Similarly, in Article 8 of Al Jazeera online publications “OPEC remains essentially a Saudi-led cartel whose global (Saudi Arabia refuses to engage), a negative tone of Saudi relevance is in significant decline after the so-called ‘shale Arabia can be observed where the country enlightening the revolution’.” This demonstrated how articles have used the “national security concerns” to withdraw from dispute settle- modal verbs in forming the contextual meaning for positively ment arranged in Qatar. The following excerpt is the example portraying the place to which they belong, such as Al Jazeera of Saudi’s lack of interest; “Riyadh says it cannot engage in for Qatar and Al Arabiya for Saudi Arabia. Similar findings dispute settlement procedures because of ‘national security have been gained from Al Jazeera Articles 9, 10, and 11. concerns’.” However, the statements made by the general For instance, in Article 9 of the Al Jazeera online publica- secretary of OPEC regarding the challenges risen by Saudi tions, it was reported that the exit of Qatar from the cartel Arabia and ARAMCO in Al Arabiya’s Article 8 showed how was symbolic and was majorly based on the conflicts with significantly Saudi Government tackled this situation: “Saudi Saudi Arabia and its allies. “More than anything, we suspect authorities and Aramco have risen to the challenge, and the that Qatar’s withdrawal from OPEC has been spurred by its way and manner in which they have handled this develop- on-going dispute with Saudi Arabia and its allies.” Another ment is commendable.” This clearly showed that Saudi’s quote portrayed that Saudi Arabia’s diversity and globaliza- interest was merely toward their national security and reputa- tion might act as a blockade for Qatar. Similarly, the exit of tion, but their interest lacks in the matter of the WTO dis- Qatar from the cartel allowed Saudi Arabia and Russia to putes brought by Qatar. strongly concentrated on the issues of oil policy. Al Jazeera (Why Qatar left OPEC) has also stated the Article 10 of Al Jazeera Online publications has presented small economy, but has used neutralized structuring, that is, a better emphasis on the exit of Qatar. The reason for exiting “. . . particularly the smaller producers like Qatar (whose oil the organization was to focus on the production of LNG to output is just 2 percent of that of the organization) . . .” (Al 110 million tons per year from 77 million tons per year. Jazeera), which reflected the discrepancies in both the news According to the statements of Qatari oil minister, “Qatar pro- network. In the semantic derogation context, Al Arabiya duces around 600,000 barrels of oil per day, which is less than (Goodbye Qatar: What next for OPEC?) also sheds light on 2 percent of OPEC’s total production of 32.9m bpd in the statement of Qatar Energy Minister; though, it does it October,” which showed that the concentration of Qatar was negatively, “to put efforts and resources and time in an orga- switching from oil to natural gas. This indicated that the exit nization that we are a very small player in and I don’t have a of Qatar was not because of any political or regional issues, say in what happens.” A similar approach of negative repre- but to increase the generation of natural gas in the region. sentation of the other can be observed this time for the Al However, in the Al Arabiya’s article, a political conflict can Jazeera online publications article (Why Qatar left OPEC), be observed where Iran’s oil minister transparently stated that which reflects on the declining power of Saudi Arabia: Americans talk a lot and I advise them to talk less. They (have) . . . As Riyadh’s ability to manipulate the market through OPEC caused tensions in the oil market for over a year now and they has weakened, and the future of the organization and the are responsible for it, and if this trend continues, the market will effectiveness of its decisions necessitate Russian support. For be tenser. example, when US President Trump pressed Saudi Arabia to increase oil output and bring down the price of oil ahead of the Despite of Qatar’s intention to produce LNG, Iran, being US midterms, the Saudi leadership had to seek Russia’s a major ally of Qatar and member of OPEC, has blamed cooperation to do so . . . United States to increase market tensions in the region. Article 11 of Al Jazeera’s online publications has shown Concerning the otherness aspect, Al Arabiya article the preference of Qatar toward natural gas and Saudi’s block- (Goodbye Qatar: What next for OPEC?) writes, ade on Qatar. Article 11 supported the subject of Article 10 specifically about the statement of Qatari oil minister. For . . . However, in a perverse way, should Qatar ever become the instance, “The withdrawal decision reflects Qatar’s desire to equivalent of Saudi Arabia in the LNG and gas sector in the focus its efforts on plans to develop and increase its natural future and dominate that market, then that country could gas production from 77 million tonnes per year to 110 mil- conceivably one day may also be faced by legal anti-trust lawsuits on the ground that it dominates the gas market and sets lion tonnes in the coming years.” Article 11 focused on the monopolistic prices . . . blockade implied in Qatar and resembles the content pre- sented in Article 9, “They say it has nothing to do with the This indicated the negative connotation of the Qatari dom- blockade on Qatar and that they have been thinking about it inance and its futurist potential in a negative way, which for several months now.” Likewise, similar explanations directs the thinking of the reader that Qatar should remain were observed in Al Arabiya’s article 11 where Saudi Arabia Tartory 11 was focusing on to raise its production by 513 billion riyals controversial tone again emerged concerning the role of the in 2020 due to low oil prices and deal with OPEC+. From United States and Qatar, such as reasoning U.S. Congressional the statement, “Saudi Arabia pledged to continue cutting threats as the reason for Qatar to leave OPEC: 400,000 barrels a day if other producers remained committed . . . US Congressional threats such as the proposed NOPEC Act to their part of the agreement.” ensures that OPEC members have to take such legal action seriously and some have made the observation that Qatar has decided to leave OPEC so as not to face such future litigation Research Question 3: How the Role of the against it if it remained within the organization . . . United States Is Reflected in The Title and Text of Both the Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya Online The role of the United States has been dual-sided in the Publications? Qatar–Saudi Arabia conflict and has been frequently observed in different contexts. For instance, Al Jazeera has Another aspect evident from the reporting of the two online reported in its Article 7 (Saudi king extends invitation to publications (such as Article 3: Al-Jubeir: Qatar’s distortion Qatari emir to attend GCC summit) with a statement, of facts is not surprising on June 3, 2019, and Qatar block- ade: the US shows support for both Qatar and Saudi Arabia The United States, a GCC ally, has also tried to mediate in the on June 5, 2019) was about the role of the United States in Gulf dispute, which it sees as a risk in its efforts to contain the region. This section also considered the findings drawn regional power Iran. Qatar is home to the largest US airbase in from another article of Al Jazeera (Article: OPEC members the Middle East. expected to agree to an oil production cut on December 2018) which substantially contributed to the role of the Being a major ally of Gulf Countries, the United States United States. Both the Article 3 (i.e., Al Arabiya on June 3, attempted to play a crucial role in resolving the dispute 2019, and Al Jazeera on June 5, 2019) are recent and have between the two oil-producing economies, keeping in mind presented that the role of Qatar was again up surging based that both economies are important from an economic on its alliance with Iran. In Al Jazeera, a neutral tone was perspective. reflected where the focus was on stabilizing the relationship Another important aspect evident from the Al Arabiya between Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The blockade of the good online publications was the support of Iran for Qatar regard- from Qatar side has promoted the U.S. leaders for emphasiz- ing the involvement of the United States in the organization. ing on reducing tensions between Iran and Qatar. For Al As evident from Article 10, Arabiya, a more dominating aspect was provided where the tension between the two regions was reflected in the context Americans talk a lot and I advise them to talk less. They (have) of Saudi Arabia Foreign Affairs minister. caused tensions in the oil market for over a year now and they Similarly, in the first article (Table 1), Al Jazeera are responsible for it, and if this trend continues, the market will (Article: OPEC members expected to agree to an oil pro- be tenser. duction cut) has presented the statement which zooms into the controversial statement of the Saudi oil minister, rein- These statements reflected the negative involvement of forced a negative image of Saudi Arabia for the United the United States, which intentionally created massive ten- States and impacted the relationship between the two coun- sion in the Gulf region, specifically among OPEC members. tries (the United States and Saudi Arabia). Similar to the Likewise, this statement was publicized just after Qatar made earlier findings (Representation and Justification), analysis a statement against the external pressure of the United States of the mentioned Article 1 (Al Arabiya, that is, Oil tops $73 on Iran (Article 9). It should be noted that both Qatar and on Venezuela turmoil, Saudi support for OPEC cuts and Al Iran are major allies and always stand in their bad times. This Jazeera, that is, OPEC members expected to agree to an oil can be viewed from this statement, “Unilateral sanctions production cut) revealed that focused is on the state which were unwise because they hurt the countries that rely on the it presents. Such as it was reflected in Al Arabiya’s third supplies.” The position of Iran and Qatar against unilateral article (Al Arabiya article: Goodbye Qatar: What next for sanctions was in impairment as remaining OPEC members OPEC?) concerning the control on the oil prices in the strongly supported the unilateral sanctions imposed by the Saudi context; though, it clarified its position of not declin- United States. ing the oil output due to a detrimental impact it caused on Another important aspect was the inclusion of Russia in the countries that are dependent on oil. the OPEC+, which was negatively sought among OPEC The position and statement neutralized with the inclusion members. It should be noted that Russia was one of the lead- of another country, Russia, which addressed that decision ing oil suppliers and supported OPEC at the time of Qatar’s was not only restricted for Saudi Arabia but also Russia. It exit. However, Article 11 of Al Arabiya has emphasized that highlighted the cause–effect relationship of the decisions and the decayed OPEC gives birth to a new OPEC+, which enlightened the possible consequences. However, the allowed non-OPEC members to give input in OPEC’s 12 SAGE Open decisions. This might not be beneficial for OPEC members, Saudi Arabia even in a major international body such as but to balance the global oil prices, both the United States OPEC. Therefore, the Qatari government has decided to exit and Russia have intervened purposively in the OPEC. the oil organization after 57 years. Al Jazeera’s online publications have shown the reasons for the exclusion of Qatar from the oil cartel after six decades. The Discussion and Conclusion articles have positively presented that the emphasis of Qatar The study has examined the news reporting by two online was not political, but sought to enlarge the capacity of natural publications such as Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya on the OPEC gas. Also, the article discussed that the exclusion of Qatar countries, the oil price fluctuations and the exit of Qatar. The from OPEC will not be an influential step for other members main focus of the study was on the text production and the to opt leaving the oil cartel. Similar thoughts were underlined ideology followed by the two networks. In this regard, the in the Al Arabiya online publications where the exclusion of critical discourse analysis was adopted, which analyzed the Qatar was discussed. Another interesting element found in the 22 articles, eleven selected from each (Al Arabiya and Al articles of both online publications was the introduction of Jazeera). The analysis of discourse covered how the linguis- Russia who was a strong contender in the global oil supply. tic, discursive, and social practices were reflected in the two This showed that the exclusion of Qatar from the OPEC will news media outlets (Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya). The study not affect the oil cartel and other members. has covered three major parts, which included a reflection of The study added value to the media studies, the role of the headlines from its reporting title; representation and justifi- OPEC countries and to some extent, the change of prices. It cation of Saudi–Qatar conflict and exit of Qatar from OPEC; demonstrated how the perspective of the media network was and reflection of the role of the United States from the title imposed through its reporting and how it excluded certain and text of both the online publications. The critical dis- specific information for deemphasizing the focus on others course adopted in the paper showed how the two differ and and their development. As the shift in the oil prices was an the way they employed the techniques. It also emphasized ongoing subject, the research area was wide and can be the role of the OPEC countries along with the fluctuations of expanded for examining the difference in the reporting style the oil prices. It also showed the way they conveyed informa- and news on other networks than Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera. tion and idea while also reflecting their political inclination. Consequently, other news networks can also be analyzed for The paper argues that issues of OPEC were not trade-cen- understanding their inclination, emphasis, and focus. Finally, tered but were more focused on the political orientation for the findings implied that a critical approach should be the two online publication networks. The analysis showed adopted for reading the news to understand the primary aim that each article produced was centered on safeguarding the or motive behind text production as well as its consumption. position of their funded country as well as their economic Even though, the two claims to be new sites representing the interest based on their oil export and production, their eco- region as while, the interest, alignment, and the ideology of nomic standing as well as profit motivated. The study rea- two directing their news production. sons that OPEC issue was influenced by various factors; It should be noted that approximately 600,000 barrels of such as decision-making, both internally and externally, and crude oil per day were produced by Doha, while 10 million its impact on the global economy, where the political stance barrels a day were produced by Saudi Arabia. This comparison was high. The primary finding of the analysis on the two reveals that there was a limited contribution of Qatar to the networks showed the disparity of reporting on the same news overall oil production of OPEC, and it was clear that this con- using different viewpoints and perspectives to meet their pri- tribution was not essential to OPEC. Indeed, it will affect a mary audience and ideology. 60-year-old organization that can consequently lead to its The loss of Qatar was not crippling for OPEC as oil demise. The message transmitted from the withdrawal of reserves of the country were restricted and its production lev- Qatar was that “it may be better to regulate outside the organi- els have flat lined. On the contrary, OPEC membership for zation as compared to work within the organization.” By con- Qatar was indispensable. A gradual increase in the gap cre- cluding, Qatar was symbolic to broaden regional division, ated in OPEC has been continuously observed. For instance, which may later diffuse to other OPEC members and will Qatar has been boycotted by four Arab countries including leave no mark on the decision-making process of the alliance. the UAE, Bahrain, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia by banning trade and travel regulations on Qatar. Among these countries, Acknowledgments Saudi Arabia is the most important member of OPEC. The author is very thankful to all the associated personnel in any Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Egypt launched a dip- reference that contributed in/for the purpose of this research. lomatic and economic boycott of Qatar to change its behav- ior, with tensions increasing between Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Declaration of Conflicting Interests However, tensions between Saudi Arabia and Qatar resulted in the separating of associations between the two economies. The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect This showed the reluctance of Qatar in cooperating with to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Tartory 13 Funding Bruns, A., Enli, G., Skogerbo, E., Larsson, A. O., & Christensen, C. (Eds.). (2015). The Routledge companion to social media and The author(s) received no financial support for the research, author- politics. Routledge. ship, and/or publication of this article. Carpentier, N., & Spinoy, E. (Eds.). (2008). Discourse theory and cultural analysis: Media, arts, and literature. Hampton Press. ORCID iD Castello, D. (2013). Immigration articles in two online publica- tions: A multimodal discourse [Master’s thesis]. University of Raeda Tartory https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4786-8846 Birmingham. Chen, W.-F., Wachsmuth, H., Al Khatib, K., & Stein, B. (2018). References Learning to flip the bias of news headlines. In Proceedings of Aazam, F., Baig, F. Z., Baig, T., Khaliq, S., Azam, A., Shamshad, the 11th International conference on natural language genera- S., & Aslam, M. Z. (2019). A critical discourse analysis of “Fire tion (pp. 79–88). Association for Computational Linguistics. and Fury: Inside the Trump White House” by Michael Wolff. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445613490010 International Journal of English Linguistics, 9(4), 192–199. Clark, J. D., Faris, R. M., Morrison-Westphal, R. J., Noman, H., Abdulmajid, A. (2019). Media and ideology in the Middle East: Tilton, C. B., & Zittrain, J. L. (2017). The shifting landscape of A critical discourse analysis. Digest of Middle East Studies, global internet censorship. Berkman Klein Center for Internet 28(1), 23–47. & Society Research Publication. Ahmadian, M., & Farahani, E. (2014). A critical discourse analy- Elewa, A. (2019). A critical discourse analysis of ideological sis of the Los Angeles Times and Tehran Times on the repre- translations of Arabic quotations in English language news- sentation of Iran’s nuclear program. Theory and Practice in papers. Language and Intercultural Communication, 19(5), Language Studies, 4(10), 2114–2123. https://doi.org/10.4304/ 393–406. tpls.4.10.2114-2122 El-Ibiary, R. (2011). Questioning the Al-Jazeera Effect: Analysis of Akpojivi, U. (2018). Media reforms and democratization in emerg- Al-Qaeda’s media strategy and its relationship with Al-Jazeera. ing democracies of Sub-Saharan Africa. Springer. Global Media and Communication, 7(3), 199–204. Ali, M. K., Christopher, A. A., & Nordin, M. Z. F. B. (2017). Elmasry, M. H., Shamy, A. E., Manning, P., Mills, A., & Auter, Pronouns and ideology in newspaper discourse. International P. J. (2013). Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya framing of the Israel– Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature, 6(3), Palestine conflict during war and calm periods. International 168–179. Communication Gazette, 75(8), 750–768. Al Arabiya English News. Al-Jubeir: Qatar’s Distortion of Facts is Fairclough, N. (1993). Critical discourse analysis and the mar- Not Surprising. (2019, June 3). Al Arabiya. http://english.alara- ketization of public discourse: The universities. Discourse & biya.net/en/News/gulf/2019/06/03/Al-Jubeir-Qatar-distortion- Society, 4(2), 133–168. of-facts-is-not-surprising.html Fairclough, N. (1995). Media discourse. Edward Arnold. Allagui, I., & Akdenizli, B. (2019). The Gulf Information War| The Fairclough, N. (2001). Language and power. Pearson Education. Gulf Information War and the role of media and communica- Fairclough, N. (2003). Analyzing discourse: Textual analysis for tion technologies: Editorial introduction. International Journal social research. Psychology Press. of Communication, 13, 1287–1300. Fairclough, N., & Wodak, R. (1997). Critical discourse analysis. Alrefaee, Y., Abdul-Ghafour, A. Q., Alazzany, M., & Alrefaee, In T. A. van Dijk (Ed.), Discourse studies: A multidisciplinary S. (2019). A critical discourse analysis of the selected oppo- introduction (Vol. 2: Discourse as Social Interaction, pp. 258– sition and state printed media on the representation of south- 284). Sage. ern mobility in Yemen. International Journal of Linguistics, Fowler, R. (1991). Discourse and ideology in the press. Routledge. Literature and Translation (IJLLT), 2(2), 116–124. https://doi. Freedom of the Press 2017 Qatar. (2017). Freedom house. https:// org/10.32996/ijllt.2019.2.2.18 www.refworld.org/docid/5a01a21ba.html Atai, M. R., & Mozaheb, M. A. (2013). The representation of Iran’s Ghannam, N. (2011). Online publications ideology: A critical dis- nuclear program in British online publications editorials: A course analysis of an event published in six Lebanese online critical discourse analytic perspective. International Journal of publications [Master’s thesis]. University of the Witwatersrand. Society, Culture & Language, 1(2), 15–33. Gulf Cooperation Council. (n.d.). Encyclopædia Britannica. http:// BBC Report. (2011). Censorship and social activism in the Middle academic.eb.com/levels/collegiate/article/Gulf-Cooperation- East and North Africa. https://www.secdev-foundation.org/ Council/438729 wp-content/uploads/2016/07/MENA.pdf Guzman, A. L. (2016). Evolution of news frames during the 2011 Beiser, E. (2016, December). Turkey’s crackdown propels a num- Egyptian revolution: Critical discourse analysis of Fox News’s ber of journalists in jail worldwide to record high. Committee and CNN’s framing of protesters, Mubarak, and the Muslim to Protect Journalists. https://cpj.org/reports/2016/12/journal- Brotherhood. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, ists-jailed-record-high-turkey-crackdown/ 93(1), 80–98. Berger, A. A. (2012). Media and society: A critical perspective. Haider, A. S. (2019). The representation of Al-Megrahi’s release in Rowman & Littlefield. Arabic and English newspapers in 2009 and 2010: A corpus- Bojarczyk, B. (2013). The Gulf Cooperation Council—Regional assisted discourse study. Dirasat: Human and Social Sciences, integration mechanism. Annales Universitatis Mariae Curie- 46(1), 297–317. Skłodowska, Section K: Politologia, 20(1), 69–85. Happer, C., & Greg, P. (2013). The role of the media in the construc- Bouvier, G., & Machin, D. (2018). Critical discourse analysis and tion of public belief and social change. Journal of Social and the challenges and opportunities of social media. Review of Political Psychology, 1(1), 321–336. https://doi.org/10.5964/ Communication, 18(3), 178–192. jspp.v1i1.96 14 SAGE Open Hassan, A. (2018). Language, media, and ideology: Critical dis- OPEC Members Expected to Agree to an Oil Production Cut. course analysis of Pakistani News Bulletin Headlines and its (2018, December). Al Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/ impact on viewers. SAGE Open, 8(3), 1–15. Advance online news/2018/12/opec-members-expected-agree-oil-production- publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244018792612 cut-181206080627446.html Hidayatullah, M. S. (2017). The Khilafah discourse on Aljazeera Parker, S. (2015). “Unwanted invaders”: The representation of and Alarabiya: A valuable lesson for Indonesian Online refugees and asylum seekers in the UK and Australian print Media. In International Conference on Culture and Language media. eSharp, 23. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/id/eprint/79108 in Southeast Asia (ICCLAS 2017). Atlantis Press. Persson, E., & Neto, L. M. (2018). Ideology and discourse in the Hinnebusch, R. (2018). Introduction to the international politics of public sphere: A critical discourse analysis of public debates the Middle East. In The International politics of the Middle at a Brazilian public university. Discourse & Communication, East (pp. 1–13). Manchester University Press. 12(3), 278–306. Jayasekera, R. (2016). The Arab Spring snaps back: The state of the Ponniah, K. (2017, June 8). Qatar crisis: Can Al Jazeera survive? media after the revolution. Index on Censorship, 45(2), 51–53. BBC. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-40187414 https://doi.org/10.1177/0306422016657026 Qatar Blockade: The US Shows Support For Both Qatar and Saudi Jones, M. O. (2019). The Gulf Information War| Propaganda, Fake Arabia. (2019, June). Al Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/ News, and Fake Trends: The weaponization of Twitter Bots in news/2019/06/qatar-blockade-shows-support-qatar-saudi-ara- the Gulf Crisis. International Journal of Communication, 13, bia-190605114032465.html Article 27. Rababah, A. G., & Hamdan, J. M. (2019). A contrastive critical Goodbye, Qatar: What next for OPEC? (2018, December). Al Arabiya. discourse analysis of Netanyahu’s and Abbas’s speeches on http://english.alarabiya.net/en/business/energy/2018/12/04/ the Gaza War (2014). Journal of Language Teaching and Goodbye-Qatar-What-next-for-OPEC-.html Research, 10(1), 178–189. Khan, M. H., Adnan, H. M., Kaur, S., Khuhro, R. A., Asghar, Radcliffe, D., & Lam, A. (2018). Social media in the Middle East: R., & Jabeen, S. (2019). Muslims’ representation in Donald The story of 2017; Key developments, stories and research Trump’s anti-Muslim-Islam statement: A critical discourse findings. University of Oregon Libraries. http://hdl.handle. analysis. Religions, 10(2), Article 115. https://doi.org/10.3390/ net/1794/23036 rel10020115 Richardson, J. (2006). Analysing online publications: An approach Koch, B., & Stivachtis, Y. A. (2019). Introduction: Regional from critical discourse analysis. Palgrave Macmillan. security in the Middle East: Sectors, variables, and issues. In Sharifi, M., Ansari, N., & Asadollahzadeh, M. (2017). A criti- Regional security in the Middle East: Sectors, variables and cal discourse analytic approach to discursive construction of issues. E-International Relations. Islam in Western talk shows: The case of CNN talk shows. Kopytowska, M. (2012). Editorial: Critical perspectives on ideol- International Communication Gazette, 79(1), 45–63. https:// ogy, identity, and interaction. Critical Approaches to Discourse doi.org/10.1177/1748048516656301 Analysis Across Disciplines, 5(2), 1–14. Sivandi, Z., & Dowlatabadi, H. R. (2015). A critical discourse Lee Ludvigsen, J. A. (2018). The portrayal of drones in terrorist analysis on online publications: The case study of nuclear propaganda: A discourse analysis of Al Qaeda in the Arabian program of Iran. International Journal of Research Studies in Peninsula’s Inspire. Dynamics of Asymmetric Conflict, 11(1), Education, 4(5), 93–103. 26–49. Thussu, D. K. (2006). Media on the move: Global flow and contra- Mahmood, T., Kausar, G., & Khan, G. Z. (2018). A critical dis- flow. Routledge. course analysis of the editorials of “Dawn” and “The New van Dijk, T. A. (1998). Opinions and ideologies in the press. In York Times” in the aftermath of Army Public School attack. A. Bell & P. Garret (Eds.), Approach to media discourse The “Us” versus “Them” ideology. Journal of Research in (pp. 21–63). Blackwell. Social Sciences (JRSS), 6(2), 1–17. van Dijk, T. A. (2005). Discourse analysis as ideology analysis. Matar, D. (2017). Media coverage of the migration crisis in Europe: In C. Schäffner & A. Wenden (Eds.), Language and peace A confused and polarized narrative. In IEMed Mediterranean (pp. 41–58). Routledge. Yearbook (pp. 292–295). Panorama. van Dijk, T. A. (2006). Ideology and discourse analysis. Journal of Miles, H. (2006). Al-Jazeera: The inside story of the Arab news Political Ideologies, 11(2), 115–140. channel that is challenging the West. Grove Press. van Dijk, T. A. (Ed.). (2011). Discourse studies: A multidisci- Moscato, D. (2016). Media portrayals of hashtag activism: A fram- plinary introduction. Sage. ing analysis of Canada’s #Idlenomore Movement. Media and van Dijk, T. A. (2013). News analysis: Case studies of interna- Communication, 4(2), Article 3. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac. tional and national news in the press. Routledge. https://doi. v4i2.416 org/10.4324/9780203357828 Naheem, M. A. (2017). The dramatic rift and crisis between Qatar and Why Qatar left OPEC. (2018). Al Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera. the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) of June 2017. International com/indepth/opinion/qatar-left-opec-181206102112634.html Journal of Disclosure and Governance, 14(4), 265–277. Wodak, R., & Meyer, M. (2009). Critical discourse analysis: Oil Tops $73 on Venezuela Turmoil, Saudi Support for OPEC Cuts. History, agenda, theory and methodology. Methods of Critical (2019, April). Al Arabiya. Reuters, London. http://english. Discourse Analysis, 2, 1–33. alarabiya.net/en/business/energy/2019/04/30/Oil-tops-73-on- World Press Freedom. (2018). 2018 World Press Freedom Index— Venezuela-turmoil-Saudi-support-for-OPEC-cuts.html RSF. https://rsf.org/en/ranking/2018

Journal

SAGE Open – SAGE

Published: Jul 22, 2020

Keywords: Al Jazeera; Al Arabiya; critical discourse analysis; CDA; online publications ideology; Middle Eastern; online publications

Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Critical Discourse Analysis of Online Publications Ideology: A Case of Middle Eastern Online Publications:

Critical Discourse Analysis of Online Publications Ideology: A Case of Middle Eastern Online Publications:

Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Critical Discourse Analysis of Online Publications Ideology: A Case of Middle Eastern Online Publications:

Critical Discourse Analysis of Online Publications Ideology: A Case of Middle Eastern Online Publications:

References (74)

Abstract

Journal

Recommended Articles

There are no references for this article.

Our policy towards the use of cookies