The Representation of the Algerian Hirak Protest Movement in the International Media: France 24 and Al-Jazeera

Abstract

This study is an attempt to examine how France 24 and Al-Jazeera represented the Algerian Hirak movement. The study at hand draws on Fairclough's (1995) three-dimensional framework and Van Dijk's ideological square to compare and contrast the depiction of both media outlets at the textual and discursive levels. The sample consisted of 24 articles taken form the two media outlets. In order to analyse the aforementioned news articles, the researchers opted for Van Dijk's Ideological Square (1998) and Fairclough's Three-Dimensional Model (1989, 1995. The findings revealed that both media outlets recognised the Algerian protestors as "the ingroup" and the regime's figures as "the outgroup". This was evident in the absence of any negative predications or reported speech that may delineate the protest or the protestors as illegal. However, while Al-Jazeera highlighted the peacefulness of the Algerian movement, France 24 kept focusing on the presence of the police and the protestors' detention. Moreover, Al-Jazeera depicted the Algerian movement explicitly and held a relatively more objective stance than France 24. The latter tended to manipulate the events, such as exaggerating the reaction of the police particularly in the first three months of the Hirak movement. The hidden ideology of France 24 was evident and it could be seen in the foregrounded elements in the passivized constructions, the repetition of sensitive topics, such as the Amazigh flag and the extensive use ABOUT THE AUTHOR