Underrepresented and marginalized: Television news framing of ordinary Arab citizens before the Arab uprisings of 2011

Abstract

This study applied news framing theory with mixed quantitative and qualitative methods to analyse news items (N = 1348) about ordinary Arabs on Al Jazeera Arabic, Al Arabiya and Nile News TV shortly before the Arab Spring. Results show that ordinary Arab citizen representation was low. Overall, there were significant differences in networks’ framing of ordinary people. Importance, negativity and conflict values dominated the news featuring ordinary citizens. Arab news networks did not provide adequate time for citizens to voice opinions, and limited representation occurred via vox pop, footage and indirect reference. Networks employed negative sentimental framing (protest and rejection, economic problems, victimization, health problems and mistrust in governments) and mainly portrayed citizens of countries undergoing crises and wars. Arab television news should prioritize sharing the opinions, concerns and successes of ordinary Arab people and engage in constructive journalism rather than concentrating on problem frames without offering solutions.