News Production & News Coverage of the Normalization Between Arab States & Israel in Arab Media

Abstract

The latest announcement of normalizing relations between UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, Morocco and Israel is a complete, explicit normalization of diplomatic, economic, and touristic relations. During this defining moment, the thesis aims to study both the news production and coverage of the normalization across state owned and private media websites from the four normalizing Arab countries: Alittihad and Gulf Today (in UAE), BNA and Akhbar Al Khaleej (in Bahrain), Suna and Al Sudani News (in Sudan), Le Matin du Sahara et du Maghreb and Morocco World News (in Morocco), as well as pan Arab media websites: Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya, and Al Mayadeen. The quantitative content analysis of 166 articles compares the generic frames, word choices, sources, and pronormalization or anti-normalization tones. The content analysis results reveal a focus on certain main, commonly used frames, the political affairs frame and the human interest frame, and a rare, avoidable employment of two others, the law and order frame and the injustice and defiance frame. These results also map the top words used to refer to the normalization agreement. The majority of the analyzed articles were supportive of the normalization and lacked sourcing diversity. To complement these results, the thesis interviews journalists and media workers from three Arab media previously selected for the content analysis sample. Using grounded theory, the qualitative interviews analysis detected four patterns of Arab media production practices named: the independence of journalists’ stances, the rigidity of writing guidelines, the flexibility of sourcing decisions, and the firmness of post-normalization editorial stances. These patterns inspired a set of recommendations for journalists to resist against the latest normalization inside Arab media newsrooms. Finally, the thesis reaches the conclusion that public, private, and pan Arab media still fall under the same umbrella of ownership limits and restrictions. Therefore, this thesis builds on the body of knowledge on the topic of Arab media news production, policies, and influences. It also advances the research on framing theory by examining frames and directions used in different Arab media coverage of the normalization of relations between Arab states and Israel.