Covering the vote: UK coverage of Brexit, Jeremy Corbyn, and the 2017 General Election

The need to examine how news media (print, broadcast, and online) cover political events rests in no small part on journalism’s role as a 'fourth estate' or a 'watchdog'. Both terms refer to the role of journalists in keeping government to account, through reporting in a manner that produces a knowledgeable and critical electorate. This paper argues that the current political climate in the UK, Brexit, the ensuing 2017 General Election, and the introduction of controversial political figures make the need for this re-assessment of print, broadcast, and online journalism in the UK ever more pertinent

Framing the Libyan uprising: a comparison between Al Jazeera Arabic’s and BBC Arabic’s coverage of the 2011 uprising and ensuing NATO intervention

This article compares Al Jazeera Arabic’s and BBC Arabic’s news coverage of the 2011 Libyan uprising and the ensuing NATO intervention in the country. Through this comparative analysis, the article evaluates the impact of these two channels’ political contexts on their coverage, especially considering that these two channels are part of broader transnational news networks that are based in countries that were active participants in the NATO intervention in Libya. The sample involves a period of roughly four weeks of coverage, and considers aspects such as the birth of the February 17 movement in Libya, the development of the opposition, the beginning and end of the 2011 NATO mission and the death of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. The sample was analysed by means of a framing analysis, whereby framing refers to the way a news story is packaged, and is an especially appropriate method when considering the influence of political power on coverage. The comparative analysis ultimately found that both channels’ coverage was primarily affected by their political contexts, and aligned with national and foreign policy interests of their home countries. This alignment was evident through the coverage that was supportive of the opposition and its advances, and the intervention and its gains. However, BBC Arabic’s coverage was more balanced, especially with regard to the progression of the opposition on the ground, as it did not play up opposition gains or gloss over opposition losses, as Al Jazeera Arabic tended to do. BBC Arabic also displayed a more analytical stance when covering the death of the former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. The language used by Al Jazeera Arabic was also far more emotive and sensationalistic than that of BBC Arabic, which displayed a far more tempered stance when covering the Libyan uprising. Thus, this article also considers how each of these channels used the Arabic language when reporting, and how these stylistic differences might have affected their coverage

Breaking the language barrier? Comparing TV news frames across texts in different languages

This article examines two factors which have become increasingly important in today’s multi-channel international media environment, but which add significant extra levels of complexity to framing analysis: language differences and tone of voice. Through case studies examining English and Arabic language television news reports, the article considers some of the difficulties facing researchers who aim to compare spoken texts in different languages about the same events. In particular, the paper focuses on the different cultural understandings of the appropriateness of emotive language in Arabic and English language journalism, and argues that in order to analyse the framing of stories in television news it is necessary to take account of the role of reporter tone in building frames. By comparing Al Jazeera’s and the BBC’s coverage of the 2011 Arab Uprisings, the article aims to bridge some methodological gaps in this area, and to advance the reliability and validity of studies that attempt to compare news frames of the same events in different languages. It also considers the additional challenge of comparing tones of voice, particularly if they fluctuate throughout the story. Ultimately, the article proposes ways of going beyond literal understandings of both language and tone in order to establish the impact of both on construction of news frames

Covering Libya: a framing analysis of Al Jazeera and BBC coverage of the 2011 Libyan Uprising and NATO intervention

This article examines the broadcast coverage by Al Jazeera and the BBC of the 2011 uprising in Libya and the ensuing NATO intervention in the country. Through a comparative analysis of Al Jazeera Arabic, Al Jazeera English, BBC Arabic, and BBC World News, the article evaluates the impact of these two network’s political contexts on their coverage. Both Al Jazeera and the BBC are based in countries that were active participants in the 2011 NATO intervention, Al Jazeera in Qatar and the BBC in the UK. Thus, the 2011 Libyan uprising and NATO intervention presents a prime opportunity to evaluate how the political contexts of these two networks affected their coverage. The sample under study covered a period of roughly four weeks and was analysed by means of a framing analysis, whereby framing refers to the way a news story is packaged, organised, and narrated. Ultimately, the study found that the coverage of both these networks was aligned with the national and foreign policy interests of their home countries, making their political contexts the main influence on their news agendas. News frames across the sample reflected coverage that was largely supportive of the aims of opposition and the intervention