Al Jazeera’s Framing of Social Media During the Arab Spring

摘要

ThisstudyinvestigateshowAlJazeeraframedsocialmediainrelationtotherevolutionsandprotestsofthe“ArabSpring”withinitsbroadcastmediacoverage.AcontentanalysisofArabiclanguagebroadcastsappearingfromJanuary25ththroughFebruary18th2011,coveringtheprotestsinTahrirSquare,wasconductedusingtheBroadcastMonitoringSystem(BMS)andArabSpringArchive.ThroughthisanalysisweseeanumberofcommonnarrativesbeingusedbyAlJazeeratoframesocialmediaandmakeclaimsabouttheinfluencetheyhadontheprotestsandrelatedsocialmovements.Bynotingthefrequencyofsocialcommunicationstechnologiesreferenced,waysinwhichthesetechnologieswerecharacterizedandinterpretingsupportingthemeswithwhichtheywereidentifiedhelpsilluminatetheassumptionspromotedbyAlJazeeraregardingtheroleandimpactofsocialcommunicationstechnologyontheseevents.