Naming Strategies In Modern Standard Arabic Online News Discourse: The Case Of Al-Jazeera And BBC Coverage On The 2011 Tunisian Jasmine Revolution

Before 2011, protests rarely being reported in Tunisia by international media. However, Tunisia was the first country hit by the so-called 'Arab Spring' which toppled many Arabian dictators including Ben Ali of Tunisia. This study aims to critically examine the naming strategies utilized by two prominent Arabic online news outlets: Al-Jazeera and BBC Arabic in their online news of 2011 Jasmine Revolution (JR). These two well-established news agencies were selected for their international wide coverage. In addition, Al-Jazeera which based in Qatar represents the Arab international media and the 'East', while BBC Arabic represents the 'Western' media. The study employs Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) particularly three-dimensional textual analysis framework Fairclough (1992) and Wodak (2001). The linguistics textual analysis will further enhance with a link to Laclau and Muoffe (1985) Discourse Theory of power struggles for hegemony, aims to reveal the power struggles between the 'in-group' (the government) and the 'out-group' (the antagonists) in discourse construction strategies. Thus, the analysis will compare the naming strategies utilized by Al-Jazeera and BBC Arabic which will disclose the hidden ideologies at the back of online news discourse construction approaches.