Analyzing Al-Jazeera Arabic Online News Articles during the Development of War in Yemen

Abstract

This master thesis has five chapters. In the first chapter, I highlight the main motivation for this study which is to find out answers to if Al-Jazeera Arabic news through its website www.al jazeera.net has changed its media coverage of the war in Yemen with time. And if so, can this change be related to the theory of mediatization of politics (chapter one). In chapter two, I discuss how mediatization as a theory has been introduced in different aspects of life. Many would argue that we live in a mediatized world today where different institutions have become dependent on the media and their logic. I also elaborate on Al Jazeera's role as a media institution and its relation to mediatization, agenda setting theory and the Arab spring. Data collected for this study is 687 news articles that are analyzed quantitatively using content analysis. Internal consistency, reliability and validity tests have been measured and coded (chapter three). In chapter four, I discuss results that show similarities and differences in news coverage on Al-Jazeera over different periods from the quantitative data. I also analyze and discuss opinion polls obtained from Al Jazeera news channel and news articles. Further, I conclude with a summary and recommendations for future studies (chapter 5). My main findings is that the tone and angles of Al Jazeera's news articles about the war in Yemen have changed. The change is significant and coincides with the state of Qatar, the owner and financier of Al Jazeera, falling out with its former ally Saudi Arabia. The key findings are that negative coverage of the war increased from 4,5% percent in 2015, to 32,6% percent in 2019. In 2015, 43,55% percent of the news articles in Al Jazeera Arabic had a positive angle on the military operations in Yemen. In 2019, only 2,1 % percent of Al Jazeera's news articles had a positive angle regarding the Saudi-led coalition`s military activities in Yemen.