The western media participation in Thawra: cultural and political aspects of the articulation of media orientalism in the post-Arab spring

Abstract

Occurred between 2010 and mid-2012, the political process known in the West as the "Arab Spring" brought a new spectrum to relations between the majority of Arab countries and the hegemonic portion of Western ones. The latter, due to their own interests in the region and using the media as a strong ally, were responsible for building their own image of what would be known as Thawra (Revolution) by those who actually took part in it. Shaping the discourse on events and their direct consequences, the Western media, whose main name and actor chosen for the composition of this research is CNN, was responsible for reinforcing stereotyped views of the events cited here, of the people from the region and, especially, of Islam. Thus, the central objective of this study and analysis is to understand the role that the media play in constructing the East using the analytical frameworks of Orientalism as defined by Edward Said. In the same way, the relevance of such an inspection lies mainly in the need to disrupt with hegemonic and generalizing notions about these countries and specifically the addressed event. It is noteworthy that the analysis presents as methods the theoretical-bibliographical research articulated with the theory of French Discourse Analysis. In addition, the importance of Thawra's specific cutout is as much for its historical proximity as its relevance in the global media. In addition, in order to present a broader cut of the theme, the country selected was Tunisia, which consequences of the movement had major impacts on national and international politics, and made possible major advances for the dignity of its citizens.