Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

School of Journalism & Mass Communications

English Language MA in Digital Media, Communication & Journalism

Τhe role of social networks and media in the shaping of public

opinion: A case study of the Libyan Conflict

Dissertation

Student:

Loukas Voultsios

Supervisor Professor:

Nikos Panagiotou

Thessaloniki 2018

1 Abstract

The role of media has been studied and pointed as a research topic from multiple previous researches. Specific focus has been given on how media can be used for social and political purposes. In social context, many studies mention the ability of media on people’s manipulation for political issues. However, there are contradictive findings and opinions on the literature, where some researchers support the opinion regarding which media can have a great impact on political opinions while others suggest that media effect is not great and important to be considered. This highlights the fact that media can be used for political purposes, but their impact is not definite as well as there is no solid evidence that they can have significant influence on violent incidents. For these reasons the main aim of the current study is to discuss how three media organizations from different countries and backgrounds identify how they present the facts and incidents of Libyan revolution. Additionally, the current study will present the whole spectrum of Libyan war and protests and its role on Arab Spring. Finally, comparisons will be made in order to highlight the differences between those three media and countries and identify the impact of each state on the way media refer to international events and incidents.

Key words: New media, social media, Libya, Arab springs

2 Acknowledgements

I would like to thank all who deserve gratitude for the completion of my Master’s studies would require. Special thanks to my wife Maria for giving once again the opportunity to fulfill another target in the world of knowledge and the Assistant Professor Nikos Panagiotou for providing his excellent guidance in order to finish this study successfully.

3 Table of Contents

Introduction……………………………………………………………… 5 Chapter 1: Social Media Networks…………………………………… 7 1.1 Social Media…………………………………………………. 7 1.2 Defining Social media……………………………………….. 7 1.3 Categorization of Social Media……………………………… 8 Chapter 2: Arab Spring Uprising and Media………………………. 12 2.1 Arab Spring uprisings……………………………………….. 12 2.1.1 Introduction…………………………………………… 12 2.2 Middle East………………………………………………….. 13 2.3. Arab Spring…………………………………………………. 14 2.4 Libya and the Libyan Uprising……………………………… 18 2.4.1 Historical background ………………………………… 18 2.4.2 Libyan uprising of 2011 ……………………………… 19 2.5 Other Arab spring-related uprising …………………………. 19 2.5.1 The Syrian uprising …………………………………… 19 2.5.2 Other protests………………………………………….. 20 Chapter 3: The Role of Media ……………………………………… 22 3.1 Introduction ………………………………………………… 22 3.2 The political role of media ………………………………… 23 3.3 Media role in Arab Spring …………………………………. 26 Chapter 4: Research Methodology…………………………………… 31 Chapter 5: Data Analysis…………………………………………….. 37 5.1 Framing……………………………………………………… 37 5.2 Libyan revolt………………………………………………… 41 5.2.1 Fall of Tripoli…………………………………………. 42 5.2.2 Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s murder……………….... 46 Chapter 6: Conclusion………………………………………………… 50 Bibliography .…………………………………………………………. 52 Appendix: ……..………………………………………………………. 62

4 Introduction

In our days, the internet is no longer just a source of information, entertainment or education. It is a new horizon in knowledge, communication and information within a constantly evolving environment and a way of direct exchange of information. With the advent of the Internet, the need for the intelligent networks that formed all sorts of social relationships (professional, friendly, family, political, ideological, etc.) was created. Utilizing a wide range of digital technologies is the services of virtual communities in real and modern time. By overcoming the narrow limit of the restricted group, the networks include all users and find an appropriate environment to express their opinions, ideas, pass through their messages, acquire followers and achieve specific goals. Thus, social networking sites, among other things, are the journalism of the citizens and the place to share information in zero time with the participation of everyone in a more direct form of communication (Deligiannis, 2010). Today Facebook and Twitter are popular web communities, while the most popular media contributing to social networking are blogs - wikis - video coasts and podcasts. In the West society, Facebook and other media can be used to identify old friends or classmates for new acquaintances, but in Arab countries they were also used to organize and coordinate resistance movements that led to revolts against governments (Kuhn, 2012). Through Facebook, the 6th of April 2008 movement was launched in Egypt to direct public opinion on a strike to improve the political scene. Facebook's participation was great, the idea reached 1,000,000 people. Thus, the strike resulted in a massive reaction of the citizens to the political scene until it was overthrown. Twitter also played an important role in updating. Transmission directly from the street using mobile phones into social networks was also the mediator with international news agencies. The connection of the mobile phone to the internet gave at no time news and picture. This revolutionary wave of protests and protests in the Middle East and North Africa named the Arab Spring.

In Tunisia, Internet was the only public space that users could share ideas, information, and organize fighting the propaganda of the regime. On February 2011 in Syria, the mobilization was shifted to social media for demonstrations with demands for liberty - human rights and the end of the country's state of emergency (Syria, 2011). During the same period, February 2011, the crisis in Yemen begins. Young people, mostly labour and activists, rushing from the outbreak of Tunisia and Egypt, were demonstrating against the authoritarian regime.

5 Inspired by the Tunisian Revolution and revolution on Egypt, Libya was experienced anti- government demonstrations. In Iran, bloggers share Libya with the joy of a liberated country and expect the end of the dictatorship of the Iran-Libyan Revolution (Durac, 2013). Social media were used to bring close unknown inhabitants on the same city or country, who were online friends, managed to pass their messages for political reasons and create the Arab Spring and the revolt of the citizens in their corrupt governments. The protests include violent and non-violent demonstrations, massive riots, and in some cases such as Libya, civil war. Additionally, these uprisings spread to the majority of the Arabic countries. However, despite the contagious form of Arabic revolutions, it can be stated that those facts were based on the political and economic environment of each country.

The current study emphasizes on the role of media and social media on the Arab Spring in Libya. Specifically, the study will try to highlight whether the different media types report events. For the purpose of the study, articles of three different media organizations have been analyzed in order to detect how the authors present the events and if there are differences according the origin of each organization.

6 Chapter 1: Social Media Networks

1.1 Social Media

Since the entry of the first recognizable social network the Six-Degrees in 1997 (Boyd & Ellison, 2010) a large number of social networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, have become popular online platforms where people interact. The use of social networks has spread to the majority of the population and indicative of this is the fact that users who visit social networks at least once per month are expected to increase from 41% in 2008 to over 75% in 2017 (Mangold & Faulds, 2009). For example, the social network Facebook has surpassed the search engine Google and is now characterized as the most frequently visited website in the United States (Heidemann, Klier & Probst, 2012) with more than 845 million active users (Hepburn, 2011). Although originally designed for private use, more and more companies are trying to promote their brand name and their products through social networks in order to increase their popularity (Narayanan et al., 2012). As a result, global advertising spending on social networks is expected to increase from 5.2 billion in 2011 to 13.4 billion dollars in 2017 (Dwyer, Hiltz & Passerini, 2007). For this reason and including the huge amount of their available information, a large number of social networks is now worth billions of dollars (Beer, 2008). Therefore, this technical and social phenomenon has grown into a global communication medium with increasing social and economic consequences.

1.2 Defining Social media

Especially in the social sciences, the desire of the individual to participate in a community is a well-analysed phenomenon (Bagozzi & Dholakia, 2006). Therefore, the concept of social networks is not really new, however with the introduction of the Internet and the development of information systems, social media have moved into a new dimension. The numerous forms of social networking, including blogs and virtual communities on the Internet, motivate people to connect and communicate directly with each other (Bernoff & Li, 2008). Along with these changes, the former passive recipients of information are becoming active pillars and they share and create information and content on the Internet (Gneiser, et al., 2012). As a result, social networks were developed as free media where the users present themselves to the public.

7 Social networks are a particular kind of virtual community (Dwyer, Hiltz & Passerini, 2007). However, as it is usual for new phenomena related to the Internet, there is no a generally accepted term nor an established definition for social networks. There are many similar terms such as social network site. These different terms for social networks are often used as synonyms, even though they do not share a common definition of the object to which they refer. Boyd and Ellison (Boyd & Ellison, 2010), for example, chose the term social networking site as the word networking emphasizes on the initiation of a relationship, often between strangers. While networking is likely to happen on social networks, it is not the main target for many of them. Examples of social networks oriented to content are YouTube and Flickr. On the other hand, Gneiser and his colleagues (Gneiser, Heidemann, Klier, Landherr & Probst, 2012) criticize and disagree with the definition of social networks as social networks websites from Boyd and Ellison (Boyd & Ellison, 2010) since they state that it is very general.

1.3 Categorization of Social Media

The number of Social Media is quite large and is growing very fast. The forms of Social Media are too many and include social media, blogs and the use of multimedia technologies (e.g. video). Many researchers have attempt to categorize Social Media (eg Bronner & De Hoog, 2014) and in most cases based on different criteria and approaches. These efforts include the combination of the characteristics of Social Media such as social process and media theory by Kaplan and Haenlein (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010), the interaction and the possibility of socialization by Bronner and De Hoog (Bronner and De Hoog, 2014), and the potential of each social network by Yeo (Yeo, 2012). Kaplan and Haenlein (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010) in their study, distinguished five main categories of social media based on social process that occurs in Social Media and the media theory. a) Collaborative projects (Collaborative projects) This category includes social networks that allow users to import and edit content about a topic. Based on this, Kaplan and Haenlein (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010) consider that this form of social networks is the most democratic. The basis of the collaborative projects is the cooperation and joint efforts to achieve the best result. Moreover, collaborative projects are divided into two categories, the wikis and the social bookmarking. Wikis refer to websites that allow adding, removing and editing of content by users with the most famous example is

8 the online encyclopaedia, Wikipedia, which is available in many different languages. Social bookmarking is the second category - the form of collaborative projects under the Albrycht (Albrycht, 2006) gives the user the opportunity to comment and share content of his interests. An example is Reddit where the users post an article in order to promote it and persuade others to read it (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). Furthermore, this category includes social networking sites designated as social site news (e.g. Digg) where the reader of an article can comment and show if he likes it. Finally, the category of collaborative projects considered as a very important category of Social Media (if not the most important), since through these pages consumers tend to collect widely, easily and quickly information about specific products and services (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). b) Blogs (Blogs) Blogs are the oldest form of social networks and seem as a large online magazine (Aggarwal & Singh, 2013). Blogs refer to websites where users can post text containing their views on specific topics or issues regarding any interest. In another aspect, Blogs are a communication platform through which the author tries to convey his thoughts in the world (Orzan et al., 2013). The manager of a Blog is in most cases a person which enables readers to comment on the current text (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). A typical practice for companies during the recent years is to keep a Blog in order to inform consumers and have a constant interaction with them. However, at corporate level, having a Blog has also negative effects in some cases. For example, the publication of comments from dissatisfied customers which should be answered in the best possible way since they expose to the eyes of the future and customers (Dekay, 2012). Moreover, similarly the employees of the business who have the opportunity to comment on the practices of the company may be harmful for its Brand name (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). Today, the best known and most popular blogs are Blogger, and Twitter, with Twitter to be a micro blog since it allows users to enter specific text in terms of the length of its characters. c) Content Communities Content communities consist of audio and video files and they are characterized by the proliferation and comment without requiring the creation of an account by the user (Albrycht, 2006). Typical example of this category of social networks is YouTube where users watch, comment and disseminate video. Also, successful examples are Flickr, Instagram and Pinterest which are designed to share photos and they are very successful

9 means with several million users worldwide (Tuten & Angermeier, 2013). The use of video and images in combination with sound in some cases are some of the features of this category of social networks that have transformed it into an effective and efficient business communication channel with many consumers. However, similar to blogs, content communities have also their negative side since users can post negative comments without restriction and in some cases the content is considered illegal because of copyright protection (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). d) Social Networking Sites (Social networking sites) According to Saini and Moon (Saini and Moon, 2013), social networking sites allow users to create online communities and share various types of content between them. Social networking sites might be described as virtual communities (Shneor & Efrat, 2014), which give users the ability to interact with acquaintances and strangers and participate in groups of their interests. Worldwide, the most popular social networking sites are Facebook, Sina and Weibo and they consist the first and most common form social networks (Lim et. al., 2012). e) Virtual Worlds (Virtual worlds) Finally, the last category of social networks are the Virtual Worlds which refer to online, three dimensional platforms in which users can use avatars and interact with each other like they are in real life. This category of social networks is the highest level of social networking (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). Virtual worlds are divided into two major categories, virtual reality games and virtual social worlds such the famous Second Life, which enables users to behave like in real life. From the marketing perspective, virtual worlds are a promotional opportunity and a great source of information as users tend to prefer products or services that meet their needs and preferences in real life (Rohani & Hock, 2010). Another different categorization of Social Media is presented by Zhang (2010 to Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010), who distinguishes Social Media into six categories: social networks with example the Facebook, social bookmarking with example the Digg, the collaborative authoring websites with example the Wikipedia, multimedia sharing websites with examples as YouTube and Flickr, web blogs (blogs and micro blogs) with examples the Blogger and Twitter, and finally the web conferencing with examples the WebEx and DimDim. Additionally, Cavazza 2011 in one of the last chronological categorization efforts, compare social media with an ecosystem that continues to evolve (http://www.fredcavazza.net). The categorization of Cavazza

10 presents Facebook along with Google in the centre because of their high visibility and separates other social media in 7 categories:

• Publish: Blogs and Micro Blogs, with examples, Twitter, Blogger, and Wikipedia. • Share: In sharing content with examples as YouTube, Flickr and Instagram. • Discuss: Forums and social search tools with example the Disqus • Commerce: Social networks that enable comments from customers like BazaarVoice. • Location: Local social networks like Loopt and Eventful. • Network: Social networking and matchmaking with examples, Hi5 and My Life. • Games.

11 Chapter 2: Arab Spring Uprising and Media

2.1 Arab Spring uprisings

2.1.1 Introduction

Revolutionary incidents that called Arab Spring took place in 2010 in many Arabic countries of the Middle-East and North Africa (Khondker, 2011). These protests and incidents had violent and non-violent forms and they cause serious developments on the countries of North Africa such as Libya and Syria and they spread all over the Arab world (Hinnebusch, 2012). However, despite the contagious form of Arabic revolutions, it can be stated that those developments were the result of the political and economic environment on each country. Despite the fact that the initial revolutions had finished at the end of 2012, there are still conflicts such as the everyday fighting in Syria that can be characterized as the next phase of the Arab Spring (Hinnebusch, 2012; Ryan, 2012).

Arab Spring started its course with death of M. Bouazizi on 2010 in Tunisia. His death caused massive protests against governmental authorities all over the country and frustrated citizens were demonstrating for social and political change after the 23rd year of president’ Zine El-Abidine Ben-Ali dictatorship. The government was unable to stop the protests and as a result the president was forced to resign on the beginning of 2011 (Ryan, 2011). This change in the political scene in Tunisia lead to a great number of protests in several other countries. Specifically, protests organized in Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, Libya and Syria, and their results were great political changes such as the fall of President Mubarak in Egypt and President Gadhafi in Libya. Additionally, protests took place in many other Arabic countries such as Algeria, Iraq, and Jordan, with no significant changes (Anderson, 2011).

Since the end of 2010, the region of the Middle East and North Africa has experienced waves of revolt, relying on demands for political, social and economic reforms, these social unrest became known as the Arab Spring. The term became known by the Western media in 2011 with the first rebellion in Tunisia against the leader Zine El Adibine Ben Ali. The successful outcome of the rebellion also encouraged protests in other Arab countries (Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, Syria, Morocco and Jordan). This term was a reference to the turmoil in Eastern Europe in 1989, when Communist regimes began to fall under the pressure of popular protests. In a short time, the former Communist states adopted democratic political

12 systems and the situation within them was normalized. The events in the Middle East, on the contrary, did not follow the same simple progression. The factors that have led to the rise of the phenomenon vary from country to country. The economic situation of these states is such an endogenous factor. Many of the Middle East countries have been under the control of the International Monetary Fund and, due to the cuts, the people find it hard to buy even the essentials, which has led citizens to be deprived and consequently to protests that are suppressed by the regimes in a violent way. Another factor that played a key role is governance in these areas. It may vary from country to country (for example, Morocco has reign but Tunisian presidential democracy), although the regimes have more in common since they are essentially authoritarian governments under the cover of the alleged freedoms and rights they offer to the people, in fact the only thing they are aiming for is the preservation of power and the possession of wealth. Poverty and poverty, coupled with the absence of a strong rule of law and welfare, are among the causes that have led the people to revolt in these countries, calling for self-evident, better and more democratic governance and improved living conditions (Beblawi, 1987).

Libyan Arab uprisings will be analyzed in the following chapters. Libya was selected as the focus of the current thesis since it can be considered as one of the more powerful insurgency in the Arab world with the public harassment of the body of the former president. The main reasons that lead on the specific facts and the consequences of uprising were discussed in order to prove that the main reasons were the same for all Arab countries.

2.2 Middle East The Middle East region has been characterized as the cradle of rich cultures with a continuous historical presence and a significant contribution to humanity in the fields of science, literature and the arts. It has emerged as a starting point for the dissemination of three of the world's most popular religions (Christianity, Muslimism and Judaism), as well as the emergence of antagonisms and conflicts that will determine the culture of the peoples and is fortunate to have the largest oil fields world, giving states a significant asset on the international scene. In addition, due to its key geographic location, it is a crossroads of Europe - Asia - Africa trade routes, a gateway to access to the above areas, and it is a connecting link and a bridge between the eastern Mediterranean basin and the Persian Gulf through the Suez Canal.

13 Focusing on the post-war period, structural causes of frictions and conflicts are the formation of frontiers in the post-colonial era by the great powers on the basis of creating zones of their own influence, culminating in a variety of pathogens (racial, ethnic and religious differences) Israel in the heart of the Muslim world. The European colonizers set the borders of states that more closely reflected the balance of power among themselves, taking into account the social and political conditions of the region. Over the past century France and Great Britain were the two prominent actors active in the region, with the former taking control of Syria, Tunisia and Lebanon, while the latter in Iraq, the then West Bank, Palestine and Egypt. With the successive independence of states, the dysfunctions of external interventions will come to light by fueling armed conflicts. Libya will gain its independence in 1951, Tunisia in 1956, Iraq in 1930, Syria in 1936, Egypt in 1922, and in 1947 the state of Israel is formed. However, the historically strong European states of France and Britain, with the recent colonial past, will continue to maintain these dependency relationships they had built with their former colonies in the region in the past, and have been particularly interested in developments as they were at considerable cost interests. By extension, during the Cold War period, this geographical region will be a theater of controversy between the two new large powers, the United States and the USSR, which by providing support to allied alliances will cause additional complications in state relations and regional equilibria subsystem. Today, the region is a vital source of energy resources and a huge market and is therefore of particular interest. This energy dependency of Europe is largely determined by its behaviour so far over its southern neighbours. In the field of security, with the exception of Russia, it is the main focus of issues not only because of proximity but also because of the intensity of the rearrangements taking place in the subsystem and the perpetuating instability in the region. Besides, the nature of the security issues that have their roots in the region differs in terms of Russia's military threat from the east, as there may be no risk of a direct military threat but other threats extending to different levels.

2.3. Arab Spring

The Western Media was in fact the creators of the term "Arab Spring," describing the claim of hope and the domino of spreading in correspondence with the upheavals in eastern Europe over the Communist regimes in 1989 at the beginning of the collapse of the Eastern bloc. The full-featured title "Spring" attempts to describe the promising new situation that

14 was expected to take shape after the "Winter", the era of the domination of the authoritarian regimes, thus automatically condemning the former situation and welcoming the new. After all, the ultimate goal of claiming democracy in the Arab states is similar to the efforts of the former Soviet bloc's states to join state institutions that are interwoven with their history and democracy, thus confirming the conviction that democracy is the most desirable and a long- lasting success, not only in Europe but also in its wider region.

The hopes of reorganizing governance and improving the living conditions of citizens after assessing events have probably remained worthy of craving, making the term itself critically accountable. The results were different for each state where citizens were mobilized, as it was later proven that beyond the initial enthusiasm for the change of the existing situation, there was virtually no plan for the next day's successor. The demonstrations would have led Tunisia's Ben Ali to leave the country one month after and elections to be held, while in the other countries the events have evolved differently with varying outcomes (Joffe, 2011).

In 2002, the United Nations, through the development program, and in particular the Arab States' Regional Service, they produce an assessment of the development in the Arab world, whose findings are crucial to an understanding of the prevailing situation. Specifically, the finding states: "That there is a substantial difference between the Arab states and other regions as regards the conditions of participatory governance. The wave of democracy that transformed governance in Latin America, East Asia and Eastern Europe in the 1980s and 1990s did not reach the Arab world. This deficit of freedom undermines human development and is the most painful indication of underdevelopment of development policy." It is thus perceived that similar conditions of lack of democratic freedoms, political rights, independence of the press and low level of public services appeared in all the states of the region, which were a hindrance to development, forcing the states into the brink of underdevelopment. There is a consensus among analysts that the manifestation of the phenomenon is not only due to a cause but to a mixture of factors, the combination of which had this outcome. In an attempt to isolate the more general causes that led to the manifestation of the phenomenon, influencing to varying degrees its evolution from state to state, the following are identified: a) Demographic variables. The upsurge in the population of Arab states in recent years, which, according to United Nations figures doubled within the last thirty years, coupled with

15 the statistical superiority of the young ages. For example, in Egypt, almost two-thirds of its population were 35 years of age fact that made population incompatible with any political or economic development. This region comes second only behind Sub-Saharan Africa regarding the young age group of the total population, an evolution that is the natural consequence of the progressive reduction in mortality due to advances in science without the corresponding reduction in birth rate, as well as of the number of young people on the eve of the uprisings. The influx of the most active portion of the youth population, the driving force behind the uprisings, would lead to pressure for social and political change. b) High unemployment rates. Perhaps the factor that influence the most the uprising and the high acceptance of the phenomenon was the weak economic situation which is assessed by the people as equally if not more important issue than the political freedoms. The low standard of living which was a result of high unemployment, overlaid the other ideological differences and brought together people of all ages, but especially those of the productive generation, both graduates and non-graduates, in order to claim the right to dignified survival. The younger generation was faced with many difficulties in finding a job that responds to the level of study and its potential, leading to the quake of unemployment, while this phenomenon differed in all social classes and occupations. An immediate derivative of this treaty was to exacerbate the conditions of poverty and economic impoverishment. c) Old dictatorships. Economic difficulties have proved to be insurmountable barriers for decadent regimes whose legality has been called into question, although the mantle of cynical passivity and the fear of repression did not allow earlier reaction, though reflection and social frustration. Specifically, the Egyptian leader, Hosni Mubarak, had been in power since 1980, Libyan Muammar Gaddafi since 1969, and Tunisian Ben Ali since 1987, basically having been ideologically and morally bankrupt in their people's conscience. It is therefore observed that the peoples were tired of their leaders, they had ceased to hope that they could find a solution to their problems, the trust in those persons had been abandoned, and all that remained was the occasion for the manifestation of this accumulated disappointment. The demilitarization of the regimes and their policies was expressed differently in each country in which the phenomenon unfolded, in a range of actions ranging from violent deconstruction of state structures to a more personal attitude in the rejection of the country's president.

16 d) The status of corruption. The weak economic situation became intolerable for the average citizen who, while he struggled for his survival, watched the s elite of the country to gain enormous profits from his co-operation with the regimes where all development initiatives resulted in a distorted capitalism of neoliberal opaque conciliations towards benefit of the preferential minority. Clientele relationships have been a standard practice by stripping the national wealth of states in favour of the elite society, excluding the majority of the people from taking part in the exploitation and exploitation of resources. Even the privatizations of national assets were modelled in such a way as to end up with a privileged price in the hands of certain elites or even members of the family of regimes. e) The Internet and social media. There is some scepticism about the degree of participation of new technologies in revolts, but social networking applications have played their own special role as a tool in mobilizing young people and disseminating information about demonstrations through the horizontal level of communication they offer. Opinions converge on the basis of the social networking data that the political scope and the degree of freedom of expression in each country must be taken into account in order to safely draw conclusions, but its role in disseminating news and in the initial or subsequent mobilization. Using Facebook and Twitter, activists have been able to create teams and within a few days in Egypt to raise thousands of young people, while retaining their anonymity, exploiting this trend and the appeal of modern technologies to young people alongside the impersonal of the instrument. A typical example is the case of creating a Facebook page by Wael Ghonim, a Google executive named "We Are All Khaled Said," with photographs of the corrupted person from the deadly beating of local police officers of the young Egyptian activist who had denounced her corruption police, which acquired 350.000 registered members before the outbreak of the protests. In addition, social media have played a special role in the dissemination of real-time events and the international disclosure of demonstrators' demands to the power of the image. Any mobile phone owner with access to the internet automatically had the opportunity and the opportunity to become a world-wide correspondent. Finally, the use of the internet has enabled the transmission of information which has not been censored, as was the case with television and radio programs. Still, through the applications, a multitude of more "activist" texture information was transmitted from instructions to organize and coordinate demonstrations to address the consequences of tear gas usage.

17 2.4 Libya and the Libyan Uprising

The presentation of the theory and the background behind Libyan uprisings is important in order to end up on useful conclusion after the analysis of the collected data. Libyan political, economic, and social environment will be analyzed in order to highlight the forces with in the community and provide the researcher with information that will help on the understanding of people’s behavior and the role of media in shaping opinions and views regarding the revolution and generally Arab spring.

2.4.1 Historical background

Until 1963, the country was divided into three provinces (Tripolitida, Kyrenia and Fezan). These territories were colonized by Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, were part of Byzantium and occupied by the Ottomans in the 16th century. In 1911 the occupation of Libya passed into the hands of Italy and during the Second World War prevailed in the British and French. In 1951, Libya became independent and governed by the rule of Monarch Idris, who held all power and was overthrown by Muamer el Gadafi's coup in September 1969. Gadafi has just taken power, proceeded with nationalization of foreign banks and businesses, set up courts which are being judged on the basis of Sharia and pursued close relations with the Soviet Union; on the contrary, its relations with the United States were hostile. They even imposed an embargo on the Libyan oil market, in 1986 American aircraft bombed the country and the UN imposed financial sanctions (1992). These events had a major impact on the people of Libya as poverty and lack of goods increased dramatically, led the people to protests. The first protests broke out in Libya in February 2011 against Muamer el Gadafi in the city of Benghazi, incited by the illegal imprisonment of an activist by the government (Lacher, 2011). This was only the beginning, as it did not take long to erupt a wave of imprisonment and violent attacks that led international institutions and countries to oppose such governmental practices. The United Nations Security Council on 26 February adopted a resolution condemning the repressive measures of the Gadafi government, and also sanctions, such as the commitment of property belonging to members of the government. On March 17, the Security Council approved a "no-fly zone" in Libya, imposing all the necessary measures to protect citizens. This ban was followed by a NATO air force, led by France and the United States. The Libyan crisis turned into a civil war, the Gadafi government was dethroned in August of that year (2011), a rebel group captured Tripoli, the capital of the

18 Libyan state, and Muamer el Gadafi captured in October and was killed by the rebels (Agnaia, 1997).

2.4.2 Libyan uprising of 2011

Libya is a large country, most of which consists of a desert. The population belongs to different races, with the majority being Sunni. In 1969, Colonel Muamer el Gadafi leads a coup, which overthrows King Idris. The coup drove the country into economic hardship despite Gadafi's promises to the people. Libya from the People's Republic is renamed the People's Arab Libya and Socialist Jamaica, run by itself as the leader of the popular revolution. The massive uprisings in Libya start on February 15, 2011 in Benghazi, focusing on human rights violations and political corruption demanding Gadafi's demise from power (Vira & Gordesman, 2011). On 27 February of the same year, the National Transition Council, an anti-corruption coalition with the aim of consolidating resistance at the national level, was set up. Gadafi condemned the demonstrations, calling the dissident "stray dogs", "rats" and "cockroaches to be exterminated", did not even hesitate to respond by using violence to the protesters' peaceful protests. NATO intervention under UN Security Council approval provided weapons and military training to rebel forces by enhancing the NTC. As a result, a bloody, internationally recognized civil war that ended with the death of Gadafi on October 20, 2011. The main cause of the civil war was international influence. Government repression and the use of force led to chain reactions as it triggered the NTC, which was reinforced and supported by the international community. This resulted in the revolt becoming a civil war, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians (Joffe, 2011).

2.5 Other Arab spring-related uprising

2.5.1. The Syrian uprising

Syria is the country with the third largest population after Iraq and Saudi Arabia. 80% of the population is Sunni; nevertheless, the Abyssinian minority holds power. In 1970 a Hafez al-Assad member of the Baath Party took power with a military coup, after his death on June 10, 2000, his son Bashar al-Assad took his place as Syrian president (Hinnebusch, 2012). The succession has reduced to some extent the dissatisfaction of the people and paved the way for reforms, despite the few reforms that the regime has continued to remain dysfunctional and failed to satisfy the majority of the population. The Syrian conflict started

19 with demonstrations on January 26, 2011 and escalated by rebellions on March 15th of the same year. It is the biggest and bloody conflict compared to the other uprisings that took place in the Middle East, with the people in this case asking for a change in the oppressive regime. Syrian forces of rebels have incomplete armaments and training, divided into three groups (Turkey-based Syrian National Council, Damascus-based National Council of Coordination & Syrian Free Army). These groups disagree with each other about the use of force and the negotiations with Assad. The Syrian Free Army is made up of soldiers trained by the government's army, lacking political and military coherence, and so they fail to command a large base of troops. The international community has remained inactive in the case of the Syrian conflict, which can be explained by the excesses that occurred in Libya. Although the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has warned that the civil war in Libya is likely to happen in Syria, however, the actors remain uninvolved in trying to change the regime. The international community, propelled by mass atrocities in Syria in spring 2012, has decided to take action, culminating in the decision of 1 April on limited support for rebels. ($ 100 million from members of the Friends of Syria coalition to fund the Syrian opposition).

2.5.2. Other protests

Apart from Libya and Syria, however, major revolts also occur in other countries in the region that have triggered a chain reaction and encouraging citizens and other countries to protest (Joffe, 2011).

Tunisia is the first country from which the rebellion began. The Revolution of Jasmine, as it was called, broke out in January 2011 but violent repression was not a hindrance to protesters who continued to protest expressing their indignation at the regime, culminating in a tune-up salesman who was self-defeating in protest. As a result, Zine el Abidin Ben Ali resigned on January 14, 2011, and fled. In October, Tunisia held the first democratic elections. In Egypt, the government of Hosni Mubarak faced huge protests by civilians in the capital of Egypt, Cairo, in January and February 2011, demanding democratization and regime change. Despite government efforts to curb demonstrations (such as blocking the Internet), Hosni Mubarak resigned on February 11th of the same year. The uprisings in Yemen began in late January 2011, with protesters demanding democracy and condemning poverty and corruption. Contrary to the protests in Egypt and Tunisia, which seemed to have little central leadership, the demonstrations in Yemen seemed to be organized and run by a coalition of

20 opposition groups. Responding to the demonstrations, the country's president made several financial concessions, including a reduction in income taxes. In February, he promised not to re-elect or succeed his mandate in 2013, but this move failed to satisfy the protesters, as Ali Abdullah Saleh had promised the same for his earlier election. Consequently, the uprisings continued, with the result that in November 2012 after President Saleh, after a series of negotiations, President Saleh would transfer power to the vice-president, who would serve for two years as chairman, drafting a new constitution. Finally, in Morocco young people were the initiators of the revolt influenced by the Tunisian revolution, Facebook-led demonstrations began in February condemning corruption and calling for limits to the power of King Mohammed VI. The protests, however, weakened very quickly as opposed to the other Arab states, the main reason being the king's reaction to them, not releasing the army or the police to suppress them. On 9 March, the King announced that he would proceed to the creation of a new Constitution that would strengthen the roles of political parties and parliament and create an independent justice, also promised a new rule of law, an independent judiciary and an elected government that would reflect the will of the people through the electoral process (Saleh et.al., 2014).

21 Chapter 3: The Role of Media

3.1 Introduction

Multiple previous studies have highlighted the important role of media and new media on shaping public opinion by providing people with specific information (Vandewater, et al., 2007; Liu, et al., 2009). Over the years disagreements have been noted among researchers regarding the actual role of media, and how important they are for the community. Specifically, some researchers state that media can have a positive impact when they properly inform the public regarding the developments in the country and the world. Those researchers suggest that media have the ability to communicate with the public and through transferring information to alert the public opinion and make people think towards different issues and problems (Reeves, 1998; Villani, 2001). On the contrary, some others indicated that media should be monitored and controlled since they have the power to affect the community based on the wrong motives (Posavac, et al., 2001). Based on those opinions the next sections will discuss the benefits and disadvantages of the role of media and their impact on political and social issues.

Before referring to the role of media, extra attention should be given on a specific and important part that have been widely used during the last few decades, social media. According to Bhuiyan (Bhuiyan, 2011) social media is a platform where people can freely share content, images and videos and through those to express their feelings and opinions. Moreover, social media can be characterized as important communication tool since everyone have the ability to comment and participate on a discussion only by having access on the internet. As a result, social media allow individuals to communicate, express themselves, in real-time, and therefor to incorporate their views and opinions on every subject that seems important to them such as political and economic issues. Every person through social media, can approach someone else and by sharing information to alter its opinion or provoke him to do something. According to Kelleher (Kelleher & Sweetser, 2012) social media networks such as Facebook and YouTube have changed the source of power from the government to the people since they can create a communication channel between the individuals and the general public.

22 3.2 The political role of media

A great number of studies have mentioned the important role of media and their use to achieve specific targets on social and political level.

Pan and his colleagues (Pan, Ostman, Moy & Reynolds, 1994) focused on the impact of media use Persian Gulf War. Specifically, the researchers compare the findings from two separate studies that have been conducted in different time periods. The first one immediately after the Persian Gulf War and the second a year later. The findings show significantly higher levels of news exposure despite the type of media channel during the war period, while the study indicates that media exposure makes people familiar with the main events of the war and increases the knowledge of the individuals. The study uses newspapers, cable TV and PBS news programming as the media channels and besides the impact on people’s knowledge the researchers found that personal characteristics also affect the preference of individuals and therefore the impact on them is also different. Moreover, the study suggests that exposure to CNN minimize the difference in knowledge levels across the citizens while the exposure on network TV news is connected with image-related information, newspaper, cable TV and PBS news programming mainly affect the individual by providing general and complicated information about the war.

On the contrary, the study of Weaver (Weaver & Carta, 1996) examines the impact of media on political voting and indicates the information that people collects from media before they vote a candidate. According to the researcher there are several studies that investigate the effect of media on people’s political manipulation during and before the election period. However, it can be concluded that the political manipulation takes place despite the characterization of election news as superficial, and voters can be mainly affected by television news, newspapers, and televised debates. Especially, media affect the awareness and concern of citizens over particular issues and candidates. This study specifically, suggest that exposure on television news is much more possible to prone to strength the interest in both politics and voting turnout despite of the fact that extensive media emphasis on the campaign strategy and maneuvering can render some voters more cynical and less likely to vote. Finally, the study states that new media at the time such as radio and TV have less impact on the transmition of information of any kind to the voter.

23 Furthermore, Kenski and Stroud (Kenski and Stroud, 2006) investigate the link between the use of internet sources and the political opinion, awareness of the incidents as well as the participation of respondents on political events. Specifically, the research focused on the impact of Internet access and the exposure of respondents on online information regarding the campaign on the presidential elections and the political efficacy and participation of respondents. The study uses data from the 2000 National Annenberg Election Survey and it was found that internet access and online exposure to information about the presidential campaign are significantly related with these key political variables (political efficacy, participation). Moreover, the research findings indicate that the impact of internet access on political efficacy, increase of knowledge, and participation on political activities can be detected besides socio-demographic variables, specific political interest, and support to specific party. However, despite the fact that the study detects significant association between the variables those associations are weak in strength. On the other hand, citizens that do not show significant interest on internet and internet applications also show limited interest on political issues and parties. As a result, internet may affect the opinion of individuals in a small degree, therefore, whether someone is exposed on online information or not, their knowledge and political efficacy remain the same.

From another perspective, Leeson (Leeson, 2008) tests the existence of a relationship between the electoral behavior, media freedom of speech, people’s knowledge regarding specific political events and the level of governmental control. Among others, the research findings indicate that in countries where the government controls a large amount of the media, it can also affect the political information that can be transmitted to the public and as a result people do not show significant interest to learn and acquire knowledge for political subjects. On the other hand, when the media are independent, and they belong to private companies or individuals, the citizens show much more higher interest regarding the political aspects. Finally, the lower the media freedom, the lower the political knowledge and the participation of citizens on political events.

Additionally, on the role of media on political communication and the social discussion, Wilkins (Wilkins, 2010) investigates the how the American political system failed to activate people, reduces trust and make them to participate on political discussion. The main findings of the research were that the specific political messages should not target directly on the enhancement of political participation but indirectly affect people’s opinion and make them

24 interested on political aspects. Finally, Howard and Parks (Howard & Parks, 2012) focused on the role of social media role in changing the political behavior of individuals. Generally, the study suggest that research should be focused on the political change that can be derived from social media. Specifically, technological developments and the introduction of new technologies and forms of communication in many areas over the last decade have shaped a new order of things that each group or individual has to follow to communicate and transfer information over the Internet. Social media are one of the new forms of communication with the public and, of course, their use has been extended to a political level. Their features, such as the ability to engage in dialogue, quick personalized contact and the best possible targeting of the common goal, have set them up as one of the main communication channels for political and publicity purposes to influence public opinion and voters; the acquisition of supporters (Yousif & ALsamydai, 2012). These changes and the possibilities offered by social media have contributed to the development of the media as citizens with common interests can connect, interact through the discussion and convey ideas and information in order to achieve their personal goals (Shirky, 2011).

The most widespread example of using a social network for political reasons is the social networking "Facebook", which has been widely used in the last elections as well as in the referendum held to promote ideas, debate and interaction between politicians and citizens. This particular social networking offers policymakers the choice of using advertisements and promotions while interacting and sharing information such as advertising and inviting people to a political event (Shirky, 2011).

Generally speaking, civil-marketing practitioners or candidates using social media tools are seeking, to create recognition as compared to other candidates, recognizing ideas and political programs, creating a positive and trustworthy image and reputation, to encourage citizens' commitment to a person or party, and to improve the public image of a person and the influence the citizens on a specific way in order to be positive against them.

In conclusion, it is clear from previous studies that any form of media can significantly influence the political opinion of the public when they properly used for this purpose as well as to guide people’s behavior and forming their perspectives towards specific political issues including elections. Therefore, media can be considered as an important factor that can positively or negatively affect people’s lives, beliefs and way of thinking. Additionally, media have the ability to alter individual perceptions and make them participate in protests

25 and political actions, fact that can be the case on the Arab Spring where media played a very important part in shaping perceptions and forcing people to participate.

3.3 The role of Media Arab Spring

The current section will present the main studies that have been investigate the role of media in Arab Spring. According to Ghannam (Ghannam, 2011) who focused on the role of social media on the start of the Arab Spring, suggests that social media have changed the nature of news and the engagement of the community. Social media role is continuing to evolve, and their importance is increased year by year. Specifically, social media were a very important part of the protests and revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, and other Arab countries. Regarding the impact of social media on Arab population, it was found that they have changed expectations of freedom of speech and expression in association with the degree that the public poses the necessary technological knowledge which can lead on better results, such as greater political influence, and participation (Kouskouvelis, 2007).

There are several Arab Spring web sites, where indignant citizens meet, get informed and rebel. For Egypt, there is a Facebook page named "We Are All Khaled said" with 1.5 million "likes" and 151 thousand people talking daily on this page. The page got its name from a 28- year-old man, whom they dragged out of an internet café and beaten. On January 25, 2011, he made the first protest for his death (Bhuiyan, 2011; Champagne, 2012)

A Facebook page titled The Syrian Revolution 2011, in which users who talk about Syria on a daily basis, is 49,684, while the members of this page are 343,637, updated on January 13, 2012 It was founded in 2011 with the aim of gaining freedom from Syria. They are Syrian young activists from all the provinces in order to achieve the objectives of the revolution, first with the overthrow of Assad, to establish a democratic policy that will host all Syrians with any difference, racial - religious and nationalistic. They give the right to publish all the content on the site. There is continuous information and publication of all events, using photographic material, videos and announcements. Videos and photos are displayed that describe the demonstrations that are currently taking place. They run Twitter campaigns with a certain amount of time, defining the issue before. The religious part is intense in the comments of the users, since they call on God Allah consistency, patience and victory, and we often see the phrase "our god is curing injured" (video demonstrations, The Syrian Revolution, 2011).

26

Wael Ghonim is the founder of the "We are all Halend Said" page on Facebook, whose name is due to a young Egyptian beaten to death by police in Alexandria. Wael was working on Google Middle East and North Africa as Marketing Director in 2008. He used this page to incorporate Egyptian citizens for the January 25 anti-government demonstration. On January 14, he posted an announcement for the first time asking members to go out on the streets on January 25th and to protest like the Tunisians. He has just published an event entitled: 25 January: Revolutionary Torture, Corruption, Unemployment and Injustice. After that, many others followed. Thus, he worked anonymously with activists to announce the parties for the protests. In January 2011, he returned to Egypt to participate in the Revolution, where he disappeared on January 27 during a protest in which he participated. His family declared his disappearance in the international media, and Google announced his disappearance. On February 5, a large Egyptian opposition, reported that Wael was alive and detained, and he was released after 11 days in detention (Champagne, 2012).

According to a Huang’s article (2011), 9 out of 10 people in Egypt and Tunisia surveyed said they were using Facebook to organize demonstrations or to spread events and raise awareness of the world. Organized activists using social media to publish the protests have sparked the so-called Arab Spring (Kouskouvelis, 2007). In this way, they managed to awaken the people, resulting in long-standing regimes being overthrown, and others in opposition to the opposition. The role that they have played is important for the mobilization, empowerment and transformation that caused the changes. The article also states that many characterize them as the main promoters of this insurrection and others as mere tools. The use of Facebook in the Arab states in the period January-April 2011 has expanded and more than doubled. The number of users increased by 30 per cent, compared to 18 per cent in the same period in 2010. Specifically, Egypt saw a 29 per cent increase compared to the previous year of 12 per cent. In the same period of 2011 in Egypt, 88 percent of the citizens surveyed said they were informed by social media. There are several Arab Spring web sites, where indignant citizens meet, get informed and rebel. For Egypt, there is a Facebook page named "We Are All Khaled Said" with 1.5 million "likes" and 151 thousand people talking daily on this page. The page got its name from a 28-year-old man, whom they dragged out of an internet café and beaten. On January 25, 2011, he made the first protest for his death (Champagne, 2012).

27 Specifically, Egypt saw a 29 per cent increase compared to the previous year, which was 12 per cent. The same period of 2011 in Egypt, 88 percent of people surveyed said they are informed by the socialist media. Of the respondents, 28 percent said that the interruption of the disturbed communication and their efforts internet to communicate, while more than half, 56 percent, said the disruption this has prompted and new world mobilized to push more in general there was a positive influence on events. It was considered a motivating force to make the world more active, decisive and to make them more creative about their communication and organization.

Storck along with other researchers (Storck, 2011) analyzed the Arab Spring revolutions of 2011, by focusing on the impact of internet and social media and how they facilitate and support the uprisings. Particularly, the research analyzed how activists used social media networks (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) in order to spread the news, affect people and proliferate the impact of their words. For doing that “the study made use of the well- established theories of communication which were developed long before the advent of social media, to position its use within a wider context of communication, and to explicate how the inherent characteristics of social networking that made it appealing to the activists in Egypt”. Particularly, the research suggests that social media have a great potential and they can facilitate political mobilization. As a result, the role of media can be characterized as unique and important for sharing the political information to the public. On the other hand, Abdallah (2011) states that media and social media can be characterized as an important part of the democratic process that cause the transition in power in Egypt. Moreover, the actual role of media depends on the society and how acceptable it would be to get informed and participate in online communities. Actually, social media highlighted the movements and actions of the regime and they helped to get people aware of the injustice and corruption in the country. Additionally, the findings suggest that media participate at the start and on the strengthening of the opposition movements. On the other hand, media that could be controlled by the government were used to justify and make excuses regarding government’s actions as well as to build a close relationship with the citizens. Finally, anti-governmental media focus on affecting people with a medium or high educational background while the media that can be controlled by the government focus on the majority and the people with low educational level since they can be affected the most by media. In conclusion, the study states that online and offline media contribute on the political change in Egypt and their role can be characterized

28 as significant, fact that can be assumed to be happening to all Arab countries in order to form public opinion regarding the government, terrorism and social matters.

Similarly, Bhuiyan (Bhuiyan, 2011) focused on the impact of social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube on Egyptian revolution. The researcher highlights the desire of people for democracy and justice that have been reinforced by social media. Specifically, the citizens use social media platforms as a place to discuss their thoughts and share ideas and knowledge. Additionally, social media also help individuals to realize the actual size of the situation and avoid fear, neglect the government censorship, and invite others to participate in protests. Finally, the researcher ends up with the outcome that new age media have much higher possibilities to affect people’s opinion and behavior than the traditional media and they should be investigated further. On the other hand, Castells (2011) focused on a specific media channel (Al Jazeera) and he investigates its role in Arab Spring protests and revolutions. The researcher states that Al Jazeera collected online information that have been shared by individuals on various channels (social media, blogs) and based on those information, the network retransmits the news on its network and mobile phones. Finally, the study conclude that media of any type do not start the protests, since those had much deeper sources, but they help on sharing knowledge and information among citizens.

Moreover, a great amount of studies analyzed the actual role of social media on Middle East incidents. Multiple different angles have been approached and the findings generally suggest that social media were the main way of communication during the Libyan revolution.

Frangonikolopoulos and Chapsos (Frangonikolopoulos & Chapsos, 2012) searched the way social media were used in order to change political thinking in many different countries and they found out that despite the fact that social media were not the only important factor that cause the start of the uprisings, they have their important role on organizing protests, spreading news and facilitating the events in ways that were significant. As a result, social media were the tool that brought people together under the same cause. Similarly, the research of Benkirane (Benkirane, 2012) compares social networks and new media with traditional media regarding their impact in the Arab Spring. New generations have a much closer relationship with technology and therefore, the rise of bloggers in Arab world and cyber activists was an expected consequence. Moreover, the researcher states that the Arab Spring was the expected outcome of many years of injustice and violation of the civil and political rights that became larger within the online environment and during TV, press and

29 radio. Regarding new age media and social media, the study mentions that triggered and accelerated the reactions of the community members, they brought everyone together, and they play an important role on sharing information to the public.

30 Chapter 4: Research Methodology

Much of the analysis of media protest coverage has been informed by versions of frame theory (Gitlin, 1980; McLeod, 1995; Shoemaker, 1982; Murdock, 1981; Luther and Miller 2005). Frame theory is widely used across the social sciences and humanities, offering as it does a way to assess the impact of any communicating text. As Robert Entman explains in his attempt at a clarification of the theory, the concept of framing is often defined casually, and researchers tend to rely on a tacit understanding of the concepts involved perhaps because the words frame, framing and framework are in common usage. What the various uses of the framing paradigm all attempt, in Entman’s view, is to illuminate ‘the precise way in which influence over consciousness is exerted by the transfer (or communication) of information from one location – such as speech, utterance, new report, or novel to that consciousness’ (Entman, 1993).

In its application to the study of news media, framing theory is used as a method of analyzing the multiple ways in which news coverage transmits a series of implicit assumptions. It attempts to uncover the attitudes inscribed in news reporting by identifying the series of frames that shape it. In some versions it also seeks to examine the source of these attitudes. Within this general field, there are a number of different conceptions of media framing, each of which emphasizes different elements of what is normally conceived as a complex process. McLeod and Hertog (McLeod & Hertog, 1998) explain framing first and foremost as the application of a ‘narrative structure’ by journalists that helps them assemble the various elements of their story. Neuman et al. (Neuman et al., 1992) argue for a wider definition of frames as ‘conceptual tools which both journalists and the wider public rely on to ‘convey, interpret and evaluate information’ ((Neuman et al., p.60, 1992). In their study of media coverage of recent US anti-war protests Luther and Miller (Luther & Miller , 2005) emphasize the selective aspect of framing, ‘‘in constructing frames, journalists simplify, highlight, and make more salient, certain aspects of reality, while obscuring others’’ (Luther & Miller, 2005).

Frame theory has a number of important advantages as a way of understanding the generation of meaning in news. Neumann et al. (Neumann et al., 1992) suggest one reason why the concept of the frame has become widespread in the literature is that it recognizes news production as collective and interactive rather than simply assigning assumptions about news

31 to individuals’ structures of thought. Another reason for its appeal is its ability to incorporate a wide variety of processes including selection of stories, selection of sources, general interpretative frameworks and even use of language. Tuchman (1978) and Gitlin (1980) for example both discovered subtle framing devices in their textual analyses of news coverage in the way journalists used quotation marks. Carragee and Roefs (Carragee & Roefs, 2004) argue that the importance of the concept of framing lies both in its inclusivity and its sense of agency. Framing identifies and describes a series of active processes including agenda setting, story selection and interpretation that shape the generation of news stories. In support of this emphasis they quote another influential summation of Entman’s, ‘To frame is to select some aspects of a perceived reality and make them more salient in a communication text in such a way as to promote a particular problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation and/or treatment recommendation for the item described’ (Entman, 1993). The process of framing stories is sometimes described as a series of discrete functions or neutral categorizations (Carragee & Roefs, 2004). But the more integrated versions of framing theory have the strong appeal of explaining how a series of apparently neutral decisions have a powerful interpretative effect when taken together. The selection of ‘what to think about’ must clearly have an important impact on the media’s impact on ‘what people think’. The argument is that the selection of particular aspects of a story over others in other words automatically tends towards the promotion of a causal analysis. In this developing context particular use of language can lead to implicit moral judgments and even the promotion of particular remedies (Entman, 2007).

This study examines the frames of a sample of a total of 74 articles about the Libyan Arab Spring in the English-language websites of Al Jazeera, New York Times, and Sputnik from 16 of February 2011 to a 6 months period after the incident. The fall of Tripoli was the main event in the Libyan revolt, given it demarcates the actual triumph of the Libyan Arab Spring revolt in that the capital city of Libya was then under the control of the opposition forces (i.e., anti-Colonel Muammer Gaddafi forces). The Arab Spring news coverage triggered a global debate amongst journalists regarding the importance of verifying the information that is spread by citizens, the need for a more neutral and factual based coverage and the way of reporting the events via brand-new media tools. The most important tools were social media and other digital platforms. For example, there was the use of the platform of bit.ly to shorten the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) links of the news organizations. This action achieved to spread the news of Arab Spring to an international audience and to

32 increase the pressure on the Arab regimes, forcing the leaders of the countries to hear the demands of the movements and to make compromises (Aday, Farrell, Lynch, Sides & Freelon, 2012). “Social media devices, applications and tools have become available extensively and easily, offering an unprecedented degree of immediate activist journalism coverage of events and places. Almost suddenly, everyone with a smartphone, even if they were in the remotest areas of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen or Syria, could become an “activist journalist”. Such unprecedented inclusivity goes against the selectivity of coverage that traditional broadcast media is compelled to employ because of the limitation of resources and the complexity of logistical deployment” (Hroub, 2012).

Existing research has mainly focused on the role of the media in the uprisings against the regimes of the countries that were affected by the Arab Spring. However, we do not have a lot of information about the way of coverage that was conducted by well-known media organizations. Additionally, according to Frangonikolopoulos (Frangonikolopoulos, 2011), the western news organizations are the ones that dominate the market of information industry and these news outlets have the power to define the global agenda of journalism.

Thus, we have chosen to conduct a comparative framing analysis between a) Al Jazeera, which is one of the largest news organizations in the world with a Pan-Arabic perspective that paved the way for the internalization of the Arab Spring, b) Spoutnik, Russia's biggest English-language media organization, and c) New York Times, which is probably the most well-known newspaper all over the world.

To determine how the three selected media covered the aforementioned period of time, this study uses content analysis because it is “the systematic assignment of communication content to categories according to rules, and the analysis of relationships involving those categories using statistical methods” (Riffe, Lacy & Fico, 2005). The content analysis is used via Open Calais in order to define the News Frames of the news organizations. According to Entman (Entman, 1993) “Framing essentially involves selection and salience. To frame is to select some aspects of a perceived reality and make them more salient in a communicating text, in such a way as to promote a particular problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or treatment recommendation for the item described [...] Frames, then, define problems - determine what a causal agent is doing with what costs and benefits, usually measured in terms of common cultural values, diagnose causes - identify the forces creating

33 the problem; make moral judgments - evaluate causal agents and their effects; and suggest remedies - offer and justify treatments for the problems and predict their likely effects”.

Articles for this study were taken from search engines and the official websites of the three organizations. The articles were located by using separately the keywords “Libya”, “Libya Arab Spring” and “Libya revolution”. The researcher read all the English-language articles and included them in the research as long as there was content that was linked with the Libyan Arab Spring. The period chosen for the sample was from 16 of February 2011 to a 6 months period after the incident. The search results were compared to eliminate any duplication. The total number of articles included in the sample is 74: 24 Al Jazeera English, 32 New York Times, and Sputnik 18. For the extraction of the frames of each article and their classification, this study used the free online version of Open Calais (http://www.opencalais.com/). Open Calais is a Knowledge Extraction (KE) tool “that extracts named entities with sense tags, facts and events. It is available as a web application and as a web service” (Gangemi, 2013, p. 8). Both the output that is marked as ‘Social Tags’ and ‘Topics’ decided to be considered as topics, because it is hard to make a distinction between them at a theoretical level. Additionally, Open Calais has some functions that can help detecting the frames of a story (Gangemi, 2013).

For each article, according to Open Calais’ results the researcher looked for the dominant frames, which reveal the most important aspects of the event that is highlighted by the media organization (Ruigrok & van Atteveldt, 2007). Nonetheless, Gamson and Modigliani (Gamson and Modigliani, 1989) have proved that there can exist more than one dominant frame in an article. Researches have shown that the conflict frame is used during war coverage in order to present the conflict and the hostility amongst different actors, parties, groups, and organizations (Neuman, Just, & Crigler, 1992). This type of frame was most commonly used by the USA news outlets in the past years (An & Gower, 2009), but the new researches of the coverage of conflicts provided more dimensions trying to explain further the conflict frame by locating the angles of the different actors that take part in wars. For instance, Sheppard, Blumenfeld-Jones, and Minton (1987) tried to define the classification of the conflict descriptions of the third parties in relation to the “deductively derived conflict frames” (Pinkley, 1990, p. 1). The literature has also spotlighted the kind of coverage that is performed in wars between states, as they produce more coherent news stories that can charm the audience via their dramatic footage and the sensationalism that it brings. Here lies the

34 powerful role of journalists that can go beyond the lines and shed light to shady events or even self-censor themselves (Vladisavljević, 2015). Subsequently the research on the topic of Arab Spring proved that there were some specific kind of frames that were used by the news organizations. Bruce (2014) found that Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera English, Al Arabiya, Alhurra, and BBC Arabic included in their coverage a dominant use of the Human interest frame. Human interest frame is one of the most usual frame that can be found in war coverage (Neuman et al. 1992; Semetko & Valkenburg, 2000) as it helps to sensationalize facts and events. “In crisis situations, the frame stimulates the psychological pulse of people, which ultimately leads them to a more negative attitude toward the crisis showed that the human interest frame influenced participants’ emotional response, and that it was a significant predictor of blame and responsibility in a transgression crisis” (An & Gower, 2009, p. 108). In 2012, Hamdy and Gomaa (Hamdy and Gomaa, 2012) also proved that during the Egyptian Arab Spring the posts of the news organizations on social media were using the Human interest frame.

Secondly, there is the Public affairs frame, which focuses mostly on political actors or authorities. Hallin (Benson & Hallin, 1994) in his book about American TV journalism talked a lot about the American public sphere and the notion of recognizing politicians as authority in cases of turmoil or festivities. Some years later, Benson alongside with Hallin (Benson & Hallin, 2007) revealed the connection between the flow of information and the influence of politicians. Journalists turn to them to hear their point of view about peculiar events in order to construct the main issues of the future debate. In addition, their comparative analysis of American and French news organizations found that on the aforementioned situations the US media were strongly relied on the political authorities than the French one. As far as Arab Spring is concerned, Bruce (Bruce, 2014) proved the findings of Benson & Hallin (Benson & Hallin, 2007), which suggest that in times of unrest the western media outlets tend to rely more on the political authorities. Despite the Public affairs frame, there is always a unique coverage about the Egyptian Arab Spring. Many reporters described it as a story of civil unrest. The civil unrest frame as it is portrayed by Tierney, Bevc, and Kuligowski (Tierney, Bevc & Kuligowski, 2006) is linked with the coverage of natural disasters. In the case of Hurricane Katrina, the media outlets based their news stories on sensationalism through publishing footage that represented the behaviour of the affected people as normal. Feelings and behaviours such as violence, shock, traumatic experiences, and the fighting for survival were supposed to be typical.

35 Lastly, the researcher read each article to evaluate the Open Calais’ output, as it is known that “when researchers rely on computer programs to analyze large volumes of text, they must identify the universe of words that mark the presence of a frame” (Chong & Druckman, 2007). The sample needed to be categorized in columns and checked for duplicates or results that were not linked with the context of the articles. Hence, the following questions were asked:

Research Question 1: Do the journalists present their own positions?

Research Question 2: Do the journalists present actors' positions?

Research Question 3: Do the journalists provide peace initiatives?

Research Question 4: Which were the dominant frames of the three news organizations?

36 Chapter 5: Data Analysis

The current chapter presents the analysis of the research findings. Firstly, the main frames that have been located are presented overall and per media followed by the analysis of the two main events.

5.1 Framing Conflict frames refer on mentioning an incident, “other countries positions” include the mention of the specific position of the country that hosts the specific media channel, “violence” frames refer on the reporting of violent incidence while public affairs on how the public experiences those incidents. Additionally, solution-oriented frames include discussions regarding how the problems / conflict can be solved and human interests on how matters that affect the life of the public. Table 1 presents the main frames that have been identified on the sum of the 74 articles. Specifically, the majority (43.2%) of the articles have as their topic violent incidents and protests following by “public affairs” frame with 25.6%, “human interest” (14.9%), while 6.7% of the articles were focused on possible solutions and the positions of other countries on Libyan Arab Spring.

Table 1: Main frames of the articles Dominant frames Percentage Conflict 2 (2.7%) Other countries positions 5 (6.7%) Violence 32 (43.2%) Public affairs 19 (25.6%) Solution oriented 5 (6.7%) Human interest 11 (14.9%) Number of articles 74

37

Additionally, the main focus of Al Jazeera were public affairs frames (45.8%), violence (25%) and human interest (16.6%). On the contrary, the main frame of New York Times was violence (53.1%), human interest (18.7%) and public affairs (15.6%). Similarly, Sputnik focus on violence (44.4%), public affairs (33.3%) and other countries position (22.2%). As a result, it can be said that the articles on New York Times and Sputnik were focused on violent incidents while those of Al Jazeera on public affairs (Table 2).

Table 2: Frames by media Al Jazeera Dominant frames Percentage Conflict 2 (8.3%) Other countries positions - Violence 6 (25%) Public affairs 11 (45.8%) Solution oriented 1 (4.2%) Human interest 4 (16.6%) Number of articles 24 New York Times Dominant frames Percentage Conflict - Other countries positions 2 (6.25%)

38 Violence 17 (53.1%) Public affairs 5 (15.6%) Solution oriented 2 (6.25%) Human interest 6 (18.75%) Number of articles 32 Sputnik Dominant frames Percentage Conflict - Other countries positions 4 (22.2%) Violence 8 (44.4%) Public affairs 3 (33.3%) Solution oriented 2 (22.2%) Human interest 1 (11.1%) Number of articles 18

Furthermore, the majority of the articles in New York Times present or at least include comments that reflect the journalists’ opinion. On the contrary, only 8.3% of the articles on

39 Al Jazeera present the opinion of the writer since they mainly reported specific incidents. In the middle, 38.8% of the articles presented in Sputnik include personal opinions.

Table 3: Journalist personal opinion on articles by media Number of articles Journalists personal opinion Al Jazeera 24 2 (8.3%) New York Times 32 16 (50%) Sputnik 18 7 (38.8%)

On the other hand, rarely, journalists present the opinion of the actors, whether we are talking about Al Jazeera, New York Times, or Sputnik (Table 4).

40

Table 4: Actors positions presented by media Number of articles Journalists personal opinion Al Jazeera 24 2 (8.3%) New York Times 32 3 (9.3%) Sputnik 18 1 (5.5%)

Finally, none of the articles provide peace initiatives.

5.2 Libyan revolt

The critical events of the fall of Tripoli and Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s murder gained a lot of attention from all media as far as Libyan revolt is concerned. The clear motivation for this attention on these two particular events comes from the fact that the fall of Tripoli was the sign of end of the Libyan civil war. Additionally, this event was additional

41 evidence for the success of the Arab World revolutions that overthrow the then existing regimes. As for the Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s death, this event was important because it was hard- evidence for the end of Libyan civil war and the beginning of a new era in Libyan politics. In the following two subsections, light shed on how these events were reported by Al-Jazeera, New York Times and Sputnik.

5.2.1 Fall of Tripoli

The New York Times reported the event through introducing several quotations from world leaders on the event. Consider the followings excerpts.

“President Obama said the Gaddafi regime had reached a "tipping point". The UK said the end was near for the Libyan leader,and urged him to go.

In Washington, President Obama said in a statement: "Tonight, the momentum against the Gaddafi regime has reached a tipping point. Tripoli is slipping from the grasp of a tyrant."

UK Prime Minister David Cameron said it was clear "that the end is near for Gaddafi".

Mr. Cameron said the Libyan leader had "committed appalling crimes against the people of Libya and he must go now to avoid any further suffering for his own people”

Additionally, the New York Times mentioned the events without any reflection, so they are mirror to what occurred. Consider the following examples:

“Fighting has continued overnight in some districts while the rebels and their supporters have been celebrating on Green Square - which they renamed Martyrs' Square.

During the day, one group of rebels had pushed in from the west while another set up checkpoints on the eastern outskirts.

It is clear there have been bloody battles in parts of Tripoli, our journalist reports from the city.

TV footage showed Libyans kneeling and kissing the ground of Tripoli in gratitude for what some called a "blessed day".

42 “Government forces still control parts of the city, including the areas around Col Gaddafi's Bab al-Azizia compound and near the hotel where foreign journalists are staying, south of the city centre.

In an audio message broadcast late on Sunday, the Libyan leader urged residents to "save Tripoli" from the rebels”.

Furthermore, the New York Times reported what the officials in Gaddafi’s government said about the opposition’s attack of Tripoli.

“The Libyan information minister accused NATO of backing "armed gangs" with air power. He added that the Gaddafi government was prepared to negotiate directly with the NTC.

Libyan Information Minister Moussa Ibrahim said fighting in the city since noon (10:00 GMT) on Sunday had left 1,300 people dead and 5,000 wounded. There is no confirmation of the figures”

Following the macro-structure of the article, it is obvious the New York Times did not place focus on one party, but reported all news related to all parties involved in the battle of Tripoli. As indicated above, the New York Times mirrored the situation and power relations as they were without any exaggeration. On the other hand, Al-Jazeera placed much focus on the idea that the rebels were powerful, and the aims of the Libyan Civil war had been achieved (www.aljazeera.com).

“A rebel spokesman told Al Jazeera that "Libyan territory is 90 to 95 per cent under the control of the rebellion".

"We've been told about clashes as rebels try to regain control of Abu Salim, the pro- Gaddafi neighbourhood that took a lot of casualties yesterday when rebels took on Gaddafi loyalists there."

The rebels are also determined to find Gaddafi and have offered amnesty and a reward to anyone who kills or captures the 69-year-old Libyan leader.

Gaddafi's forces are still fighting, we are surprised. We thought they would surrender with the fall of Tripoli," rebel commander Fawzi Bukatif said.

Rebels said Gaddafi forces were pounding rebels holding the centre of Zuwarah, west of Tripoli, adding that they needed reinforcements to help them break the siege”.

43

The whole article is about the rebels and the fact that Tripoli was under their control. This emphasis can be accounted for following my assumption above that Al-Jazeera used to empower the protestors (here rebels), give voices to the voiceless, expose power abuse, and mobilize people to remedy social wrongs (Gaddafi’s corruption). Furthermore, Al-Jazeera insisted on the notion that pro-government forces might kill the locals and hence the assumptions that these forces are so bad and they can do anything to sustain Gaddafi’s regime (www.aljazeera.com).

“Sue Turton, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Tripoli, reported on Thursday that locals are very worried that there are going to be attacks by pro-Gaddafi supporters across the city.

"There are check points popping up all over the city. Locals are managing to get hold of weapons to police their streets," she said.

"There is a lot of nervousness … people are very worried that Gaddafi loyalists are coming through these streets.

"They are worried that there will be some sort of attacks across the city, not just in areas we know about but even in areas like this that look quite sleepy.

"We've been told about clashes as rebels try to regain control of Abu Salim, the pro- Gaddafi neighbourhood that took a lot of casualties yesterday when rebels took on Gaddafi loyalists there."

Additionally, it is observable that Al-Jazeera reporting the fall of Tripoli focused on the role of NATO in helping the rebels. This focus constitutes an attempt by Al-Jazeera to minimize any deadly outcomes of the rebels attacking the city, given that the international community helped them. According to both channels, there were a lot of death and causalities among locals, which could cast doubt on the main objectives of the battle of Tripoli. Although the role of NATO had been reported in the New York Times, Al-Jazeera elaborated on it in a way that legitimize the offensive conducted to capture Tripoli. Consider the following Table 5 that includes how NATO’s role in the battle to capture Tripoli had been reported by both channels:

44 Table 5: Reporting NATO’s role in the battle to capture Tripoli

The New York Times Al-Jazeera

Rebel forces advanced from the east and west in Liam Fox, Britain's defence minister, said on recent days, backed by NATO aircraft enforcing Thursday that NATO is supporting Libyan rebels a UN resolution to protect civilians. in hunting Gaddafi and his sons and has stepped up air raids targeting Gaddafi loyalists.

The Libyan information minister accused NATO Fox said NATO operations would continue until of backing "armed gangs" with air power. He pockets of resistance containing Gaddafi loyalists added that the Gaddafi government was were eliminated, and this could take some time. prepared to negotiate directly with the NTC.

"There was increased NATO activity last night including British fast jets because there are areas of resistance by the regime which has had considerable levels of military expertise, still has stockpiles of weapons and still has the ability for command and control.

“They may take some time to completely eliminate and it is likely there will be some frustrating days ahead before the Libyan people are completely free of the Gaddafi legacy.”

It is clear that the New York Times even reports what the officials in Gaddafi’s government said about NATO’s role. This indeed reflects how professional is the New York Times, and the same time how Al- Jazeera driven by its ideology in conceiving the rebels as powerful.

On the contrary, Sputnik behaves closer to Al Jazeera by presented only one side of the conflict by almost totally omitted the other parts. This fact may highlights the influence of the country of origin and politics on the media.

45

5.2.2 Colonel Muamar Gaddafi’s murder

As is the case with other articles, the New York Times focused on the news itself, brought some background information about it, and cited some relevant quotations from world leaders without any reflection on the event. Consider the following excerpts taken from the New York Times’s article reporting this event.

Focus on the event ↓ “Acting Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril announced the death, and later said the colonel had been killed in a crossfire between Gaddafi loyalists and fighters from the transitional authorities. He confirmed that Col Gaddafi had been taken alive, but died of bullet wounds minutes before reaching hospital.

"When the car was moving it was caught in crossfire between the revolutionaries and Gaddafi forces in which he was hit by a bullet in the head," said Mr Jibril, quoting from the report.

"The forensic doctor could not tell if it came from the revolutionaries or from Gaddafi's forces."

46 Background information ↓ “Col Gaddafi was toppled from power in August after 42 years in charge of the country”. Quotations from world leaders ↓ “US President Barack Obama said it was a "momentous day" for Libya, now that tyranny had fallen. He said the country had a "long and winding road towards full democracy", but the US and other countries would stand behind Tripoli.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron, who had taken a leading role in Nato's intervention, said it was "a day to remember all of Col Gaddafi's victims".

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called it a "historic" moment, but warned: "The road ahead for Libya and its people will be difficult and full of challenges."

Based on these findings, it can be stated that the New York Times’s process of production and consumption (what is called as ‘discourse practice’ is driven by the event itself not by its hidden ideology. The text is produced following its background and present status without any type intervention in directing the audience to focus on one part and neglect another part. This gives rise to the assumptions that the New York Times does not mirror the event as a communicative occurrence with hidden ideology to be delivered to the readers (www.nytimes.com).

On the other hand, Al-Jazeera did not only focus on the news itself but also reported what other Libyans said about the event. Reading Al-Jazeera’s article, it is clear that Al-Jazeera focused much on the locals’ happiness in murdering Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. Consider the following table which summaries the main topics of Al-Jazeera’s article reporting Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s murder:

47

Some information on the event ↓ “Muammar Gaddafi has been killed after National Transitional Council fighters overran loyalist defences in the toppled Libyan leader's hometown and final stronghold of Sirte.

But questions remained on Thursday over the circumstances of Gaddafi's death as footage appeared to show he had been captured alive, following an apparent attempt to flee the besieged coastal city in a convoy which came under fire from French warplanes and a US drone aircraft.

Other footage showed Gaddafi's lifeless and bloodied body being dragged along a road”.

Locals’ happiness with Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s murder ↓ “Crowds took to the streets of Sirte, Tripoli, Misrata and Benghazi, the eastern city that spearheaded the uprising against Gaddafi's 42-year rule in February, to celebrate the news, with some firing guns and waving Libya's new flag.

"I'm so proud now," a Tripoli resident told Al Jazeera. "It's a new era. Look to our eyes and you'll see happiness, finally.

"I'm so proud now," a Tripoli resident told Al Jazeera. "It's a new era. Look to our eyes and you'll see happiness, finally”

Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s son’s murder ↓ “One of Gaddafi's sons, Mutassim, was also killed on Thursday, having been hiding with his father, Mahmoud Shammam, Libya's information minister said. Earlier reports had suggested that he had been captured alive but injured

48

"Thank God they have caught this person. In one hour, Sirte was liberated," a fighter said (10/2011)

Al Jazeera's Tony Birtley, reporting from Sirte, said Libyans there were celebrating the beginning of a "new Libya".

"This is bringing a form of closure," he said. "Gaddafi stayed true to his words, that he would stay in Libya till the end.

Al-Jazeera depicts the event as a communicative event that expresses how happy locals were with Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s murder. This can be taken in par with the ideology of Al- Jazeera in conceiving Arab Spring revolts as legal and anything protestors did is legitimate, while all deeds of the then existing regimes. In view of this, it can be claimed that Al-Jazeera’s sociocultural practice (Fairclough 2001) is driven by its ideology rather than the event itself. On the other hand, power is a crucial constituent of analyzing discourse and the ways in which linguistic forms are utilized in various expressions and manipulations of power. The last point we discuss here is the lexical choices chosen by the two channels to describe Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and his murder. Examining the words used is important both in revealing how the microstructure level of the articles is constructed (Sheyholislami, 2001) and in uncovering any implicit messages the channels is to deliver (Al-Ali, 2006). A closer look at Al-Jazeera’s article it is evident that Al-Jazeera used several words to describe Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. For instance, Al-Jazeera used the expressions Gaddafi's lifeless and bloodied body, whereas the New York Times and Sputnik remained using the word killed. I interpret this lexical choice as it is derived from power relations. Within the CDA, power is a crucial constituent of analysing discourse and the ways in which linguistic forms are utilized in various expressions and manipulations of power. Al- Jazeera stresses the notion that Colonel Muammar Gaddafi becomes totally powerless, while protestors are powerful. As discussed above, this comes from Al-Jazeera’s ideology in depicting Arab revolts as successful and powerful in overthrowing the existing regimes at the time. On the other hand, the New York Times and Sputnik expressed the power relations as they were. Therefore, it can be concluded that the main difference between the three media is their perspective on the incidents and their focus on the negative points and facts.

49 Chapter 6: Conclusion

In conclusion, literature supports that generally the role of media is connected with people’s actions since they can shape public opinion by providing people with specific information. Additionally, media can present a positive impact when they properly inform the public on an event, while on the contrary, their role can be characterized as negative when they try to affect the community based on the wrong motives. Moreover, the recent literature highlighted the role of social media and it characterizes them as an important communication tool since everyone have the ability to comment and participate on a discussion only by having access on the internet. As a result, social media allow individuals to communicate, express themselves, in real-time, and therefor to incorporate their views and opinions on every subject that seems important to them such as political and economic issues. Particularly, social media and traditional media have the ability to communicate with the public and through transferring information to alert the public opinion and make people think towards different issues and problems, this was also the case in Libya.

However, the way media present the information is also affected by the overall context and environment within they operate. Therefore, there are differences on how the multiple media networks present and report on the same event. It turned out that Al-Jazeera’s reporting to these events was different from that of the New York Times and Sputnik. Answering research questions found that there are differences on their perceptions of the events and the main frames that were presented on their articles. The main focus of Al Jazeera was on public affairs frames, violence and human interest. On the contrary, the main frame of New York Times was violence, human interest and public affairs. Similarly, Sputnik focus on violence, public affairs and other countries position. As a result, it can be said that the articles on New York Times and Sputnik were focused on violent incidents while those of Al Jazeera on public affairs (Research question 4).

Furthermore, Al Jazeera at first promote the view of citizens and provide information to the public mainly based on the opinion and the point of view of the participants. In addition, the network presents the protestors as the ones who hold the power while it depicts the governments’ as powerless. This fact leads the public to participate and share its opinion (Research question 2). Moreover, Al Jazeera tends to maximize the original event by mentioning some other incidents which are not usually relevant to the main event as well as it is never mention

50 the actions of the governments to control the whole situation. In total, the network uses the events in order to promote its own agenda and push the citizen to fight for what they believe.

On the contrary, the New York Times following by Sputnik used to report the news without an obvious hidden agenda. However, they sourly focus on specific parts of the revolutions rather than all the parts. Both networks focus at the main event without adding other unrelated information and incidents. Specifically, the New York Times explain to the citizen the situation by providing him with information regarding what happened at the past. Additionally, both channels mention which are the comments and opinions at an international level as well as the New York Times can be said that it does not seem trying to manipulate the public and it holds a professional position while the other two networks seem to express more controlled opinions. As a result, the main differences between the three networks are related to the way they present and comment on the events that follow Libyan Arab Spring (Research question 1).

Finally, regarding Research question 3 and whether the journalists provide peace initiatives, it can be stated that in all cases there are some phrases that promote peach but compare to the actual facts and the information about the protests and the main events, were presented in a very small proportion of the articles.

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Appendix

 Sample of New York Times articles

62

63

64

65  Sample of Al Jazeera articles

(aljazeera.com, 17 Feb 2011)

66

(aljazeera.com, 31 Mar 2011)

67

(aljazeera.com, 22 Feb 2011)

68  Sample of Sputnik articles

(sputniknews.com, 19:53, 31.05.2012)

69  Area maps

70

71