Thesis (Ph. D.)--Washington State University, May 2009. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on May 29, 2009). "Program in American Studies." Includes bibliographical references (p. 175-189).

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This thesis studies the relations between media image, online news design, and the framing of identity. It scrutinizes current images of Arab identity and their representation in Aljazeera Net in order to examine how Aljazeera Net constructs the 'reality' of Arabs. The dissertation begins by defining Arabness in terms of ethnic, cultural and postcolonial identities. It proposes and assesses the sources of Arab identity and examines Arab identity as a source of meanings for Arabs. Likewise, it evaluates the sources of Arab identity in the Arab diaspora. Through the lens of a remediation approach, the study explores newly emerging practices in the representation of news, and investigates how the design of Aljazeera Net alters the construction of meaning in news representation. The frames that govern the representation of Arab identity determine the complexity of the image of Arabness, and reveal the differences between the acknowledged perspectives and evolving identity of Aljazeera. The study conceives Aljazeera Net as a space for the reciprocal relationship between Aljazeera and Arabs in diaspora, and as a site for the overlapping between the local and the global in media representations. Finally, it considers how Arabs in the North American diaspora, particularly Arab media experts, academics and community leaders, perceive their identity, and how they evaluate Aljazeera as a Pan Arab media.

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Al-Jazeera asserted itself in the global media scene shortly after the attacks of September 11th, 2001 in the United States. The station's regional prominence had already been entrenched in the new Arab media environment before it was overshadowed by the station's newfound global fame. Subsequently, al-Jazeera was considered an Arab media ambassador and the "voice of the Arab world." This dissertation provides an analysis of al-Jazeera's programming in Arabic that is lacking in the burgeoning English language academic literature. The dissertation furthermore highlights the way treatment of global current affairs informs a sense of Arab identification on a regional level. Moreover, it argues that, apart from competitive broadcast journalists, al-Jazeera offers an oppositional discourse of identification that does not necessarily challenge the hegemony of Western media discourses. By employing an oppositional stance expressed in typical anti-colonialist and anti-imperialist terms, it constructs an overarching notion of "Arabness" that is predominately discursive. / The dissertation analyzes three live talk shows: al-Ittijah al-Mu'akis (The Opposite Direction), Bila Hudoud (Without Boundaries), and Li-Nisa' Faqat (For Women Only). These talk shows are ideal sites for examining this oppositional discourse because they constitute important forums in which perceptions of identity are cultivated in the discussion of current affairs. In my analysis, each episode is treated as a media "text" that contributes to the formation of a discourse of "Arabness." The objective of the analysis is to identify the recurrent discursive patterns and strategies in providing the basis for this discursive category of identification across Arab state borders. In constructing an oppositional discourse, the United States and Israel are employed as necessary rhetorical references; Islam is infused into "Arabness" as a homogenizing constituent in identity formation; and finally, a culturally-threatened "Arabness" converges upon a context in which the world is marked by globalization. The dissertation concludes by indicating that al-Jazeera offers merely a representation of "Arabness" that, despite its power to influence, remains one way of perceiving Arab identity.