The Attitude of the Jordanian Media Discourse towards Israel 2017-2021

Ahmad  Oreqat; Hani  Albadri; Mahmoud  Alrajabi

doi:10.35516/hum.v50i2.4952

Authors

Ahmad Oreqat Department of Digital Media, Faculty of Media, Middle East University, Amman, Jordan https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6952-3358
Hani Albadri Department of Radio and Television, Faculty of Media, Middle East University, Amman, Jordan https://orcid.org/0009-0005-7865-5052
Mahmoud Alrajabi Department of Radio and Television, Faculty of Media, Middle East University, Amman, Jordan https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3649-4247

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.35516/hum.v50i2.4952

Keywords:

Media discourse, vocabulary and linguistic structures, attitude, Jordan, Israel

Abstract

Objectives: This study aimed to identify the direction of Jordanian media discourse towards Israel.

Methods: The study used the critical discourse analysis (CDA) method. Articles from opinion writers were analyzed using the newspaper's archive in the "Ideas and Positions" section. The analysis was based on the Meta Data archive database, which contained a total of 5022 articles with their linguistic structures.

Results: The study found that the word "Israel" was mentioned 1588 times, accounting for 31.62% of the total repetitions. The term had the highest frequency of occurrence in 2017 and 2019, with rates of 8.04% and 9.08% respectively. The research sample also showed a higher frequency of total negative vocabulary and linguistic structures in the years 2018, 2019, and 2017, with rates of 11.43%, 11.05%, and 10.06% respectively. The Jordanian media discourse towards Israel was determined to be 49.14% positive, 36.60% negative, and 10.20% neutral.

Conclusions: It is recommended to exercise more scrutiny in the use of vocabulary and linguistic structures with positive significance when writing opinion articles for Jordanian newspapers. This is in line with the collective trend of rejecting negative normalization in public opinion. Additionally, caution should be exercised when using the term "Israel" in articles, as it carries a strong positive connotation in the local Jordanian media.

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