| Summary: | 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.
|
|---|
