Mémoire
| Résumé : | This dissertation examines Western media framing of the Sudanese protester Alaa Salah as she was transformed into an international icon for the Third Sudanese Revolution 2018-19. Her emergence as an international icon resulted from the diffusion of her image leading revolutionary protest chants on social media, and this was facilitated by the substantial coverage of her in international media, including Western outlets. A gendered reading of Orientalism is employed as the theoretical approach to analyse the logic behind the frames used in Western news material covering Alaa as an icon. The frames were identified through a qualitative framing analysis of news items featuring Alaa from a sample of media outlets based in the UK, the US and France. Their analysis through the lens of gendered Orientalism revealed an emphasis on certain Orientalist notions such as the alluring, exotic woman, a fascination for the ancient history of the region and stereotypical assumptions of Muslim or Arab women, pointing to an Orientalist logic behind the media coverage. This dissertation therefore demonstrates that Western media framing of Alaa as an icon can be understood as being rooted in Orientalist imaginings and ideas. As such, it is argued that the applicability of existing Orientalist frames to Alaa and her image in the West contributed to Western media’s coverage of her and, in turn, her development into an international icon for the revolution. These media frames rooted in Orientalism also had an impact on the way in which Alaa and the Sudanese revolution were perceived in the West. This research builds on scholarly work analysing the political dimensions of icons from the Global South going global and studies employing Orientalism to examine Western media representations of Arab or Muslim women. The principal contribution of this dissertation lies in the use of a gendered reading of Orientalism for examining Western media framing of female political icons reaching international iconic status from non-Western countries, and particularly the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). |
