Libyan Arab Spring… the Fall of the Dictatorship or the Fall into the Abyss, A CDA Study from CNN's Ideological Perspective

Abstract

The current study examines the Arab spring uprising consequences in Libya as reflected by CNN within its online news report. The primary goal is to unearth CNN's embedded ideological view concerning the internal conflict in Libya investigating and showing the discoursal positive ''Self'' and negative ''Other'' representations. CNN'S macro and micro structures were analyzed. At the macro level, the semantic macrostructure of CNN's article was summarized to establish its global meaning. At the micro level, the syntactic, lexical and rhetorical structures of CNN's online news article were analyzed to establish its local meaning. Within the ideological analysis, the CNN's online news article was discussed to establish CNN's ideological positive ''Self'' (in-group) and negative ''Other'' (out-group) presentations. In general, the study is an attempt to explain how a single reality-Libyan internal conflict- is viewed and dealt with by CNN. This can be achieved within the framework of critical discourse analysis (CDA). To conduct this qualitative study, the researchers adopted van Dijk's theory of Macrostructures (1980), van Dijk's theory of ideological square (1998) and Wodak's approach of Discourse- historical (2001, 2009). Furthermore, Fairclough's model for media discourse analysis was utilized to organize the analytical process. The study approved that CNN succeeded to reflect its ideological view. It expressed its support to the Libyan government (and its army) presented as the positive "Self" (in-group) and antagonism against Ansar al-Sharia militia (the Islamists) presented as the negative "Other" (out-group).