A Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis of the Representation of Women in Four Algerian News Outlets between 2016 and 2021

Aimeur, Taoues (2024) A Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis of the Representation of Women in Four Algerian News Outlets between 2016 and 2021. Doctoral thesis (PhD), Manchester Metropolitan University.

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Abstract

The present study adopts a Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis (FCDA) approach (Lazar, 2005) to critically examine the way women are represented in four Algerian news outlets. More specifically, it aims at uncovering the main discourses and ideologies embedded in two Arabophone and two Francophone newspapers in Algeria between 2016 and 2021. This period witnessed social and political changes that challenged hegemonic beliefs about women in Algeria. Therefore, the aim of the thesis is to investigate whether the selected newspapers represent this change in their discursive construction of women by analysing their linguistic and visual texts. Since the Arabophone and the Francophone newspapers have different ideological affiliations, the present thesis seeks to compare between the two types of newspapers to see whether this influences the way they portray women in their texts. The Arabophone newspapers chosen for the research are Echorouk El Yawmi and El Khabar. As for the Francophone ones, El Watan and Liberté have been selected. The data of the study are analysed using the three-dimensional model proposed by Fairclough (1989; 1992), which consists of the categories of description, interpretation, and explanation. Based on these levels of analysis, the results of the study reveal a complex interaction of diverse perspectives on women in the newspapers. Hegemonic discourses that reinforce imbalanced power relations between women and men are particularly prominent in the Arabophone newspaper Echorouk El Yawmi. The El Khabar newspaper contains both hegemonic and non-hegemonic perspectives on women. In contrast, the two Francophone newspapers predominantly adopt a progressive stance on gender relations in their texts. The results of the study, hence, show differences in the way women are positioned in the Arabophone and Francophone newspapers in Algeria.