A corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis of Jordan’s 2011 protest movement in Jordanian newspapers

Abstract

This study adopts a corpus-assisted discourse analysis approach to examine how Jordan’s 2011 Hirak protest movement is represented in Jordanian newspaper opinion articles. It is based on a two-million-word corpus of two Jordanian mainstream newspapers, Al-Rai and Addustour, from 2011 to 2012. The corpus is examined using WordSmith Tools WS7, where frequency, cluster, and concordance analyses were conducted. The main findings revealed five main categories that were recurrent in the investigated corpus. These include the characteristics of the Jordanian Spring, the main features of the Jordanian Hirak, the major causes of the Hirak, Jordanian authorities’ reactions to the Hirak, and Jordanians’ attitudes towards the Hirak. The study concluded that the Jordanian Hirak protest movement is described positively in Jordanian mainstream newspapers. The Jordanian Hirak was described as popular and peaceful. In addition, the Jordanian Spring is depicted as green and distinguished, implying that the Jordanian Spring was prosperous and peaceful. The study recommends that future studies be conducted on the representation of Jordanian Hirak in Arab and international media outlets.