How mainstream Iranian newspapers portray the West: the influence of anti-Westernism and anti-Americanism

Abstract

Abstract The present paper is about the role of media in creating anti-American and anti-Western sentiments amongst Iranians. It studies how anti-Americanism has evolved in Iran and how, as an ideological representation, has influenced the press portrayal of the West in the country. It also identifies dominant frames in newspaper reporting of the West and indicates how the perception of reality and meaning-construction work in mainstream Iranian newspapers. For this purpose, content analysis and critical discourse analysis are used to analyse sampled news items published during Reformism (1997–2001) and Conservatism (2005–2009) in Iran. The current study also evaluates the impact of political affiliation of newspapers (as the first independent variable) and the political period in which they are published (as the second independent variable) on the representation of the West (as the dependent variable) in Iran. The findings of the present study are yet another contribution to study the West within the context of Occidentalism.