1 Introduction

The present study investigates the representation of the Egyptian January 25 and June
30 protests in the online versions of four newspapers; namely, The New York Times
(American), The Guardian (British), Al-Ahram (government-owned Egyptian), and Al-Masry
Al-Youm (privately-owned Egyptian). The first two newspapers reflect the international
perspective on both Egyptian protests, particularly the US' and the UK's, whereas the last two
represent the national perspective of the state-owned and independent newspapers on both
protests. The current study examines the news reports covering the extended protests periods
from the eruption of each to the ouster of the ruling president. The study uses the critical
discourse analytical approach (CDA) to analyze qualitatively these news stories so as to
uncover the above newspapers' ideological perspectives on the two protests, expose the power
relationships which are frequently hidden, and highlight the extent of the influence of
powerful groups and institutions in society on mainstream media, as held by a number of
scholars (Althusser, 1971; Fairclough, 1994, 2003, 2006; Gramsci, 1971; Herman &
Chomsky, 2002; Richardson, 2007; van Dijk, 1991, 1993a, 1996, 1998, 2000).

Since access to the news is a power resource in itself, newspaper discourse tends to be
shaped by the elements in society that are powerful and organized enough to generate press
materials, hold press conferences, and grasp media attention (Cottle, 2000; Iggers, 1999;
Manning, 2001; Richardson, 2006). Thus, news media adopt the views of the group(s) who
have the power to determine the experiences of others, which helps such powerful groups to
use the news media as channels for their propaganda (Molotch & Lester, 1974). In other
words, Iggers (1999) has believed, in consonance with Molotch and Lester (1974), that the
news media are biased towards the coverage of public bodies, politicians, and governments.
This has been further supported by Ashley and Olson (1998) as well as McQuail (1993) who
have argued that media are given some responsibility whenever the stability of a society is at
stake by war, crime, economic disaster, social protests, etc. Consequently, the media are more
likely to support the legitimacy of the state and delegitimize the challenges of social orders.
Accordingly, in the case of social protests, for example, the media attempt to diminish the
effectiveness of protesters and exaggerate the threat they pose to the society (McLeod, 1995;
McLeod & Hertog, 1992).

In correspondence to the assumptions of the aforementioned scholars, I argue that the

four newspapers under study could be influenced by the official mainstream perspectives on
the anti-Mubarak and anti-Morsi protests. However, the extent of such influence may vary
based on the ownership/political affiliation of each newspaper (see Chapter 2, Section 2.5.5).
To illustrate, the stand of the state-run Al-Ahram towards both protests might coincide with

1
the governmental position as opposed to the independent Al-Masry Al-Youm. Moreover,
Gouda (2014), in his article in Al-Masry Al-Youm, has highlighted Dr. Ismail Serageldin's
attempts to publish his article in which he tried to objectively explain what happened in Egypt
on the June 30 protests in two international newspapers, namely, The New York Times and
The Washington Post. Both newspapers refused to publish his article without stating their
reasons, and Serageldin contended that this occurred due to the editorial policies of each
newspaper which determined then what each could and could not publish. Serageldin also
pointed out that perhaps both American newspapers' policies were against publishing
anything positive about what was happening in Egypt after the June 30 protests in agreement
with the American government's negative attitude towards the protests at that time. To sum
up, the present study attempts to pinpoint via CDA the ideological stances of the four
newspapers towards the investigated Egyptian protests in light of the newspapers' coverage of
both protests.

1.1 Context of the Study

The present study is about the role of language in the construction of power relations
and ideologies and how it shapes and is shaped by these two elements. It discusses how
language plays a significant role, in accordance with Fairclough's (1995b) view, as a
constitutive of power, social relations, social identities, and ideologies within the media
discourse, particularly press discourse since the media are considered a power institution.
Analyzing the press discourse is important and interesting because society, as put by
Richardson (2007), impacts journalism via a variety of factors such as the ideological values,
institutions, social powers, and preferences of the target readers. However, journalists'
reporting practices are neither fully controlled by the aforementioned factors nor completely
open, and it is this range of choice that makes critique possible. That is, the limitations
imposed on journalism activities and outputs by the above factors lead journalism to have
special directions.

Consequently, Richardson (2007) has stated that, when critically analyzing journalistic
discourse, three levels of socio-discursive analysis and the interaction between them have to
be highlighted: (1) the economic practices, such as the production and consumption practices,
(2) the political practices, such as the influence of political institutions and governmental
forces on the content of the news, and (3) the ideological practices, such as the role of
journalism in spreading social values and mediating the ruling class ideology through its
content. The political and ideological practices are of the most significance to the present
study since the media tend to represent protest movements based on their political interests
and ideologies (Gitlin, 1980; McLeod & Hertog, 1992; Pan & Kosicki, 1993). The current

2
study surveys the representation of both Egyptian influential January 25 and June 30 protests
in four of the most famous newspapers in the American, British, and Egyptian Press and
examines the role played by language in establishing the images of such representation.

Different groups compete to control the media to legitimize and naturalize their
ideologies, beliefs, and values (van Dijk, 1995b). It is an instrument of social power or an
Ideological State Apparatus (ISA) in the sense of Althusser (1971), hence contributing, through
the representation of events and social actors, to producing and/or countering hegemony via
persuasion in the sense of Gramsci (1971). The two sweeping changes that occurred in Egypt
over the past seven years, namely, the January 25 and June 30 protests brought the country then
to the fore in the media reports. Although Egypt’s January 25 protests seemed spontaneous in
that they started and developed drastically resulting in the fall of Mubarak’s 30-year regime, a
number of factors accumulated throughout 2010 and before, leading in one way or another to
the outbreak of the anti-regime protests on Jan. 25, 2011 (see Chapter 2, Section 2.5.1 for a
detailed background of the protests). After the completion of the political transition term at the
end of June, 2012 by the success of the Muslim Brotherhood's (MB) presidential candidate,
Mohammad Morsi, in the elections, his one-year rule witnessed a number of tensions, starting
from his constitutional declaration and the heated debate over the new constitution and ending
with mass protests on June 30, 2013 calling for his departure and early presidential elections
(see Chapter 2, Section 2.5.2 for a detailed background of the protests). During both
investigated Egyptian protests, Tahrir Square at the heart of Cairo was the source of breaking
news around the world. International and national media outlets whether official or independent
reported the developments and events during each protest in different narratives by emphasizing
certain actions and de-emphasizing others and affiliating themselves with either side of the
conflict, namely, the regime and the protesters. The news reporting discourse of such media
outlets was employed to shape power relations during both Egyptian protests through their
representation of the protests and the involved social actors.

1.2 Objectives of the Study

The present study aims to unveil the ideologies of both Western newspapers, The New
York Times and The Guardian, and both Egyptian newspapers, Al-Ahram and Al-Masry
Al-Youm, towards the January 25 and June 30 Egyptian protests through examining the
language employed by the four newspapers in representing both protests. Furthermore, the
study investigates the extent to which such newspapers' ideologies have been steadily
indicative of the official mainstream ideological perspectives and fed by their
ownership/political affiliations, and hence giving support to the notion of media as an ISA.
The strategic choice of the Egyptian news outlets, Al-Ahram and Al-Masry Al-Youm, as

3
potentially representing two ends of an ideological spectrum has been meant to delineate an
official from an independent ideological perspective. For these purposes, news reports on both
protests published in the above four newspapers are analyzed using CDA.

1.3 Research Questions

The research attempts to answer the following two questions:

1- How would The New York Times', The Guardian', Al-Ahram', and Al-Masry Al-Youm's
use of language reflect their differential ideological perspectives on the Egyptian January
25 and June 30 protests with regard to the key social actors; namely, the presidents
(Mubarak and Morsi) and their governments, the anti- and pro-regime protesters, and the
army as well as five key events during each?

2- To what extent have such differential ideological perspectives by the four news outlets
been consistently reflective of the official mainstream ideological views, and hence
contributing to the notion of media as an ideological state apparatus?

1.4 Significance of the Study

The present study highlights the vital role of CDA in investigating the role of the media,
particularly journalism in representing influential social and political events like protests. One
view is that the policy of the media is often in agreement with the policy of the government
(Althusser, 1971; Richardson, 2007; Sheyholislami, 2001). In other words, Richardson (2007)
and Sheyholislami (2001) have held that policy-makers and power sources determine the
ideology of institutes such as the media though the latter are considered a power institute
themselves and have mutual impact on power sources too. Accordingly, the study examines
the interrelationship between media discourse, power, and ideology; it seeks to uncover
concealed power relations which reflect ideologies. The current study traces the relationship
between the international and national mainstream media and Egypt's January 25 and June 30
protests. In addition, it relies entirely on qualitative methodology, namely, CDA to answer the
research questions it raises since the main purpose is to interpret the latent meanings not the
manifest ones, and CDA is better suited to exploring the complexity and depth of media
portrayals (Richardson, 2007).

To my best knowledge, presenting the June 30 protests in the American, British, and
Egyptian press received little attention as well as comparing and contrasting the
representation of both protests in the aforesaid press. I have found only one study handling the
latter topic but only in association with the army's role in both protests in one American
newspaper, using a CDA framework. The rest of the previous relevant studies explored the
media framing of the January 25 protests or of some events and social actors during Morsi's

4
presidential term, apart from the June 30 protests, in such press and in social networking sites,
particularly with regard to the former protests whether using quantitative methods, notably,
content analysis and/or qualitative methods, notably, CDA (see Section 2.4). Different from
these studies, the present study extends the scope of research by attempting to reveal how
similar and/or different the ideologies of the Western and Egyptian (both state-owned and
privately-owned) newspapers at issue are towards both protests and to examine to what extent
the newspapers' ownership/political affiliation may impact their representation of these
protests.

In fact, news reporting discourse, in particular, is chosen for analysis as it includes ideas
and attitudes, not merely facts, as held by van Dijk (1991), despite being widely known as the
most informative press discourse and hence supposedly impartial. Accordingly, it could help
indicate the ideological stands of the examined mainstream newspapers' towards both
Egyptian protests, which is expected to enhance the reader's knowledge and awareness of the
manipulative nature of the news reporting discourse, thus promoting their critical abilities in
reading newspapers. Moreover, the current study also adds to the body of qualitative research
on the Arab Middle East, which contributes to bridging the gap between the linguistic, on the
one hand, and the media, social and political, on the other hand. Finally, the fact that both
protests are recent historic events in Egypt lends an important element of timeliness and per se
significance to the present study.

1.5 Rationale of the Study

There are two important reasons behind selecting the topic of the present study. First,
the media discourse, specifically the journalistic discourse is significant and influential being
related to people's everyday life and subject to various interpretations. Thus, they can be
manipulated to infuse certain ideologies and beliefs into their readers. To illustrate, the
January 25 and June 30 Egyptian protests even at the time being are of the prominent
international political issues, and different media all over the world discuss them with
different representations that stem from diverse ideologies. Second, the media, as Richardson
(2007) has maintained, both reflect the social and cultural structures of people's life and can
make changes within such structures through (re)producing discourses and practicing the
power they gain from their social position. This occurs despite the limitations forced on the
activities of the media by their own general policies and the policies of other power
institutions in the social context. It is of importance to explore whether the media would
continue performing such role at times of crises and crucial events that may influence the
social order.

5
1.6 Scope of the Study
The length of the present dissertation is huge; however, it is due to my attempt to
provide a comprehensive and balanced qualitative analysis that achieves the research
objectives and answers the research questions. Such analysis include elements that, to the best
of my knowledge, are not collectively tackled in any of the reviewed previous studies (see
Chapter 2, Section 2.4), hence making the present study more representative. To elucidate, the
present study is the first to examine both Egyptian January 25 and June 30 protests, along
with their all key social actors via five key events during each in four newspapers both
international (American and British) and national (state-owned and privately owned).
Moreover, it investigates three textual features through Fairclough's (1995a) three-layer
model of CDA and both van Dijk's (1995d, 2000) ideological square and strategies.
Furthermore, what adds to the length of the analysis is that most of the selected examples for
analysis are provided with the immediate context which precedes and/or follows them in the
examined news reports unless such context handles an irrelevant point to the given example.
This context is essential since it could strengthen, downplay, or even refute the negativity or
positivity of the image of a certain event or social actor presented in the example through the
examined textual feature. This considerably contributes to the interpretation of the given
feature and hence the representation of the protests. In other words, the exclusion of such
context, which comprises either the authorial voice's narration, description, or comment, a
conflicting side source's utterance, or other source's utterance, could lead to meaning loss or
misinterpretation on the part of the reader. Besides, all the analyzed examples from the
Egyptian newspapers are provided together with my translations which occupy further space.

1.7 Methodology
The following section draws an outline of the methodology of the research. It presents
the collected data and their selection criteria as well as the tools of analysis; the latter are
explained in detail in Chapter 2, Sections 2.1.2.2 and 2.2.

1.7.1 Data and Selection Criteria

The present study explores particular linguistic and discursive choices made by two
international newspapers, namely, The New York Times (American) and The Guardian
(British) and two national newspapers, namely, Al-Ahram (state-owned) and Al-Masry Al-
Youm (privately-owned) to represent the Egyptian January 25 and June 30 protests. It
analyzes such choices to unveil the ideologies behind the newspapers' representation of both
protests and to see the extent to which such ideologies have been consistently indicative of the
official mainstream ideological perspectives on both protests. The four newspapers represent

6
prominent mainstream widely circulated news outlets. That is, they are powerful in setting the
tone for reporting in their countries. For the reasons behind selecting these four newspapers,
see Section 2.5.5. The selected articles are categorized as news reports representing the type
of media discourse adopted for analysis in the present study. As Fowler (1991) and
Richardson (2007) have put it, news reporting, which is classified as being informative and
objective journalism, is not actually valueless and sometimes even explicitly biased since
value judgments lies in the processes of news selecting, writing, and presentation that are
decided against a particular social and economic context. Hence, news reports can evidently
reflect the ideological stances of the newspapers at issue towards both investigated protests
(See Sections 2.3.1 & 2.3.2 for further elaboration on the news reporting discourse & its
narrative style).

The data collected comprises 64 news reports divided equally into 16 reports from each
newspaper; eight news reports on each protest are thoroughly examined by including the
headlines, lead paragraphs, satellite paragraphs, and wrap-ups in the analysis, i.e. all the
sections of a news report (see Appendices A & B for a detailed description of the examined
news reports). These news reports have been selected on the basis of two criteria. The first is
that the news reports cover a unified number of days across both Egyptian protests for a
balanced representation of both in the data, i.e. to guarantee an equal amount of representation
of each protest. While the January 25 protests lasted for 18 days and the June 30 protests
lasted for only four days, the news reports on the latter also include two main events that led
to the first anti-Morsi mass protests, namely, Morsi's issuing of the constitutional declaration
and the passage of the disputable draft constitution. The news reports on each of the above
key events and the resultant protests continued to be frequently published in the four
newspapers for seven days, which makes it finally 18 days. In other words, the duration of the
study has been fixed to be 18 days starting from the actual outset of each protest until the
downfall of both regimes (more specifically, from Jan. 25 to Feb. 11, 2011; and from Nov. 22,
2012, when Morsi's constitutional declaration was issued and led to the eruption of the first
mass protests against his regime, to July 3, 2013). Such duration is enough to make it clear in
each newspaper's representation of each protest whether their stances were constant or
changed during each and/or immediately after the end of the targeted regime in association
with the then dominant power relations (see Sections 3.2, 4.2, & 5.2). The second criterion is
that the 32 selected news reports on each anti-regime protest cover five events representing
the frequently reported key events during each protest starting from the eruption of each until
the downfall of the president. The selection of these key events have been conducted based on
Holmes' (2012), Lim's (2012), Maher and Eskandar's (2012), and The Atlantic Wire's (2011)
account of the January 25 protests and El-Sebaie and Mouawad's (2014) as well as Sharp's

7
(2013) account of the June 30 protests, in which such key events have been underscored as the
main phases in the escalation of both protests, as listed below (see also Sections 2.5.1 &
2.5.2). Moreover, I have made certain that these events are the most important by scrutinizing
upon the surface of the news reports published on both anti-regime protests in each newspaper
via going through the headlines, subheadlines if available, and lead paragraphs in order to find
out the most frequent reported topics, which has come up with the bulleted key events below.
Furthermore, the selected events that occupied more space in each newspaper than the
selected corresponding others, i.e. covered in more than three news reports have been devoted
two news reports for analysis. After a thorough reading of all stories available on the selected
events below in the online archives of the examined newspapers, the final sample size of 64
news reports has been chosen for analysis.

To elucidate, as far as the January 25 protests are concerned, the five crucial selected
events consist in (See Section 2.5.1 for further elaboration on the below five events):

• The eruption of the protests on Jan. 25 (one news report from each newspaper).

• The Friday of Anger on Jan. 28 which witnessed violent clashes between the state police
and the protesters, resulting in police vacuum and chaos and hence Mubarak's sacking of
the cabinet and ordering of a nationwide curfew to save Egypt's stability in his first speech
to the nation since the eruption of the protests (two news reports from each newspaper).

• The Battle of the Camel on Feb. 2 that occurred in Tahrir Square between the pro- and anti-
Mubarak protesters after his speech on Feb. 1 when he promised political and
constitutional reforms, appointed Suleiman as vice president, and assigned him to open a
dialogue with opposition groups but refused to relinquish power (two news reports from
each newspaper).

• The largest million-man protest insisting on Mubarak's departure on Feb. 8 (Day of Egypt's
Love) tremendously influenced by a TV emotional interview with released youth activist
Wael Ghonim (one news report from each newspaper).

• Mubarak's resignation and ceding powers to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces
(SCAF) on Feb. 11 after his frustrating attempt to cling to authority in his final speech on
Feb. 10 (two news reports from each newspaper).

As for the June 30 protests, the five central events selected lie in (See Section 2.5.2 for
further elaboration on the below five events):

• Morsi's constitutional declaration on Nov. 22, 2012, by which he was criticized for
usurping all state powers and thus leading to the eruption of the first mass protests against
his regime on Nov. 23 (two news reports from each newspaper).

8
• The beginning of the rush approval of Egypt's post-January 25 protests controversial draft
constitution on Nov. 29, 2012 and Morsi's deciding on Dec. 15 as the date for public
referendum on such constitution. This occurred despite the liberal and secular members'
boycotting of the constituent assembly and the continuous anti-declaration and anti-draft
constitution mega protests on the part of Morsi's opponents, resulting in many casualties in
the first most violent clashes between the anti- and pro-Morsi protesters on Dec. 5 (two
news reports from each newspaper).

• The eruption of Tamarrod's planned June 30 million-man protests based on gathering

public petitions calling mainly for Morsi's downfall and early presidential elections (one
news report from each newspaper).

• The military intervention in response to the public's demands via issuing a statement on
July 1 giving a 48-hour time limit for all parties to reach a consensus in an attempt to
resolve the internal conflict and meet the people's legitimate demands (one news report
from each newspaper).

• The military's announcement of a roadmap via a televised speech to the nation on July 3 by
which Morsi was ousted, the constitution suspended, and a non-military interim leader
appointed (two news reports from each newspaper).

The selected news reports have been collected from the archives of the four newspapers'
websites, reporting on the same selected events, and the search for such reports in the archives
has been conducted via the use of dates. However, it has to be noted, in both Egyptian
newspapers, that the articles reporting on each investigated key event were published the day
after the occurrence of such event(s) in contrast to the examined Western newspapers whose
reports on the same event(s) were published online on the day of occurrence. Appendix A
displays the examined news reports on the January 25 protests, and Appendix B describes
those on the June 30 protests. Such description of the examined reports includes the key
events tackled by each news report in addition to its headline, length in words and lines, and
publishing date. In both Appendices, each two news reports issued with the same date on a
given key event are ordered alphabetically as (a) and (b) based on the alphabetical order of
their headlines to avoid confusion. Through examining the number of words of the analyzed
news reports in each newspaper in hand, it can be observed that I have analyzed 29251 words
on the January 25 protests and 27782 words on the June 30 protests – a total of 57033 words.
That is, the data collected on both protests are very close in length since the difference lies in
only 1469 words more on the January 25 protests. Furthermore, it can be noted that the
examined reports in the international newspapers are generally longer than those in the
national newspapers, with The New York Times containing the longest articles (10468 words

9
on the January 25 protests and 10075 words on the June 30 protests) followed by The
Guardian (8811 and 8037, respectively). As for the two Egyptian newspapers, their news
reports are very close in length, with Al-Masry Al-Youm containing longer reports on the
January 25 protests than Al-Ahram (5104 and 4868, respectively) and the latter containing
longer reports on the June 30 protests than the former (5020 and 4650, respectively). Thus,
bearing the news report length in mind, the number of the selected examples from each
newspaper should have been proportioned accordingly. That is, I should have provided more
examples from the American newspaper than the British newspaper, and the examples chosen
from both should have exceeded those taken from the Egyptian newspapers. Moreover, the
examples analyzed on the January 25 protests should have been a bit more than those on the
June 30 protests according to the aforementioned total number of the words of the news
reports at issue. However, this is not the case in the present study for two reasons.

To explain, first, I have attempted to provide a balanced and equal-amount

representation of the ideological stance of each newspaper towards both protests. Second, I
have attempted to avoid, on my part, any sign of bias towards or against any of the
investigated protests and any of the examined newspapers. Therefore, I have tended to select
an equal number of examples from the four newspapers on every investigated sub-point under
the analysis of each of the examined Egyptian protests in the three chapters of analysis,
provided that the examples are representative of the textual feature(s) analyzed (i.e. they bear
no vagueness or ambiguity) and do not represent unnecessary repetition. Nonetheless, in case
a given news item (topic, issue, or event) is dedicated much more or less space in one or more
of the newspapers in comparison to the other newspapers at issue, the examples adopted from
such newspaper(s), accordingly, are more or less in number than its counterparts. In fact, such
space indicates the newspaper's perspective towards the newsworthiness of a particular issue,
incident, or key event and hence its stance whether negative or positive towards such news
item. Thus, it has been necessary to take this point into consideration via providing more or
less examples on this specific news item from this specific examined newspaper(s), which has
resulted in the very little difference in the number of the examples selected on both protests
from each examined newspaper. This is manifested in The New York Times' 42 analyzed
examples on the January 25 protests and 48 examples on the June 30 protests identical to The
Guardian's number of analyzed examples on each, Al-Masry Al-Youm's 44 examples on the
January 25 protests and 41 examples on the June 30 protests, and Al-Ahram's 42 examples on
the former and 43 examples on the latter, respectively. That is, the total number of examples
analyzed in the present study is 350 divided into 170 on the January 25 protests and 180 on
the June 30 protests (see Chapters 3, 4, & 5). If I had determined to select an equal number of
examples from each newspaper on both investigated protests from the very beginning without

10
paying attention to the aforesaid elements, this might have caused the presence of
unrepresentative examples of the analyzed textual features and/or redundant duplication.

All the examples taken from the Egyptian newspapers are translated into English by the
researcher so that readers of the present study who are not native speakers of Arabic can
easily follow up the conducted analysis. However, I examine the original Arabic version of
the selected examples, for the translation may necessitate changes in sentence structure,
topicalization, and order of information, as well as in the grammatical category of a particular
lexical item(s) in order to produce an equivalent meaning and function for a given example in
the targeted language. This can tremendously influence the analysis of the underlying
ideological perspectives of the Egyptian news outlets at issue. Besides, the online English
versions of Al-Ahram and Al-Masry Al-Youm are not fully equivalent to their Arabic online
and printed versions on all levels (linguistically, stylistically, etc,…). In addition, the present
study focuses on the news produced to the original targeted audience by each news outlet, i.e.
The New York Times' American audience, The Guardian's British audience, and Al-Ahram's
and Al-Masry Al-Youm's Egyptian audience. Another important point to highlight is that
throughout the three chapters of analysis, the analyzed examples taken from the examined
news reports are referred to by the number of the chapter which includes them, together with a
serial number written between brackets, as seen in (3.1), which indicates that such example is
the first in Chapter 3. This is to make it easy to refer to the examples in the analysis and cross
refer to them over the study. Each example or group of examples chosen for analysis on a
particular point is immediately preceded by the name of the newspaper from which it is
selected. Besides, every example is immediately followed by the full date of the related article
between brackets. Moreover, the tokens analyzed are both typed in boldface in each example
as well as in its provided translation, when taken from the examined Egyptian newspapers, to
be easily spotted and written in italics in the in-text analysis.

1.7.2 Tools of Analysis

A CDA framework is most suitable for the present study since it helps reveal how ideologies
and power relations are reflected in discourse. That is, the analysis of the collected data is carried out
qualitatively. Fairclough's (1995a) three-layer model of CDA is adopted and complemented with
both van Dijk's (1995d, 2000) ideological square and strategies as both fit well with the aims of the
study (see Chapter 2, Sections 2.1.2.2 & 2.2.1). In order to analyze the different linguistic selections
made in the journalistic discourse, the present study utilizes Richardson's (2007) model of textual
analysis since it is concerned with the analysis of the news-texts most common textual features,
which fits with the type of discourse analyzed in the present study, namely, news reporting

11
discourse (see Section 2.2.2 for further elaboration on the reasons behind adopting Richardson's
model).

In the present study, three textual features are investigated, as adopted from Richardson's
(2007) model of textual analysis, with some adaptations that are necessary for the analysis of the
examined news reports. To explain, first, lexical analysis is carried out by investigating naming and
predication and their important role in generating polarized classification schemes in the sense of
Fairclough's (1989) (see Section 2.2.2.1 & Chapter 3). Second, sentence construction analysis is
performed by examining Halliday's (2004) transitivity comprising processes, participants, and
circumstances in addition to the construction of such processes whether activated, passivized, or
nominalized (see Section 2.2.2.2 & Chapter 4). Third, intertextual analysis is conducted by
exploring particularly internal intertextuality (quotation and reported speech) in news narrative since
intertextuality is central to Fairclough's (1995a) model of CDA, representing one of the text-outer
factors and part and parcel of his textual analysis which comprises both linguistic and intertextual
analyses. It has been also emphasized by Richardson (2007) as being one of the essential discursive
practices of journalism; that is, it falls under the second dimension of Fairclough's model of CDA.
The analysis of internal intertextuality in the present study encompasses Fairclough's (2003) framing
of voices, Chen's (2004, 2005, 2007) comprehensive analytic tool of communicative verbal
processes, and Richardson's (2007) four types of reported speech that he has believed are most
relevant to the analysis of newspapers discourse (see Section 2.2.2.3 & Chapter 5). The qualitative
analysis of internal intertexuality is specifically supplemented with some counting of the various
quoted sources, the quotation types of their speech, and the reporting verbs used in citing such
sources. This is to further reveal and help interpret the similarities and differences among the
examined newspapers in their use of sourcing to express their stance towards both Egyptian protests
(see Tables 6-15 in Chapter 5, pp. 395-399 & 411-415).

An important point to highlight is my attempt to display neutrality and impartiality on my part

towards both investigated protests throughout the present study by selecting an operational lexical
item to refer to each protest and another to refer to the participants of each. My selection of such
operational lexical items is based on carrying out a word count of the various lexical items used in
the newspapers' investigated reports to name each protest and its participants. Such items are
arranged hierarchically from the most frequent to the least frequent according to this word count
process (see Appendices C & D). Consequently, the most frequent lexical item utilized by the four
newspapers in hand to refer to each protest has been chosen to name each protest in the current
study, along with the most frequent lexical item used to name the participants of each. To expound,
Appendices C and D demonstrate that the word protest(s) is the most used by both international
newspapers to refer to the January 25 and June 30 protests, respectively, in their examined news
reports: The New York Times (129/60) and The Guardian (100/46). Similarly, the word

12
‫ة‬L‫ه‬NOP/‫ات‬L‫ه‬NOP, which can function as a translation for the English word protest(s), is the most
frequently used by both national newspapers to name both protests; Al-Masry Al-Youm (30/24) and
Al-Ahram (35/13). The most frequent lexical item used to name the participants in both Egyptian
protests in the international newspapers' selected reports is protester(s). It occurs 88 times in The
New York Times' coverage of the January 25 protests and 42 times in its coverage of the June 30
protests and, in The Guardian, occurs 67 and 39 times, respectively. Likewise, the most common
word used to refer to the participants in both protests in the national newspaper's examined reports is
L‫ه‬NOSP/‫ ه‬/‫ هون‬, which can be translated into protester(s), occurring 91 in Al-Masry Al-Youm'
coverage of the January 25 protests and 51 times in its coverage of the June 30 protests and 51 and
37 times, respectively, in Al-Ahram. Furthermore, it can be noted that the word protest is the most
neutral of all the words used to describe both Egyptian protests based on the denotative meanings of
these words, as defined in the online Oxford Learner's Dictionaries and copied in Appendix E. To
illustrate, the words dissent, revolution, revolt, rebellion, uprising, and unrest encompass the idea of
objection to the officially accepted opinions and/or protesting against authority, especially that of a
government and the people in power, as noted in their definitions. That is, a sense of angry against
the political authority in particular prevails in the denotative meanings of these words. The word riot
involves violence in its definition, and the words chaos and anarchy also incorporate lack of order
and control in their definitions, which makes the three words more negative than neutral. Different
from the aforestated words, both protest and demonstration do not entail a particular entity against
which opposition is expressed and do not positively or negatively describe the people involved.
Since the word protest is the most frequent in the examined news reports and its meaning embraces
only an expression of disagreement, whereas the meaning of the word demonstration includes either
objection or support, the former is more convenient to be used as the operational term in the current
study. As for the words sit-in and march, they, respectively, describe protests either in movement or
at rest, as seen in their definitions. Accordingly, the word protest is the most neutral in comparison
to them all.

In accordance with the above analysis of the word count results and dictionary definitions, the
operational terms consistently used in the present study to name both investigated Egyptian protests
and their participants are protests and protesters, respectively. However, other lexical items are used
to refer to both protests throughout the analysis only when commenting on the description and
expressing the ideology of an examined newspaper in its particular reference to any of the protests
in a specific analyzed example or in a specific span of time. In the title of the present study,
nevertheless, I have used the term revolution to refer to both protests because it is in close relation to
the time span of the collected data that covers both from the eruption of each to the downfall of each
regime. To elucidate, immediately after the departure of each president, each event was named a
revolution by a large sector of the Egyptian public that participated and/or supported it, the official

13
government presiding over the nation during the transitional term after each, and the national media
whether state-owned or independent. Accordingly, such term prevailed over the term conspiracy
used by specific groups supportive of Mubarak to refer to the January 25 protests and the term coup
used by the MB and its Islamist allies, along with their partisan media outlets to refer to the June 30
protests immediately after the downfall of both regimes. Both groups were hardly given voice or
severely attacked in the Egyptian context after the departure of each ruler.

1.8 Outline of the Study

The present study falls into six chapters, as noted below:

Chapter 1: Introduction

This chapter presents the context of the study, objectives and research questions, significance
as well as rationale of the study, the methodology comprising a brief account of data collection and
the analytical framework, and finally the study layout.

Chapter 2: Theoretical Background and Review of Literature

The chapter reviews the literature relevant to the main areas tackled in the study. It presents
the theoretical framework that lies in CDA, along with its aims and key concepts, namely, power
and ideology, specifically in relation to media as an ISA as well as a tool of sustaining and/or
resisting hegemony. The chapter also provides a detailed review of the analytical framework
comprising Fairclough's (1995a) three-layer model of CDA, both van Dijk's (1995d, 2000)
ideological square and strategies, and Richardson's (2007) model of textual analysis of press
discourse which delivers the three textual features investigated in the examined news reports on both
Egyptian protests. The chapter also investigates media discourse, together with news reporting
discourse and the news report narrative style, being the genre examined in this study. The chapter
highlights the previous relevant studies that dealt with both protests and introduces a politico-
historical background of these protests, along with the U.S. and UK governmental stances towards
them. It finally presents the ownership/political affiliation of the four examined news outlets.

Chapter 3: Lexical Analysis: Classification Schemes, Naming, and Predication

The chapter provides a CDA, on the description and interpretation levels, of the selected news
reports on both protests by examining the referential and predicational strategies employed by the
four newspapers at hand. It underpins twelve polarized classification schemes generated by such
strategies. These schemes characterize the representation of both protests in the reports under
analysis and unveil the "Us" vs. "Them" dichotomy in each newspaper's coverage.

14
Chapter 4: Analysis of Sentence Construction: Transitivity

The chapter provides a CDA, on the description and interpretation levels, of the selected news
reports on both protests by investigating the transitivity structures employed in such reports as to
processes, participants, and circumstances, along with the construction of such processes whether
activated, passivized, or nominalized. The chapter reveals the ideologies underlying these structures
that contributed to creating common frames of the protests and the involved social actors in each
newspaper at issue, thus producing the Self and Other dichotomy in accordance with each
newspaper's stance towards both protests.

Chapter 5: Analysis of Internal Intertextuality in News Narrative

The chapter presents a CDA, on the description and interpretation levels, of the selected news
reports on both protests by examining internal intertextuality in news narrative. It underscores the
framing of voices in an antagonist-protagonist structure by investigating, the significant inclusion
and exclusion of voices, the formulations of their reported clauses, i.e. types of quotation as well as
reporting verbs utilized, the texture of voices in relation to each other, and the order and texture of
voices in relation to the authorial voice. Such framing of voices leads to constructing the Us vs.
Them dichotomous model according to each examined newspaper's ideological perspective on the
protests under investigation, which is also uncovered by the chapter. It ends with pointing out the
wider socio-political context where specific power relations influenced and/or shaped the
newspapers' examined discourse on both protests throughout the three chapters of analysis via the
explanation stage of Fairclough's CDA framework.

Chapter 6: Findings and Conclusions

The chapter provides a summary and discussion of the findings of the study. It presents the
similarities and differences in the language use of the four newspapers at issue to represent the two
Egyptian protests as well as the ideological tendencies underneath their representation. It also
highlights the conclusions and implications based on these findings and pinpoints the limitations of
the study. Finally, it ends with listing recommendations and suggestions for further research.

Disclaimer
This is not a dissertation in political science, and I do not seek to present arguments for or
against any of the two investigated Egyptian protests or the involved social actors in each whether
the protesters, the political parties and forces, the regimes and their supporters, or the various
engaged institutes whether the police, the military, or the judiciary. It is a linguistic study of the
media coverage, unveiling their views and ideologies, which do not reflect mine or the supervisors'.

15