A Critical Dissection of Media Narratives in the Salma Al-Shihab Case: Insights from Murray Jacob Edelman

Abstract

Every media has a certain tendency towards the reality of the issues constructed in the news, including the Arab media which recently reported the arrest of Saudi Arabian feminist activist Salma Al-Shihab for voicing freedom of speech on her Twitter account. Through Murray Jacob Edelman's critical analysis, this study aims to examine the construction of Arab media through Edelman's 4 framing elements consisting of categorization, ideology, rubrication, and classification. This type of research is descriptive qualitative. Data sources were taken from three Arabic news texts in BBC Arabic, CNN Arabic, and Amnesty International. The results of research from the four elements consisting of categorization, ideology, rubrication, and classification in the BBC and CNN Arabic media display objective news construction, in this case the two media do not show a tendency towards any party. This finding is supported by Amnesty media's explicit support for the human rights case against Salma Al-Shihab. In conclusion, in general, the Arab media provides support for the Salma Al-Shihab case.