Online News Coverage of the Arab World in Western Media With Special Reference to Religious Words in Selected Post 9/11 Events

The present study attempts an analysis and assessment of online news coverage of Arab world as exemplified by selected instances of religious references (to be specific, jíhād and its derivatives) in former Iraqi President Ṣaddām Ḥusayn's speeches/letters. These references are quoted and translated in some articles by selected Western online news institutions during Iraq war (Jan. – Dec. 2003). The excerpts are analyzed in the light of Mona Baker's narrative theory, Lawrence Venuti's domestication and foreignization theory and Javier Aixelá's strategies as models for such an analysis. The online news institutions selected for this study are the New York Times (NY Times) and Guardian. The present study envisages using a descriptive analytical approach. Such an approach certainly requires analyzing selected Arabic texts and English articles. Selected excerpts and models applied indicate that, to a great extent, selected journalists/translators are affected by their news institutions, which in turn, are influenced by official stances of their political regimes. Also, news coverage of selected online news institutions, which belong to countries which support and/or join coalition troops in invading Iraq, distorts Ḥusayn's religious references and creates narratives of differences, of homogeneity and terrorism regarding Iraq and its people, in target articles, to justify Iraq war. These narratives can, in turn, have negative impacts on Iraq images as well as Arab images in the West.