Media Framing of the Arab Entrepreneur Woman

Abstract

In the context of the turbulence that shakes the Arab world on the political, military, economic, social, and religious levels, the media implants and reinforces different mental images of the Arab entrepreneur woman who still faces various obstacles and challenges. Media is the main source of knowledge for many Arab people. Consequently, the image of the Arab female entrepreneur in the recipient’s mind is influenced by the information given by the sender who has certain aims or propaganda. The internet allows the female entrepreneur a broader margin of freedom and ability of success. However, it also causes conceptual confusion concerning her reality and circumstances. This study aims at analyzing the media frames adopted by a group of websites in discussing the issues of Arab entrepreneur women between 2019 and 2020. How does the media present the term “entrepreneurship”? What are the characteristics of the entrepreneur woman according to the senders? What are the highlighted challenges and successes? Did the media iconify persons or was the discourse general? Was the trend of the content positive or negative towards the woman? Qualitative semiotic analysis is adopted to detect the explicit or implicit content of the message and the denotative and connotative levels of the significations. The study of the interrelation between verbal and non-verbal signifiers gives way to understanding the mechanism of reshaping reality through signs. The re-depiction of facts is done in several ways some of which are word selectivity, absenting, highlighting, exaggeration, simplification, and repetition. The importance of the research arises from the ability of media to not only convey realities but to create them as well especially since the dependence of the masses on the internet as the main means of knowledge and of organizing and performing vocational and social activities increases day by day. Therefore, the media portrayal of the female entrepreneur can raise or minimize her role, particularly in times of crises and wars. Despite the importance of this topic, there are not enough studies that tackle the media frames in the Arab discourse concerning the entrepreneur woman.