Arab Media Reponses to The Iran-Israel Conflict: Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis Approach

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-563-8_11How to use a DOI?

Keywords

True Promise; Al-Mayadeen; Al-Sharq Al-Awsat; Al-Jazeera; CDA

Abstract

This analysis examines Arab media discourse surrounding the Iran-Israel conflict, applying Fairclough's three-dimensional model. The focus of this research is Iran’s operation of the “True Promise,” which is commonly understood from three different perspectives: pro, anti, and neutral. Related to the three levels of analysis in the Fairclough’s approach, namely description, interpretation, and explanation, the analysis was also explored from these three perspectives. The information is collected from three representatives of Arab online media, al-Mayadeen for pro-Iran, al-Sharq al-Awsat for anti-Iran, and al-Jazeera as neutral media. Based on the conducted analysis, it is concluded that in the level of description, pro-Iranian media portrayed the Iran operation as a justified response to Israeli aggression by highlighting Iran's military capabilities. Anti-Iranian media criticize Iran's actions and emphasize the potential for regional instability. Neutral media provide more balanced coverage by analyzing the potential consequences. In the level of interpretation, all of the Arab media encourage the Arab people to be independent. But pro-Iranian media call for cooperation with Iran to defend from Israeli aggression. Anti-Iranian media emphasize that the Arab people themselves are more than enough to destroy Israel. Neutral media provide promoted balanced coverage with ceasefire and dialogue as the main way. In the level of explanation, the lack of Arab people for war with Israel is the main topic in solving the conflict with Israel for the pro-Iranian media. Anti-Iranian media emphasize the pro-Iranian Arab as a traitor. Neutral media promote the international role to defend the Arab people.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Hamdan Kasturo
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/04/28
TI  - Arab Media Reponses to The Iran-Israel Conflict: Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis Approach
BT  - Proceedings of the 4th International Conference of Research on Language 2025 (IROLE 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 127
EP  - 146
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-563-8_11
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-563-8_11
ID  - Kasturo2026
ER  -