Victims, Exotic Warriors or Heroines? Framing the motivations of Kurdish female fighters in the war against Islamic State
(2018) MKVM13 20181Media and Communication Studies
- Abstract
- This thesis focuses on investigating how the three British newspapers, The Guardian, The Telegraph and the BBC News, frame the motivations of the Kurdish female fighters joining armed forces in the war against Islamic State. It also explores, what are the reasons behind these portrayals and in what ways Kurdish female fighters challenge the existing discourse of Middle Eastern women.
In order to accomplish this, a framing analysis with a qualitative content analysis approach was employed to explore the thematic and visual units in the collected 34 articles. Later, the data was analysed using postcolonial theories such as orientalism and standpoint theory, as well as mediatisation, which plays an important role in creating the frames... (More) - This thesis focuses on investigating how the three British newspapers, The Guardian, The Telegraph and the BBC News, frame the motivations of the Kurdish female fighters joining armed forces in the war against Islamic State. It also explores, what are the reasons behind these portrayals and in what ways Kurdish female fighters challenge the existing discourse of Middle Eastern women.
In order to accomplish this, a framing analysis with a qualitative content analysis approach was employed to explore the thematic and visual units in the collected 34 articles. Later, the data was analysed using postcolonial theories such as orientalism and standpoint theory, as well as mediatisation, which plays an important role in creating the frames and the stereotypes which influence how Middle Eastern or Muslim women are portrayed and perceived.
This research shows that, representation of Kurdish female fighters is still very much homogenised and simplified in the media. The analysis reveals that although the Kurdish female fighters are presented as brave and logical fighters, they are constantly framed though their physical appearances and family connections, thus taking the focus away from the fighters’ ideological and political motivations. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/8939596
- author
- Eskandari, Bafrin LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- MKVM13 20181
- year
- 2018
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Kurdish female fighters, YPG, YPJ, PKK, Peshmerga, Media, Motivation, Framing, Orientalism, Women, Middle East, Political violence, Islamic State
- language
- English
- id
- 8939596
- date added to LUP
- 2018-06-15 13:50:18
- date last changed
- 2018-06-15 13:50:18
@misc{8939596,
abstract = {{This thesis focuses on investigating how the three British newspapers, The Guardian, The Telegraph and the BBC News, frame the motivations of the Kurdish female fighters joining armed forces in the war against Islamic State. It also explores, what are the reasons behind these portrayals and in what ways Kurdish female fighters challenge the existing discourse of Middle Eastern women.
In order to accomplish this, a framing analysis with a qualitative content analysis approach was employed to explore the thematic and visual units in the collected 34 articles. Later, the data was analysed using postcolonial theories such as orientalism and standpoint theory, as well as mediatisation, which plays an important role in creating the frames and the stereotypes which influence how Middle Eastern or Muslim women are portrayed and perceived.
This research shows that, representation of Kurdish female fighters is still very much homogenised and simplified in the media. The analysis reveals that although the Kurdish female fighters are presented as brave and logical fighters, they are constantly framed though their physical appearances and family connections, thus taking the focus away from the fighters’ ideological and political motivations.}},
author = {{Eskandari, Bafrin}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Victims, Exotic Warriors or Heroines? Framing the motivations of Kurdish female fighters in the war against Islamic State}},
year = {{2018}},
}