The representation of Yemen War in ideologically-stuffed newspaper headlines: A critical analysis

The current study attempted to explore the representation of Yemen war in ideologically loaded composition of Western, Arab, and Iranian newspapers headlines. It is basically a qualitative study in its nature. Fifty-seven headlines constituted the corpus of study. Therefore, the corpus included three Iranian newspapers, five Arab newspapers, and three Western newspapers, respectively. The headlines were mainly selected between 30 October 2014 and 1 May 2019 and were from the Arabian Peninsula, Iran, the US, and the UK. Norman Fairclough’s three-dimensional model was applied to engage the themes put across in the course of participants—processes’ representation regarding civilians casualties in particular in Yemen war. The findings of the study showed that both Western and Arab newspapers view the Houthis as rebels, and that the kingdom of Saudi Arabia claims to play a defensive role against Houthis (rebels) who are allegedly threatening its national security. In different circumstances, Iran does not only introduce the Westerners and Saudis as unwanted imperialists in the region, but also supports diplomatic means by criticizing the military actions and urging all conflict sides to find a diplomatic solution. Moreover, the probability of the conflicting discourses emerged in the region are attributed to the divergent ideological conceptions of Islam in the Middle East (Arab World) and in the Secular West