Framing the Egyptian Revolution: A content analysis of Al Jazeera English and the BBC

This article uses content analysis to investigate how Al Jazeera English (AJE) and the BBC framed the Egyptian revolution that took place in Cairo at the beginning of 2011. It analyzes a sample of 250 articles to understand how AJE and the BBC implemented five frames: attribution of responsibility; conflict; human interest; economic; and morality. As a result, AJE and the BBC had the similar tendency to focus on the first two frames, although the BBC was also somewhat likely to use the human interest frame. AJE reported more on different groups reproaching one another, and the BBC referred more to winners and losers. Most news articles were predominantly episodic, portraying the government as mainly responsible. In conclusion, AJE and the BBC tended to provide slightly different versions of reality.