Representation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam in the news media: a multimodal critical discourse analysis

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, a 6000-megawatt project on the Blue Nile, has been the subject of hostilities between riparian states, attracting media attention. This article examines how the project is multimodally represented in Ahram Online, Ethiopian Herald, and Sudan Tribune - national newspapers in Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan, respectively. Guided by the Social Semiotics Theory, this study employed the Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis method. Six news stories (two from each national newspaper), which were purposefully selected for their representation of key discursive events and their integration of both verbal and visual modes, were analyzed. -Findings reveal that Ahram Online and Ethiopian Herald multimodally portray the project with a polarized all-dangerall-benefit dichotomy, while proposing political-technical solutions to resolve disputes. In contrast, Sudan Tribune maintains a neutral position. We argue that the dichotomous representations and proposed solutions by Ahram Online and Ethiopian Herald are influenced by their alignment with their respective nations’ hegemonic and counter-hegemonic approaches to the Nile. Sudan Tribune’s neutrality is attributed to Sudan’s ambivalent stance towards the dam’s construction. Furthermore, we argue that these divergent multimodal representations of the project’s impact and solutions have contributed to conflicting terms, rather than cooperation among the three riparian countries.