An Orientalist Narrative? The Framing of Qatar’s World Cup Hosting From the BBC and CNN

The 2022 World Cup hosted by Qatar was impressive in many aspects - from high-tech infrastructure to its role as the catalyst for environmental sustainability through various innovative projects. Yet, its news coverage was overshadowed by critical narratives highlighted by Western media outlets. The juxtaposition of its accomplishments and negative news framing highlight the complexities in news media representation of Qatar as a non-Western nation, or part of “the Orient.” This study adopts a critical paradigm and situates a socio-cultural lens of news discourse through Edward Said’s notion of Orientalism and framing theory. It examines how Western media outlets, specifically the BBC and CNN, reported on Qatar’s hosting of the 2022 World Cup, analyzing the key themes, sources, and tones adopted in their coverage. The study utilizes the content analysis approach from the BBC and CNN websites for the month before to the month after the end of the World Cup 2022, examining a total of 35 articles, 14 from the BBC and 21 from CNN. In addition to heavy reliance on internal journalists, this study argues that both websites employed negative tones in their reporting of the World Cup with morality as its most salient frame. Findings from this study contribute to the journalistic discourse on media representation and narratives played through the framing theory from the critical lens of Orientalism by Western media outlets.