Hydrogen Discourse in the MENA Region: Storylines and Constructions of Opportunities and Risks in the Media

Abstract This article examines how nine Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) states construct the hydrogen economy in their government-aligned media discourse. Analysing 177 media articles published between 2020 and 2023 across Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and the UAE, the article employs Hajer’s storyline analysis, grounded in Foucauldian discourse theory and Said’s Orientalism as an interpretive lens, to identify dominant storylines and constructions of risks and opportunities. It identifies seven storylines in three analytical categories: Subject storylines, capturing how states construct themselves and others through hydrogen; Solution storylines, constructing hydrogen as an enabler of modernization and ecological progress; and Problem storylines, revealing how existing power structures resist or absorb the transition. Three key findings emerge: (1) Subject storylines dominate, with economic-nationalistic leadership aspirations and a European partnership focus that can be read as reproducing Europe-MENA dependency patterns, while environmental and social issues are sidelined; (2) Solution storylines instrumentalize environmental benefits as rhetorical vehicles for economic diversification rather than as independent drivers of transition; (3) significant variations across the nine states reveal three distinct strands of response, challenging monolithic representations of MENA. Taken together, the findings suggest how Orientalist discourses can operate through seemingly technical hydrogen reporting.