Critical Discourse Analysis of Yemeni Crisis in the Iranian and Pakistani Press on the Basis of a Model of Social Actors: Hamshahri and Jhang Newspapers in Focus

The present study aimed at critically analyzing two newspapers published in Iran and Pakistan and unraveling the views of the editorial boards of a Persian language newspaper and an Urdu language newspaper as a representative of two opposing political views in Saudi Arabia's stance toward Yemen. For this purpose, 88 news articles in each corpus reporting the Yemeni crisis were randomly selected and analyzed based on Van Leeuwen’s (2008) model of social actors. The results showed that Hamshahri represents Saudi Arabia more with activation, negative appraisement and spatialization features to represent Saudia Arabi as an aggressive and criminal who plays an active role in making war and murder. On the other hand, Yemen is more represented with subjection, aggregation and association features to emphasize its unity and alliance between Yemen government and the Yemeni people. Also, it represents a unity between Shiite government and Yemen people as passive actors who are oppressed and attacked with many deaths and injuries. Jhang represents both Saudi Arabia and Yemen more with activation, spatialization and aggregation features, and the Houthis with the negative appraisement as rebels and warmongers. Also, Jhang represents Saudi Arabia repeatedly with instrumentalization and spatialization features in order to support Saudi Arabia by reducing its role and its responsibilities in the crisis.