Framing Catastrophe: A Critical Discourse Analysis of BBC's English-Arabic Translation of the Sudan Conflict (2023–2026)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.65405/2zdgkf61Keywords:
news translation, critical discourse analysis, multimodal framing, BBC Arabic, Sudan conflict, corpus-assisted analysis, institutional translationAbstract
This study examines how the BBC constructs divergent narratives of the Sudan civil war for English and Arabic audiences through critical discourse analysis of 45 parallel news articles (2023–2026). Analysis reveals systematic patterns of addition, modulation, and transposition that construct distinct legitimacies for the Sudanese Armed Forces and Rapid Support Forces. Arabic versions employ more evaluative language, explicit agency attribution for RSF actions, and cultural framing devices, reflecting institutional navigation between impartiality mandates and Arabic audience expectations. The study contributes empirical evidence of how translation mediates competing narratives about catastrophic human suffering.
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