109. Name: Brandon Rodney Barbour Title: Narrative, the Event, and Identity Categories in Xinjiang: An Analysis of Discourse in English Language Media July 2009 (Al Jazeera, BBC, China Daily, New York Times, and Xinhua) Institution: University of Hawaii at Manoa Country: United States Date: 2011 Language: Arabic Abstract: This study analyzes the popular representations of the July 5 riots in Xinjiang. While numerous media outlets sought to narrate the events surrounding July 5, the study focuses on five major news sources: Al Jazeera, BBC, China Daily, New York Times, and Xinhua. The use of a geographically dispersed data set allowed the researcher to determine the most dominant discourses used in general and to understand how these discourses changed based on the location of specific reporting institutions. The date range of the study covers the first four weeks of reports in order to delimit the scope and focus on the early discursive framing of the July riots. Based on an initial review of the literature and narratives on the riots the study devised several general assumptions about the impact of the July 5 riots on identity and discourse. The media sensationalized the incident and created it as an Event that allowed for greater exposure within broad international media outlets. This exposure served as the foundation for the media to construct the Event as ‘ethnic’ conflict and reproduce group divisions through discursive framing.
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