188. Name: Jaana Hakala Title: The Framing of Chelsea Manning in Opinion Articles on Al Jazeera English Institution: Tampere University Country: Finland Date: 2015 Language: English Abstract: This study examines how the American whistleblower Chelsea Manning is framed in opinion articles on Al Jazeera English. The examined material consists of the 34 published articles on the Al Jazeera English website between 2010 and 2013. The researcher sets the context by referencing Manning’s actions as part of the Western, especially American, whistleblowing tradition. Other examples include Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers leaked in the 1970s, and in 2013, details of the NSA’s activities were revealed by Edward Snowden. Within this tradition, the media commonly use anonymous sources like whistleblowers because they reveal information that the media would otherwise never have access to. In Manning’s story, WikiLeaks plays an important role because the documents leaked were published by this platform in cooperation with mainstream media. The research seeks to explain what kind of frames were set to Manning’s opinion articles in Al Jazeera English. The most common frames are the whistleblower, victim, hero, traitor and transgender. The most important unifying factor found in these frames is the notion that the US administration is morally corrupt and that social order is broken.
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