English Abstract
Abstract:
Development has always been a substantial element of the overall societal change and improvement process, therefore Bahrain had realized, at the beginning of the Millennium, the importance of the Development process, coming out with lunching and obtaining the strategic Economic Vision 2030. The Media, on the other hand, have a major role in applying this desired change, leading this study to search for the ties between Media and Development, through identifying Bahraini Newspapers coverage of the development issues in scope of the Vision 2030.
The study reported here is a content analysis of Akhbar Al-Khaleej newspaper, conducted on 230 issues of the newspaper, specifically applied on 1863 economic news articles, covering the period from October 2008 until October 2013, based on both Framing and Development Communication theories as theoretical framework.
The study found that the newspaper was more interested in the positive local news, published within economic and technical context, and most often the private sector issues. Economically, the results of the study showed that most economic ways of development are derived from meetings and trade agreements signage, and that the financial and banking sector issues are the most published issues. Governmentally, the results indicate that the issues of future strategies and initiatives are most mentioned, and as for Community-based development, social assistance and welfare issues are the most covered issues. The study also found that the short story news is the most editorial arts were used, and that the newspaper relayed heavily on organizations press releases and anonymous sources as news source of information. Typographically, the results showed that the newspaper published most of the development issues colorfully, along with pictures and prominent titles, and clearly located on top sides of the pages, evidencing the high interest of the newspaper in covering development issues in scope of Vision 2030. Furthermore, the study has showed a great deal of emphasis on development issues at the beginning of the launch of the vision, specifically in late 2008, however, this interest started to decline slightly in 2011, due to the political events upraised in Bahrain during that period, but it did not last longer, as the focus on development issues had rapidly accelerated in 2012 onward.
