The College of Mass Communication at the University of Baghdad held a master’s thesis defense titled “Journalistic Framing of Family Issues in the Arab Press: An Analytical Study of the Websites of Al-Sabah (Iraq), Al-Ahram (Egypt), An-Nahar (Lebanon), and Al-Sharq (Qatar),” submitted by researcher Amir Karim from the Department of Journalism.
The examining committee consisted of Professor Dr. Shukriya Kawkaz Al-Sarraj as chair, Assistant Professor Dr. Rawa Hadi as supervisor, Dr. Yusra Hamza as member, and Assistant Professor Dr. Ahmed Mawlood from the College of Mass Communication at Al-Iraqia University as an external member.
The study aimed to analyze journalistic framing of family issues on the websites of the four newspapers by identifying the most frequently covered topics, coverage orientations, information sources, journalistic genres, and visual presentation techniques.
The researcher adopted a descriptive approach, using the media survey method and content analysis. The purposive sample comprised 1,087 journalistic items published between January 1 and March 31, 2025, which were analyzed according to the study’s research categories.
The findings showed that the solutions and remedies frame was the most prominent in coverage of family issues. Women’s rights topped legal topics, customs and traditions dominated value-related issues, while deviance and addiction were among the topics addressed. Cyber extortion and housing received less coverage. The findings also revealed a predominance of positive coverage, a strong reliance on factual information, the prominence of journalists as information sources, and the frequent use of news reports as a journalistic genre.
The study further found that newspapers relied primarily on headlines, descriptive photographs, and the placement of articles at the top of the page as their main visual presentation techniques. It recommended greater attention to legal issues and personal status legislation in light of technological transformations and emerging family-related issues that require public discussion and appropriate legislative responses.
