Die konservative Frau und die Hoffnungsträgerin. Die visuelle Darstellung von Frauen in der Auslandsberichterstattung der ARD zum sogenannten Arabischen Frühling

Abstract

Women played an important role in the protests of the so-called Arab Spring: Together with other demonstrators, they stood up for more freedom and democracy in their countries. This article examines to what extent the portrayal of women in connection with the so-called Arab Spring is oriented towards gender stereotypes and whether this portrayal has changed since the beginning of the revolutions. For this purpose, articles of the foreign reporting of the television station ARD were compared to the time during the so-called Arab Spring - i.e. about ten years ago - with the help of a qualitative content analysis. The results show that stereotypes can still be found in the reporting. However, they change almost entirely over the course of the ten years studied. Whereas in the phase of the protests studied in 2011, experts repeatedly had their say in classifying and explaining events, ten years later individuals increasingly appeared who spoke for themselves. In both phases studied, it is noticeable that women mostly have their say when it comes to gender discourse. They are hardly ever placed on other topics. The ratio of videos in which women do not appear at all to those in which women are visible and do get a chance to speak has actually worsened over time.