Paratextual reframing of visual elements in Al Jazeera’s coverage of the 2022 conflict between Russia and Ukraine

Abstract

Since it started in February 2022, the Russian-Ukrainian War has gained the interest of numerous news organizations. The reframing of visual elements of ten news items about the Russian-Ukrainian War is examined in this study. The Arabic versions are extracted from the Al Jazeera website, while the original articles were taken from The Atlantic and Foreign Affairs. Baker’s narrative theory is used in this paper (Baker, 2018). Comparing the visual elements in the English articles to their Arabic equivalents allowed researchers to pinpoint how they are paratextually reframed in the translated versions. The findings showed that Al Jazeera occasionally produces various, varied, and incongruent interpretations of the narrative. This could lead to multiple and, occasionally, dissimilar perspectives on the same story. The findings showed that Al Jazeera utilized paratextual reframing strategies involving visual elements, such as images, videos, and typographical features, to reframe the Russian-Ukrainian War. The research suggests that while the original media outlets initially framed the war according to their agenda, Al Jazeera altered this frame in the translated text. As a result, the target audience’s perception of the event under examination may change during the entire process.