Al Jazeera’s Coverage of Jamal Khashoggi’s Murder

In the fall of 2018, the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi became headlining news all over the world. Khashoggi was a prominent critic of the Saudi government, he was especially critical of Saudi crowned prince Mohammad Bin Salman. The news of Khashoggi’s murder was followed gradually by Qatari owned news network Al Jazeera. Before the Khashoggi murder, in the summer of 2017 Saudi Arabia and her neighboring allies United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt placed sanction on Qatar. Those countries gave 13-point list of demands, which included the shutdown of Qatari news network Al Jazeera in order to lift the blockade on Qatar; the Qatar government disagreed with those demands because they believed it would affect their nation’s sovereignty. This study looks at how Al Jazeera covered the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, taking into account the Saudi-Qatar diplomatic conflict. This study analyzed six episodes from the news commentary show Inside Story on Al Jazeera English. Secondary data was collected through Al Jazeeras online archives. The study used qualitative methodology through critical discourse analysis. The findings of this study showed that the issues emphasized in Al Jazeeras coverage of Khashoggis murder were Saudi-US relations and how those relations have affected the Middle East. Al Jazeera used Khashoggis murder to openly criticize Mohammad bin Salman the Saudi crowned prince. Based on analysis the study also found that there was a connection between Saudi-Qatar diplomatic conflict and Al Jazeera’s coverage of the murder. Keywords: Critical discourse analysis, Jamal Khashoggi, Al Jazeera, Agenda Setting Theory, Gatekeeping Theory