Description
‘Western civilization’ is constituted through its representations of ‘non-Western’ Others. How, then, does the West secure its identity in times of internal crisis? Research has shown how news frames juxtapose the West to Others – such as Iran – to secure a coherent and superior sense of Self. However, opposition within the West threatens the normalised relations and representations that constitute members’ existence. An analysis of Western news framing of the 2018 U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear accord – as a moment of internal crisis – reveals how Western identity was secured in American and British newspapers. News coverage of this crisis took place in the context of broader tensions in the West, notably the aftermath of the Brexit referendum and then-U.S. President Donald Trump’s presidency. In this coverage, Trump was framed as a disruption to routine familial relations within the West. But in framing the U.S. president as a ‘rogue’ Other – the same way Iran was framed – British and American journalists helped resecure long-held ideas of Western identity linked to liberal values and global leadership. By maintaining this comforting and familiar image of Self, this news language re-naturalised Western civilization despite challenges to its very core.
