Representation of Somalia in Western media: The case of BBC and piracy

Abstract

This article intends to examine the way Somalia is represented by Western media like BBC to normalize and legitimate Western military presence in the coastal water of Somalia under the banner of fighting piracy. Hence the article approaches BBC online news through the critical discourse analysis. This is done in order to disclose the normalization traditions in the discourse of the news agency. Seemingly, this study aims to uncover how superior-subordinate power duality works on BBC online news reports. The paper tries to look at how the depiction of Somalia as `an inert fact of nature' normalizes the involvement of Western military power to establish hegemony in Somalia, in particular, and in the region of the Horn, in general. The purpose is to understand how BBC works into `othering' the government and people of Somalia and why it is necessary to depict Somalia and its people as distant `other'. Representation and Orientalism are implemented, trying to reveal how BBC serves as an agent of the Eastern world. The ambition of the news agency to normalize and legitimize Western military presence on the coast of Somalia using maritime security discourse as a stepping stone is also taken into consideration.