Diwan: Jurnal Bahasa dan Sastra Arab
Vol. 18 No. 1 (2026)

Pragmatic acts and bilingual audience design: A critical pragmatics analysis of Al Jazeera Arabic and English in the 2026 Iran–Israel–US conflict report

Awliya Rahmi (Imam Bonjol State Islamic University, Padang, Indonesia)
Mouna Bechlem Bouratoua (Teachers Higher School Assia Djebbar, Constantine, Algeria)
Aya Qasim Hasan (Samarra University, Baghdad, Iraq)
Jarot Wahyudi (Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia)
Ahmed Shbair (Akdeniz University, Antalya, Turkey)



Article Info

Publish Date
28 Jun 2026

Abstract

How a single media institution constructs divergent meanings for two linguistically distinct audiences constitutes a salient question in media studies, particularly where that institution operates at the intersection of Arab and international news. Al Jazeera's Arabic (AJA) and English (AJE) services have attracted considerable scholarly attention as paradigmatic instances of this phenomenon. Previous research has mostly approached both media through framing theory or critical discourse analysis, neglecting the pragmatic mechanisms that direct meaning for different readers. Jacob Mey's critical pragmatics, through its concept of the pragmatic act (pract), affords a more precise entry point into this gap. Employing this framework for comparative analysis, the study examines AJA and AJE coverage of the Iran-Israel-US conflict across five thematic events (February-June 2026). Twenty purposively sampled news articles were coded deductively using Mey's six pract categories: alluding, implying, hinting, voicing, quoting, and echoing. Both AJA and AJE rely most heavily on voicing and implying pract, but diverge in a distinctive secondary pract: AJA layers echoing pract onto this shared foundation, activating Arab collective memory and positioning readers within a solidarity-oriented frame, while AJE layers hinting pract, distributing epistemic authority through formally qualified attribution to cultivate critical consensus among a heterogeneous readership.

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Journal Info

Abbrev

diwan

Publisher

Subject

Humanities Education Languange, Linguistic, Communication & Media Social Sciences

Description

Diwan: Jurnal Bahasa dan Sastra Arab is specially designed for studies on Arabic language and literature. Firstly published in 2009, Diwan : Jurnal Bahasa dan Sastra Arab purposes to facilitate scholarly articles on Arabic language and literature. Diwan : Jurnal Bahasa dan Sastra Arab is a ...