The Iraqi and Kurdish media discourse regarding the outstanding issues between the federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government: A content analysis study of Iraqi and Kurdish newspaper websites

Abstract

The outstanding issues between the federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government are considered crucial issues that have a major impact on the prospects of the federal system on the basis of which the political system in Iraq was established after long decades of authoritarian central rule. The importance of the question gives rise to the importance of this academic research, which deals with the media discourse in the Iraqi and Kurdish press on the open questions. The study is a kind of content analysis of opinion articles that deal with the outstanding issues between the two regions and the federal government. This study proved that from a journalistic perspective, the Kurdish and Arab press websites in Iraq were negligent in addressing the outstanding issues between the Kurdistan Region and the federal government through the use of opinion articles as part of their journalistic discourse. The number is due to the fact that the percentage of articles on these topics is very small compared to dozens of articles on other topics during the study period.

The study showed that there is no balance in terms of objectivity and accuracy in addressing these issues, as the signatories of Rudaw and Maalouma addressed the issues according to the mindset of the parties involved in the issues. As for the percentage reasons for the problems, the two reasons (foreign interference and mistrust between the parties) are among the most common reasons for the emergence of the outstanding problems between the Kurdistan Region and the Federal Government, accounting for 50% of the total reasons for these problems the study website, and the solution (dialogue and understanding) is considered one of the most frequently addressed solutions. The open questions raised by the Iraqi press websites (the subject of the study) accounted for more than a third of the total solutions proposed.

This study also shows that the positive trend in the solutions to the problems on the Rudaw website was significant compared to more than a third of the negative trends, while the negative trend in the solutions presented on the Maalouma website compared to almost two thirds increased to one third of positive trends.