Cogent Arts & Humanities (Jan 2021)
Website Representations of Saudi Universities in Makkah Region: A Critical Discourse Analysis Approach
Abstract
Universities utilize language as a powerful tool to influence people’s perceptions. By employing language as a means of information and representation, electronic websites are becoming increasingly important for both universities and students. There are unanswered questions related to the portrayal of Saudi universities through the use of linguistic representation on their websites and the contribution of these websites to understanding the overlapping factors that reinforce academic practices within the Saudi social structure. This study compares and analyses the various discourses that are used to represent Saudi universities on their websites in terms of social constructs (e.g., gender and race). To that end, critical discourse analysis (CDA) is utilized to describe, analyse, and interpret the textual and visual representations of five Saudi university websites at the local, institutional and societal levels. The results indicate that the universities use a common systematic promotional discourse to represent themselves, emphasizing prestige and uniqueness. This finding means that universities are in control of the informational message with which their viewers interact. Moreover, terms such as “leaders”, “Vision 2030”, “distinguished education” and “competent” frequently appear without further explanations, thus triggering uncertainty. The findings also suggest that the websites lack diversity in their representation of gender, race and economic status. The descriptive analysis reveals limited textual content providing viewers with cursory information about important topics such as registration, academic majors, campus and financial aid. Furthermore, the acknowledgement of underrepresented individuals is highly asserted by embracing and promoting diversity. This study recommends that these institutions should focus on the quality level of information and areas of strength rather than quantity. Furthermore, they need to employ their mission statements to generate realistic directions and purposes that are tailored to society’s needs.
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