Salem Ali Erayja
Assistant Professor of Media at the University of Umm Al-Qura, Faculty of Social Sciences – Media Department, Makkah, Saudi Arabia.
Volume: 17 | Issue: 1 | Pages: 24-41 | March 2025 | https://doi.org/10.54940/ss21654435 | PDF
Received: 28/08/2024 | Revised: 05/11/2024| Accepted: 18/11/2024
Corresponding Author: [email protected]
Abstract
The study aimed to identify the treatment of Saudi news websites (Sabq and Makkah) of Hajj issues for the 1445 AH season. The study relied on Agenda -Setting Theory in the media as a theoretical framework, and employed the content analysis approach in collecting, monitoring, and analyzing (1115) press materials, distributed over four weeks, including the days before, during, and after the 1445 AH Hajj season. The study reached a set of results, the most important of which are:
The news topped the list of journalistic forms used by the two newspapers, followed by reports. The health is-sue came at the forefront of the Hajj issues priorities that the two newspapers paid attention to in coverage and treatment, followed in second place by issues related to the success of the Hajj season, then the issue of preparation and equipment for Hajj. The descriptive method was used to a higher degree than the explanatory and awareness method in the treatment of Hajj issues, and the neutral trend emerged at the forefront of trends in press treatment of Hajj issues, followed by the positive trend. The results showed a statistically significant cor-relation between the priority ranking of Hajj issues in Sabq newspaper and the priority ranking of the same issues in Makkah newspaper, in addition to the presence of statistically significant differences in the trends of press treatment of Hajj issues in Sabq and Makkah newspapers due to the difference in press forms, and the sources that these newspapers relied on in covering Hajj issues.
Keywords
News websites, Hajj issues, Agenda -Setting Theory, Saudi Arabia
How to Cite
Erayja, S. (2025). Saudi News Websites’ Treatment of Hajj Issues for the 1445 AH Season: A Comparative Analytical Study of Sabq and Makkah News Websites. Journal of Umm Al-Qura University for Social Sciences,Vol 17(1), pp24-41. https://doi.org/10.54940/ss21654435
License
Copyright (c) 2023. This work is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC)