International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature ISSN 2200-3592 (Print), ISSN 2200-3452 (Online) Vol. 5 No. 4; July 2016 Australian International Academic Centre, Australia Arab Spring…Islamists-Seculars Struggle to Control Egypt A CDA Study from AJE's Ideological Perspective Hanan Al- Radhi (Corresponding author) School of Languages, Literacies and Translation, USM, Malaysia E-mail: halradhi2012@gmail.com Ambigapathy Pandian School of Languages, Literacies and Translation, USM, Malaysia E-mail: ambiga@usm.my Tengku Sepora Tengku Mehdi School of Languages, Literacies and Translation, USM, Malaysia E-mail: Sepora@usm.my Received: 14-02-2016 Accepted: 05-05-2016 Advance Access Published: May 2016 Published: 01-07-2016 doi:10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.5n.4p.142 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.5n.4p.142 Abstract The current study investigates the Arab spring upheaval consequences Egypt witnessed after 2011 popular revolution as reflected by AJE (Al-Jazeera English) in its online news article. The primary concern is to unveil AJE's hidden ideological view towards the internal conflict in Egypt investigating its discoursal positive ''Self'' and negative ''Other'' representations. Within the linguistic analysis, macro and micro structures of AJE's online news article were analyzed. At the macro level, the semantic macrostructure of AJE's article was outlined to determine its global meaning. At the micro level, the syntactic, lexical and rhetorical structures of AJE's online news article were examined to determine its local meaning. Within the ideological analysis, the AJE's online news article was analyzed to determine its ideological positive ''Self'' (in-group) and negative ''Other'' (out-group) presentations. The study is an attempt to explain how a single reality-Egyptian internal conflict- is viewed and represented by the designated media outlet, AJE. This can be achieved within the framework of critical discourse analysis (CDA). To conduct this qualitative study, the researchers adopted van Dijk's theory of Macrostructures (1980), van Dijk's theory of ideological square (1998) and Wodak's approach of Discourse- historical (2001, 2009). Furthermore, Fairclough's model for media discourse analysis was utilized to organize the analytical process. The study approved that AJE succeeded to reflect its ideological view. It expressed its support to the Muslim Brotherhood (Islamists) presented as the positive "Self" (in-group) and antagonism against the new Egyptian authority presented as the negative "Other" (out-group). Keywords: Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA); Media Discourse; Ideology; Macro and Micro Structures; "Self" and "Other" presentations; AJE 1. Introduction Media news representation cannot be regarded as a direct and easy reproduction of events as it involves a process of selecting, structuring and formulating such events via language (Fairclough, 1995b). Language is, then, the main tool to persuade people to accept certain representations of news events which must be organized logically and naturally for the sake of spreading the views of dominant people and then accepting them as common –sense knowledge providers (Fairclough, 1995b). In this sense, all news representations are reported from a particular angle due to the fact that all media institutions and organizations are politically, socially and financially situated (Fowler, 1991). The application of critical discourse analysis (henceforth CDA) to analyze online news article helps create and increase awareness and deep understanding of the linguistic strategies used to construct "Self" and "Other" ideological representations. Thus, in this study, it is considered as a viable approach to unearth the implicit ideologies hidden in the AJE's online discourse. As such, the researchers of the present study intend to concentrate on the ideological use of language to build the "Self" and "Other" polarities embedded within the AJE's online news article. Hence, by using language as a tool of control and conviction, AJE works hard and exert its efforts to persuade people, manipulating their minds and, then, mastering their opinions and tendencies. CDA can be used as an effective method to uncover implicit ideologies and power utilized through language by those in power to control opinion for their advantage (Widdowson, 2007). Up to this point, the researcher concludes that such ideologies can be studied to understand the function of AJE's discourse linguistically and ideologically. Manipulation of people’s minds is the main reason behind certain strategies being followed by news agencies to embed certain ideologies within their coverage of world news. The main assumption is that the AJE’s media language is manipulated to serve their powerful elite: Qatari governments (Pintak, 2011). By analyzing its online news article, the Flourishing Creativity & Literacy