Rival Frames: Moroccan and Algerian Media Framing of Morocco’s Hosting of AFCON 2025

Backup copy. This page is kept by the LLCIS Research Laboratory as a backup of Confluence Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies. The official version of record is published on the journal’s platform, hosted and indexed by IMIST-CNRST: https://journals.imist.ma/index.php/confluence/article/view/9483.

  • Omar Kouiyache ORCIDAbdelmalek Essaadi University, Tetouan
PDF (backup copy)Official version on IMISTDOI
Journal
Confluence Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies (e-ISSN 3085-5411)
Issue
Vol. 2 No. 3 (2026)
Section
Articles
Pages
172-189
Published
22 July 2026
DOI
https://doi.org/10.34874/PRSM.cjms-vol2iss3.9483
License
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Copyright (c) 2026 Omar Kouiyache

Abstract

This study investigates how Morocco World News and El Watan framed Morocco’s hosting of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON 2025), with the objective of examining how regional rivalry shapes media narratives surrounding a major sporting event. Methodologically, the research employs qualitative textual analysis of a corpus of 25 articles published during the two-month period following 20 December 2025, with relevant excerpts from El Watan translated from French into English for the purposes of analysis and citation. The findings reveal two contrasting framing structures: Morocco World News constructs Morocco as a legitimate, internationally recognized host, emphasizing organizational success, soft power projection, and resilience against unfair criticism, while El Watan portrays Morocco as a manipulative political actor projecting an artificial image of progress over a society marked by internal tensions. These opposing representations demonstrate how the same event can generate radically divergent narratives shaped by geopolitical context, with both outlets relying on selective sourcing and evaluative language to produce polarized portrayals that extend beyond sport into broader questions of legitimacy and regional power. This study ultimately highlights the role of media framing in constructing national image and reinforcing political tensions within the Maghreb.

Keywords

Media framingMoroccoAlgeriaSoft PowerGeopoliticsCAN2025

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