MEMRI’s Narrative of Iran in the Context of Current US-Iran Tensions

Drawing on narrative theory and the notion of framing, this paper focused on the translated material from the Islamic Republic of Iran‟s media outlets in the website of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) to explore how this institute constructed its desired narratives about Iran in the context of the current tensions between Iran and the U.S. In so doing, the paper applied the technique of framing through selective appropriation around the text to see what interpretive context MEMRI had made for its readers through its patterns of selection. The sites around the text at which this sort of framing could oc- cur were investigated to see what patterns of causal emplotment had been made as a result. The results showed that MEMRI had selected its translated material mostly from among those remarks made by Iran‟s non-moderate political and military individuals and institutions with a firm stance against the U.S., and also focused on their most hostile remarks with antagonistic themes to activate a pattern of causal emplotment which presented a reductionist and negative image of Iran.