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.

摘要

大学利用语言作为影响人们观念的有力工具。通过使用语言作为信息和表示的手段，电子网站对于大学和学生都变得越来越重要。通过使用沙特大学的网站上的语言表示形式以及这些网站对理解在沙特社会结构中强化学术实践的重叠因素的贡献，存在与沙特大学的刻画有关的未解决问题。这项研究从社会结构（例如性别和种族）的角度比较和分析了用来代表沙特大学在其网站上使用的各种论述。为此，批评性话语分析（CDA）用于描述，分析，并在当地，机构和社会层面解释五个沙特大学网站的文字和视觉表示。结果表明，大学使用通用的系统性宣传话语来代表自己，强调声望和独特性。这一发现意味着大学控制着与观众互动的信息性消息。此外，“领导者”，“ 2030年愿景”，“杰出的教育”和“称职”等用语经常出现而没有进一步的解释，从而引发不确定性。调查结果还表明，这些网站在性别，种族和经济地位方面缺乏多样性。描述性分析揭示了有限的文字内容，可为观看者提供有关重要主题的粗略信息，例如注册，学术专业，校园和经济援助。此外，通过拥抱和促进多样性，高度认可了代表性不足的人。这项研究建议这些机构应该关注信息的质量水平和优势领域，而不是数量。此外，他们需要运用自己的使命宣言来生成切合社会需求的现实方向和宗旨。