Running head: MEDIAS STRUGGLE TO DISCERN LEGITIMACY IN SYRIA

Bashar Al-Assads Amorphous State:

Medias Struggle to Discern Legitimacy of News in Syria

Nicholas Marshall
BISGST 397C - Politics of the Middle East and North Africa
Dr. Nader Nazemi
University of Washington Bothell

Running head: MEDIAS STRUGGLE TO DISCERN LEGITIMACY IN SYRIA

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Abstract
Media, specifically journalism, have long stretched claims of influence and legitimacy far
beyond their physical realms. News agencies use methods of hard news, the act of journalism
where events happen, and feature reporting, the mode of journalism that relies on indirect
agency contact or influence with the story. Syrias recent turbulence has propelled the nation to
one of the most controversial nations in the Middle East. This paper explores the complexities
and characteristics of media influence and attempts to establish and maintain legitimacy in the
reporting of news in Syria amid these times. Controlled comparison of news agencies coverage
on a recent controversy in Aleppo illustrates the discrepancies between agency ideologies while
also attempting to establish connections between the methodologies and interests between the
different news agencies.
Keywords: media, agencies, hard news, feature reporting, influence, controversy,
discrepancies, ideologies, methodologies, interests

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Introduction
On a 2012 expedition to capture the intensifying Syrian Civil War, American journalist and
videographer Robert King witnessed and filmed the bombing of a civilian hospital in a rebelcontrolled area in Aleppo. The footage captured sights and sounds of war unabashed; a thick
cloud of dust covered the surrounding city block, obstructing the view of anything a few feet past
the camera lens. As the journalists moved toward the area of the hospital, the sound of rescuers
shouting and shovels and rubble became clearer, yet no sight of the hospital surfaced. King is
heard muttering, We cant see anything were trying to move forward, but its impossible
(King, 2012). The camera cuts to a scene at the base of the hospital. Amidst the rubble and fog
people chalk white covered in concrete dust emerge, carrying bodies, shovels, or empty-handed,
disappearing in and out of the cameras still-hazy view like specters out of a nightmare. A
piercing cry erupts out of the fog, singular at first: Allahu Akbar Allahu Akbar. More join in,
and the sound sweeps into a deafening crescendo, a powerful glimpse of chaos now common in
the war-torn country.
Syria was once described as one of the most socially progressive Middle Eastern
nations yet is now one of the most controversial nations in the Middle East (Andersen, Seibert,
& Wagner, 2012, p. 195); Media representation in Syria has skyrocketed as the region and world
make sense of what is happening. The limited sight of Kings camera and the difficulty expressed
on navigating through the dust illustrate some of the physical risks and difficulties of hard
news, or spot/on-the-scene reporting. The alternate or supplemental model to hard news,
feature reporting, relies on agency contacts and utilizing various channels of media to relay
news as a primary source of media representation and authority. Feature reporting is an answer to
agencies that, for whatever reason, are absent where things are happening yet wish to acquire,

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digest and reiterate these happenings in world media. In addition to these methods of
influence, media agencies that have no prevalent authority or wish to generate additional
authority in the happenings they wish to report can employ methods to broaden the influential
scope of the feature by conducting hard news, acquiring allies, setting up boundaries to
distinguish their professionalism, or by employing rhetoric and methods that broadens the topic
in hopes of reaching familiar grounds of authority and relevance. This paper attempts to illustrate
the scope of these attributes and their uses by news agencies by studying their coverage of a
recent controversy in Syria. Comparison and scrutiny of the methodologies and ideologies used
by these media agencies will attempt to shed light on Syrias dichotomized, arguably
misrepresented state and role in the media, one that Iranian aide Ali Velayati claimed was a very
basic and key role in the region (Taipei, 2012, para. 2).
Ideology discrepancy between Syrian state media and outside journalism
A breaking story flashes across news and media spheres in late January with the discovery of
over eighty-one male bodies executed and thrown into the Queiq River at Bustan al-Qasar area in
Aleppo. The Queiq River is a point of contention and divider between Al-Assads forces and
rebel-held areas of Aleppo, and since both factions own different, sometimes inter-lapping
stretches, blame is being placed at each others feet. Syrias state-run news agency, the Syrian
Arab News Agency (SANA), was among the first news outlets to run an article on the case. In
bold-face print, the headline reads, Jabhat al-Nusra Terrorists Perpetrate Mass Execution in
Aleppo (Syrian Arab News Agency, 2013), while the story underlines that terrorist groups
abducted [those found deceased] because of their rejection to the terrorist group (para. 2). The
article stresses that competent authorities are following evidence on this massacre, which
SANA chalks up as the latest in a series of brutal massacres perpetrated by the terrorist groups

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against unarmed citizens (para. 3). SANAs authority stems from their close affiliation with the
state, and thus will adhere to that certain influence and be at greater risk to employ rhetoric to
harm their opponents and protect their allies and themselves. While the Western style of news
agency would question SANAs relations to State and Arab affairs, it does not necessarily
discredit their journalism from affiliation alone.
However, Syria seemingly stands alone in their accusation as media from around the
world chime in to feature their reports on the case. TheGuardian journalists Chulov & Mahmood
(2013) recognize the Syrian regimes blame on terrorist gangs as those being responsible (Para.
5), but also include that rebel groups have blamed the Syrian government for the killings, and
believe some of the victims had crossed into state/loyalist areas and were abducted (Para. 6).
New York Times correspondents highlight the blame game occurring on the issue in their title,
Adversaries in Syria Trade Blame for Scores of Killings in Aleppo (Mourtada & Cowell, 2013).
For these two media agencies, the case is fresh and full of uncertainty. Yet for SANA, the matter
is wrapped up; a cut and dry affair. There is no evidence of the correspondents from any of the
three media entities discussed braving war-torn Aleppo to be among those on the riverbed,
scraping and digging and hauling bodies, talking to witnesses, gleaning hard news insights to
supplement feature and broadcast. If anything, given this assumption, SANA would seemingly
have the advantage over their British and American counterparts, arguing that the story fell into a
familiar and local jurisdiction.
While the rest of the world is looking from the outside-in, a third major news agency had
the ability to go first-hand to the location of the case. Al-Jazeera sent correspondent Zeina Khodr
to Bustan al-Qasr to cover the story. In addition to her framework of the story-at-hand, the
agency included two interviews of Free Syrian Army rebels. Mohammed Sandik, one of the FSA

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interviewed, stated that some of these people were prisoners and they were executed- they were
shot in the head (Khodr, 2013). In between interviews, Khodr and her team show how the
bodies are laid out: in rows, wrapped in blue tarps. While we view these images, Khodrs
voiceover tip-toes through the assumption of blame, saying that, we [Al-Jazeera] cannot
independently confirm who killed these people, but the opposition says there is no doubt
government forces [are] responsible the government says the victims were kidnapped and
executed by terrorist groups rejected by everyone here, who are calling this a new massacre
(emphasis added, Khodr).

Figure 1.1 Al-Jazeera correspondent Zeina Khodr in Bustan al-Qasr. Adapted from
Dozens of Men Found Executed in Syria, Khodr, 2013
Al-Jazeeras physical presence utilizes sights and sounds to further add context and
power to their feature. Yet the mere presence of hard news does not share the finality of nature
and dispel all doubt. For example, interviews conducted with FSA soldiers, images of dead
teenagers wrapped up and being sorted through by families, alluding to if the government was
at fault, all while having no representation of Assads party also puts interests into the feature
presented. These divisions of interests and influences, between method, affiliation, representation

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and allies employed, create the discrepancies in rhetoric and ideologies between these news
agencies
Creating spheres of influence as an outsider
While Al-Jazeera and SANA benefit from established spheres of influence in Middle Eastern
media, outside news groups need to either conduct hard news expeditions to represent
themselves, gather allies to bolster their presumptions and inquiries, or broaden the scope of the
feature by introducing discourse that is large enough to envelop the topic and give points of
legitimacy by opening up the case to a world sphere where these agencies are influential. While
the first two principles are readily approachable and fairly straight-forward, the third is
something that is often more subtly done.
The New York Times (Mourtada & Cowell, 2013) article referred to earlier, Adversaries
in Syria Trade Blame for Scores of Killings in Apello, attempts to establish legitimacy by this
method. While the title implies a focus on the happening in Aleppo, the article opens up to
regional news of the fighting in the city of Homs (Para. 14), moving to the capital where a car
bomb in Damascus exploded and injured a Parliament member (Para. 16), and further still
touching on happenings in Washington, detailing Obamas announcement to donate further aid to
Syrian refugees (Para. 17). In our example, the transition from happening-at-hand in Aleppo to
how that event is impacting policymaking in America is an example of taking happenings and
positioning them inside reachable authority. Media using this method can bring the audience out
from a topic it has little understanding or influence of, and gain legitimacy by showing the
connections of that unknown with the known.

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Conclusion
The spheres of influence that operate in current Syrian media culture are divided, with SANA
interests directly relating to the Syrian Ministry of Information and Al-Assad, Al-Jazeera as an
intermediary or alternative or even oppositional voice. Western journalism is also divided, with
interests ranging from social equality to American socio-economics and business culture. These
very different agencies attempt to discover, digest, and report the state of Syria, all the while
creating and altering boundaries and ideologies in the land, to the extent that Syria, the coined
basic, key Middle Eastern state, becomes just as shifting, ambiguous as the dust swirling
around King during the Dar-al Shifa hospital bombing. By studying and comparing these
agencies, one is able to see and grasp the methodologies and ideologies employed by media
agencies to further their sphere of influence and assert their legitimacy as conduits of news and
media, not just in Syria but across the global stage.

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Bibliography
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