commbox Syria

Refugee Connectivity: A Survey of Mobile Phones, Mental Health an Privacy at a Syrian Refugee Camp in Greece

Mark Latonero, Danielle Poole, Jos Berens

Harvard Humanitarian Initiative;Data & Society Research Institute (2018), 40 pp.

"The study reveals key aspects of digital connectivity in the lives of refugees at the Ritsona camp in Greece in January 2017. Of the approximately 750 residents of the camp, 135 adults were sampled and interviewed [...] Mobile phone access is 'important' to over 80% of refugees in this study. Women ... more

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La fabrique audiovisuelle de l'Etat Islamique: La vidéo comme arme de guerre et outil de légitimation et de recrutement

Dhouha Rekik

Paris: L'Harmattan (2018), 134 pp.

"La propagande de guerre de l'EI adopte les codes des genres cinématographiques afin de fictionnaliser le fait guerrier et dissimuler l'fenvers du décors. Cette fantasmagorie surréaliste fonctionne selon un double regime de fascination et de stimulation des pulsions de mort qui ont pour effet de ... more

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How do non-governmental organizations influence media coverage of conflict? The case of the Syrian conflict, 2011–2014

Christoph O. Meyer, Eric Sangar, Eva Michaels

Media, War & Conflict, volume 11, issue 1 (2018), pp. 149-171

"It is often argued that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have become increasingly visible in media discourses on armed conflict and thus play a growing role in shaping states’ foreign policies. However, there is little investigation of their influence on specific conflict coverage and what t ... more

Assessing the Freedom of Expression of Syrian Refugee Media Outlets

Maria Assaf

for(e)dialogue, volume 2, issue 1 (2018), pp. 50-66

"Syrian post-uprising media outlets arose during the peaceful phase of the Syrian uprising in early 2011 (Salazar-Ferro, CPJ, 2014). Fewer than 30 of these outlets, funded by Western countries, survived and gradually moved to Turkey, escaping censorship and deteriorating security in Syria. In Turkey ... more

Syrien, mon amour: Das syrische Filmerbe von 1974 bis heute

Tina Fuchs

Karlsruhe: Kinemathek Karlsruhe (2018), 31 pp.

Heterogeneity in Alternative Media Spheres: Oppositional Media and the Framing of Sectarianism in the Syrian Conflict

Yazan Badran, Kevin Smets

International Journal of Communication, volume 12 (2018), pp. 4229-4247

"The 2011 uprisings in the Middle East have deeply shaken the traditional media landscape in the region. They have also reinvigorated scholarly interest in the role of the media in the region’s conflicts. Alternative media has emerged as an important avenue for investigation—in particular with r ... more

Shooting a Revolution: Visual Media and Warfare in Syria

Donatella Della Ratta

London: Pluto Press (2018), xiv, 251 pp.

"This ethnography uses the Syrian case to reflect more broadly on how the networked age reshapes contemporary warfare and impacts on the enactment of violence through images and on images. In stark contrast to the techno-utopias celebrating digital democracy and participatory cultures, Donatella Del ... more

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Journalism in Crisis: A Content Analysis of the Emerging Media Sector in Syria

Jaber Bakr, Abdullah Amin Al Hallak

Beirut: Samir Kassir Foundation;Friedrich Naumann Stiftung (2018), 44 pp.

"This study reveals that news briefs are the most commonly found type of pieces published in the emerging Syrian media sector. Together, news briefs, news reports and feature stories constitute 90 percent of what was published during the monitoring period. Investigative reports were very rare. News ... more

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What Role Can Drama Play in Conflict? A Radio Drama for Syria: Qualitative Research Findings

Sally Gowland

London: BBC Media Action (2018), 5 pp.

"Against the backdrop of the war in Syria BBC Media Action produced and broadcast 150 episodes of the radio drama Hay el Matar (Airport District) between 2015 and 2017. Funded by the European Commission as part of a broader project aiming to help build an open and inclusive society in Syria, the dra ... more

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Negotiating Dissidence: The Pioneering Women of Arab Documentary

Stefanie Van de Peer

Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press (2018), vii, 238 pp.

"In spite of harsh censorship, conservative morals and a lack of investment, women documentarists in the Arab world have found ways to subtly negotiate dissidence in their films, something that is becoming more apparent since the ‘Arab Revolutions’. In this book, Stefanie Van de Peer traces the ... more

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Les médias face aux crises libyenne et syrienne

David Rannou

Paris: L'Harmattan (2018), 267 pp.

"L’objet de ce livre est de décrire le système médiatique français et sa manière de traiter les conflits libyen et syrien à l’aune du « modèle de propagande » mis sur pied par Edward Hermann et Noam Chomsky dans les années 1980, dans leur ouvrage de référence Manufacturing Consent. A ... more

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Media Landscape: Syria

Lorenzo Trombetta

European Journalism Centre (2017)

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Information Needs of Syrian Refugees and Host Communities in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey

Sébastien Duhaut (dir.)

Altai Consulting;CFI (2017), 168 pp.

"This report presents the result of a quantitative survey carried out in March 2017 using a representative sample of 1104 individuals (Syrian refugees and host community members over 12 years old), weighted for location, gender and age, across the three main host countries for Syrian refugees (Jorda ... n, Lebanon and Turkey). Some results are presented aggregated on this whole population (with a ratio of 70% Syrian refugees / 30% of host communities), while others are presented in a segregated way (refugees compared to host communities), or by various other break-downs mentioned throughout the report. Finding 1: Both Syrian refugees and host communities are well equipped in terms of media and means of communication (92% have access to television, 97% to phones and 56% to internet), sometimes through ad hoc means (shared dishes, shared internet subscriptions, use of a relative’s phone, etc.). They are intensive users, spending about two and a half hours per day on television and the same on the internet. The more educated, richer segments follow various kinds of news, cross-check, are members of numerous Facebook communities, and spread information themselves. But even at the other end, among the poorer and the less educated, very few people are completely disconnected. Finding 2: Satellite television, whose use is almost universal, is a major entertainment tool in terms of time spent: families put cartoons for their children and watch movies, musical videos and series. It is also widely used for news, with a few pan-Arab channels dominating the landscape (Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya, Al Hadath), but also use of some host country channels (particularly Al Jadeed in Lebanon) and pro-revolution Syrian channels (particularly Orient). Internet is less pervasive, but still very significant for a large proportion of the population, who are connected on social media (over half on WhatsApp, over a third on Facebook) and use the network for private chat, entertainment and information, especially on the numerous existing Syrian community pages or information portals. On the contrary, radio usage is low and limited to particular circumstances (absence of electricity, in transportation, etc.): to a large extent, it has been replaced by television and/or internet. Finding 3: There is a lot of humanitarian information circulating, both on official channels (official SMS, outreach teams, direct visits to offices, national announcements, etc.) and unofficial channels (a burgeoning, ever-changing world of Facebook pages and groups with tips and announcements, of SMS or messages being re-forwarded and re-published, of rumours or facts spread by word of mouth). But this information is not coordinated in a systematic manner by actors, and people in need still lack accurate information on various issues. They are often forced to rely on unofficial sources, or do not trust fully the information they have. Moreover, in many cases the only way to obtain information is to go personally to the relevant institution or office, which is sometimes a barrier." (Executive summary and recommendations) more

Culture and Crisis Communication: Transboundary Cases from Nonwestern Perspectives

Amiso M. George, Kwamena Kwansah-Aidoo (eds.)

New York: Wiley (2017), xxix, 376 pp.

"Culture and Crisis Communication presents an examination of how politics, culture, religion, and other social issues affect crisis communication and management in nonwestern countries. From intense human tragedy to the follies of the rich, the chapters examine how companies, organizations, news out ... more

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Media, Diaspora and Conflict
Top Insights

Ola Ogunyemi (ed.)

Cham: Palgrave Macmillan (2017), xxiii, 240 pp.

"This edited collection argues that the connective and orientation roles ascribed to diasporic media overlook the wider roles they perform in reporting intractable conflicts in the Homeland. Considering the impacts of conflict on migration in the past decades, it is important to understand the capac ... more

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Media Interventions as Humanitarian Action

Shawn Powers

In: The Routledge Companion to Media and Humanitarian Action

Robin Andersen; Robin Purnaka L. de Silva (eds.)

London: Routledge (2017), pp. 416-427

"This chapter aims to introduce the concept of an information intervention as an example of humanitarian action. Typically associated negatively with government efforts to incite conflict and tension, two case studies are explored-Haiti and Syria-to better understand how state-led information interv ... more

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Reporting the Middle East: The Practice of News in the Twenty-First Century
Top Insights

Zahera Harb (ed.)

London; New York: Tauris (2017), xii, 226 pp.

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Arab Women and the Media in Changing Landscapes

Elena Maestri, Annemarie Profanter (eds.)

Cham: Palgrave Macmillan (2017), xxv, 277 pp.

"Maestri and Profanter highlight that the methodological approaches adopted in this volume are both interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary. Focusing on the changing relationship between the dynamics of Arab communication spaces and the role of Arab women both in and through the media, the introduct ... more

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Photojournalism and Citizen Journalism: Co-Operation, Collaboration and Connectivity

Stuart Allan (ed.)

London; New York: Routledge (2017), xiv, 341 pp.

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