Voices of War: Analyzing the Role of Media in the Syrian Civil War

This essay examines the role of media in conflict, using the Syrian Civil War as a case study. It argues that media plays an active part in conflicts and can be held responsible for increased violence. The essay discusses how media, including social media and major news channels, has been used by all sides in the Syrian conflict to disseminate information, often with a focus on negative and sensational events. The author highlights that media can contribute to conflict escalation by not explaining the reasons for events and by being controlled and manipulated to achieve specific goals. While acknowledging media's potential to incite conflict, the essay also recognizes its power to prevent and resolve it by spreading information.

Running head: CONFLICT AND THE ROLE OF THE MEDIA
CONFLICT AND THE ROLE OF THE MEDIA
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1CONFLICT AND THE ROLE OF THE MEDIA
Information is power and insight of knowledge has the capability of changing perception.
Public discourse is often shaped by information that is encountered. In the contemporary era, the
potential of media is certainly massive. It can build peace, create conflict or even prevent
conflict. The paper aims to discuss the role of media in today’s conflict. The essay argues for the
topic that media indeed takes an active part in the conflict and can be held responsible for
increased violence.
Modern world’s one of the profound feature is ‘conflict’. Conflicts lead to changes in
society and have been an ongoing process for centuries. The noticeable factor of the conflicts
existing in the modern world is the role played by media1. One of the recent incident that can be
used as an example to present that media play a relevant role in conflict existing today is the
ongoing civil war in Syria. Syria is a land where the Arab Spring collided with a dictatorship
determined to sustain in power. For years, the leaders of Syria have imposed stability on the
country’s mix of ethnic and religious groups. The evil war that erupted in this land began in
20112. Against the President Bashar al-Assad secular Syrians, foreign Sunni jihadists and
homegrown Islamist radicals have battled forces loyal and even among each other. The conflict
fed the growth of the entire social issue fed the growth of the al-Qaeda spinoff Islamic State, and
it utilised the turmoil to conquer territory in Iraq and Syria. In the present year, the war seems to
be entering in the last stages with Assad and his backers prevailing that includes Iran, Russia and
the militant Lebanese group Hezbollah. The victory of the civil war is costly as it includes the
death of approximately 511,000 people along with the destruction of the country’s roads,
factories, schools, hospitals, and homes3.
1 Schoemaker, Emrys, and Nicole Stremlau. "Media and conflict: An assessment of the evidence." Progress in
Development Studies 14.2 (2014): 181-195.
2 Jenkins, Brian Michael. "The Dynamics of Syria's Civil War." (2014)
3 Bloomberg.com, Bloomberg, www.bloomberg.com/quicktake/syrias-civil-war.

2CONFLICT AND THE ROLE OF THE MEDIA
From the beginning of the Syrian civil war, media has been of trying to play the key role.
A state where information is held by a doctoral government it becomes hard for the press to carry
out its job efficiently. Existing free media is a sign of democracy which is not present in Syria.
Similar to any other long term conflict media becomes the part of the conflict ant part of the
solution. Although the government controls the media in Syria, the information of the civil war
could not be held back. From the beginning of the Syrian Civil War, the use of media has been
made by all sides. In order to discrete their opponent, social media is one of the tools that has
been used with negative comments.
The role played by media is to follow events and reached the population making it as
news. However, the information initiates conflicts and violence in society when the focus is
mostly on bad news and problem focused. The reason media causes conflicts to grow is for it
does not explain the reasons for the events that occur4. For example, the Syria incident has
certainly been covered by major media channels such as BBC, CNN and many more. The
number of deaths, the magnitude of destruction, the religious group conflicts and other hate
disputes has been highlighted by the media5. When the incidents are sensational and emotional in
tone, they often develop a sense of revolt among the people associated with them. Also, the focus
of the news is mostly on powerful people, political leaders, the rich and the famous who belong
to that specific area. There is no guarantee that the media is unbias and not controlled by the
higher authority. It is controlled and often manipulated in a specific way to achieve a certain
goal6.
4 Zeitzoff, Thomas. "Does social media influence conflict? Evidence from the 2012 Gaza Conflict." Journal of
Conflict Resolution 62.1 (2018): 29-63.
5 Hepp, Andreas, Stig Hjarvard, and Knut Lundby. "Mediatization: theorizing the interplay between media, culture
and society." Media, culture & society 37.2 (2015): 314-324.
6 Howard, Ross. "Conflict-sensitive journalism:(R) evolution in media peacebuilding." Communication and Peace.
Routledge, 2015. 84-97.

3CONFLICT AND THE ROLE OF THE MEDIA
Media is a powerful tool in the contemporary era, and it has the power to create conflict.
However, it also has the power to prevent and resolve. The role of media has been the same from
the beginning; it is to spread information among people. Since the media has developed widely,
the part played by media has been altered as well.

4CONFLICT AND THE ROLE OF THE MEDIA
References:
Bloomberg.com, Bloomberg, www.bloomberg.com/quicktake/syrias-civil-war.
Hepp, Andreas, Stig Hjarvard, and Knut Lundby. "Mediatization: theorizing the interplay
between media, culture and society." Media, culture & society 37.2 (2015): 314-324.
Howard, Ross. "Conflict-sensitive journalism:(R) evolution in media
peacebuilding." Communication and Peace. Routledge, 2015. 84-97.
Schoemaker, Emrys, and Nicole Stremlau. "Media and conflict: An assessment of the
evidence." Progress in Development Studies 14.2 (2014): 181-195.
Zeitzoff, Thomas. "Does social media influence conflict? Evidence from the 2012 Gaza
Conflict." Journal of Conflict Resolution 62.1 (2018): 29-63.