Conflict Propaganda in Syria

by Oliver Boyd-Barrett

This book investigates rival narratives about the conflict in Syria from 2011 onwards. It examines the starkly different narratives about the Syrian conflict told by mainly Western mainstream and alternative media, and contrasts these narratives with the equally polarized but more nuanced narratives of mainly Western scholars and long-form journalists. Differences of narrative concerning the conflict what is deemed relevant context in trying to explain the war; whether the war is best seen as a civil conflict or as a proxy war fought among external powers; the degree of emphasis given to the alleged crimes of the Syrian regime as opposed to the alleged violence of Salafist militia; the accuracy of the "origin" story of the conflict in Daraa; the extent to which the initial protestors were secular campaigners calling for democracy or whether they were Muslim extremists seeking a sectarian society governed by sharia law. Several case studies of propaganda institutions are examined here, including the journalism of Marie Colvin; the role of government-funded NGOs; the controversies surrounding each of three major instances of alleged regime use of chemical weapons, and the politicization of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). This book will be of much interest to students of media and communication studies, propaganda studies, Middle Eastern politics, and International Relations in general.

320 pages, Hardcover

Published December 29, 2021

Reviews

[Faaiz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have wanted to read more about the Syrian conflict but have consistently been wary of it and avoided it because of the utterly messy and multifaceted quagmire it has become and how much it has submerged with propaganda. Thankfully, this book helps to put Syria's recent history into perspective and offers readers an overview of the two major narratives surrounding Syria - the mainstream media narrative that is virulently anti-Assad and the alternative/dissenting narrative that is Assad-apologist. This book challenges the mainstream media narratives surrounding Syria and Bashar al-Assad, with a particular focus on the beginnings of the Syrian protests, which it argues were mostly not non-violent, the insistence of the Western media for a long time on the so-called ostensibly non-existent "moderate rebels" despite significant evidence to the contrary, and against the notion that Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons by showing various shortcomings (even fraud) of the OPCW, among others. In all honesty, the mind boggles at just how much of a colossal obscenity Syria has been turned into by the various vultures surrounding it.