Peculiarities of the Syrian media space in the time of armed conflict

Abstract

The subject of this research is the Syrian mass media at the current stage. The object is the Syrian media space in the time of armed conflict (2011 – to the present). The goal lies in determining the peculiarities of functionality of the Syrian media during the armed conflict. The authors traces the path of establishment of the Syrian modern mass media system, to examines its peculiarities prior to the conflict and at the time of its escalation, examines the key groups of mass media that became parties to the conflict. Such aspect as the fragmentation of the Syrian media space by military-political grounds is discussed. The conclusion is made that throughout several decades of the rule of the Ba'ath Party under the leadership of Hafez al-Assad, the country has established the single-party system of control over mass media; slow transformations have been noticed after his son Bashar al-Assad came to power. The armed conflict that began in 2011 divided the country and its media space into three areas: governmental, oppositional, and Kurdish. It is extremely difficult to overcome such fragmentation of media space with its versatile narrative and agendas in the conditions of protracted armed conflict.