The evolution of the role of stringers, local reporters and citizen journalists in reporting wars and conflicts: the case of the Syrian civil war.

Abstract

The Syrian civil war was not only one of the longest running and bloodiest conflicts of the 21st Century but also one of the most difficult to cover for Western journalists and foreign correspondents. Official access to the country was hard to obtain and entry under any circumstances was risky and highly dangerous. Western news organisations had to rely on local stringers, local reporters and citizen journalists. But who are these Syrian ‘media actors’? What are the characteristics of their work and the challenges they faced? And how was their journalistic identity perceived by themselves and by international news outlets? This thesis examines these questions using a mixed methodology: underpinned by Bourdieu’s field theory, it draws on a news framing and sourcing analysis of news published by five different news outlets in specific time tranches between 2018 and 2020. It complements this analysis through interviews with Syrian and international journalists, editors, citizen journalists and local journalists, analysing the data gathered through thematic analysis. The research highlights the partisan nature of the material produced, with Syrian stringers, citizen journalists and local reporters explicitly or implicitly influenced by activism or propaganda. This represents one of the main challenges faced by international news outlets as well as one of the main characteristics of the journalistic coverage of the conflict. Partisanship led to inherent contradictions and tensions in how stringers, citizen journalists and local reporters were perceived by international news outlets, both as precious contributors and as activists easily influenced by propaganda, due to their embeddedness. Stringers, citizen journalists and local reporters were not limited in their work, as boundaries of journalism proved to be fluid and shifting, therefore international news agencies had to adapt to their work improving their gate-keeping function and providing training when possible, allowing them to enter the field of journalism whose boundaries proved to be fluid and shifting. My research shows that the coverage of the Syrian conflict represents a compromise between the traditional way of reporting war and the growing importance of other media contributors. In fact, in conflict areas characterised by limited access and sudden changes, labels defining journalistic identity and forms of journalism are fluid and differentiated. It is hoped that this research can provide a starting point to build future models with which to approach the study of media coverage of conflicts characterised by limited access, where local media actors play a key role.