Media Coverage Saliency of the Syria and Yemen Conflicts

Undergraduate Honors Thesis

Citations

Citeable URL: https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/undergraduate_honors_theses/n583xw211

Abstract

This thesis offers a new understanding of the intersections between conflict, mass media, and humanitarian crises, especially in the Middle East. Using the case studies of the Syria and Yemen conflicts, this thesis investigates when and under what circumstances media coverage of the conflicts becomes salient in both regional and global newspapers. The project compared how much Western and Arab newspapers covered the two conflicts, as well as the newspapers’ tones towards the wars and their humanitarian crises. Additionally, data analysis of Western and Arab newspapers was conducted with articles in their original languages of English and Arabic, respectively. Through quantitative and qualitative analysis of the headlines and body texts of these four newspapers, the results show that coverage saliency coincided with foreign policy activity, higher coverage from Arabic newspapers, and lower Western coverage that also focuses more on select issues. Overall, the thesis concluded that there is inequitable coverage of the Syria and Yemen conflicts and that this is correlated to inequitable treatment of comparable humanitarian crises.

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