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Syria from Afar

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Syria from Afar 1 Syria from afar How Journalists in Finland and Germany Cover the First YouTube War Inka Kovanen (Finland) European Journalism–Fellowships 2013 – 2014 Freie Universität Berlin 2 Table of contents 1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................... 4 1.1 Methodological framework .................................................................................................................. 8 1.2 The interviews ....................................................................................................................................10 2. A WAR WITH NO END ...............................................................................................................................10 3. HOW NEWS FROM SYRIA REACH THE WORLD .........................................................................................13 3.1. All hell broke loose ........................................................................................................................15 4. A CONFLICT WITH NO ACCESS ..................................................................................................................16 4.1 Access to Syria ....................................................................................................................................17 4.2 Reporting on the ground ....................................................................................................................20 4.3 Iraq in mind .........................................................................................................................................21 4.4 Weighing the pros and the cons .........................................................................................................22 4.5 Reporting from a distance ..................................................................................................................23 4.6 More and better .................................................................................................................................24 5. GETTING INFORMATION ...........................................................................................................................25 5.1 Main sources .......................................................................................................................................26 5.2 Social media as a source .....................................................................................................................27 5.2.1 Fast – too fast? ............................................................................................................................29 5.2.2 Problems of verification ..............................................................................................................30 5.2.3 Using social media as a source – not so important any more .....................................................33 5.2.4 Twitter / Bloggers ........................................................................................................................37 5.2.5 Facebook .....................................................................................................................................38 5.2.6 YouTube .......................................................................................................................................39 5.3 News agencies ....................................................................................................................................40 5.4 Opposition ..........................................................................................................................................41 5.4.1 Activists as a source .....................................................................................................................41 5.4.2 Armed opposition ........................................................................................................................45 5.5 Media as a source ...............................................................................................................................46 5.5.1 International media .....................................................................................................................46 5.5.2 Syrian (state) media .....................................................................................................................48 5.6 International organisations ................................................................................................................51 3 5.7 Own contacts ......................................................................................................................................51 5.8 Experts ................................................................................................................................................52 5.9 Anonymous sources ............................................................................................................................53 6. VERIFICATION ............................................................................................................................................55 6.1 Online verification tools .....................................................................................................................56 6.2 Attitudes & skills .................................................................................................................................57 6.2.1 Awareness of new web tools .......................................................................................................57 6.2.2 Attitude towards verifying amateur images ................................................................................58 6.2.3 Do journalists have the skills to verify? .......................................................................................61 6.2.4. The clock is ticking ......................................................................................................................64 6.3 Verification methods step-by-step .....................................................................................................66 6.3.1 Who knows what? .......................................................................................................................67 6.3.2 Who is the source – and is he who he claims to be? ...................................................................68 6.3.3 Language / dialect spoken ...........................................................................................................71 6.3.4 Track down the web history ........................................................................................................71 6.3.5 Find the original source and picture ............................................................................................71 6.3.6 Landmarks, landscapes – locate the picture ...............................................................................72 6.3.7 Let the crowds help out ...............................................................................................................73 6.4 When authentication is not possible ..................................................................................................74 6.4.1 This information could not be verified ........................................................................................75 6.4.2 Experience & common sense as a tool ........................................................................................79 6.5 Better safe than sorry – A question of survival ..................................................................................81 7. CONCLUSIONS ..........................................................................................................................................82 REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………91 4 1. INTRODUCTION At the time of writing this (July 2014), the war in Syria has left more than 150,000 people dead and forced millions from their homes. Relentless fighting and bombing has destroyed cities, and turned old towns into rubble. The focus of this study is, however, not the vast suffering in Syria. In this study I will look at how journalists in Finland and Germany cover the war in Syria from afar and, moreover, how they verify information originating from Syria. Much of the information with regards to Syria originate from various social media platforms because foreign journalists have little access to Syria. Even if they do gain access, the reporting is dangerous or restricted, and oftentimes, both. Therefore the focus on this study is on information originating from social networking sites. Syria is now the world’s most dangerous country for news providers. Hundreds of citizen- journalists and media assistants have been killed, arbitrarily arrested, detained, abducted, subjected to enforced disappearance and tortured by the various parties to the conflict since the start of the uprising more than three years ago (Reporters without Borders, 2014). Of those killed covering the war, the vast majority are local media-activists or citizen-journalists, not foreign journalists. However, foreign correspondents have also been abducted and deliberately killed. Because of the risks, few foreign media outlets send their own reporters to Syria. As a result, most media outlets cover Syria from news desks at home or at correspondents’ posts - with occasional travel to
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