Syria & the CNN Effect: What Role Does the Media Play in Policy-Making? Lyse Doucet Abstract: Syria’s devastating war unfolds during unprecedented flows of imagery on social media, test- ing in new ways the media’s influence on decision-makers. Three decades ago, the concept of a “CNN Effect” was coined to explain what was seen as the power of real-time television reporting to drive responses to humanitarian crises. This essay explores the role traditional and new media played in U.S. policy-making during Syria’s crisis, including two major poison gas attacks. President Obama stepped back from the targeted air strikes later launched by President Trump after grisly images emerged on social media. But Trump’s limited action did not shift policy. Interviews with Obama’s senior advisors underline that the me- dia do not drive strategy, but they play a significant role. During the Syrian crisis, the media formed part of what officials describe as constant pressure from many actors to respond, which they say led to policy failures. Syria’s conflict is a cautionary tale. The devastating conflict in Syria has again brought LYSE DOUCET is Chief Interna- into sharp focus the complex relationship between tional Correspondent for the bbc the media and interventions in civil wars in response and a Senior Fellow of Massey Col- to grave humanitarian crises. Syria’s destructive lege at the University of Toronto. war, often called the greatest human disaster of the She has been reporting on ma- twenty-first century, unfolds at a time of unparal- jor conflicts around the world for leled flows of imagery and information. It is test- more than thirty years. She be- ing in unprecedented ways the media’s influence gan her career as a foreign cor- on decision-makers to drive them to take action to respondent with postings in Ab- idjan, Kabul, Islamabad, Tehran, change the course of a bloody confrontation or ease Amman, and Jerusalem. She has immense human suffering. covered major wars in the Middle One after another, year after year, veteran en- East since 1994 and is a regular vis- voys and human rights defenders decry the failure itor to the region, including Syria. of world powers to stop what they describe as the Her awards include an Emmy and worst of abuses and impunity they’ve seen in life- a Peabody in 2014 for her team’s times of working on major conflicts and humanitar- reporting from Syria, an Order of the British Empire in the Queen’s ian catastrophes. Journalists have also expressed their Honour in 2014, and the Colum- frustration and disbelief. “You would hope that by do- bia School of Journalism Lifetime ing reports and putting them on tv and that talking Achievement Award in 2016. about them that people would wake up, they would © 2018 by Lyse Doucet doi:10.1162/DAED_a_00480 141 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DAED_a_00480 by guest on 27 September 2021 Syria & the see, they would feel, and maybe call for ac- of television, and another who says he de- CNN Effect tion, and the calls are being made, but the liberately does not–responded in differ- action isn’t being taken,” lamented nbc’s ent ways. But, in the end, it confirms that Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard En- the cnn Effect, when it exists, is not deci- gels. He spoke as a haunting image emerged sive. President Trump’s decision to launch of a stunned five-year-old Syrian child, Om- targeted air strikes turned out to be a one- ran Daqneesh, sitting alone in an ambu- off: they did not shift overall policy on Syria lance, covered in dust and blood, during nor did they significantly change the situa- some of the worst battles for the northern tion on the ground. But interviews with se- city of Aleppo in late 2016.1 The photograph nior U.S. policy-makers–mainly from the was widely reported, went viral on social Obama administration, which was in of- media, and was invoked by world leaders fice for much of the Syrian crisis–underline including President Obama. But it also be- that, while the media do not determine pol- came a focus of intense scrutiny in a high- icy, they do play a key role. While Obama ly politicized news and information land- pulled back from launching air strikes in scape. And it was one of only a handful of 2013, years of harrowing imagery emerging images that broke through what has been a from the conflict kept Syria on the agenda. nonstop, numbing flow of distressing im- They formed part of what senior advisors agery on social media emerging from Syria described as constant pressure emanating since protests calling for political change from the media and amplified by an array of first erupted in March 2011. other actors to “do something.” That, they Nearly three decades ago, the term CNN maintain, led to some policy responses that Effect was coined. It became snappy short- Obama did not fully support and that, in the hand and an academic paradigm to explain long run, failed. This included the covert how new, real-time reporting on U.S. tele- program to arm and train what were regard- vision networks was driving Western re- ed as moderate rebel forces to take on the sponses, mainly by the military, to hu- Syrian military and its allies: Obama doubt- manitarian crises around the world. Since ed it would succeed; his critics say there was then, dramatic changes in the media land- never a coherent strategy. scape, galvanized by technological and po- Syria’s war is arguably the first “social litical change, created new concepts such as media war.” Security risks and visa restric- the “Al Jazeera Effect” and the “YouTube tions often kept many of the world’s leading Effect.”2 Extensive scholarly research has media, including most mainstream West- concluded that this notion of a mighty me- ern broadcasters, off the front lines. That dia is a myth or hyperbole.3 But it has also led to a reliance on streams of information underscored that this does not mean the ef- on social media provided mainly by activ- fect is nonexistent. ists. There was often valuable material, but Both Presidents Donald Trump and it was hard to verify and, at times, turned Barack Obama faced images of major Syr- out to be wrong or misleading. Battles over ian poison gas attacks in rebel-held areas “truth” were also fueled by Western gov- that were filmed by local activists, posted ernment funding of media operations for on social media, and reported worldwide. what it promoted as a moderate armed op- Trump and Obama would seem to pro- position. On the other side, Russian state vide two cases to explore some of the the- propaganda pushed a narrative in support ory and research around the concept of a of President Bashar al-Assad’s forces. cnn Effect. These two decision-makers– Syria is also the most tangled geopolitical one who prides himself on watching a lot conflict of our time. The West, Arab states, 142 Dædalus, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DAED_a_00480 by guest on 27 September 2021 and Turkey have provided significant mil- tary involvement in this way. Scholars have Lyse Doucet itary support to an array of rebel fighters highlighted how decision-making on ma- including hard-line Islamists. Russia and jor issues “involves myriad factors, rang- Iran-backed militias bolstered Syrian gov- ing from the configuration of the interna- ernment forces with formidable firepower. tional system to the attributes of individu- There have been many agendas, no easy an- al decision-makers with ‘societal variables’ swers, and no consensus on a way out of the [including the media] located somewhere crisis. A spiral into appalling violence has in between.”5 left more than half of Syria’s postwar pop- President Trump declared that he was ulation displaced, dead, or a refugee in the launching military action “to end the biggest human exodus in decades. slaughter and bloodshed in Syria.” President In what follows, I will illustrate the way Obama had earlier turned to diplomacy, the cnn Effect still has some purchase on brokered by Russia, to remove chemical policy. But this depends greatly on the wider weapons from a volatile country believed strategic context, dominant thinking about to have one of the world’s largest arsenals how to respond to mass violence, and on of this deadly material. But both actions fo- decision-makers themselves. This essay cused on this one significant threat. Pres- will first briefly explore the impact of the ident Trump’s team then reverted to the media in the Trump and Obama adminis- broad outlines of the Syria policy that trations. Later sections will highlight some emerged in the latter years of President critical facets of today’s news and infor- Obama’s second term: a focus on defeating mation landscape, including observations the extremist Islamic State now regarded as from my own reporting from Syria at key a global threat; a move away from arming moments of this war. and training an increasingly marginalized moderate rebel force; and a recognition “I tell you that attack on children yester- that, despite years of grinding war, Presi- day had a big impact on me–big impact.”4 dent Assad wasn’t about to stand down, or That was how President Donald Trump de- be toppled. scribed his reaction to what he had been At first, the air strikes appeared as a dra- “watching and seeing” on American cable matic shift.