Aristotle University of Thessaloniki School of Journalism and Mass Communications ΜA in Digital Media, Communication & Journalism Reporting War and Crises Christos Grigoroudis New wars – The case of Yemen Supervisor: Professor Nikolaos Panagiotou Thessaloniki 2017 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the whole department of the School of Journalism and Mass Communications of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Professors, Associated and Assistant Professors. I am grateful to my supervisor, Assistant Professor Mr. Nikolaos Panagiotou for his continuous guidance, advice, and valuable suggestion to carry out my research. “To the Yemeni children who didn’t have the time to laugh and play…” ii ABSTRACT Yemeni civil war, came to the front in 2015, just after the last elections. Houthi Forces allied with forces loyal to the former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, clashed with forces loyal to the government of Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi. The coverage of the mass media is variable. Although the intense of the civil war is quite vivid the media coverage remains weak. The present study will examine the Yemen war through the analysis of mass media coverage. It will focus on warfare that affected significant the parties of the conflict, on the consequences of the atrocities on the population, the displacements and the humanitarian crisis of the country, on the mediators and their efforts for resolving the crisis and their publicity. Moreover, the study will attempt to investigate the framing that provided three different large scale digital media, Russia Today (Russia), Al Jazeera (Arab originated) and New York Times (USA), in the period between January to June 2017. Although global news media keep a different approach on the emergent conflicts, the war in Yemen displayed events that were commented disproportionate. The present study, therefore, will attempt to locate in cases that remained unseen in mass media or covered uneven. It will try to identify the dominant frame and maybe the balanced reporting. It will also try to detect the narrative of each media and the implementation of peace journalism in its articles. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE NUMBER CHAPTER 1 1.1 Historical Background 1 1.1.1 The Identity of Yemen 1 1.1.2 Saleh’s Resignation 8 1.1.3 Hadi’s Administration 9 1.1.4 The Rise of Houthis 10 1.2 Theoretical Framework 12 1.2.1 Media Framing 12 1.2.2 Interrelation between Agenda setting and Frame setting 15 1.3 Conflict and Violence through the prism of Peace Journalism 18 1.3.1 Causes of conflicts and the importance of Media 18 1.3.2 Journalism as a catalyst 19 1.3.3 Peace Journalism 20 1.3.4 The Triangle of Conflict 22 1.3.5 The Peace Journalism Model and the Conflict Triangle 24 1.4 “New Wars” 26 1.4.1 The “New Wars” Approach 26 1.4.2 “New wars” contribution 36 CHAPTER 2 METHODOLOGY 39 CHAPTER 3 OVERALL STUDY RESULTS 44 3.1 New York Times Results 53 3.1.1 General Outcomes 53 3.1.2 Framing Study Outcomes 53 iv 3.1.3 Peace & War Journalism Indicators 64 3.2 Russia Today Results 71 3.2.1 General Outcomes 71 3.2.2 Framing Study Outcomes 71 3.2.3 Peace & War Journalism Indicators 89 3.3 Al Jazeera Results 100 3.3.1 General Outcomes 100 3.3.2 Framing Study Outcomes 100 3.3.3 Peace & War Journalism Indicators 113 CHAPTER 4 CONCLUSIONS 124 4.1 War and Media 124 4.2 Framing of the conflict by the media 132 4.2.1 N.Y.T 132 4.2.2 R.T 134 4.2.2 A.J 136 4.3 Peace Journalism Indicators 139 4.4 “New wars” approach on Yemeni war 141 4.5 Conclusions 144 BIBLIOGRAPHY 149-156 APPENDIX Maps 157-163 v LIST OF TABLES PAGE NUMBER Table 1. PJ and WJ features by Johan Galtung 24 Table 2. Contained Data – features, per month and News Media 45 Table 3. Number of editorials, per month and News Media 46 Table 4. Size of editorials, per month and News Media 47 Table 5. Strategic Frame, per month and News Media 47 Table 6. Violent Frame, per month and News Media 47 Table 7. Intervention Frame, per month and News Media 48 Table 8. Saudi Led Coal. Agg. Frame, per month and News Media 48 Table 9. Houthi Aggression Frame, per month and News Media 49 Table 10. Hadi Aggression Frame, per month and News Media 49 Table 11. AQAP Aggression Frame, per month and News Media 49 Table 12. Conseq. Of war/viol. (PJ ind.), per month and News Media 50 Table 13. Roots of conflict (PJ indicator), per month and News Media 50 Table 14. Solution Oriented (PJ indicator), per month and News Media 51 Table 15. Framing Percentage per News Media 51 Table 16. PJ Indicators’ Percentage per News Media 51 Table 17. NYT Narrative 133 Table 18. RT Narrative 135 Table 19. AJ Narrative 137 vi LIST OF GRAPHICS PAGE NUMBER Graphic 1. Published articles per month and News Media 44 Graphic 2. Published editorials per month 45 Graphic 3. Size of articles per each month 46 Graphic 4. Size and number of articles per each month for NYT 53 Graphic 5. Dominant Frame per each month for NYT 54 Graphic 6. “Violent Frame” for NYT 54 Graphic 7. “Intervention Frame” for NYT 58 Graphic 8. “Saudi led Coalition Aggression Frame” for NYT 60 Graphic 9. “Strategic Interest Frame” for NYT 61 Graphic 10. “AQAP Aggression Frame” for NYT 62 Graphic 11. “Hadi Aggression Frame” for NYT 63 Graphic 12. “Houthi Aggression Frame” for NYT 64 Graphic 13. Peace & War Journalism Indicators per month for NYT 65 Graphic 14. “Conseq. of War and Violence” Ind. per month for NYT 65 Graphic 15. “Roots of Conflict” Indicator per month for NYT 68 Graphic 16. “Roots of Conflict” Indicator per month for NYT 69 Graphic 17. Size and number of articles per each month for RT 71 Graphic 18. Dominant Frame per each month for RT 72 Graphic 19. “Saudi Led Coalition Aggression Frame” per month for RT 73 Graphic 20. “Intervention Frame” per month for RT 77 vii Graphic 21. “Violent Frame” per month for RT 82 Graphic 22. “Strategic Frame” per month for RT 86 Graphic 23. “Houthi Aggression Frame” per month for RT 89 Graphic 24. Peace & War Journalism Indicators per month for RT 90 Graphic 25. “Conseq. of War and Violence” Indic. per month for RT 92 Graphic 26. “Roots of conflict” Indicator per month for RT 94 Graphic 27. “Solution Oriented” Indicator per month for RT 98 Graphic 28. Size and number of articles per each month for AJ 100 Graphic 29 . Dominant Frame per each month for AJ 100 Graphic 30. “Violent Frame” per month for RT 101 Graphic 31. “Strategic Interest Frame” per month for RT 104 Graphic 32. “Saudi led Coalition Aggression Frame” per month for RT 107 Graphic 33. “Intervention Frame” per month for RT 109 Graphic 34. “Houthi Aggression Frame” per month for RT 111 Graphic 35. “AQAP Aggression Frame” per month for RT 113 Graphic 36. Peace & War Journalism Indicators per month for AJ 114 Graphic 37. “Conseq. of War and Violence” Ind. per month for RT 116 Graphic 38. “Roots of Conflict” Indicator per month for RT 119 Graphic 39. “Solution Oriented” Indicator per month for RT 123 Graphic 40. Dominant Frame per Media (%) 132 Graphic 41. Frame distribution in the total of examined media (%) 138 Graphic 42. PJ Indicators per Media (%) 139 viii LIST OF FIGURES PAGE NUMBER Figure 1. PJ and WJ attributes within Conflict Dimensions 25 ix ABBREVIATIONS Al Jazeera (AJ) Amnesty International (AI) anno Domini (AD) Arab Organisation for Human Rights (AOHR) Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) Before Christ (BC) Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Gross Domestic Product (GDP) General People's Congress (GPC) Human Rights Watch (HRW) International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) International Monetary Fund (IMF) Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) King Salman Center for Humanitarian Aid and Relief (KSRelief) Member of Parliament (MP) New York Times (NYT) Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Peace Journalism (PJ) Russia Today (RT) Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) United Arab Emirates (UAE) United Kingdom (UK) United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) United States (US) Upsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) World Health Organization (WHO) Yemen Socialist Party (YSP) World Food Program (WFP) War Journalism (WJ) x INTRODUCTION Yemen is a deeply religious country and its roots go back to the 7th century A.D. Its unique place was a challenge for different empires through the centuries. The recent decades a civil war followed the unification efforts. In the present research, a brief historical background will be presented and the route of the country especially in the last decades. The Agenda Setting and the Framing will follow, starting from their conception and focusing on their relationship and their role in media. An elaboration on conflict and violence will reinforce the basic knowledge for the researched conflict. The major factors that can ignite a conflict and the forms of the produced violence. The peace journalism main characteristics, principles and features, its catalytic role as a third party in mediation and conflict resolution. The “New Wars” approach will complete the theoretic background, presenting not only the main arguments of its supporters but also the arguments of its offenders. The contribution of this approach in conflict analysis will be highlighted and its novelties that provide an improved understanding of the decline of public goods due to the impact of a violent conflict as well.