In recent times, international, and specifically Western, media has become more interested in the humanitarian aspects of the war in Syria, currently approaching its sixth year, and moved away from growing political disputes among parties to the conflict. Civilian victims are the “heroes” of this new media coverage of events in Syria. This is especially with escalating violations against civilians as a result of the war and continued siege of cities as a tool to pressure areas outside the control of the Syrian regime, even though they too reject the presence of terrorist groups such as ISIS. This places crosshairs on both sides, which further aggravates already deteriorating humanitarian conditions in the absence of any signs that a political settlement is on the horizon.

The media’s focus on the humanitarian impact of the Syrian crisis takes several forms, and mostly relies on feature stories and video footage, which are the most influential medium for such topics, unlike the more common practice of captioned photographs.

Growing interest

Western media is taking a closer look at humanitarian conditions in Syria and the growing dangers facing relief efforts resulting from bombing by both regime forces and armed opposition, such as the bombing of the UN-Syrian Red Crescent-International Red Cross aid caravan on September 19th , 2016. The cover of Time magazine in October 2016 was a picture of the local relief group in Syria, the White Helmets, and quoted Quranic verse 32 from Surat Al-Ma’eda: “He who saves one life, saves all of humanity”.

In its cover story, the magazine expanded on the idea that the world had lost its “compass” on what is happening in Syria because of the multitude of parties to the conflict, and the confusion and chaos caused by the war. This resulted in the neglect of the victims. The magazine believes the presence of relief groups such as the White Helmets is a glimmer of hope for the “tormented” in Syria.

The German magazine, Stern, focused on the condition of civilians in Syria through other means. On October 7th, 2016, the magazine blocked all content on its website and wrote “We are silent today” in white letters across a black screen, with pictures of the destruction and war in Syria, the wounded, and those killed by random bombings. It was a protest by the magazine’s editorial board against the daily tragedies in Syria, particularly in Aleppo.

The magazine’s editorial read: “Today, we are not interested in promoting the website, or the number of visitors, or best marketing. Today, we want to make a bold point: we are silent to scream in the face of the unbearable silence”. It called on journalists around the world to take action to end the atrocities in Syria, to report and focus on them in reports and analyses, and that it would not suffice to simply use photos from news agencies. This is especially since the details of these tragedies are lost in the media due to the perceived bias towards rival parties there.

Madaya Mom

The US-based ABC news network launched a new project to support Syrian victims. The project, called Madaya Mom, is a digital comic book transforming the stories of war victims into sketches portraying the suffering of residents, since there are no actual photos of events. It is based on a woman from the Syrian city of Madaya which has been under siege for two years by the Syrian regime and its allies. According to UN figures, some 60 people have died of hunger because of this siege. Marvel Studios and ABC are using this woman from Madaya, who is intentionally not identified, as a source since it has been impossible to send correspondents into the city of Madaya.

Although the project focuses on portraying the war scenes in Syria through both colored and black and white graphics (as there are no actual pictures from inside the city), creators did not use bloody or cruel images of war. The project consists of nearly 30 cartoons, mostly black and white, drawn by a Croatian cartoonist who lived through his country’s war of independence in 1991 and was able to highlight the suffering of civilians in war and under siege. The project covers the daily life of a family living in a city under siege, including moments of family bonding despite the difficulties civilians suffer in this city.

The UK-based newspaper The Guardian launched a campaign to nominate the White Helmets for the Nobel Peace Prize. In its editorial on October 5th, 2016, the newspaper said the organization’s 3000 volunteers deserve the prize in view of their great efforts to save victims of shelling, and the removal of rubble to look for survivors. According to some estimates, they have saved 60,000 victims from under the rubble.

Late realization

This interest by Western media in the humanitarian impact of the Syrian crisis raises two major points: 

1. Western media interest in the humanitarian aspects of the Syrian crisis opens a dialogue about a new role to correct the approach of media coverage of the Syrian crisis in the past. It previously focused on supporting one side against the other, which not only ignored the true victims of the crisis but also led world media outlets into taking sides in their coverage of the war.

For example, BBC Arabic broadcast a picture of its correspondent with officers from the Syrian army during the siege of the eastern districts of Aleppo. The channel was strongly criticized because of the correspondent’s unprofessional approach in covering events in Syria, and accused it of supporting the Syrian regime in “starving” its people and putting civilians under siege.

The actions of some channels that appear to support the Syrian regime may be motivated by wanting to be inside Syria, even if that means they must abide by the rules of the Syrian regime or armed opposition. Either side provides protection for journalists and correspondents covering the war there, as long as it is consistent with their interests and their vision of the course of the conflict.

Other channels make professional mistakes because of the confusion and lack of information inside Syria. Some channels broadcast scenes from areas they attribute as under regime control, when in fact they are under the opposition, and vice versa.

Relief media

2. Celebrating the role of the White Helmets in Western media reflects a new media approach that can be described as “relief media”. It is a role imposed by the region’s conflicts on the media, where the latter becomes party to relief operations and its role is no longer limited to promoting international relief organizations, and highlighting the operations they carry out.

These organizations now look to the media to disseminate awareness campaigns, collect donations and even participate in relief operations. For example, EU countries receiving refugees, specifically Germany, relied on video media to educate refugees about the laws of the land and the rules that apply to citizens. This video media is also used to encourage communities to accept Syrian refugees for humanitarian reasons. This was done through several programs with segments on refugees, or new programs focused on them.

Deutsche Welle (DW) Arabic was launched as a second channel to serve refugees in Germany and Western Europe, and is broadcast on the European satellite Astra. There are also programs on the original channel such as the successful children’s program “Die Sendung mit der Maus” (The show with the mouse), and the talk show “Shabab Talk”.

In conclusion, it can be said that the media’s involvement in relief operations, whether by focusing on the victims in areas of conflict, urging for attention to their struggles, or celebrating organizations participating in these operations, represents a new trend which may gradually expand in the coming phase. This is especially in light of the continued escalation of conflicts in some areas, thus increasing the worsening humanitarian situation resulting from it.