Media development in Syria: the Janus-faced nature of foreign aid assistance

Abstract

This article intends to provide responses to some of the many unanswered questions about the making and the transformation of the uprising in Syria by exploring a new avenue of research: media development aid. Most of the academic interest has been oriented towards the role that the new media played at the time of the uprising, insufficient interest, instead, has been directed to the development of the sector in the years predating it. What emerges from this article is that the Syrian media landscape was strongly supported by international development aid during the years prior the outbreak of the uprising of 2011. By looking at the complex structure of media aid architecture and investigating into the practices and programs implemented by some representative organisations, this article reflects on the field of media development as a new modus operandi of the West (EU and US especially), to promote democracy through alternative and non-collateral bottomup support.

Strategies and (survival) tactics: The case of Syrian oppositional media in Turkey

“…Before 2011 there was some funding for media development initiatives in Syria (Brownlee, 2017). This funding, however, was mostly through small grants and projects or as part of larger regional initiatives 2 .…”

Donor Aid and Private Investment: Their Interplay With Media Development

“…Foreign aid gained prominence at the end of the Cold War (Brownlee, 2017;Cary & D'Amour, 2013;Easterly, 2005;Lancaster, 2007;Myers, 2014;Price, 2002;, but as an institution, it dates back to 1947 with the Marshall Plan (Bräutigam & Knack, 2004, p. 256;Brownlee, 2017) and it comes in different types: humanitarian, subsistence, military, bribery, prestige, and foreign aid for economic development (Morgenthau, 1962). Aid, particularly from the West to Africa, according to most estimates has risen approximately to US$600 billion per annum since the 1960s (Akonor, 2008).…”

“…When the voice of the people and reporter freedom is usurped in this manner due to such media mergers and takeovers, it hampers the efforts of foundation-funded organizations to establish a resilient media system. Beyond this, Western governments have also invested heavily in media projects in Arab nations to the extent that such interventions have assumed the status of an industry (Brownlee, 2017) and to Hassan and Sabir (2011), the objective of the West pushing huge sums of funds to NGOs is to enable them promote their cultures in Pakistan. For instance, China's massive investments in Africa's print, broadcasting, and satellite television stations are part of its long-time drive to strengthen Beijing's soft power with motives that go beyond diplomacy to cover foreign aid, business links, training programs, scholarships at academic institutes, and the media (Gagliardone et al, 2017;York, 2017).…”

“…For instance, China's massive investments in Africa's print, broadcasting, and satellite television stations are part of its long-time drive to strengthen Beijing's soft power with motives that go beyond diplomacy to cover foreign aid, business links, training programs, scholarships at academic institutes, and the media (Gagliardone et al, 2017;York, 2017). Brownlee (2017) concurs, this kind of media development gesture is the means to achieving soft power which is "the ability to attract and co-opt rather than coerce, as a means of persuasion, through intangible means such as culture, values and institutions of politics" (p. 2279). The actual threat that awaits the African media is their escape from state control only to be swallowed by foreign interests (Martin, 1992).…”

“…(UNESCO, 2008;Zrinjka, 2011, p. 2) However, to Berger (2010), the elaboration of the indicators still lack a general definition and proposes that media development is the "deepening of 'media density' which increase media infrastructure and/or the institutional/organisational base-which is necessary (albeit not sufficient) to undergird increases in the production and consumption of journalism" (p. 554). Furthermore, Brownlee (2017) defines media development as efforts by organizations, people, and governments to develop the capacity and quality of the media sector within a specific country or region. This presupposes that efforts to enhance media development require an "all hands on deck" approach especially in contemporary times that citizen journalism is on the rise.…”