This is much different than Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya, which tell the story of what’s happening across the country with gruesome local citizen videos of civilians and children killed or wounded in air strikes and military attacks:
2.) Pundits over footage:
In the same vein, Sky Arabia often jumps to talking heads at the outset of its Syria reporting, again minimizing the time spent on graphic footage. Today for example, while bloody bodies were airing for several minutes on Al Jazeera, Sky Arabia devoted around 10 minutes to back-to-back interviews with analysts from the start of its newscast:
3.) Framing fear over revolution:
While Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya often seem to be cheerleading for opposition forces, often integrating the rebel Syrian flag in news promos, Sky Arabia promos are often mixed with images of Assad supporters, as seen here:
Or images of the president among crowds:
While Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya freely use phrases such as “people’s revolution” or “revolution in Syria,” Sky Arabia has chosen: “Now in Syria” as its subtext, as written below:
Far from heroic, the image of rebels on Sky Arabia evokes imagery of masked gunmen, jumping through tires in Al Qaedaesque fashion:
The broadcaster also seems to push the fear narrative–that so deftly wielded for decades by dictators–instead of the optimism for change story line, touted by rival broadcasters. Here Sky has been a strong proponent of the “civil war” language, comparing Syria’s fighting to that of other long-simmering war zones such as Ireland and Sudan:
And emphasizing the general death count (here with dripping blood graphic) over specifics about the cause of violence:
