58. Name: Jacqueline S. Kiel Title: Hizbullah’s Culture Wars: Understanding Hizbullah through Social Movement Theory and its Media Usage (A Comparison
between Al Manar and Al Jazeera) Institution: Naval Postgraduate School Country: United States Date: 2009 Language: English Abstract:
This thesis draws on social movement theory to examine how Hizbullah frames its message to various target audiences. The growth and influence of different Hizbullah media over the past two decades suggest that the party has been successful in shaping a popular message both inside Lebanon and in the larger Arab world. Its successful media usage paralleled its growth as perhaps the single most important party in Lebanon today. The ‘terrorist’ frame that the U.S. applies to Hizbullah appears inconsistent with the broad political, social and media work of this organization. This study examines Hizbullah’s use of the media and its specific cultural framing. The party’s framing of messages conveyed through its media arm, Al Manar, is examined and compared with the framing used by Al Jazeera on the same set of stories from the 2006 Lebanon war and the 2008 Gaza war. Al Manar frames its message largely in polarizing “hero-victim” terms, while Al Jazeera is far more factual and professional in its presentation of the same stories. Using heroic types of frames has both benefits and disadvantages for Hizbullah’s information strategy.
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