146. Name: Dianne Akkerhuis Title: Western vs. Muslim Media on the Civil War in Syria: An Empirical Analysis of Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations (the Cases of BBC, CNN, Al Arabiya English and Al Jazeera English) Institution: Utrecht University Country: Netherlands Date: 2013 Language: English Abstract: This study examines the media coverage of the Syrian conflict from the perspective of Samuel Huntington’s clash of civilizations theory. As Huntington makes a distinction between Western and Muslim civilizations, this study accordingly focuses on Western and Muslim media to see if a clash in reports on the Syrian civil war by Western and Muslim media can be identified. To this end, reports, articles, statements, and views of both Western and Muslim news networks on the civil war in Syria have been analyzed. The researcher selected two Western media outlets (the BBC and CNN) and two Muslim media outlets (Al Arabiya English and Al Jazeera English) and used discourse analysis methodology. The textual analysis is complemented by a semiotic analysis, which focuses the attention on signs and sign systems in texts to explore how readers might interpret and decode those signs. The research findings are compared with elements of Huntington’s clash of civilizations hypothesis in order to find out whether his hypothesis can be generalized and assumed as reality or not regarding reporting on the Syrian civil war by Western and Muslim media.
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