Other Publications from the Center for Global Communication Studies
Document Type
Report
Date of this Version
3-2012
Abstract
Social media and user-generated content (UGC) — photos and videos taken by members of the public — played an important role in coverage of the revolutions in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, but, this was chiefly supplementary to traditional newsgathering for covering those revolutions. However in Syria with the tight control on foreign media denying access for foreign journalists, especially in the early months of the uprising, news organizations had to rely almost exclusively on this UGC via social media and their own UGC intake platforms. Much of the UGC used by news outlets is fielded by Syrian activists both inside Syria and based overseas who are in contact with Syrian demonstrators and planners. The objective of this study is to look at how two prominent Arab-language news organisations, BBC Arabic and Al Jazeera Arabic (AJA), have used social media and UGC — photos, videos and comments — to provide coverage of the uprising in Syria.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Harkin, Juliette; Anderson, Kevin; Morgan, Libby; and Smith, Briar. (2012). Deciphering User-Generated Content in Transitional Societies: A Syria Coverage Case Study. Other Publications from the Center for Global Communication Studies.
Retrieved from https://repository.upenn.edu/cgcs_publications/20
Date Posted: 06 February 2017