Early American Foreign Policy Towards the Syrian Conflict Captured Through Two Mainstream U.S. News Organizations. A Multidisciplinary Content Analysis of Fox News and CNN News Articles

Abstract

The CNN and Fox news articles conveyed to us multiple aspects of the situation in Syria. Through the analysis of the media published articles, the magnitude of the Syrian people suffering is evident to be substantial. The media framed many interacting local, regional and international factors that displayed to us the complexity of the conflict. Through this media content analysis, one can realize how the media reported and framed the political communications and interactions between these factors which could infer what formed the main characteristics of the early US foreign policy in the Syrian unrest. Both Fox News and CNN focused on the likelihood of early American military intervention, the American diplomatic fight against Russia in the United Nations, the Republican opposition of the Democratic government policies, and the fear of opposition and radical extremists arming by the west. CNN and Fox News had multiple similarities and differences in reflecting specific parts of the Syrian conflict. By media focusing on the aforementioned areas of the conflict, this study concludes that the two American media sources framed a horrific humanitarian crisis in Syria and a reluctant and probably ineffective early American policy then.