VICE News made waves in traditional media circles when it released a documentary free of charge on YouTube showing an American embedded with ISIS troops. While much of our information from the area comes from citizen journalists who work independently of any recognized media outlet, VICE became the first outlet to host a journalist who […]
Every day, citizen journalists risk their lives in order to provide up-to-the-minute coverage of the conflict in Syria. Since March 2011, foreign journalists and Syrian media workers have been targeted, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. In their place have sprung up independent citizen journalists unaffiliated with any recognized news outlet: bloggers, YouTubers, and […]
Throughout this course, I have focused on the freedom and liberties of the press in Syria and surrounding areas. I discovered that the media is tightly controlled in Syria and that it is the single most dangerous country for journalists in the world. It is so dangerous, in fact, that one risks death by reporting […]
The War on Terror takes place entirely in Syria and the surrounding areas. The Islamic State has taken over large portions of Syria and Iraq. President Obama stated that the U.S. is “doing what it must to take the fight to terrorists” by leading a series of air strikes against the terror group. Syrian war […]
Due to the hostile nature of Syria’s journalism environment, alternative media sources have picked up the slack in traditional media. Sites like Buzzfeed, VICE News, and even Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have become invaluable to the quest for information. These outlets are not held to as high a standard as established outlets and can therefore […]
Article 38 of Syria’s constitution provides for the freedom of speech and of the press, although in reality these freedoms are severely restricted. Citizen journalism has sprung up in an attempt to replace official news sources, but those reports can be difficult to verify because the regime claims that they are fake. Reporters Without Borders […]
Rotten Tomatoes, a well-known movie review website, claims “It is fairly extraordinary that this film exists.” I agree. Restrepo is a documentary that shows the life of two journalists embedded with a platoon of soldiers in the remote mountains of Afghanistan for 15 months. It does not shy away from showing the realities of wartime, […]
In July of 2012, WikiLeaks began publishing its Syria Files- the largest release of classified documents to date. Included in the dump are more than two and a half million emails between Syrian and Western political figures, ministries, and companies. One of the most shocking revelations was that Italian technology giant Finmeccanica ignored an EU […]
The subject of portrayal of death in the media is a touchy one. On one hand, it can be argued that such depictions infringe upon a dead soldier’s or a grieving family’s right to privacy. On the other, there are ways to mitigate these risks by asking for permission and using common sense about what is […]
The year is 2006, before the beginning of the revolt in Dara’a, Syria. More than 60% of the land in Syria is experiencing the most severe drought in modern history and nearly two million people are displaced from their homes. And now, conflict is unavoidable. The long-term drought between 2006 and 2011 in Syria caused […]
Johanson Journalism 
Recent Comments