REVISED PROPOSAL

International Policy Fellowship Research Proposal
The Media and Ethno-Sectarian Dynamics in Iraq
Ibrahim Al-Marashi

Overview

Observers of the situation in Iraq often predict the nation will face an imminent civil war among ethnic Kurds and Arabs, and among the Sunni and Shia Muslim sects. Often such pessimistic forecasts are based on mere speculation, ignoring the fact that these three ethnic communities managed to coexist for eighty years, dispelling the notion that only Saddam Hussein's "strong arm tactics" kept the nation united. However, the public discourse in Iraq, especially following the March 2006 bombing of a Shia shrine featured the increasing use of ethno-sectarian terminology. While differences had always existed between Iraq's Arab Shia, Sunni and Kurds, such divisions were never discussed openly and were glaringly absent in the Iraqi media that emerged after the fall of the Baath government in 2003.

This project seeks to analyze the state of the Iraqi media since 2003 Iraq war. While a diversity of opinion in Iraq is a positive sign, this project seeks to ascertain how the Iraqi media is forming along ethno-sectarian lines. It will apply a discourse analysis framework to the ethno-sectarian terminology and frames in the Iraqi media. The results seek to determine whether Iraq's Fourth estate is reinforcing its ethno-sectarian divisions and if so, how to offer recommendations to counter its employment of negative images and stereotypes of other communities. The media is recognized as one of the most powerful tools in increasing awareness of ethno-sectarian divisions in deeply divided societies, and it can also shape and influence public attitudes in overcoming such tensions in Iraqi society.

The literature on the emerging media in Iraq is scarce, and this research can pioneer further analyses of this developing institution. Few analyses of the Iraqi media have been conducted despite the emergence of over 170 daily newspapers and twelve satellite channels in the nation. This situation offers a stark contrast to the five state owned dailies and single satellite channel that existed during the Baath era. Studies of ethno-sectarian dynamics in the media have been devoted to Bosnia-Herzogovina and Rwanda, but unfortunately such studies failed to materialize prior to their conflicts and the existing literature has been retrospective in nature. This study seeks to address the need for a proactive analysis of the Iraqi media and its portrayal of ethno-sectarian differences in Iraqi society. Such research can isolate whether the media is exacerbating cleavages in Iraq, or is it facilitating a positive attitude in bridging the differences between its communities.

It should be stressed that the underlying rationale of this study is that conflict between Iraq's sectarian and ethnic communities needs to be addressed in the media to serve as a safety valve for the nation. The key for the future of Iraq's stability is transforming this debate into a constructive one. Such a project can serve as an important step in this process.

Methodology

The following study seeks to focus on the problem of sectarianism being reflected in the Iraqi media, and how this poses a challenge for other Iraqi media which seek to reflect the developments in Iraqi society according to international journalistic standards.

The research questions are what is the state of the Iraqi media is and what bodies have formed to create legislation to regulate the media? How does Iraq's existing legal regulatory media framework deal with the problem? How are ethno-sectarian differences represented in the Iraqi media and has there been a shift in public discourse from 2003 to 2006? What media outlets generally enforce a negative attitude to Iraq's ethno-sectarian mix? Are there any Iraqi media outlets seeking to address these differences in a positive manner?

This project will give an overview and assessment of the media in Iraq, as there has been no study of this subject and is crucial in reviewing the literature of media in other deeply-divided societies. This section will examine ownership, financing and readership of the various media and how that is linked with the discourse emerging in Iraq.

A discourse analysis will be conducted, first by establishing a framework to determine how ethno-sectarianism appears in the Iraqi media. Discourse analysis is a standard methodology in media studies and it has been used in other cases of media and conflict. The media sample will be divided into four groups in order to have a sample that is representative of the Iraqi society. The subgroups will include print, radio and TV media owned by Iraqi Kurdish parties, while the second and third sub-groups will include media representing Iraq's Arab Sunnis and Shias respectively. Other independent media with no ethno-sectarian affiliation will also be examined, in order to determine whether they attempt to transcend the cleavages in Iraqi society. The primary material will include radio and TV transcripts, and newspaper articles.

These media outlets will be examined during national events that tend to have ramifications for all of Iraq's communities. It will examine events that have already occurred, as well as future debates that could incite ethno-sectarian differences. The time periods include November 2004 to February 2005, which covers the debates before and after Iraq's first election on January 30, 2005. The second will examine the debates from August 2005 to November 2005, which cover the span of discussions of Iraq's constitutional process. The third will examine the debates from November 2005 to January 2006, which will include the discourse surrounding Iraq's second election. The fourth event is the bombing of the Shia Al-'Askariyya shrine in the city of Samarra. The discourse analysis will determine how articles in these media cover ethnic-sectarian issues, in addition to coding such framing factors such as phraseology and their context. The findings will determine if there has been a shift how over time and the nature of the change in the discourse.
There are inherent dangers in conducting such research in Iraq on a full time basis. This researcher intends to use his academic base in Turkey, while conducting occasional research visits to Iraq. The researcher will collect the data from the Iraqi dailies as well as the transcripts from various broadcast media and will conduct interviews in order to supplement the textual analysis. The researcher has contacts with the various Iraqi media outlets and intends to conduct interviews with journalists, editors and producers. Such interviews will be necessary in order to determine the interests and attitudes of the parties issuing the various media, and how media ownership affects their views. Furthermore, such contact can help extrapolate suggestions for developing a strategy for cooperation and elucidating policy recommendations on overcoming sectarian-ethnocentricism in the Iraqi media.

Policy Recommendations for Stake Holders

While the analytical section of the study will examine the problems of sectarianism in the Iraqi media, the policy recommendations will deal with how to tackle it. It seeks to address three areas: media regulation, media education, and media institutions.

Policy recommendations that would emerge from this study could serve as media regulatory bodies such as the National Commission on Media and Communication and the Iraqi Higher Media Committee. However, media regulation does not solve the problem of educating journalists on social responsibility and reporting during times of conflict.

One of the problems in Iraq is that professional standards and practical training for journalists is relatively new in a society that repressed its media in the past. Schools of journalism existed in Iraq, but instruction focused on promotion of the views of the state Ba'ath Party. Under the circumstances of ethno-sectarian reporting in Iraq, recommendations can be elucidated on how to raise awareness of international standards in journalism to media practitioners. These recommendations can also target international media organizations and that offer such training, but lack the familiarity with the Iraqi setting.

Finally, the policy recommendations can be directed to international organizations that seek to address weaknesses in the Iraqi media, by offering training and financial assistance.