The social and political scenario of the Middle East: Syria, refugees and media

• Grant number: 18/12829-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: September 20, 2018
• End date: December 19, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Communications - Journalism and Publishing
• Principal Investigator: Raquel Cabral
• Grantee: Jorge Antonio Salgado Salhani
• Supervisor: Ignacio Alvarez-Ossorio
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Arquitetura, Artes e Comunicação (FAAC). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Bauru. Bauru , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Universidad de Alicante (UA), Spain
• Associated to the scholarship: 17/10107-8 - Syrian refugees and Peace Journalism on the news portals Al Jazeera and G1, BP.MS

Abstract

The objective of this research internship abroad is to investigate the conflicts in Syria in order to understand the refugee crisis in that country and, especially, the media coverage on that issue from the perspective of the Arab Studies. The methodology consists firstly in surveying literature on Syrian conflicts and Arab Studies, as well as developing a descriptive research of Syria's current scenario, and how its civil war contributes to internal and external displacement of Syrian people. The next step of the methodology consists in an exploratory research on Arab media, focusing specifically on Al Jazeera Media Network and the web portal Al Jazeera English. The results will provide a better understanding of the Arab media communication dynamics in the current social and political scenario of the Middle East. We highlight the research internship will be done at the Instituto Interuniversitario de Desarrollo Social y Paz, Universidad de Alicante, Spain, an important Peace Studies research center, which could collaborate to the development of Peace Journalism in Brazil.