Media [Mis]representation of the East in Reese Erlich's Inside Syria

Abstract

This paper explores the traces of 'Oriental Gaze' in Reese Erlich's collection of reports on the Syrian war. It also examines the way to media misrepresent the reality or colonialism. is endorsed through media in Erlich’s Inside Syria. As the journalistic report, this book explicitly presents the facts and figures during the crisis in Syria. However, that presentation of fact is guided by Western reports and its media and in most cases the writers of opinion articles demonstrated Western viewpoint. In this study, the researcher will try to make content discourse analysis of the entire report that is compartmentalized in different issue-based sections. In this work, the researcher will consider how one might re-orient an Orientalist gaze, extending this theoretical approach across Syrian war contexts, both in terms of the agency constructing this gaze as well as its subject. Drawing from Edward Said’s classic theory of Orientalism, the researcher will examine how media institutions participate in constructing Orientalist representations of Middle East countries like Syria. Briefly reviewing how the US as an agency portrays the Middle East through Reese’s investigative findings.