Coping with violence and displacement through media: The experiences of Syrian audiences

<p>Since 2011, media has played a significant role in the Syrian conflict, which started as a peaceful uprising, then escalated into a violent civil war resulting in the largest refugee and displacement crisis in the world. Mass media played a negative role, acting as a driver of the Syrian conflict by inciting violence, hate speech, and sectarianism. In this article, I focus on successful alternative media interventions that challenge the violent, stereotypical discourse dominant in mass media. As part of a larger research project, I examine, as a case study, the discourse surrounding the Syrian television drama series <em>Ghadan Naltaqi</em> (<em>GN</em>) [<em>We’ll Meet</em> <em>Tomorrow</em>] which generated an exemplary dialogue between the forcibly displaced segment of its audience and the writer/creator of the show, Iyad Abou Chamat. I consider <em>GN</em> as an alternative media intervention because it provides a case where media creators help displaced people both to mitigate the traumatic effects of a highly polarising conflict, and to find a healing space from violent and alienating dominant media discourses. </p>