Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references.

In March 2011, following the self-immolation of a Syrian man named Hasan Ali Akleh, several demonstrations were staged across Syria, leading to the arrest of many Syrians in the town of Deraa. These demonstrations escalated into an ongoing conflict in most cities and towns, known as the “Syrian Conflict” (aka “Syrian Crisis,” “Syrian Civil War,” or “Syrian Uprising”). The conflict has resulted in the worst humanitarian disaster since World War II and the Rwandan genocide. According to recent published reports by many international organizations (e.g. United Nations, Amnesty International, Europa), 11.5% of Syria’s population has been killed or injured since the conflict erupted in March 2011, more than 500,000 people have died, over 5 million refugees have fled Syria since 2011, and there has been massive destruction in Syrian cities and towns. This dissertation draws on narrative theory, narrative features, narrative framing, media responsibility, and the representation of the Other to provide a theoretical and conceptual foundation and fulfill the dissertation’s objectives. To do this, it has established a theoretical and conceptual model of analysis specific to the event in question to investigate how the quotations and narratives of Syrian citizens, delivered as texts presented in translation in English-language newspapers, narrate, frame, and represent the Syrian humanitarian disaster. This dissertation also scrutinizes media responsibility of the selected English-language newspapers as revealed in the selected and translated quotations and narratives. The dissertation methodologically utilizes a qualitative narrative analysis research design, and analyzes a purposive sample of translated quotations and narratives in 404 news texts from the online versions of the three following English-language newspapers: the British The Guardian, the American The New York Times, and the Canadian National Post. The findings of this dissertation ultimately encourage a better understanding of the crucial role that translation plays in narrating, framing, and representing humanitarian disasters within global media outlets.

This thesis investigates the English language press and its coverage of protest struggles and backlash, border wars and related militarisation of society in the critical years of South African political change between 1976 and 1988. The widespread reputation of Natal liberalism has led researchers to debate the extent to which the independent Natal Witness was a politically oppositional paper and raises interesting questions about the construction ofliberalism itself as a political doctrine. I examine the Natal Witness as a case study - an English language newspaper based in the province that was then called Natal. In this study, I focus on key events related to violent political conflict to determine how this newspaper reported on the apartheid state's police response to protest, its military campaigns, perceived security threats to the nation, the issue of military conscription, and the increasingly violent provincial politics fought between the followers of the United Democratic front (UDF) and Inkatha. I describe the coverage of the Witness at length and show how various mediums (news articles, letters, and opinion pieces) and various sources conveyed events to its readership. I assess the content and its ambiguities to paint a complex and detailed picture of how discourses shifted with events and over time. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.