Summary: "Every picture tells a story" is a lesson the media learned a long time ago. Now, in the age of new media, amateur video footage comes with a string of narratives loaded with political intent. Nowhere has that been more true than in Syria where forces fighting the regime of President Bashar al-Assad have wielded video cameras wherever their comrades have aimed their guns. But judging by footage filmed by the rebels themselves showing their own acts of torture, executions and now cannibalism, it seems that the power of the media may have gone to their heads. The News Divide this week takes a fresh look Syria through the increasingly complex war of images and representations. We speak to Jillian C York of the Electronic Frontier Foundation; Dina Matar, senior lecturer in Arab Media and Political Communication at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London; Syrian journalist Malek Al-Abdeh and the Syrian political consultant and commentator, George Ajjan.
