Wilkins, Karin Gwinn, 1962-2010-10-262010-10-262017-05-112010-10-262010-10-262017-05-112010-05May 2010http://hdl.handle.net/2152/ETD-UT-2010-05-1078textIn 2001, Syria opened its media outlets to private ownership for the first time in over forty years. This thesis conducts a critical discourse analysis of the economic coverage of the sole Syrian political daily newspaper al-Watan and asks how media liberalization in Syria is more so emblematic of pro-market economic reforms as opposed to media reform. In this sense, it is the economic content of al-Watan that signifies how a private media outlet – under the guiding force of “red lines” and other regulatory mechanisms, yet financially “liberated” via advertising revenue and wealthy regime-friendly backers – can demonstrate its utility to the regime by providing a reiteration of its social-market economic policies all the while existing as a public embodiment of the regime’s willingness to embrace a marketized Syrian society. Simply put, al-Watan is a perfect vehicle for propagating the regime’s gradualist pro-market reforms in the public sphere.application/pdfengSyriaMediaPrivate mediaPrivately-owned mediaOfficial mediaCensorshipInfitahSyrian economySyrian economic openingDamascus SpringSyrian economic transitionBashar al-AsadDevelopmentSyria discourse analysisthesis2010-10-26