The sectarian conflict in the Middle East is not just what we witness in the battlefronts. There is also a battlefield behind the scenes, in the media and entertainment industries. Although the battle of sectarian media has been rising the last two decades, the civil war in Syria has brought tensions to a new height.

The regional media battle is being waged by Iran, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which tend to have similar patterns in both news coverage and historical/religious entertainment, albeit skewed by their own religious identities.

Much of the Middle Eastern media produces two different discourses at the same time: one aimed at the audience inside the Middle East and another aimed at the audience outside.

For example, a comparison between Al Jazeera Arabic and Al Jazeera English, or between domestic Iranian media (in Farsi) and the Iranian news channels in Arabic, such as Alalam, or English, such as Press TV, clearly demonstrates the difference between these two discourses. A general tone concerned with democracy and human rights is present in the channels with a foreign audience.