Hezbollah's media machine changes gears
The media has always been a focus for Hezbollah, but the group has recently changed its message.
Since its establishment in the early 1980s, Hezbollah has showed serious interest in documenting its attacks and activities to use them as part of its media warfare, notably practiced in its fight against Israel during the latter’s occupation of south Lebanon until 2000 and later in the 34-day war in July and August 2006.
Back then the audience was clear, as were the objectives, and the cause seemed easier to defend and promote with the Arab public.
“Central to Hezbollah ideology and political action is the division of the world, formulated into ‘oppressors’ [mustakbirin] and ‘oppressed’ [mustad’afin],” Zahera Harb, the author of “Channels of Resistance in Lebanon," said in an interview with Al-Monitor. “This dichotomy is invoked in almost all party communications and seems to act as a focal point to the party’s media strategy in its media war with Israel and in rationalizing their military intervention in Syria.”
Hezbollah established several media arms; first a newspaper in 1984 called Al-Ahd, later Al-Nour radio station in 1988 and in 1991 Al-Manar TV channel, along with a strong media warfare unit that refers directly to the group’s jihadi council. Everything was working according to plan until the Syria crisis ignited.
