Some linguistic and stylistic tools can also be tracked down:

- Labels: such phrases as “brutal dictator” in American media.

- Precedent: Russian media often refer to the Libyan case, where a leader was ousted and the country plunged into a chaos to prevent the same scenario in Syria.

- Connotation and sentiment: some of the results were provided by sentiment sentences coding analysis, where negative connotations are prevailing, especially in American media.

- Evaluation: American articles contain a direct evaluation of the Syrian President as a “brutal dictator”, who “must go” or “Assad kills innocent citizens”.

Chapter 4. Attitude to the opposition

4.1 Attitude to the opposition in Russian media

After the beginning of the uprising in 2011, it took little time to understand that the anti-Assad opposition is extremely fractious and deeply divided. Types and the number of opposition groups fighting the regime have been changing constantly, along with alliances between them. Thus, the notion of “Syrian opposition” turned into an umbrella term. Among the most noticeable groups were: Syrian National Council (SNC), formed in 2011 and recognized as a partner for peace dialogue, which later merged into National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition forces, formed in 2012 and acknowledged as a “legitimate representative of the Syrian people”; the Free Syrian Army (FSA) - a conglomeration of several groups and brigades, which is seen as “moderate rebels” by the U.S. and has received military and financial assistance from the country.

Evidently, a number of terrorist organization emerged during the time of conflict. The Islamic State, or ISIS, whose initial aim was establishing a caliphate state on the territories of Iraq and Syria, is the most prominent among them. Next, Al-Nusra Front (later renamed as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham) is considered as a Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda and began their opposition against the Syrian government in 2012.

Table 9. Distribution of articles devoted to the opposition in Russian media arranged by year.

Number of articles devoted to the opposition	Overall number of articles about Syria	% of articles devoted to the opposition
	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018
RT	356	640	686	1,030	1,534	1,673	1,910	757	56,700	35%
TASS	60	228	336	276	252	516	396	152	13,244	36%
Sputnik	266	711	618	1,222	3,260	5182	3,599	691	40,393	38.5%

According to Table 9, almost all outlets have the same shares. The highest share of articles which describes Syrian opposition is from Sputnik (38.5%); RT dedicated 35% of its articles to the opposition. TASS has the lowest number in total amount, but its share is similar to Sputnik's - 36%.

Figure 5. Distribution of articles devoted to the opposition in Russian media arranged by year.

Figure 5 demonstrates that in 2012 the noticeable rise in coverage in all three media outlets was recorded when the conflict unfolded to its full extent. The coverage in TASS remained, more or less, stable and got more intensive only in 2016 (it increased by almost nine times in comparison with 2011). The second peak in RT was in 2016 and 2017, while in Sputnik, the number of articles was gradually increasing up to 2016 when it reached its final peak. It can be connected with the ongoing Russian military operation in Syria at that time. In 2018, an evident decline in coverage can be noted in all Russian media.

Based on quota sampling 129 This number was obtained by means of adding additional units of analysis due to the correction for uneven distribution of articles over years and media outlets used. articles about Syrian opposition were chosen in three Russian media sources (out of a total number of 26,321).

Content analysis identified the main themes in these articles, which gives a glimpse of opposition forces being divided and other issues discussed in this context:

Description of participants:

- groups (armed, opposition, rebel, human rights groups)

- opposition (Syrian, US-backed, democratic, external, fractious, moderate opposition)

- rebel forces (Al-Nusra, Al-Qaeda-linked, foreign, moderate rebels)

- fighters (Jabhat Al-Nusra, foreign fighters)

- Islamists (radical, foreign, Syrian Islamists)

- terrorist (groups, foreign terrorists)

- Al-Nusra (terrorists, fighters, extremist group)

Description of the events:

- war (extended war, foreign war rhetoric)

- weapons (US-supplied, supply corridor)

- chemical weapons (sarin gas)

These results illustrate a position of Russian media concerning the Syrian opposition. It is apparent that it is non-homogeneous: from “armed groups” and “fractious opposition” up to “terrorist groups” and “radical Islamists”. Moreover, “foreign” appears to describe fighters and terrorists. The terrorist organization “Jabhat Al-Nusra” is among main themes too unlike ISIS, for instance.

Chemical attacks, with help of sarin gas, are also decoded as it still remains a controversial issue of which group actually used them. Supplying of arms and routes (“supply corridor”) clearly caught the attention of Russian media as well.

Word frequency analysis identifies the thirty most frequently-used words:

Table 10. Word frequency analysis results from articles focusing on the Syrian opposition

Word	Count	Variations
Syria	1,422	Syria, Syrian, Syrians
groups	433	group, grouping, groupings, groups,
Russia	339	Russian, Russians
opposition	307	opposition, opposition', oppositional, oppositions
governments	276	governance, governate, governing, government, governments
terrorist	261	terrorist, terrorists
United States	258	United States, U.S.
force	252	force, forced, forcefully, forces, forcing
Bashar Assad	233	Assad
rebels	201	rebel, rebels
Al-Nusra	186	Nusra
arms	173	armed, arming, arms
Islam	172	Islam, Islamic, Islamism, Islamization
foreign	149	foreign, foreigners
militants	145	militant, militants
support	139	support, supported, supporter, supporters, supporting
military	138	militaries, military
Al-Qaeda	112	Al-Qaeda
ISIS	107	ISIS, the Islamic State, ISIL
Lavrov	101	Lavrov
backing	92	back, backed, backing, backs
Western	78	Western, Westerners
Washington	78	Washington
terror	76	terror, terrorism
moderate	64	moderate, moderates
Sham	60	Ahrar ash-Sham, Jabhat Fatah al-Sham
jihadists	54	jihadist, jihadists
extremists	54	extremist, extremists
Daesh	53	Daesh
radical	43	radical, radicalism, radicalization, radicalized, radically, radicals

Judging by these results, the top-three frequent words are Syria and Syrian (1,422 times), Russia (339 times), and groups (433 times). Articles dedicated to this topic are mainly focused on focused on Russian involvement in Syrian affairs and also on various groups operating in Syria under the unified and ambiguous name of “Syrian opposition” (307 times). United States are mentioned 258 times and it is connected with a fact that the U.S. has its own opinion about opposition forces and, namely, that there is “moderate opposition” (64 times). In Russian articles, this phrase is used in the context of the American position.

Russian media mention direct participants of this conflict differently: terrorists take the first place among them (261 times), then more neutral words follow - rebels (201 times) and militants (145 times), jihadists and extremists share the same amount (54 times). Terrorist organizations are also widely discussed in Russian media: Al-Nusra (186 times), Al-Qaeda (112 times), Ahrar ash-Sham and Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (60 times), ISIS and its Arabic name Daesh (160 times).

As well as in previous parts, “foreign” interference is noted, along with “backing” and “support”. This is stipulated by a number of discussions about who backs and supports particular groups of opposition.

Sentiment sentences coding reveals that most of the sentences possess negative connotation: 571 - very negative and 677 - moderately negative, while there are only 77 sentences with very positive connotation and 246 moderately positive.

4.2 Attitude to the opposition in American media

As it was stated earlier, the U.S. has been an important player in the Syrian conflict and all the controversy concerning opposition connected, mainly, with the United States. Being an ardent opponent of Assad's regime, the U.S. made a decision to support Syrian opposition until Trump decided to suspend the CIA program to arm and train rebels in 2017. The problem that has aroused was that it has been extremely complicated to identify the real “freedom fighters” from terrorists who aimed to undermine Syrian sovereignty. This problematic issue has inevitably drawn lots of media attention.

The number of articles devoted to the opposition in three American media outlets is demonstrated in Table 7:

Table 11. Distribution of articles devoted to the opposition in American media arranged by year.

Number of articles devoted to the opposition	Overall number of articles about Syria	% of articles devoted to Assad
	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018
CNN	359	509	688	753	1,152	1,414	2,257	2,663	43,300	22.6%
NYT	487	931	942	772	696	1,183	1,371	2,009	20,790	40.2%
Fox News	61	73	121	424	518	1,068	2,230	1,570	22,473	27%

According to Table 11, the highest share of articles about Syrian opposition is in the New York Times - 40.2%, almost half of the total coverage. CNN has devoted 22.6% of articles to this topic and Fox News - 27%.

Figure 6. Distribution of articles devoted to the opposition in American media arranged by year.

Figure 6 illustrates that coverage of all three media was gradually increasing up to 2015, then soared and CNN and the New York Times peaked in 2018. After 2017, coverage by Fox News suddenly started dwindling, and in 2018, reduced by almost twice as much compared to its highest amount in 2017. This peak is, probably, connected with election of the new President of America - Donald Trump in November 2016, as he got up to speed in 2017.

Based on quota sampling, 131 This number was obtained by means of adding additional units of analysis due to the correction for uneven distribution of articles over years and media outlets used. articles devoted to the causes of the Syrian war from three media outlets were chosen out of 24,151 articles in total and content analysis was carried out.

Content analysis identified the main themes in these articles, which gives an overview of the situation with respect to Syrian opposition:

Description of participants:

- groups (armed, human rights, moderate rebel, activist, insurgent groups)

- opposition (groups, activists, fighters)

- rebel (moderate rebel, Islamic rebels, rebel surge)

- activist (rights activist, civil society activists)

- terrorist groups / jihadist group

- coalition (coalition aircraft, opposition coalition)

Issues discussed:

- Syrian rebel training program

- human rights (groups, monitors, violations)

- legitimate right

- fierce security crackdown

- security (disorder, force violations)

- chemical weapons

- supplying weapons

- oil (fields, pipeline, network, prices)

Description of regime

- Assad regime

- toppling al-Assad

- tyrannical regime

These results demonstrate a position of American media concerning the Syrian opposition. It is certainly quite different from the Russian attitude. Even though there are similar indications that opposition is non-homogeneous (“armed groups”, “moderate rebel”, “jihadist groups”), there are no titles of terrorist organizations. Among other participants, US-led coalition stands out as American airstrikes received a lot of coverage.

As the U.S. intended to “topple Assad” and his “tyrannical regime”, the American administration decided to launch the “rebel training program” for Syrian opposition groups and supply arms to them.

Chemical attacks have been one of the widely-discussed issues in American media along with “security crackdown” and “disorder”. In addition, unlike in Russian media, some attention has been devoted to Syria's oil resources (“oil fields”, “oil pipeline”).

Word frequency analysis identifies the thirty most frequently-used words:

Table 12. Word frequency analysis results from articles focusing on the Syrian opposition.

Word	Count	Variations
Syria	1,710	Syria, Syrian, Syrians
Assad	561	Assad, Assad's
group	550	group, groups
governments	468	govern, governance, governed, governing, government, governments, governs
forces	459	force, forced, forcefully, forces, forces', forcing
opposition	446	opposite, opposition
United States	379	United States, U.S.
rebels	342	rebel, rebelled, rebels, rebels', rebels'
ISIS	340	ISIS
Islam	334	Islam, Islamic
units	237	unit, unite, united, unites, uniting, units
regime	235	regime, regimes
activists	205	activist, activists, activists'
Russia	203	Russia
protests	193	protest, protester, protesters, protesting, protests
fighters	193	fighter, fighters
support	190	support, supported, supporter, supporters, supporting
American	175	American, Americans
Kurdish	169	Kurdish
Iraq	158	Iraq
back	148	back, backed, backing, backs
coalition	144	coalition
Damascus	144	Damascus
Russian	141	Russian, Russians
international	125	international, internationally
Obama	117	Obama
foreign	111	foreign, foreigners
terrorist	84	terrorist, terrorists
Qaeda	79	Qaeda
moderate	61	moderate, moderates

Articles dedicated to this topic are mainly focused on various groups (550 times) operating in the country, thus, “opposition” is mentioned 446 times, “rebels” - 342 times, “activists” - 205 times, and “fighters” - 193 times. Kurdish forces as one more participant side which fights ISIS are also highlighted 169 times.

United States is mentioned 379 times (American - 175) as, inevitably, all policy decisions of American administration are covered in media. Therefore, a term suggested by the U.S. government, “moderate opposition” is repeated 61 times.

Among terrorist organizations, only ISIS (340) and Al-Qaeda (79) as its affiliate have been in focus. Since the U.S. launched their first airstrikes, all this campaign was conducted under the slogan of fighting terrorism implying ISIS, even though lawfully this operation was not approved by the Syrian government.

As well as in Russian media, references to “foreign” interference and fighters (111 times) are accompanied by discussion about “backing” (148 times) and “support” (190 times) of particular groups of the opposition.

Sentiment sentences coding demonstrates that most of the sentences possess negative connotation: 716 - very negative and 1,077 - moderately negative, but there are more sentences with very positive connotation (152) and moderately positive (418) than in Russian media.

4.3 Attitude to the Syrian opposition. Comparison

The results of content analysis deconstruct the image of the Syrian opposition depicted by the Russian mass media, which coincides in many issues with the Russian official position. The main difference is that some media articles dwell on chemical allegations while Russian officials do not always make bold statements, unlike American colleagues. Russian media usually divide their attention between anti-terrorist activities and activities of alleged network of external players who are conspiring together for regional domination. All in all, Russian position can be presented as follows:

- States that encourage Bashar al-Assad's opponents bear responsibility for increased terrorist threat; High-level meeting of the Security Council on peace and security in the Middle East. Speech of Sergey Lavrov, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation

Published time: 26.09.2012 http://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=S/PV.6841

- The West failed to distinguish "moderates" from extremists; Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's opening remarks at talks with Saad Hariri, leader of the Lebanese political movement Al-Mustaqbal, Moscow, October 4, 2016 Published time: 04.10.2016

http://www.mid.ru/en/press_service/minister_speeches/-/asset_publisher/7OvQR5KJWVmR/content/id/2486894

- Providing cover to the “moderate opposition”, the U.S. fights terrorism “only in words”; Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's remarks and answers to media questions at a joint news conference with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of the Syrian Arab Republic Walid Muallem and Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran Mohammed Javad Zarif , Moscow, October 28, 2016

Published time: 28.10.2016 http://www.mid.ru/en/press_service/minister_speeches/-/asset_publisher/7OvQR5KJWVmR/content/id/2508799

- The West is trying to combat terrorism, but at the same time to use some of these groups to overthrow the current regime. Meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club

Published time: 22.10.2015 http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/50548

As for the American media, main messages devoted to Assad can be presented as follows:

- There are moderate rebels in Syria that can be separated from terrorists; Remarks of John Kerry before the Daily Press Briefing

Published time: 12.09.2016 https://2009-2017.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2016/09/261776.htm

- The U.S. is fighting ISIS, while Russia is fighting other opponents of Assad's regime; Press Call by Ben Rhodes, Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communication; Christine Wormuth, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy; and Brett Mcgurk, Deputy Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL on Counter-ISIL Campaign

Published time: 09.10.2015 https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2015/10/09/press-call-counter-isil-campaign

- The Syrian government ordered to deploy chemical weapons against civilians Statement by NSC Spokesperson Ned Price on U.S. Sanctions Designations for Syrian Regime Chemical Weapons Use

Published time: 12.01.2017 https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2017/01/12/statement-nsc-spokesperson-ned-price-us-sanctions-designations-syrian-0 and the U.S. and its allies can use their “righteous power” against these atrocities by launching airstrikes. Statement by President Trump on Syria

Published time: 13.04.2018 https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/statement-president-trump-syria/

Thus, the differences in the positions of the two countries and, consequently, in the media from both sides are easily tracked. Both the U.S. and Russia exchange with quite unambiguous allegations and, sometimes, accusations which are bound to be reflected in mass media of both countries. The main issues of disagreement are moderate rebels and their nature and chemical weapons and their owners.

4.4 Tools of information warfare

Conducted analysis elicits some prominent features of information campaign:

- Intensity (Especially coverage of the NYT with 40.2% and Sputnik with 38.5% stands out in this context);

- Consistency (All media refer to the topic in focus to a greater or lesser extent, which is evident in Figures 5 and 6);

- Negative representation (Russian media put emphasis on the American support of the opposition and condemns their continuous efforts to change the regime, while American media put blame on the regime for the atrocities against civilians);

- “Talking heads” (Extremely popular technique in this part as well; many officials' quotations, interviews and conference speeches are present in the articles, along with experts, analysts and politicians invited to give their comments);

- Detailed and vivid visualization (each side uses dramatic footage to prove its point and demonstrate the “true” aggressors).

Certain frames are used to create an image of the Syrian opposition with the most evident being:

- Identity frame (Russia and the U.S. construct completely different identity images in this context as well: who the real opposition is, who the moderate opposition is, who the terrorists are - completely opposite frames are created for these indecisive issues);

- Characterization frame (Negative characterization frame used by both Russian and American media while describing each other's military actions);

- Conflict management frame (the U.S. is convinced that outside intervention can help defeat terrorists and outside support for the opposition can help overthrow Assad, Russia stands for the regime support and blames the U.S. for not being able to distinguish opposition groups).

Some linguistic and stylistic tools can also be tracked down:

- Labels: The most popular is “moderate opposition” in American media, which is often referred to in Russian media as well. The biggest challenge is to label correctly where is the opposition and where are the terrorists.

- Connotation and sentiment: The results provided by sentiment sentences coding analysis revealed that in Russian media coverage negative connotations are prevailing over the numbers in American media.

- Evaluation: Articles from both sides contain a direct evaluation of the action of the Syrian government (in the context of chemical attacks), assessment of military successes and strategies of the other side and, apparently, considerations about the nature of the opposition.

Chapter 5. International initiatives for the crisis settlement

5.1 International initiatives for the crisis settlement in Russian media

Since the conflict unfolded to its full swing, a number of conferences and negotiations took place in order to unify conflicting parties. Some attempts have been undertaken by the Security Council of United Nations and its member states. Confrontation of two great powers has continued during the reconciliation process as well. Hence, some drafts of resolutions were prompted by the United States and blocked by Russia later on, and some drafts suggested by Russia were rejected by the U.S. Nevertheless, by common efforts, a number Geneva talks were organized. Even though several rounds of it have achieved no significant results, it led to signing of the Vienna agreement about formal negotiations between the opposition and the Syrian government in 2015. It has become a basis for the unanimously adopted UN Resolution 2254. Two years later, Russia initiated Astana talks with the help of Iran and Turkey, and then a conference in Sochi. The American media were quite dubious about them and consider it not inclusive for all the opposition parties.

Table 13. Distribution of articles devoted to peace initiatives in Russian media arranged by year.

Number of articles devoted to peace initiatives	Overall number of articles about Syria	% of articles devoted to peace initiatives
	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018
RT	168	354	445	1,025	927	1,491	1,474	1,075	56,700	32.5%
TASS	49	228	456	460	220	540	264	168	13,244	23%
Sputnik	126	463	523	587	1,729	3,948	2,999	777	40,393	28%

Table 13 demonstrates that the highest share of the articles devoted to international attempts comes from RT, which also has the biggest overall number. TASS dedicated 23% of its articles to this topic, while Sputnik shows a share of 27.6% of the articles about peace talks.

Figure 7. Distribution of articles devoted to peace initiatives in Russian media arranged by year.

Figure 7 illustrates that coverage from Sputnik exceeds coverage from RT and TASS excessively. In all three media outlets, the coverage more than doubled in 2012 when it became clear that the conflict was far from over. It was also a year when the first peace talks - the Geneva conference was held. The first peak was in 2014 when the second round of Geneva talks was organized and Assad won the presidential election. The third and the fourth Geneva conferences in 2016 failed to reach any agreement, and it led to Russia's initiative to organize Astana talks, which were held in January 2017. That explains the second peak in all media in 2016. From 2016, Sputnik's coverage has been rapidly dwindling: after its peak in 2016, it has reduced fivefold in 2018. RT and TASS also have decreased the intensity of their coverage in the recent years.

Based on quota sampling, 129 This number was obtained by means of adding additional units of analysis due to the correction for uneven distribution of articles over years and media outlets used. articles dedicated to international initiatives for the crisis settlement from three media outlets were chosen out of 20,496 articles in total, and content analysis was carried out.

Content analysis allowed the identification of the main themes, key actors and the range of suggested means of conflict reconciliation in Russian media:

Description of the conflict:

- bloody sectarian war

- global proxy war

- constant war

- informational war

- armed conflict

- crisis situation

International initiatives:

- reconciliation process

- international conference

- peace conference

- intra-Syrian talks

- proximity talks

- indirect negotiations

- special envoy

- solutions (military, political peaceful)

- peace (lasting, plan, settlement)

- reconciliation (instant, political; center, process)

- transitional government

Actors:

- Syrian government forces

- American government

- military intervention

- Western powers

- major world powers

- oppositional groups

- extremist groups

- terrorist groups

Other issues:

- sanctions (envisaged, tough)

- international peacekeeping intervention

- interference (criminal, external, foreign)

- puppet democracy

The themes analysis indicates that in the articles dedicated to reconciliation efforts, quite an unconventional angle to the description of the conflict appears: if “bloody sectarian war” and “armed conflict” came across before, “global proxy war” and “informational war” occur for the first time.

The actors remain the same for the most part: “Syrian government forces, “al-Assad regime”, “Western powers”, “oppositional groups”, “extremist groups”, and “terrorist groups”.

The option of military interference is also touched upon in the articles under analysis: “external”, “foreign” intervention.

Following the events of 2011, Russia and China have used their veto power to block the UN resolution draft aimed at imposing sanctions on Syria, because of ongoing violence of government forces against the opposition. Russia considered this step as a violation of Syrian sovereignty. Since an agreement was not reached, the U.S., Canada and the EU imposed unilateral sanctions against Assad and his government, urging him to step down. That stipulates “sanctions” among pivotal issues on the agenda.

Referring to the evident anti-Assad actions of the U.S., some Russian media convey the message about American intention to establish a “puppet democracy” in Syria.

Apparently, the central theme is the negotiation process and attempts of peaceful settlement. A number of “peace conferences” were organized and a wide range of “solutions” and “plans” were suggested, but the fundamental problem remains - it is impossible to bring all parties of the conflict to the negotiation table as the opposition is still extremely disintegrated. Staffan de Mistura was put in charge as the UN special “peace envoy” for the crisis resolution. When face-to-face negotiations proved inefficient, “proximity” talks were introduced - all the communication was indirect and went through Staffan de Mistura.

Word frequency analysis identifies the thirty most frequently-used words:

Table 14. Word frequency analysis results from articles about peace talks.

Word	Count	Variations
Syria	2,043	Syria, Syrian, Syrians
Russia	752	Russia, Russian
opposition	462	opposite, opposition, oppositional
talks	425	talk, talking, talks
government	375	governance, governate, governing, government, governments
Geneva	360	Geneva
United Nations	352	United Nations, UN
Bashar al-Assad	328	Assad, Assad'
United States	314	United State, U.S., American
peace	275	peace, peaceful, peacefully
groups	251	group, grouping, groupings, groups, groups'
foreign	245	foreign
resolution	222	resolute, resolutely, resolution, resolutions
process	191	process, processes
Lavrov	187	Lavrov
meeting	184	meet, meeting, meetings
negotiator	184	negotiable, negotiate, negotiated, negotiating, negotiations, negotiator, negotiators
conference	156	conference, conferences
crisis	137	crisis
delegations	133	delegated, delegates, delegating, delegation, delegations
represents	131	represent, representative, representatives, represented, representing, represents
Astana	130	Astana
terrorist	130	terrorist, terrorist', terrorists, terrorists'
ceasefire	120	ceasefire, ceasefires
envoy	115	envoy, envoys
agreement	108	agreement, agreements
sanctions	86	sanction, sanctioning, sanctions
settlement	82	settlement, settlements
transitional	82	transition, transitional, transitioned, transitions
de-escalation zone	56	de-escalation zone, zones

News dedicated to the reconciliation process inevitably emphasize Russian participation in this process - 752 times. The sides of the conflicts are referred to as opposition - 462 times, groups - 251 times, government - 375 times, and Bashar al-Assad - 328 times. Being an active player, the United States was mentioned more than twice than that of Russia (314 times).

United Nations (repeated 314 times) plays a key role in the peace process. It initiated the first Geneva talks (360 times) in 2012, where the need for a transitional government (82 times) was suggested, and initiated all subsequent Geneva rounds of negotiations. The UN Security Council proposed several resolution drafts on this topic. One of such drafts, proposed by Western and Arab countries, was strongly condemned and vetoed by Russia, as it did not outline violence from both sides and did not exclude outside intervention. The UN Security Council Resolution 2254 became a landmark in the process of peace resolution. This resolution caught lots of media attention (repeated 222 times); it called for a ceasefire in Syria (120 times).

As an alternative to the Geneva conferences which showed no prominent results, Russia, Turkey and Iran organized the Astana talks (130 times), which led to the adoption of a document about monitoring a ceasefire agreement, and later to the establishment of “de-escalation zones” (56 times).

Sentiment sentences coding reveals that most of the sentences possess negative connotations: 523 - very negative and 629 - moderately negative, while there are only 92 sentences with very positive connotations and 312 moderately positive.

5.2 International initiatives for the crisis settlement in American media

As it was stated before, the U.S. have taken an active part in the process of the Syrian conflict settlement. American officials have been extremely vocal about the contribution of the U.S. in the UN initiatives. As one of the options for the reconciliation, the U.S. suggested to impose sanctions on Syria and its government, which was strongly condemned by Russia. In addition, Russian attempts at a peace settlement have been openly criticized by the United States.

Table 15. Distribution of articles devoted to peace initiatives in American media arranged by year.

Number of articles devoted to peace initiatives	Overall number of articles about Syria	% of articles devoted to peace initiatives
	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018
CNN	329	577	1,369	1,404	1,534	1,326	1,693	694	43,300	23%
NYT	487	931	942	772	696	1,183	1,371	2,009	20,790	41%
Fox News	63	400	649	765	981	1,966	4,410	792	22,473	45%

Figure 8. Distribution of articles devoted to peace initiatives in American media arranged by year.

Figure 8 shows that coverage of all three media outlets significantly increased in 2012, when the first attempts to reconcile the Syrian crisis were made. After that, the coverage from CNN and Fox News was gradually growing, peaking in 2017, and then starting to decrease. It can be connected with a number of Geneva and Astana talks that were held in 2017. The New York Times intensified its coverage after 2015, and still rising.

Based on quota sampling, 130 This number was obtained by means of adding additional units of analysis due to the correction for uneven distribution of articles over years and media outlets used. articles devoted to the causes of the Syrian War from three media outlets were chosen out of 26,343 articles in total and content analysis was carried out.

Content analysis identified the main themes in these articles, which gives an overview of the main themes, key actors and some other issues discussed in the context of conflict reconciliation in American media:

International initiatives:

- negotiation process

- peace conference, talks

- transition

Actors:

- Syrian government forces

- Syrian opposition moderates

- Syrian president (leader, al-Assad)

- Syrian opposition figures

- opposition activists

- opposition group

- fractured opposition

- fragmented opposition

- American-led forces

- Russian forces

Description of events:

- Syrian crisis

- Syrian conflict

Other issues:

- Syrian rebel training program

- Syrian refugees

- Islamic State militants

- information attacks

The results of themes analysis differ from those of Russian media: the main focus is not on the conflict settlement initiatives, but on the parties of the conflict and negotiating sides. “Peace conference”, “peace talks” and “negotiation process” in America media are often connected with “transition” process as the U.S. government insists on Assad stepping down. Non-homogeneous character of opposition (“fragmented”, “fractured”) is underlined, and such groups are enumerated:

“Syrian opposition moderates”, “opposition activists” who are opposed to “government forces” and “Syrian president”. The refugees' problem is touched upon as well. Similar to Russian media, which refers to information war, “information attacks” are discussed in American outlets.

Word frequency analysis identifies the thirty most frequently-used words:

Table 15. Word frequency analysis results from articles about peace talks.

Word	Count	Variations
Syria	1721	Syria, Syrian
Russia	657	Russia, Russian
Assad	601	Assad
United States	479	United States, US, U.S., American
governments	402	govern, governance, government, governments
opposition	341	opposite, opposition, oppositions
forces	314	force, forced, forcefully, forces
groups	310	group, groups
units	307	unit, units
rebels	239	rebel, rebels, rebels'
regime	239	regime, regimes
talks	211	talk, talked, talking, talks
Turkey	190	Turkey
international	182	international, internationally
support	176	support, supported, supporter, supporting, supportive
ISIS	157	ISIS
United Nations	150	United Nations, UN
back	152	back, backed, backing
resolution	141	resolution, resolutions
foreign	140	foreign, foreigners
peace	129	peace, peaceful, peacefully
terrorist	117	terrorist, terrorists
Arab League	116	Arab League
ally	105	allied, allies, allies', ally
Putin	105	Putin
Trump	103	Trump
negotiation	96	negotiate, negotiation, negotiator
Obama	81	Obama
Geneva	75	Geneva
intervention	58	intevene, intervention

Intrestingly, the top-three frequent words in American articles dedicated to the peace initiatives are Syria (1721 times), Bashar al-Assad (601 times) and Russia (657 times), which implies that Russian attempts to reconcile the crisis get more attention than American (479 times). This analysis also demonstrates that leaders of the countries, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, are mentioned almost the same amount of times (105 and 103 respectively), but Barack Obama - only 81 times, despite most of the conflict occuring during his presidency.

The articles devoted to the peace talks also describe participants: various groups (310 times), operating in the country, thus, “opposition” is mentioned 341 times, and “rebels” - 239 times. Terrorist threat (117 times) along with ISIS 157 (times) is dicussed in these articles as well.

United Nations (150 times) and its resolutions (141 times) apparently also attract lots of attention in American media, so much that some of the resolutions were drafted by the United States. Among other key players in the reconciliation process, American media singled out a regional organization of Arab States - Arab League (116 times), which have also called for ousting Assad, and Turkey (190 times), which has also supported the Syrian opposition, but later on took part in organizing the Astana talks.

Evidently, the process of negotiations (96 times) and peace talks (211 times) is the central topic, even though Geneva conference (75 times), for example, is mentioned five times less than in Russian mass media.

Sentiment sentences coding demonstrates that negative connotations prevail in the articles devoted to this topic: 710 - very negative and 853 - moderately negative, but there are more sentences with very positive connotations (130) and moderately positive (358) than in Russian media.

5.3 International initiatives for the crisis settlement. Comparison

The results of content analysis deconstruct the image of the peace initiatives offered by great powers and the United Nations. Mass media in Russia and the U.S., in most cases, reflect the results of particular conferences and observe participants and suggested measures. Throughout all the conflict, competition and struggle for domination between two great powers have been visible, and the aspect of reconciliation is no exception. US-suggested drafts of resolutions were rejected by Russia, and the West-organized Geneva conference was perceived as a failure in Russia and, hence, the Astana talks were organized. It is worth noting that Russian media dedicated more attention to the Geneva meeting and, obviously, to the Astana one, while American outlets discussed Geneva seldomly and paid almost no attention to the Astana talks. Nevertheless, Russian media tend to highlight the failure of the Geneva talks more directly than Russian officials.

Overall, the picture of international initiatives reflected in Russia can be presented as follows:

- Implementation of sanctions against the Syrian government violates the country's sovereignty and run counter to previous agreements; Meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club

Published time: 27.10.2016 http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/53151

- The key priority is the unity and territorial integrity of Syria; Ibid.

- Principles of international law, including non-intervention in the internal affairs, the non-use of force threat and the settlement of the disagreements by political dialogue should be followed; Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's remarks and answers to media questions at a joint news conference with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of the Syrian Arab Republic Walid Muallem and Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran Mohammed Javad Zarif , Moscow, October 28, 2016

Published time: 28.10.2016 http://www.mid.ru/en/press_service/minister_speeches/-/asset_publisher/7OvQR5KJWVmR/content/id/2508799

- The West opts for a “politicized approach” by trying to prove superiority in the region, instead of resolving the conflict; Interview by the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to the programme “Voskresnoye vremya” on the First Channel, 22 September 2013

Published time: 22.09.2013

http://www.mid.ru/en_GB/posledniye_dobavlneniye/asset_publisher/MCZ7HQuMdqBY/content/id/95878

- The main reason that hinders negotiation process - all players should stop provoking and inciting rebels to continue armed confrontation. Speech and answers of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation S.V. Lavrov to the questions of mass media during the joint press conference at the outcomes of talks with S.N. Martynov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus, Minsk, 15 August 2012

Published time: 15.08.2012

http://www.mid.ru/en/vistupleniya_ministra/asset_publisher/MCZ7HQuMdqBY/content/id/146918

As for American coverage, it reflects the official stance for the most part, but some evaluations, especially of Russian actions and preferences in choosing sides, which can be not so evident in official speeches, are highlighted in news articles:

- Sanctions can be an option to influence the Syrian government (prevent them from attacks on protesters); Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jay Carney

Published time: 25.03.2011 https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2011/03/25/press-briefing-press-secretary-jay-carney-3252011

- Assad's presidency is still a “stumbling rock” in the peace process. Syrian officials' persistence to support Assad is considered as “disruption” of the peace efforts; Joint Press Availability with French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, EU High Representative Federica Mogherini, and Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni

Published time: 13.03.2016 https://2009-2017.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2016/03/254644.htm

- The American government pursues a “two-pronged” goal: to establish peace in the country and defeat the terrorist organizations; Joint Press Availability with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura

Published time: 30.10.2015 https://2009-2017.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2015/10/249019.htm

- Russia's attempts for reconciliation, de-escalation zones in particular, have not been successful.

5.4 Tools of information warfare

Conducted analysis elicits some prominent features of information campaign:

- Intensity (All Russian media devoted approximately 30% of their articles to this topic, while coverage of Fox News with 45% and the NYT with 41% stands out even more);

- Consistency (Russian and American media refer to the topic in focus to a greater or lesser extent, which is evident in Figures 7 and 8);

- Negative representation (Russian media emphasizes negative external influence on Syria, blames American geopolitical aspirations in hindering the reconciliation settlement of the opposition and condemns their continuous efforts to change the regime, while American media put blame on the regime for the atrocities against civilians and Russian backing of this regime);

- “Talking heads” (Extremely popular technique in this aspect as well; all media outlets give references to participants of the conferences and peace talks).

In portraying the Syrian reconciliation process, certain frames are used:

- Identity frame (both countries still construct different identity images for the “right” side to support);

- Characterization frame (In some cases, negative characterization frame applied by both Russian and American media while describing each other's peace efforts and suggestions);

- Conflict management frame (the most important frame in this context; the U.S. persists that external influence can help the situation, for example, implementation of sanctions, along with regime change while Russia stands for the right of the Syrian people to choose their government and non-intervention in internal affairs, in addition to a call for refraining from regime change incentives);

- Power frame (difference in perceptions of who the legitimate representative of the Syrian people is can be also observed in both countries' coverage)

- Risk frame (during peace conferences the prospects of Syria's future have inevitably been on agenda, especially the evaluation of possible risks);

- Loss versus gain frame (along with risks, potential losses and gains in different suggested plans and resolution actions have been discussed; this frame serves to create a certain perspective of which an action plan can be more successful, for example).

Some linguistic and stylistic tools can also be tracked down:

- Precedent: Since there have been several rounds of peace talks organized by different actors, references to previous negotiations and their results often occur in the articles.

- Labels: One of the crucial challenges - to distinguish “moderate” opposition from terrorists remains in this context. Consequently, the same labelling, along with countries being called “backers” of either side, has still been used in the articles.

- Connotation and sentiment: The results provided by sentiment sentences coding analysis revealed that American media imply negative connotations more often than Russian media.

- Evaluation: Articles from both sides contain a direct evaluation of the other side's actions, assessment of policies and strategies.

Conclusions

It is evident that the Syrian conflict is characterized by saturation coverage, both in the U.S. and in Russia. Moreover, it has turned out to be an effective tool for influencing peoples' minds and attitudes. Based on this research, it is possible to identify the most prominent media practices employed by media outlets of both countries and compare them with the official positions.

Thus, causes of the war in the U.S. and Russian media are described almost in the same manner: a peaceful nature, initially of demonstrations and demands of the protesters (economic, political, social reforms). Both countries also refer to the Arab Spring phenomenon among reasons for the war. Nevertheless, from the beginning of the conflict, Russia has paid special attention to foreign interference (especially the U.S. and its allies) and radical groups that emerged from nowhere, when the U.S. has strongly criticized the Syrian government and its leader, Bashar al-Assad, in particular, for the escalation. This aspect fully reflects the official stances of two great powers.

Being, apparently, the most controversial issue, the fate of the Bashar al-Assad's presidency has drawn a lot of media attention as a result of constant discussions in the political sphere. Russia insists on Assad's legitimacy and denies all allegations about chemical attacks initiated by governmental forces. The United States has taken completely the opposite position: they call Assad a dictator and accuse him of using chemical attacks against the Syrian people, which, according to their opinion, gives a right for the U.S. to interfere. When Donald Trump took office, the American stance towards the Syrian president has become even more negative.

Concerning this aspect, some Russian and American media are more careful in their statements than officials. For example, touching upon chemical weapons, some articles indicate that there is no evidence regarding the side which has actually deployed them, even though several investigations were carried out.

Since the beginning of the conflict, the types and the number of opposition groups fighting the regime have been changing constantly, along with the alliances between them. Soon, the notion of “Syrian opposition” turned into an ambiguous umbrella term. The Syrian National Council and the Free Syrian Army are the most prominent actors. Among the most notorious terrorist groups, suddenly appearing during the uprising, are the Islamic State (ISIS, ISIL or Daesh) and the Al-Nusra Front (Jabhat Fatah al-Sham). The nature of Syrian opposition has divided the international public into two groups: those, who support the U.S. in assuming that there is moderate opposition in Syria, and those, who agree with Russia that even if moderates exist, it is impossible to separate them from terrorists. Russia blames the U.S. for covering terrorists and pursuing their geopolitical aspirations in the region instead of combating a common threat. The United States, in turn, accuses Russia of targeting Assad's moderate opponents and not terrorists.

Consequently, such evident confrontation, which in most cases has been expressed verbally by authorities, has been reported by the media as well. In this aspect, media of both countries convey the same message: each side tries to prove its point to vast audiences. Mutual accusations are also present in the news articles.

International attempts to put an end to this conflict cannot be called successful, yet. A number of negotiation rounds have been organized: the Geneva talks, Vienna meeting, Astana conference and Sochi talks. The United Nations plays a key role in the reconciliation process. It initiated the first Geneva talks in 2012. The UN Security Council proposed several resolution drafts on this topic. One of such drafts, initiated by Western and Arab countries, was vetoed by Russia and China. It was aimed at imposing sanctions on Syria and did not take into consideration violence from both sides, implying that foreign intervention is possible. Nevertheless, the UN Security Council managed to adopt Resolution 2254 in 2015, which called for a ceasefire in Syria. American officials have been extremely vocal about the contribution of the United States in the UN initiatives. The Russian side has also suggested several options for the conflict settlement, but many of them were openly criticized by the United States. In 2017, Russia initiated the Astana conference with help of Iran and Turkey, and then peace talks in Sochi. The American side did not consider these efforts successful, as they were not inclusive for all the opposition parties. Confrontation of two powers has been extremely noticeable during the efforts of elaboration and implementation of a unified peace plan.

The aforementioned conferences have caught lots of media attention in both countries, reflecting the results of peace talks, participants and suggested plans. Media coverage of this aspect almost fully coincides with official stances of the two great powers. Based on this research, the main focus of American media is not on the conflict settlement initiatives, but on the parties of the conflict and negotiating sides. Assad's fate has been discussed during all the conferences and American media have labelled him as a main “stumbling rock” in the peace process. Russian attempts, for example, de-escalation zones, have not been appreciated in the United States. Russian media coverage often contains evaluations of the Geneva talks and indicates their failure. Officially, Russia stands for a non-intervention principle along with political dialogue, instead of the use of force. In addition, Russia accuses the Western powers in encouraging opposition to continue fighting, in order to overthrow Assad, which is touched upon in many articles. Moreover, a message of Russian officials about the U.S. pursuing dominance in the Middle East can be easily tracked in Russia media.