zoom in, zoom out

abu aardvark has a really fascinating post about the controversy in the arab press about the way the protests in beirut have been covered. basically, it has been noted that photos of the anti-syrian demonstrations have mostly been close-up of the participants (thus the slobbering over hot lebanese protesters since these demonstrations began), whereas photos of the pro-syrian hezbollah-sponsored protests are mostly wide shots of massive crowds that does not allow the viewer to see individual faces.

what does that all mean? sayeth the aardvark:

While I was as swept up as anyone in the excitement of the original Beirut protests, I couldn't help but be amused at how these protests were suddenly embraced as authentic expressions of the popular will by a stable of pundits who had long insisted that (1) the "Arab street" didn't matter, and (2) mass rallies did not express authentic public opinion. What, don't you remember that whole bit back in February 2003, when millions of people around the world marched against war with Iraq, and we were told that this was insignificant because many millions more people had stayed home to watch TV, or had gone shopping?

Anyway, back to Lebanon. After the Hizbollah rally the enthusiasts needed to explain why one set of rallies was authentic while the other was not (for the record, I think that both rallies should be taken seriously, and don't agree with the attempts to delegitimize either the opposition or the Hizbollah rally - both matter). One big line of argument was that the Hizbollah protestors were bused in, coerced, were props for a top-down organization focused on leaders, were lower-class and ill-educated; while the opposition protestors were freely choosing to protest, were swept up in the spirit of enthusiasm, were idealistic. In short, the opposition was composed of "individuals" while the Hizbollahis were just a "mass."

I think you can see where I'm going with this: the media coverage - whatever the intent - perfectly fed into this line of argument. The television images of individual opposition protestors and overpowering Hizbollah masses helped make these interpertrations ring true (note here that I'm not saying anything at all about the reality of these protests, whether they were "really" authentic or sectarian or manufactured or exaggerated or whatnot - I'm only talking about the coverage). Since then, the focus of the opposition (and of LBC and Future TV) has been to cast question on the authenticity of the Hizbollah protests, to try to cast them as bused-in Syrians or as unthinking pawns, poor Shi'ites doing what their imams told them to do.

abu aardvark has a follow-up post today.

i just can't get enough of that aardvarkian analysis.