ABSTRACT
In 2016, the image of Omran Daqneesh captured global media attention during the peak of fighting in Aleppo. The press’s treatment of Daqneesh and al-Abed both challenged and reinforced how children have been represented in US news discourse. US conceptions of childhood were central to the characterization of Daqneesh and al-Abed, illustrating the tacit, yet powerful, influence this cultural myth continues to have in journalism. Using critical incidents as a lens to analyze these cases provides a framework to evaluate the cultural and technological factors informing journalistic practice at a given moment. Together, these key differences situate the Syrian Civil War as a critical incident in journalism, in which the treatment of children during wartime reportage is complicated, challenged, and possibly transformed. Beyond journalistic practice, the ongoing exclusion of children’s voices from the news should elicit public concern. News coverage of Syria is the main information source for the US public on a distant war.
