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Item Intrastate conflict and transformation of the media system: The case of Afghanistan(2025-09-11) Farag, Tamer; Neuberger, Christoph; Kretzschmar, Sonja; Sehl, Annika; Wiethaus, Linda; Gäng, JanaThis study aims to extend the media system framework to analyse the transformation process of media systems within fragile states that suffer from intrastate conflict. This theoretical goal is achieved through the scrutinization of the transformation of the Afghan media system throughout the Taliban takeover. Through conducting 21 semi-structured interviews with Afghan journalists, the authors examined the Afghan media system before, during and after the intrastate conflict escalation in 2021. The results showed that the media system in Afghanistan was highly fragmented before the Taliban took over. Consequently, the Taliban capitalized on this fragmented structure by optimizing an effective digital propaganda campaign that facilitated their victory in 2021. As a result of this armed victory, the Taliban started their campaign to control the communication sphere, forming an authoritarian proto-state media system. The results help to enhance comparative media systems analysis and to refine dynamic and conflict-related aspects.Item Alternative media in Lebanon: The role of digital platforms in a polarized hybrid media system(2025-08-09) Farag, Tamer; Neuberger, Christoph; Kretzschmar, Sonja; Sehl, Annika; Pies, Judith; Wiethaus, LindaThis article aims to contribute to the literature about the roles and limitations of alternative media activism in different hybrid media systems by scrutinizing the organizational and discursive counter-hegemonic agency of digital alternative platforms in the Lebanese media system that is prone to high political parallelism, elite control, and polarization. To achieve this objective, semi-structured interviews with Lebanese journalists and a qualitative framing analysis for the alternative and mainstream media coverage of the Beirut Port explosion, which took place on the 4 August 2020 and led to the death of hundreds of people, were conducted. Our results show that Lebanese alternative media strive to escape the hegemonic control of sectarian and political groups by trying to achieve editorial and financial independence. Besides, they attempted in their framing of the explosion to develop a different narrative of the political conflict as a meta-sectarian one between the people and the ruling class from all the sects. However, they face the challenge of distinguishing themselves from the mainstream oppositional media that stands against the current regime. These results highlight the challenges and new possibilities opened by digital technologies for alternative media to escape the political hegemony in a polarized hybrid media system.