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From Believing Youth to Bureaucrats: Adaptive representations of Houthi identity in Yemen’s media
Abstract
Following their takeover of Sana’a in 2014-15, forces aligned with the Houthis (or Ansar Allah) began seizing all state-run media outlets. Newspapers, websites, and TV and radio stations abruptly transitioned from pro-government platforms to Houthi-operated mouthpieces. At the same time, the Houthis worked to develop their very own media machine, which would grow rapidly over six years to span everything from frontline footage and war poetry to radio dramas and hidden camera prank shows. While popular analysis of the Houthis tends to focus on the group’s military capabilities and proxy status, a wealth of information about the group’s internal ideological battles can be found in its public messaging and propaganda. This paper argues that an examination of Houthi-produced media reflects a pivotal struggle for the group’s identity, one that sees the Houthis straddling two divergent, but equally important, self-representations. On one side is the group’s sacred founding narrative, which is informed both by the divisive rhetoric of the group’s forefather, Hussein al-Houthi, and its former status as a marginalized social movement. On the other side is the Houthis’ need to appeal broadly to Yemenis and international actors alike, and to assert their legitimacy as representatives of a united Yemeni state. The survival of a distinctive Houthi identity depends on the group’s ability to balance both of these narratives in local Yemeni media and international messaging. To better understand contemporary Houthi identity, this paper will evaluate the group’s media output (including their Beirut-based satellite channel Al-Masirah, various social media platforms, radio stations, and news sites) with the following questions in mind: What do the Houthis want Yemenis, and the world, to know about them? Has their messaging changed over time and in response to the conflict, and have these messages changed the movement itself? Most importantly, what can we learn from these platforms about the group’s shifting identity/identities? In addition to these primary sources, broader studies of the Houthi movement, such as Marieke Brandt’s Tribes and Politics in Yemen: A History of the Houthi Conflict, and reports by the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies, among others, will also be referred to.
Discipline
Media Arts
Geographic Area
Yemen
Sub Area
None