Chill wind in 'Arab Spring': Can the media change its narrative?

As the 'Arab Spring' moves through Midsummer's Day to what could prove to be a very cold winter, is the British media flogging an out-of-date narrative?

This came out clearly in Mirage in the Desert, the BBC College of Journalism/Coventry Conversations conference last week which brought together journalists and academics.

Bliss it was to be alive in Tunisia in January, and in Tahir Square in Cairo in January and February of this year. What looked like genuine popular (and 'surprising', admitted BBC World Affairs Producer Nick Springate uprisings toppled first President Ben Ali in Tunis and, within three weeks, President Mubarak in Egypt.

Few shots were fired. There seemed no limits to people power. 'Digital democracy' was breaking out all over the Arab world - with Bahrain, Yemen and Libya showing signs of following suit. It was breakneck. Poor Lindsey Hilsum of Channel 4 News seemed to be in a different country every night. It was hard then not to 'frame' it, as the hackademics say, as an 'Arab Spring'.

But the initially spontaneous revolt in eastern Libya in February, centred on Benghazi, soon became a fight for survival as President Gaddafi (whom Alex Thomson of Channel 4 News pointed out should not be referred to just by his surname to demonise him) and his army fought back. They were at the gates of Benghazi when, in the words of Evening Standard war correspondent Oliver Poole, the UN and NATO intervened and "stopped a massacre" on 18 March.

Since then it has been a tale of high- and low-level continuous bombing by NATO and a ragtag and bobtail rebel army fighting President Gaddafi's troops on the ground. By any other name this is now a civil war and no longer a popular revolt. But is that new narrative coming through in the British reporting? Is it all one-sided - the rebel side - and should the Western correspondents embedded with the regime in Tripoli preface their reports with a health warning because of their circumstances?

At least they can report. In Syria, patently another civil war in the making, if not in actuality, no Western journalists are allowed in. Many have tried. They and we are reduced to pictures of refugees in olive groves on the border and in refugee camps.

If social media was the accelerant in the 'Arab Spring', it shows few signs of life in Syria. Twitter does not rule there. One interesting phenomenon pointed out at the conference was that of authoritarian Arab regimes setting up 'good news' Twitter accounts to spread their word. The liberator can become the enslaver.

So the narrative of the liberation of the 'spring' (which implies a fresh start) may need to be modified and turned around to something else, recognising the reality of dirty civil wars.

'Framing' and being stuck in a wrong narrative is not exclusive to foreign stories, of course. Look at the way the National Health Service reforms are presented - good, bad, then good again. Frames provide convenient templates in which to report.

We are all storytellers in journalism, but please can we face the facts, even if it means changing the underlying narrative.

John Mair is a senior lecturer in broadcasting at Coventry University. He co-produced the Mirage in the Desert conference with David Hayward of the BBC College of Journalism on 15 June.