Hmmm. My wife and I are both media monitors, and we once had trouble explaining what we do to the Syrian embassy in London. They were convinced that we were journalists, and we had trouble convincing them otherwise. They told us that they would definitely give us visas, but that we had to go through a different channel and apply for journalist visas. Eventually, after about ten phone calls, they actually let us into the embassy proper, where we met with their press attache - who knew exactly what a media monitor was, apologised profusely and ordered the consular staff to issue our visas on the spot.
But I digress. The point is that the staff of the London embassy are generally a pretty helpful and friendly bunch, but it will probably involve an awful lot of extra faffing about for you if you call yourself a journalist. Although the staff are generally keen to help, the embassy as a whole is about as efficient as might be expected of any embassy which is run by a bureaucratic Mediterranean state - which is to say, not very. It might be best to write yourself a letter stating that you're a self-employed business analyst, and provide your past three bank statements - that should probably do the trick. The Syrian government is actually quite keen to encourage tourism to the country, and I think the 'letter from employer' thing is basically just to prove that you have enough funds to support your trip and that you'll be going back home at the end of it.
You could also take your chances getting a visa on arrival - officially, this is a big no-no, but almost everyone who arrives at a land border or airport without one reports being issued with one after a few forms are filled out and phone calls made.
Oh, and for the past three trips we've made to Syria, we put 'office manager' and 'office clerk' as our job titles ;-)
