“While many contributors present fresh ethnographic research and �their weak arguments, inconclusive results and poor editing undermine the collection as a whole,” argues Anna Swank in her review of Arab Media and Political Renewal: Community, Legitimacy and Public Life.

Steve Tatham makes a strong contribution to correcting the record on Al Jazeera, especially in the wake of the negative publicity directed against the channel by American officials after September 11th and during the continuing war in Iraq, says Laura Smith in her review of Losing Arab Hearts and Minds: The Coalition, Al-Jazeera and Muslim Public Opinion.

Dubai is fast becoming a global media hub – but for whom? Dana El-Baltaji examines Dubai’s business-friendly media model and its implications for the future of media in the Emirates.

Cairo Cosmopolitan sets the tone and the standard for future work on the relationship between Cairo’s people and its urban space, yet it remains to be seen whether the broadly-conceived 'Cairo School’ will be taken as a bold new direction in urban studies, argues Managing Editor Will Ward.

Marlin Dick traces the origins and behind the scenes drama of the Syrian sketch comedy program Spotlight. (Features Video)

Contributing Editor Paul Cochrane looks at the historical origins and current techniques of Saudi influence on the Arabic media landscape.

Enough already with the 'media dialogues' between Arab and Western journalists. The fortunes spent on these conferences could be put to much better use in cooperative lessons-learned networks and long-term training programs, argues Publisher and Co-Editor Lawrence Pintak.

October 2007. Speaking to Arab Media & Society’s George Weyman in July 2007, Sue Phillips, London bureau chief for Al Jazeera International, reflects on the network’s first year and the changes and challenges that lie ahead.

Mustafa Kabha’s work falls well short of its considerable promise to chart the influence of Arabic news media on the evolution of the Palestinian National Movement in the tumultuous years that culminated in the Revolt of 1936-39, argues Aaron Jakes in his review of The Palestinian Press as Shaper of Public Opinion, 1929-1939: Writing Up a Storm.

BBC Monitoring Text of report in English by Syrian News Agency SANA website ["Sit-in in front of UN headquarters in Damascus" - SANA headline] Damascus, 19 Aug ( SANA ) - A sit in was staged yesterday evening before headquarters of the UN mission in Damascus in protest against the …