The problem starts when someone subscribes to ART not just to watch Arab pay-TV channels but also with the idea of making a buck. Through a network of cables, he connects his decoder to the TV sets of others who live in the same building and are keen to watch …
Read More »Arabsats—the Debate
The Arab 24-hour news satellite channels have come in for both strong condemnation and extravagant praise since the first of them, Al Jazeera, launched in 1996. Whatever their opinion of their methods and positions however, few would disagree that they constitute the most important phenomenon in Arab media for many …
Read More »The Arab Satellites—the Pros and Cons
The Americans are more than critical of the Arab satellite channels, specifically Al Arabiya, Saddam Hussein's people inside and outside Iraq (those outside being the more important) are distinguished by their rancor and fury, the members of the Interim Governing Council wave their stick and make threats and promises, and …
Read More »Taking Arabs Seriously
RIGHT GOAL, WRONG APPROACH For the hawks in the Bush administration, one of the keys to understanding the Middle East is Osama bin Laden's observation that people flock to the "strong horse." Bush officials think U. S. problems in the region stem in part from "weak" responses offered by previous …
Read More »The Arab Satellites-Some Necessary Observations!
Slowly and inexorably the Arab television channels have developed into a major factor in Arab political and intellectual life. It is scarcely possible to think of a single Arab issue that the various programs do not deal with and examine from every conceivable angle, to the extent that they have …
Read More »The Political Impact of Arab Satellite Television On Post-Iraq War Arab World
The decade just passed, which will be remembered by many as the decade of America's invasion of the Arab world, may also be remembered as the decade which saw the beginning of the collapse of the Arab political order. Two key factors contributing to the deconstruction of this political order …
Read More »Al Jazeera: Bridging the East-West Gap through Public Discourse and Media Diplomacy
Following the events of September 11, U.S. President George W. Bush, speaking about his administration's efforts to reach Arab and Muslim audiences said, "We are not doing a very good job of getting our message out" (Zaharna 2001). Winning the hearts and minds of Arab and Muslim populations has therefore …
Read More »London’s Arab Media and the Construction of Arabness
For more than twenty years-since the beginning of the Lebanese Civil War in 1976-London has served as the unparalleled centre of Arabic-language media. This study, drawn from ethnographic fieldwork conducted in London's Arab media institutions, challenges two contentions emerging from recent academic literature on transnationalism and new media technologies. Firstly, …
Read More »News World – The Next Generation
Ever since 1995, the News World conference has been bringing together the most important editors, reporters, and manufacturers in the international broadcast news industry. Its purpose was simple, and growing in importance every year - to debate the impact advancing technology was having on the quality of their journalism, to …
Read More »New Media Realities in the Middle East: reporting from a conflict where language is a weapon, “a camera is as dangerous as a gun”, and journalists are targets
The following is the transcript of a panel discussion that took place at The NewsXchange in Ljubljana, Slovenia, 10-11 November, 2002. Participating were Nik Gowing of the BBC, Eason Jordan, president of CNN, Shalom Kital, CEO and editor-in-chief of Channel 2 News, Israel, Jonathan Baker, foreign editor of BBC news, …
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