Vol. 1 2006 Camera-phone videos of Egyptian police torturing suspects posted on YouTube.com. Prostitution and masturbation discussed on satellite TV. The Iranian president reaching out to Arabs on his own blog. The times, as Bob Dylan sang in another context, are a’ changin’. Across the Middle East, new television stations, radio stations and websites are [...]
Beyond Media ‘Dialogues’: Time to put away the champagne flutes (Arab Media & Society)
December 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Issue 3, Fall 2007 October, 2007. “It’s the condescending attitude that I get tired of,” a top editor at one of the leading Arab satellite news channels recently told me. “I know they mean well; but it’s the whole tone.” We were on our way to the airport after the latest in the seemingly endless [...]
The Princess and the Facebook Girl (Arab Media & Society)
December 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Issue 5, Spring 2008 Once upon a time, in a kingdom far, far away, there lived a beautiful princess. Hers was a fairytale existence of spectacular palaces and footmen with gleaming swords and, of course, a handsome prince. But this princess was sad, for the voices of her people were but a whisper. It was [...]
Caught between Iraq and the hard guys (The Daily Star Lebanon)
December 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment
February 28, 2006 The visit to the Middle East last week by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice brought with it another reminder that American Middle East policy is firmly wedged between Iraq and the hard guys. There were never any easy answers to the Middle East morass, complicated further by the recent outbreak of [...]
Arab Media in the Vortext (Journal of Transnational Broadcasting Studies)
December 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment
(Winter 2005) “Anyone who tells you they are not scared silly is lying,” retired Annahar publisher Ghassan Tueni, the living symbol of Lebanese media independence, said in mid-autumn as we sat in his office overlooking Beirut’s port and newly reborn downtown. “We built this glass tower as a symbol of the new Lebanon. Now it [...]
Inside the Arab Newsroom: Arab Journalists Evaluate Themselves and the Competition (Journalism Studies)
December 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment
(Vol. 10 No. 2 April 2009) In the years since 9/11, much has been written about the alleged bias and lack of professionalism in the Arab media. The first cross-border survey of Arab journalists finds that they have a mixed view of their own industry. They are frank about the lack of independence, fairness and [...]
Satellite TV News and Arab Democracy (Journalism Practice)
December 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Vol. 2 No. 1 Feb. 2008 – The red and white banners of Lebanon’s anti-Syrian protests in the spring of 2005 were a testament to the transformational power of the Arab media revolution. Without al-Jazeera and the new constellation of Arab satellite broadcasters, it is unlikely there would ever have been a “Cedar Revolution,” as [...]
Look Who’s Fair And Balanced (CJR.org)
December 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment
(Aug. 22, 2006) The summer of 2006 marked an important milestone for Arab media. Israel and Hezbollah were locked in a bitter conflict that would claim the lives of more than 150 Israelis and an estimated 1,000 Lebanese — a third of them children. Each day brought brutal new images of civilian casualties. On American [...]
Open Season on Journalists in the Middle East (CJR.org)
December 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment
The pen may be “mightier than the sword,” but in recent years, the sword has left a trail of spilled ink – and blood. It is time for an international law banning targeted attacks on the media. (Aug. 1, 2006) After the carnage of this past weekend in the Middle East, two previous incidents seemed [...]
