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- Volume 1, Issue 3, 2009
Journal of Arab & Muslim Media Research - Volume 1, Issue 3, 2009
Volume 1, Issue 3, 2009
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Hyper-Islamism? Mediating Islam from the halal website to the Islamic talk show
More LessIslam is going through a fundamental diffusion of religious knowledge and authority. Media technologies like the Web and satellite television are facilitating the emergence of a new breadth of Islam in the public sphere in Muslim societies and amongst Muslims in diaspora. Deeply influenced by the global and local dynamics of consumer culture, the proponents of this new Islam are more media-savvy and less dogmatic on how Islam should be mediated than their conservative counterparts. Unlike in the politically engaged Islam, the architects of this new trend are younger Muslims with more business skills than religious knowledge. From websites advertising the latest fashions in Islamic dress and others offering halal versions of non-Islamic foods such as the Italian salami, the German sausage or McDonald's burger to television shows encouraging Muslims to use their religion as a success formula for spiritual self-fulfilment and material achievement, the new economic liberalism of Islam is certainly modern in its mediation, but is its substance as liberal as the form? This article examines how the new religious media are constructing the image of the modern Muslim and what kind of religious identities and subjectivities emerge as a result of a purely material consumption that is religiously committed. My analysis is based on a textual analysis of a popular Islamic television show on Iqra', a 24-hour Saudi religious channel that prides itself in being the first Islamic entertainment television station.
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Building capabilities of Egyptian journalists in preparation for a media in transition
By Naila HamdyEgypt is going through a dramatic transition in its media sector. The proliferation of satellite and Internet technology combined with pressure to free the media and the government's relative acceptance of media openness have created an environment that has attracted many agencies, associations and foundations to invest in training programmes intended to develop the journalism profession.
This study was conducted to gauge these programs and to address questions relevant to these efforts. By analysing data from a survey on Egyptian journalists and in-depth interviews with media training experts, results show that Egypt's media reforms have made it possible for the paradigm of professional journalism training to emerge as a dominant theme. Egyptian journalists are enthusiastic toward training, despite some dissatisfaction. Furthermore, they have a relative highly perceived self-efficacy and conviction in their active role as agents of social change and as contributors to the development of a stronger democracy.
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Mediating wars and conflicts: North African TV audiences in the UK and the changing security landscape
More LessThis article examines television audiences' perceptions of the war on terrorism and the war on Iraq coverage by western as well as Arab media. It looks at how bilingual North African viewers in the United Kingdom perceive news reporting and what issues they raise vis--vis the repercussions of mediating the war on their everyday existence, hence on social change in this country. Informed by sixteen interviews and family discussions among North African families in London, and the influential theoretical discussion offered by Edward Said's Orientalism, Fukuyama's end of history and others, this work seeks to find out the extent to which the media can be seen as agents of social control or social change? To what extent can media messages play a role in social stability or instability? What role can the news coverage audiences get on their television screens via satellite or terrestrial services contribute to their integration or alienation in the society they live in?
This study reveals that there is a changing perception of people's identity, which has been the result of a perceived biased coverage of their causes and the British government's unjust foreign policy in various parts of the Arab and Muslim world. Meanings of Britishness and the notion of belonging have become to be questioned among some of the respondents. Even those holding British citizenship feel they are becoming more and more second-class citizens, excluded and segregated against. Also, the lack of trust and perception of bias vis--vis western media highlights my respondents' changing loyalty towards Arab satellite TV. Arab television channels headed by Al-Jazeera have been seen as sources of more accurate information with which Arab audiences wish to identify.
This article also argues that the issues raised here by the media's war coverage will have long-term negative repercussions on this North African minority, as well as British society at large. Social change will be characterized by the possible exclusion of Arab and Muslim communities instead of including them in the wider British society. The sense of security, which is salient in people's discussions, will probably dominate the feature of British public debates for years to come.
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Modern Egyptian media: transformations, paradoxes, debates and comparative perspectives
By Sahar KhamisThis article analyses the transition, complexity and dynamics of the modern Egyptian media landscape. It sheds light on some of the most important transformations, paradoxes and debates pertaining to this changing media landscape, and it explores some western theoretical perspectives and questions their validity as comparative perspectives for analysing modern Egyptian media. The article overviews the transformations in the modern Egyptian media scene in two specific phases: the pre- and post-1952 phase and the pre- and post-1990 phase, in an effort to understand the most significant waves of change that swept the Egyptian media scene, the causes behind them, and their multiple implications. It also explores the most important paradoxes that emerged in this highly ambivalent media landscape, as well as the debates pertaining to this transitional press model, especially the debate around whether the current waves of change sweeping the Egyptian media landscape can bring about a faster transition toward true democracy. It also examines the degree to which the modern Egyptian media landscape can overlap with, or diverge from, the three comparative press models proposed by Hallin and Mancini (2004) and the reasons behind this overlap or divergence.
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Framing of Arab countries on American news networks following the September 11 attacks
By Dina IbrahimThrough close reading and an ideological critique of network news reports this study investigates network television coverage of Arab countries during the two weeks following the September 11, 2001 attacks. The framing of countries as either enemies or friends of the United States of America was a recurring aspect of national network coverage immediately following 9/11. The analysis reveals distinct differences between portrayals of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Iraq on network news after the attacks. The networks marginalized public opinion in Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, while emphasizing American military and diplomatic relations with these countries. Iraq, however, was discussed primarily in the context of a future invasion.
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