News Media in the Arab World

A Study of 10 Arab and Muslim Countries

Barrie Gunter, Roger Dickinson, Barrie Gunter, Roger Dickinson

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN:
  9781441174666
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781441144881
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Media Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

News Media in the Arab World: A Study of 10 Arab and Muslim Countries is based on ongoing research at the Department of Media and Communication, University of Leicester, and has investigated the rapidly changing nature of the news media in Arab countries. They have investigated the role of newspapers and television in news provision and the impact of new media developments, most especially the emergence of the internet as a platform for news distribution and of international satellite television channels such as Al Jazeera.
Examining the constantly developing nature of news, the collection contains separately authored chapters produced by the researchers responsible for each original analysis, covering Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Oman, Qatar, Palestine, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Based on original primary and secondary research, this will be the first empirical-based collection to blend perspectives from both the Western and Arab nations.

1

The Changing Nature of News and the Arab World

Barrie Gunter and Roger Dickinson

News markets are evolving dramatically in the Middle East and across North Africa. The emergence of the internet and of satellite television (TV) news channels has changed the media landscape in these countries and provided new media experiences for the indigenous populations. New media have been embraced in particular by younger people in the Arab world. These changes have implications for the way news businesses are run and regulated in the region. They have created greater competition for audiences and placed some established news providers under threat. These initial tasters have whetted public news appetites across the Arab world and created a hunger for less parochial news coverage. Whether this is seen as good or not varies between countries. The news is important to Arab populations, but the question of what now constitutes valued news has become more open as wider choices of news have been made available.

Even though the media landscape in Arab world has changed dramatically since the end of the twentieth century, characterized in particular by the emergence of TV satellite channels and penetration of the Internet, there is still a disjunction between the promises carried by these technology developments and the realities of Arab politics and societies (Amin, 2001). One media typology has distinguished between the mobilized press controlled by government, loyalist press that is privately owned yet loyal to the current government and therefore succumbs to direct or indirect government censorship, and a diverse press that can operate with relative freedom (Rugh, 1979). Until the 1990s, the Arab press tended mostly to fall into the category of a mobilized press although some news operations could be conceived as loyalist (Hafez, 2001). Thus, the mass media have remained under the tight control of Arab governments. In general, in this region, the media have been little more than extensions of government information ministries (Rugh, 2004). It remains to be seen how far this will change in those Arab countries that experienced political revolutions in 2011. These actions were driven often by young people who utilized digital technologies to organize protests and publicize them to the outside world. When their governments closed down even more tightly on media news operations, individual activists created their own news channels via blogging, microblogging and social media sites on the internet (see Diamond, 2012).

There are disparities within Arab countries in respect of the availability or accessibility of media among their citizens. Digital divides exist based on hierarchical social and economic structures that distinguish sub-groups of Arab societies. Income status is also linked to educational level and literacy which, in turn, can create further media divides. These societal divisions run deeper in some Arab countries than in others. Wherever they exist, however, they exert critical influences over the use of different media – both traditional and new. They can also contribute to knowledge gaps between different social factions within Arab societies (Rugh, 2004).

Despite these digital divides, for some observers the emergence of new news providers on satellite TV platforms and the speed with which they have been embraced by Arab peoples are posing serious threats to the authoritarian control of their governments (El-Nawawy and Iskander, 2002; Mernissi, 2007). For the first time, news media in this region have begun to represent a type of ‘fourth estate’ – an alternative source of political opinion from incumbent administrations (Hafez, 2006).

Early developments in Arab media

The earliest Arab press has been traced back to the early nineteenth century with Al-Waqa’i al-Misreya in 1828. Other publications followed including Al-Mubashir in 1848 (Algeria), Al-Anba’ in 1858 (Lebanon), Al-Ra’id in 1860 (Tunisia), Tarabulus al-Gharb in 1864 (Libya), Al-Zawra’ in 1869 (Iraq) and San’a in 1879 (Yemen). During the earliest years of the press, the Arab world experienced a number of occupations including Ottoman, French, British and Italian. Newspapers were largely propaganda instruments during these spells that represented the opinion of the ruling authorities. Even so, national press publications surfaced to represent the views and interests of the indigenous populations and as such played a significant part in the cultivation and establishment of Arab nationalism (Bakr et al., 1985).

During the twentieth century, the Arab press continued to play an important role in representing Arab political and cultural values. One significant characteristic of Arab newspapers and magazines is that they have tended to be privately owned and operated, although aligned with political factions or influential business figures with close government links. Government owned newspapers have also sat alongside those in private ownership in some Arab countries such as Algeria, Egypt, Iraq and Libya.

While government owned newspapers have been financially sheltered by the public purse, private publications have often struggled in the face of low circulation figures and high production costs. The choice of political allegiances could also make a difference to the prospects of newspapers in terms of public patronage and favourable treatment by governments (Bakr et al., 1985). The critical delimiting factor with regard to the influence of the printed press, however, has always been the widespread illiteracy rates in Arab countries.

Broadcasting was founded in the Arab world with the launch of the first radio stations in Algeria in 1925, Egypt in 1926 and Tunisia in 1935. Some of these initial services were privately owned and run on commercial models, although many were government owned and non-profit making. Some Arab countries depended upon Western governments to build their initial transmission networks which then operated under the control of outside broadcasting authorities. This arrangement occurred in Tunisia which received help from France in the construction of its radio transmission system. Despite the early appearance of commercial radio stations, the general preference in most Arab nations, as radio services were rolled out between the mid-1930s and early 1970s, was to avoid an advertising-funded model. Government authorities took control over radio networks, providing full funding support and in return expected to exert political control over content.

The potential power of radio was realized during the Egyptian revolution of the early 1950s when it emerged as the primary medium to reach the masses. It was not restricted in its influence by the illiteracy rates of the population and provided news on latest developments more quickly than newspapers could manage. As more Arab states gained their independence from Western occupiers, radio was increasingly acknowledged by Arab governments as an important extension of the political public sphere (Bakr et al., 1985).

TV broadcasting in the Arab world began in the mid-1950s with government operated services in Morocco in 1954, Algeria, Iraq and Lebanon in 1956 and in other Arab countries over the next two decades. As with radio, the first TV stations were commercial, though subsequently most Arab states opted for a government controlled model (Boyd, 1999). Following the very first station launches, there were just a small number of experiments with commercial TV in Iraq, Morocco and Lebanon (Boyd, 1991; Boulos, 1996; Kraidy, 1998a,b). Hybrid stations were not unusual that were government controlled but also carried some advertising to raise additional revenue (Bakr et al., 1985). The only Arab territory to sustain commercial TV across the pre-satellite TV era was the Emirate of Dubai.

Broadcasters were subservient to government information ministries and news broadcasts were limited in terms of the types of news stories they reported and the formats adopted within the broadcasts themselves. Most news reporting comprised little more than talking heads against a simple studio set reporting positively on government policies and performance and events attended by heads of state and other leading officials (Sakr, 2000). At this time, TV was conceived as a national resource that could be utilized for the betterment of the nation. Most TV services were funded entirely by governments and were in consequence seen as an extension of them. The models for this type of broadcasting system derived from Britain and France where public service broadcasting operations were regarded as resources designed for the informational, educational and cultural enrichment of society (Ayish, 2001). The Arab world adopted a more autocratic version of this broadcasting ethos.

Already by the 1970s, Arab publics experienced some exposure to Western media that frequently drew unfavourable comparisons for indigenous news programming that was clearly poorly resourced and of lower quality in terms of production standards and journalism (Ayish, 2001). During the 1980s and 1990s, public sector broadcasting in the western world also faced growing competition from new private broadcasting operations that were unconstrained by government-imposed public sector broadcasting requirements (Achilles and Miege, 1994). These services operated via technology platforms such as cable and satellite that were not controlled by government regulators as terrestrial transmission system had been.

By 1991, even the Arab world had its first taste of satellite TV when London-based Middle East Broadcasting Centre (MBC) established a footprint in the Middle East. Arab audiences sought out satellite dishes, even in those countries where initially they were banned. This meant that they could obtain reception of international satellite news broadcasts and circumvent traditional government censorship of such exposure. Arab governments recognized that they could not prevent their citizens from gaining access to news uploaded from outside their national borders and realized instead that they must compete with their own versions of these news channels (Alterman, 1998).

Over the last decade of the twentieth century, therefore, further Arab-owned and operated satellite TV services followed including Al-Jazeera that was launched in 1996 (Kraidy, 1998a). Initially, these government-controlled satellite TV news services were still utilized – as previous news vehicles had been – as propaganda tools. Exposure to non-Arab channels led Arab audiences to question the diversity and quality of news provision both in terms of news content and presentation formats (Ghareeb, 2000). Eventually, as more privately owned and operated satellite TV services emerged, some Arab states, especially in the Gulf region, recognized these wider audience needs and relaxed some editorial controls allowing these services to enjoy greater freedom. We examine the reasons for this later in this chapter.

The growth of commercial TV in the Arab world provided audiences with a greater diversity of programming and more especially eventually made available new formats for news presentation (Ayish, 2001). The adoption of satellite technology has been central to the expansion of news provision in the Middle East and North Africa (Amin and Boyd, 1994; Barkey, 1996; Schleifer, 1998; Sakr, 1999).

Although rapid expansion of satellite TV took place after 1995, it was nearly 20 years earlier when the first seeds were sown politically for a satellite broadcasting system at around the time of the formation of the Arab States Broadcasting Union (ASBU) in 1969 (Boyd, 1999). Subsequently, the Arab Satellite Communications Organization (ARABSAT) became established in 1976 with most finance originating from its wealthiest partner, Saudi Arabia. The first satellite with an Arab world footprint was successfully put into orbit in 1985 (ARABSAT 1-B) (Amin and Boyd, 1994). The latter was switched off in 1993, but further satellites (2-A and 2-B) were placed in geostationary orbits over the Middle East in 1996. A further generation satellite (3-A) was established in 1999 (Kraidy, 2002).

The significance of the First Gulf War

The 1991 Gulf War in which allied forces launched a military attack on Saddam Hussein’s Iraq to force its withdrawal from occupation of Kuwait introduced a new style of news coverage of war and according to some writers provided the catalyst that triggered significant media developments within the Arab world (Ghareeb, 2000; Mellor, 2007). At least 1,400 journalists from around the world were stationed in the Gulf states during the build-up to the war, with many working for pan-national satellite TV operators (Gantz, 1993). The reporting of the 1991 Gulf War established TV as the primary news medium of that era (O’Heffernan, 1993).

Unlike previous conflicts in Vietnam and the Falklands, mass publics all over the world were furnished with live, on-site reports of the action as journalists became ‘embedded’ with the military and were able to report and film from the front line. CNN emerged as a key player in this setting. Its feeds provided from within Iraq enabled it to become a primary supplier of film and narrative for other longer established news brands. The public were transformed from passive recipients of historical accounts relayed via asynchronous reporting, so characteristic of previous war reporting, to eyewitnesses who could keep abreast of the latest events no matter which time zone they lived in.

Following this conflict, news media mushroomed across the Arab world both on a local and pan-national scale. Such developments were manifest in terms of new national and local newspapers and more specially satellite TV channels. The new channels with a news focus adopted formats that modelled in many ways the services offered by CNN (Mellor, 2005). Not only were there more newspapers, but also many newspapers that pre-dated the 1991 conflict grew bigger. The news menu expanded such that not only was there more ‘hard’ news about serious issues, but also more ‘soft’ news such as human interest stories. The emergence of a more diverse news agenda again signalled an influence of western media on the editorial decisions of Arab newsmakers.

The role modelling impact of Western journalistic practices was further mediated via Arab journalists who learned their trade in the west or in Arab journalism schools with Western orientations (Ayish, 2001). Furthermore, western news providers such as the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), CNN and National Broadcasting Company (NBC) launched their own Arab language news services (Mellor, 2007).

The evolving news landscape in the Arab world

Journalism in the Arab world evolved through a number of stages even before the digital technology developments of the New Millennium era emerged. Mellor (2007) invoked Bourdieu’s field theory to explain the genesis of Arab news media systems and their integration with existing political, economic and social settings within Arab nations. Status differences emerged between print and broadcast media for the journalists working in them. TV journalists in the Arab world might develop a high public profile but enjoy lesser professional status than their print counterparts because of the historical standing of each medium.

Field theory articulates the different domains within which organizational practices of a specific business sector, such as news media can develop and establish their own niche positions. With news, in addition to the traditional differentiation between print and broadcast, further distinctions can be drawn on the basis of geographical or market scale – local, national, international. Variances can occur across the ‘fields’...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• 1 The Changing Nature of News and the Arab World
• 2 Evolving News Systems in the Gulf Countries
• 3 News in Iraq
• 4 The Development of the Palestinian News Media
• 5 News Consumption and News Agendas in Egypt
• 6 The Changing News Landscape of Libya
• 7 News Developments and Changes to News Consumption Patterns in the Arab World
• 8 News Media and Political Socialization of Young People: The Case of Bahrain
• 9 What Is the Future for News in the Arab World?
• Index