About Arab Media & Society

Arab Media & Society is the primary reference for understanding the role of media in shaping Arab societies and the broader Muslim world. 

The impact of the pan-Arab satellite revolution is today felt at every level of Arab society – and in every form of media. Which is why Arab Media & Society is the next logical incarnation of its predecessor, TBS Journal, covering not just television, but all forms of media and their interaction with society-at-large, from politics and business to culture and religion, as well as the way in which Arab media change resonates in the broader Muslim world.

The style of Arab Media & Society aims to be serious, well-researched and readable, The journal is committed to combining academic peer-reviewed articles (read more here) with timely well informed on-the-ground accounts of developments.  This depth and range of content is what distinguishes Arab Media & Society. 

In addition to tracing developments in Arab media outlets and technologies, the journal is also concerned with the changing content of media in the Middle East. Our articles address both the producers of media content (journalists, media professionals, celebrities) and the consumers of that content (audiences), as well as considering relationships between the two.

We welcome submissions from a wide variety of contributors including media professionals and journalists, regional commentators, researchers and academics of all disciplinary perspectives—anthropology, journalism, political science, media and film studies, history, and sociology. 

The online-only format is designed to provide a range of resources, including an easily searchable archive of free content on media in the Middle East stretching back to 1998. In addition, the site will contain multimedia such as video and podcasts to complement the written content. Contributors can exploit the online nature of the journal by including images, audio and video alongside their articles.

Arab Media & Society will publish quarterly with frequent updates of time-sensitive articles, as well as real-time excerpts of articles from the Arab media and links to relevant pieces published elsewhere on the Internet.

The journal is indebted to the American University in Cairo and the Middle East Centre, St Antony’s College, Oxford for their ongoing support.

Staff

Publisher and Co-Editors

Lawrence Pintak is the director of the Center for Electronic Journalism at the American University in Cairo. A veteran of 30 years in journalism on four continents, Pintak has contributed to many of the world’s leading news organizations. He previously served as Howard R. Marsh Visiting Professor of Journalism at the University of Michigan, lecturing on the intersection of communications and international policy at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and in the Communications, Middle East and Southeast Asia studies programs. His books include Reflections in a Bloodshot Lens: America, Islam & the War of Ideas (2006); Seeds of Hate: How America’s flawed Middle East policy ignited the jihad (2003); and Beirut Outtakes: A TV Correspondent’s Portrait of America’s Encounter with Terror (Lexington 1988).

Walter Armbrust is the Albert Hourani Fellow of Modern Middle Eastern Studies at St. Antony's College and University Lecturer, University of Oxford. He is a cultural anthropologist whose research interests focus on popular culture and mass media in the Middle East. He is the author of Mass Culture and Modernism in Egypt, and editor of Mass Mediations: New Approaches to Popular Culture in the Middle East and Beyond.

Hani Shukrallah is director of the Heikel Press Institute and the former editor of Al Ahram Weekly. He writes a weekly commentary for The Daily Star Egypt.

Managing Editor and Webmaster

Will Ward  has an M.Phil in Modern Middle Eastern Studies from St. Antony’s College, Oxford and a B.A. in History and Near Eastern Studies from the University of Pennsylvania.  He speaks Arabic and Persian. 

Editorial Board

Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, D.C and author of New Media: New Politics: From Satellite Television to the Internet in the Arab World.

Hussein Amin, chair of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, American University in Cairo, Egypt.

Jon Anderson, chair of the Department of Anthropology, Catholic University, Washington, D.C.

Kai Hafez, Kai Hafez, Chair Professor for International and Comparative Media Studies, University of Erfurt, Germany.

Michael Hudson , director of the Arab Information Project, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.

Adel Iskandar, lecturer at the University of Texas-Austin. He is co-author of Al-Jazeera: The Story of the Network that is Rattling Governments and Redefining Modern Journalism (Westview, 2003), and co-editor of Edward Said: Emancipation & Representation (University of California Press, forthcoming 2007). Iskandar is Visiting Scholar at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS), Georgetown University.

Rami Khouri, Editor-at-Large, Daily Star Beirut; director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs, and lecturer in media and politics, American University of Beirut.

Marwan Kraidy, Director, Arab Media and Public Life (AMPLE) project at the American University , Washington D.C.; and Scholar-in-Residence at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania; author of Hybridity, or, The Cultural Logic of Globalization (Temple University Press, 2005), and co-editor of Global Media Studies: Ethnographic Perspectives (Routledge, 2003).

Marc Lynch, Williams College. He is the author of Voices of the New Arab Public: Iraq, Al Jazeera, and Middle East Politics Today.

William A. Rugh, Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Georgetown University, U.S.; Exeutive Committee of the Public Diplomacy Council; and Adjunct Scholar at the Middle East Institute

Naomi Sakr, University of Westminster, U.K.

Christa Salamandra is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Lehman College, CUNY.  She has been a Research Associate at the University of Oxford, a Visiting Lecturer at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and a Fulbright Scholar at the Lebanese American University, Beirut.  She is the author of A New Old Damascus: Authenticity and Distinction in Urban Syria, Indiana University Press 2004, and several articles on Arab media.  She is currently working on an ethnography of Syrian television drama production.

Abdallah Schleifer, Washington D.C. bureau chief, Al Arabiya (and TBS Journal founder)

 

Contributing Editors

Andrew Exum is the Soref Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Andrew is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the American University of Beirut. From 2000 until 2004, he served in the U.S. Army and led combat units in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He is the author of This Man's Army (Gotham: 2004), and is a native of East Tennessee.

Charles Levinson is a journalist for Agence France Press based in Jerusalem. He is former news editor of Cairo magazine.

Dana El-Baltaji is the assistant guides editor for Time Out GCC in Dubai and a contributor to Noozz.com.  She holds an MA in English Literature from the American University of Beirut, an MSc in Writing and Cultural Politics from the University of Edinburgh, and a BA in English Literature from the American University of Beirut. Prior to working for Time Out, Dana was a lecturer at the American University of Dubai and the American University of Beirut.

Hugh Miles is an award-winning freelance journalist who has written for The Guardian, the London Review of Books, and the Sunday Times. Al Jazeera: The Inside Story of the Arab News Channel that Challenged the World is his first book.

Sune Haugbolle is a post-doctoral research fellow at St. Antony’s College at the University of Oxford and has published various articles on modern Lebanon, including "Spatial Transformations in the Lebanese Independence Intifada," in Arab Studies Journal, 2006 and “From A-lists to Webtifadas: Developments in the Lebanese Blogosphere 2005-2006,” in Arab Media & Society, 2007.

Paul Cochrane is a freelance journalist based in Beirut, writing on politics, media, business and education. H e has reported for  The Independent On Sunday, The Frankfurter Allegemeine Zeitung, The Straits Times, Jane's,  and The Times Higher Educational Supplement.  Cochrane formerly worked as an editor at Beirut's The Daily Star and was news editor of Middle East Broadcasters Journal. He holds an MA in Middle Eastern Studies from the American University of Beirut and a BA in International Politics and International History from Keele University, England.

Vivian Salama spent nearly three years as a journalist and commentator in the Middle East, recently returning to New York to pursue a Master's degree in Middle East Studies at Columbia University. She is an award-winning journalist who has reported for Newsweek, USA Today, The International Herald Tribune, The Daily Star and the Jerusalem Post. Prior to working in the Middle East, Salama was a producer for NBC News in New York.

Sharon Otterman has spent the last year and a half researching and writing articles about women and political reform in Cairo. Her articles have been published by the San Francisco Chronicle, The Christian Science Monitor, The Washington Times, and United Press International. A Fulbright scholarship winner, she holds a Masters in International Affairs from Columbia University .

Book Reviews Editor

Courtney C. Radsch is a freelance journalist and blogger who is pursuing her PhD in International Communication at American University in Washington, D.C. where she is writing her dissertation about the Arab media's impact on politics.