Leah Caldwell examines Western coverage of the Syrian music and art scene, focusing on the case of dabke musician Omar Souleyman, and says some of the coverage perpetuates the idea that without a Western seal of authenticity on a particular art form, its cultural value is significantly diminished.

Heba Elsayed argues that young members of Cairo's lower middle classes, because of their ability to negotiate for themselves a heterogeneous cosmopolitanism dependent upon local repertoires yet also drawing on global discourses, are more deserving of the cosmopolitan label than their upper-class counterparts.

Omar Foda looks at the video hagiographies of three Coptic saints and finds that this little-studied genre draws heavily on the tropes of the Egyptian musalsal, including very colloquial Arabic language and exclusive use of melodrama in the presentation of emotions

Leah Caldwell examines coverage of 'development' by the privately owned Syrian daily al-Watan and finds that it is always discussed in a tightly controlled framework where a handful of participants are allowed to participate and determine exactly what or who needs to be developed.

Gianluca Iazzolina traces developments in Palestinian media from the partisan-dominated 1990s to the more diverse forms of the 21st century. He concludes that information technologies are helping to bridge the gap between Israeli and Palestinian civil societies, allowing them to mirror each other in their most human dimension.

Dr Sahar Khamis goes back to Kafr Masoud in the Nile Delta after ten years and notes the effects of exposure to satellite television channels, the Internet and mobile phones, with particular attention to how they have changed the lives and perceptions of rural women.

Mokhtar Elareshi and Barrie Gunter present the findings of a survey on the television news viewing habits of Libyan students. The survey confirms that pan-Arab television stations are their favorite choice, displacing the local alternatives.

Lisa Reinisch investigates coverage of environmental issues by English-language newspapers in the United Arab Emirates and analyses what it tells us about the evolution of media-government relationships in the country.

Evelyn Thai discusses whether Al Jazeera meets the criteria to qualify as 'alternative media' and finds that the Qatar-based channels are arguably unique. “But as transnational news networks proliferate, a theory that accounts for the alterity of transnational media would contribute greatly to an understanding of how mass media continues to evolve.”

Chiara Bernardi's preliminary work on Saudi bloggers and international NGOs finds that they sometimes seem to have different priorities when it comes to women's issues.