CAIRO, EGYPT  With its March launch of the Al-Awael bouquet, ART (Arab Radio and Television), acting through its platform management company Arab Digital Distribution (ADD), has positioned itself as an across-the-board competitor, rather than Arabic-language niche player, in the Middle East's pay-TV arena. In the words of ADD Chairman Sheikh Saleh …

Al-Jazeera, the all-news channel broadcast from Qatar, has been the hottest, most popular satellite channel in the region for the past two years. But it has its critics; even its Ramallah bureau from where it has provided some of the most dramatic coverage of Intifada Al Aqsa was shut down …

In the Arab world, satellite use is growing rapidly after a slow start. Despite the fact that many of the Middle Eastern countries share a common language, culture, religion, and geography, there are many social differences and diverse political ideologies; however, today almost all Arab countries allow the public to access …

MUMBAI, INDIA:  The new book "Satellites over South Asia: Broadcasting Culture and the Public Interest" (Sage Publications, India), authored by David Page and William Crawley, was released in India in December 2000. It sparked an involved discussion at a Mumbai panel on the role of Indian broadcasting within the South …

This article is based on a presentation at the conference "The Ethics of Journalism: Comparison and Transformations in the Islamic-Western Context," under the auspices of German President Johannes Rau (Bellevue Palace, Berlin, 29-30 March 29-30, 2001), organized by the German Institute for Middle East Studies (Deutsches Orient-Institut), Hamburg, and the …

This article is based on a presentation at the conference "The Ethics of Journalism: Comparison and Transformations in the Islamic-Western Context," under the auspices of German President Johannes Rau (Bellevue Palace, Berlin, 29-30 March 29-30, 2001), organized by the German Institute for Middle East Studies (Deutsches Orient-Institut), Hamburg, and the …

The president of Syria dies. The phones start ringing at the European Broadcasting Union's (EBU) headquarters in Geneva. TV producers from around the entire globe are calling to find out if EBU has a satellite transmission operation at the funeral. EBU does. According to EBU Producer Youssef el Alfy, on large …

Until recent years, American television news was global news. American network news coverage was delivered all over the world-ABC fed to UPITN, NBC to Visnews, CBS had its own syndication service. The networks' news coverage wasn't, therefore, just for an American audience. It performed the role of providing global news, because …

If globalization can be described as having the following features: the worldwide interconnection between societies, cultures, institutions, and individuals; the compression of time and space; and the loss of national sovereignty, then it is not difficult to appreciate the centrality of the media to these processes, especially when you look at …

The latter part of the twentieth century was marked by the proliferation of culture and communication, the explosion of information technologies and channels, and the expansion of the cultural industries. These developments in communication have had significant socio-political impacts internationally. The recent advancements in satellite technologies with the accompanying expansion of …