In all previous Arab-Israeli wars Israel had dominated on all counts. But in the 2006 war, the influence of the Israeli media on global opinion seemed to have been tempered by the greater range of Arab voices, argues Jihad Fakhreddine.
Read More »Public Diplomacy 101: A Required Course for Karen Hughes
In her assignment as the communication director of George W. Bush’s presidential and gubernatorial campaigns, Karen Hughes maintained straight-A grades. In her first trip to the Middle East as undersecretary for public diplomacy in September, however, Mrs. Hughes’ GPA seems to have dropped to a C or even less, according …
Read More »US Public Diplomacy: Targeting the Ruled or the Rulers?
It seemed a mere coincidence that only two days after the airing of the CBS 60 Minutes on Abu Gharaib prison torture April 26, 2004, Margaret Tutweiler, the US undersecretary for Public Diplomacy, resigned to take a position in the New York Stock Exchange. Ms. Tutweiler's resignation was as low-key …
Read More »The Rise and Potential Fall of Pan-Arab Satellite TV
Inexpensive analogue satellite TV gear introduced to the Arab world during the 1990s, and the even cheaper digital TV satellite technologies that have followed since the beginning of this decade, have been instrumental in short-circuiting a number of stages in the evolution of the TV distribution landscape in the Arab …
Read More »Balancing Act: UAE Satellite TV Channels Between National and Pan-Arab Markets
With a GDP of $81 billion in 2003, up 4.5 percent from the previous year, and an 8.7 percent population growth rate that brought the population to more than four million in 2003, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have all the economic and business ingredients for the most dynamic Arab …
Read More »Reaching the Arabs through Alhurra: US Chooses Easy Way Out?
After comprehensive investigations by expert panels, US public diplomacy officials have succeeded in figuring out why US public diplomacy targeting the Arab world have failed: it is the Arab media and more specifically the pan-Arab television channels, with Al Jazeera as the main culprit. In his State of the Union …
Read More »National Versus Pan-Arab Reach: Which Way for Egypt’s Private Commercial TV Channels?
The Egyptian pan-Arab television sector is enigmatic in more ways than one. Observers of the Egyptian media know very well that, at heart, it is profoundly more pan-Arab than any other Arab media area. Its pan-Arab reach, however, does not tally with its expectations and, consequently, its market share of …
Read More »The US-Arab Cross-Communication Exchange: A Dialogue Amongst Mutes
Only a last-minute awaking of conscience among the perpetrators could have prevented the September 11 attack on the US. Its cross-cultural fallout between the Arabs and the United States, though, could have been averted. There is a genuine fear that the perpetrators, while they won the first round of battle …
Read More »Pan-Arab Satellite Television: Now the Survival Part
The second half of the 1990s saw advertisers queuing up to buy tickets to watch the pan-Arab satellite channels sprinting towards mass audiences across the GCC markets. The Arab general public responded in kind, especially in the more affluent states, where satellite dishes are found in every fourth home. The satellite …
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