Journalism in Iran and Media, Culture and Society in Iran will help academic and general audiences navigate between simplistic ‘reformist versus hardliner’ narratives by bringing social science perspectives to bear on the historical development and contemporary diversity of Iran’s media, writes Managing Editor Will Ward.
Read More »BOOK REVIEW | Popular Egyptian Cinema: Gender, Class, and Nation
“Shafik shows that cinema has enabled filmmakers and viewers to go through cathartic exercises to express dissatisfaction, grief, imaginary empowerment and solidarity, and argues that this artistic channel is especially important because Egypt lacks an adequate civil society,” writes Nesreen Khashan.
Read More »BOOK REVIEW | Mission Al Jazeera: Build a Bridge, Seek the Truth, Change the World
Josh Rushing’s Mission Al Jazeera is cookie-cutter "celebrity bio" whose analysis of Al Jazeera and other Arab media developments relies heavily on other scholars, says Tom Scudder.
Read More »BOOK REVIEW | Losing Arab Hearts and Minds: The Coalition, Al-Jazeera and Muslim Public Opinion
Steve Tatham makes a strong contribution to correcting the record on Al Jazeera, especially in the wake of the negative publicity directed against the channel by American officials after September 11th and during the continuing war in Iraq, says Laura Smith in her review of Losing Arab Hearts and Minds: The Coalition, Al-Jazeera and Muslim Public Opinion.
Read More »BOOK REVIEW | Cairo Cosmopolitan: Politics, Culture, and Urban Space in the New Globalized Middle East
Cairo Cosmopolitan sets the tone and the standard for future work on the relationship between Cairo’s people and its urban space, yet it remains to be seen whether the broadly-conceived 'Cairo School’ will be taken as a bold new direction in urban studies, argues Managing Editor Will Ward.
Read More »BOOK REVIEW | Arab Media and Political Renewal: Community, Legitimacy and Public Life
“While many contributors present fresh ethnographic research and �their weak arguments, inconclusive results and poor editing undermine the collection as a whole,” argues Anna Swank in her review of Arab Media and Political Renewal: Community, Legitimacy and Public Life.
Read More »BOOK REVIEW | The Palestinian Press as Shaper of Public Opinion, 1929-1939: Writing Up a Storm
Mustafa Kabha’s work falls well short of its considerable promise to chart the influence of Arabic news media on the evolution of the Palestinian National Movement in the tumultuous years that culminated in the Revolt of 1936-39, argues Aaron Jakes in his review of The Palestinian Press as Shaper of Public Opinion, 1929-1939: Writing Up a Storm.
Read More »BOOK REVIEW | A Violent World: TV News Images of Middle Eastern Terror and War
For its willingness to take on and expose dominant elite ideologies, this book deserves real credit, argues Courtney Radsch.
Read More »BOOK REVIEW | Media Politics and Democracy in Palestine: Political Culture, Pluralism, and the Palestinian Authority
This book is a useful resource for understanding the post-Oslo dynamics of the Palestinian Authority and the public sphere in general, but it fails to offer conclusive insights, says Julie Norman.
Read More »BOOK REVIEW | The Suppression of Guilt: The Israeli Media & the Reoccupation of the West Bank
Even if Dor’s book is only a case study, it nevertheless contributes to the general debate about how media can contribute to democracy and political freedom, says Jan Voelkel.
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