Diana Turecek looks at the varied conclusions about the role of the United States that Arab media and commentators have drawn from the global financial crisis.

Stephen Marmura tries to explain the persistence of mistaken beliefs about 9/11 and about the rationale for invading Iraq among the US and Egyptian publics, concluding that memories and long-term discourses sometimes outweigh short-term media effects.

David Faris looks at the role bloggers played in the campaign to enable Egypt's tiny Baha'i minority to obtain identity cards without identifying themselves as Muslims or Christians. He traces the links between a handful of Baha'i bloggers, a wider circle of sympathetic activist bloggers and some key people in the mainstream media. He concludes that the sustained online attention which the plight of Baha’is appears to have won in the end made it difficult for the Egyptian government to countenance the continued violation of Baha’i rights.

The Arab world's news duopoly is set for a shake-up, and the main contenders are two ventures that are connected to one of the world's biggest media organizations, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Beirut-based journalist Paul Cochrane looks at the latest developments.

Yasmin Moll writes on visual aspects of the phenomenon of Islamic televangelism, arguing that: “a consideration of contemporary media practices in Islam invites us to expand our definition of what the visual might be and what acts of seeing might entail.”

The financial crisis in the United Arab Emirates has tested the limits of media freedom in the country, and many of the participants, especially government and the media, have fallen short..Sam Potter describes how the local press in the UAE has handled the financial crisis and wonders how long the practice of self-censorship can continue when alternative sources of information are so readily available

Alaa Shahine reviews the state of financial reporting in the Middle East and finds that below the radar screen it has seen some rapid changes as individuals turn to investing

Assem Nasr discusses how in Lebanon, the Arab country where identity is most contested, advertisers have constructed a new cosmopolitan and sterilized identity that transcends the ideological and religious differences prevalent in the real world.

David A. Rousu argues that Iraq now qualifies as having a diverse media, despite some government ownership and occasional instances in which the authorities have used legal provisions against media organizations .

Ingrid Wassman reports on the effects the Internet, satellite television, and other cyber technologies are having on marriage, relationships, and gender interaction in Egypt’s traditionally conservative society