At an August press conference early on in Egypt’s landmark race for the presidency, Mohammad Kamal, the mastermind behind the smoothly crafted reelection campaign of President Hosni Mubarak, stood before a skeptical international press corps. He had not come to sell the world on his candidate. There was no need …

The following article is adapted from Pintak's new book, Reflections in a Bloodshot Lens: America, Islam & the War of Ideas, published in January 2006 by Pluto Books UK and the University of Michigan Press. Abstract A radical restructuring of the global media landscape and the emergence of information ghettos, in …

Today, Iranian air space is electronically penetrated by numerous radio and TV satellite signals that originate from the US and other countries around the world. In fact, it is probably safe to state that no other nation in the world is targeted by over 20 satellite TV channels and dozens …

Discussions of the significance of transnational radio news networks and their impact on Arab audiences usually arrive sooner or later at the unprecedented popularity of the British Broadcasting Corporation’s (BBC) World Service Arabic Language service, the only news network to dominate ratings among Arab radio listeners. In fact, a new …

In the United States since 9/11 it has been fashionable to criticize Arab satellite television, especially Al Jazeera, for being hopelessly biased and unfairly hostile to America. A great deal of the criticism comes from people who do not understand Arabic and have never watched Arab satellite TV, but they …

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 …

It was a brief ceremony for the deceased. The eulogy was given by US Secretary of State Madeline Albright, on a brilliant Washington, DC morning, October 1, 1999. The assembled were reminded by Secretary Albright that this was a time to rejoice, and not to mourn, because the accomplishments of …

The Al Jazeera Television Network captures the attention of those interested in Arabic-language satellite television broadcasting like nothing else. Approximately half the articles submitted to Transnational Broadcasting Studies over the past two issues were about Al Jazeera. To some degree this is understandable. The network is important and influential. Observers claimed an …

In this article, Nicholas Cull reviews the performance of the United States Information Agency (USIA) during the Gulf Crisis and War of 1990-91. He concludes by contrasting the effective US use of public diplomacy during this period with the problems encountered following 9/11.

In contemporary Syria, the TV industry’s centrality renders it a particularly revealing site of ethnographic endeavor. It provides a valuable point of access to a complex and rapidly changing society, argues Christa Salamandra.