Peter Einstein CEO, Gulf DTH/Showtime

EPGs, the Internet, MTV Mashaweer, exclusive sports, and more movies than ever...Showtime is bringing a full range of "value added" services and programs to its Middle East subscribers. TBS: The expansion in talent and locations for MTV, meaning the new presenters from Cario and Beirut for the Mashaweer program, should prove …

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Humaid A. Rashid Sahoo, CEO of E-Vision

The first digital cable TV network in the Arab World was finally launched on April 15, 2000 by E-Vision, a subsidiary of Etisalat, the Emirates Telecommunications Corporation.  Elsewhere in the Arab world "cable" is usually either shorthand for "wireless cable," which is itself shorthand for the MMDS microwave systems or for …

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Viacom in the Middle East

Viacom is the junior partner in the Showtime Middle East joint venture with KIPCO (Kuwait Investment Projects Co.), an investment vehicle for certain members of the Kuwaiti royal family. Showtime carries a bouquet of some 16 Western channels, plus 10 audio services, and claims some 180,000 subscribers. Redstone spent some …

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ICC: Three Days, One Theme…Many, Many Topics

The Intercultural Communication Conference, an annual conclave of communication scholars sans frontieres in Coral Gables, Florida, is nothing if not diverse. The 18th meeting of the conference, sponsored by the University of Miami School of Communication March 1-3, had human rights as its central theme, but even that could cover …

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The World in the Screen: The Impact of Character Representativeness, Society Variability, and Presentation on Audiences’ Conceptualization of Cross-cultural Media Images

The increasing interconnectedness of the world's economic, political, and social systems have made individuals' perceptions of other national and cultural groups increasingly consequential. More and more of the decisions that individuals and societies make have international ramifications. Although international travel is increasing, many individuals' knowledge of people of other societies is …

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Reconsidering Cultural Imperialism Theory

Introduction: Cultural imperialism--The nascent stages  Critical theorists have coined various phrases in reference to notions of "cultural imperialism." An examination of the international communication literature will reveal several different terms such as "media imperialism" (Boyd-Barrett, 1977); "structural imperialism" (Galtung, 1979); "cultural dependency and domination" (Link, 1984; Mohammadi, 1995); "cultural synchronization" …

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