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 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.

House of Lords, London 9 March 2005 Next Steps The Arab International Media Forum (AIM), held a discussion on this topic in the House of Lords. This addressed how the Arab media cover the issues of freedom, women and economic diversification, building on earlier AIM workshops in Sharjah, which revised …

The Frontline Club, London 2 March 2005 This Frontline Forum has been made possible thanks to the generous support of the Open Society Institute. John Owen (Executive producer of newsexchange and chairman of the Frontline Forum): No one in this room needs to be told what a phenomenon Al Jazeera has …

"Dear Dr Bautista," the email began. "You may be interested in the Middle Eastern media ... I would therefore like to take this opportunity to introduce the Middle East Media Research Institute ... MEMRI has just launched a TV project, which monitors approximately 18-20 Arab TV stations, translates them in …

Over the last decade, Middle Eastern history has happened, in large part, on Al Jazeera.  The Qatar-based satellite channel had the only foreign reporters inside Iraq when U.S. forces launched a four-day assault, known as Operation Desert Fox, in 1998. In October 2001 its cameras -- the only ones inside …

Since its inception, mass media in its various forms (newspapers, radio, television, etc.) has been used as both a tool of nation-states as well as a weapon against them. The power of the press to influence opinion and help interpret reality for its constituents has created conflict over what constitutes …

Reviewed by Ralph D. Berenger, The American University in Cairo Mellor, Noha. The Making of Arab News. Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005. 176 pages. Paperback, 0-7425-3819-2, $23.95; Hard cover 0-7425-3818-4, $69. International scholars are often puzzled by the way translations of Arab news stories, printed and broadcast, are constructed and organized. …

Shortly after Algeria's presidential election last April, the Ministry of Communications abruptly ordered correspondents for Dubai-based broadcaster Al Arabiya and its rival, Al Jazeera, to suspend news operations in Algiers indefinitely. No convincing explanations were given, but Algerian officials had complained bitterly about Al Arabiya's election coverage and were apparently …