Through the lens of Thoreau’s conception of democracy Matthew Crippen investigates the international media’s framing of Mohamed Morsi’s overthrow in the summer of 2013. He questions why much of the Western media and Al Jazeera adopted the uniform narrative that the ouster was a coup and a travesty of democracy, despite its popular support. Without adjudicating whether or not the overthrow was anti-democratic, Crippen posits that the reasoning undergirding the dominant opinion among media pundits that it was remains questionable.
Read More »Embedded in the Mubarak Campaign: A Reporter’s Experience on the Front Lines of the 2005 Egyptian Elections
(Editor’s Note: This article is one of two personal essays in this issue of TBS, one written by Vivian Salama, a reporter covering the Mubarak campaign, and another written by Usama Najeeb, a staffer working on the media team for that same campaign. Najeeb, a former Adham Center graduate student …
Read More »Anti-Americanism on Arab Television: Some Outsider Observations
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 …
Read More »BOOK REVIEW | U.S. and the Others: Global Media Images on “The War on Terror”
Reviewed by Nadia El-Awady, American University in Cairo Nohrstedt, Stig A. and Ottosen, Rune (eds.), U.S. and the Others: Global Media Images on "The War on Terror" Goteborg: Nordicom, 2004. Paperback. 316 pp. ISBN 91-89471-24-5. $28. The aftermath of September 11, 2001, signaled a turning point in international communication as well as …
Read More »BOOK REVIEW | Global Media Go to War: The Role of News and Entertainment Media During the 2003 Iraq War
Berenger, Ralph D. (ed). Global Media Go to War: The Role of News and Entertainment Media During the 2003 Iraq War. Spokane WA: Marquette Books, 2004. Paperback. 369 pages. ISBN 0-922993-10-6, $49.95. Reviewed by Naomi Sakr, Westminster University Have journalists, editors or media owners learned any lessons from their coverage of …
Read More »Arab Satellite Broadcasting and the State: Who Curbs Whom, Why and How?
Edited transcript of a contribution to the Cambridge Arab Media Project conference on The Media and Political Change in the Arab World, 28-30 September, 2004 I plan to start this talk with a few theoretical observations about states and broadcasters before going on to discuss the mechanics of whether one …
Read More »What the World Thinks of Al Jazeera
Between November 2003 and May 2004, while I was writing my book about Al Jazeera, I spent time interviewing a multitude of miscellaneous individuals and organizations about their feelings towards the network. I heard a diverse range of opinions about the channel, stretching from the overwhelmingly positive to the vehemently …
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