Arab Television Landscape Report

The Arab Television Landscape & U.S Involvement Report

Department of M.C.C
By Hila Raz


December 2009

Abstract

The content of this report provides an overview of the contemporary Arab Television landscape, secondly analyzes the relationship between the U.S and Arab Media and finally projects how U.S involvement should evolve concerning media presence in the Middle East. Focusing on both news media and entertainment programmatic trends in various key media producing Arab countries will reveal what forces led to the development of the transnational Arab media. The structural and historical evolution of some of the primary Arab media outlets resulted from shifts in ownership, government/state control, competitors, commercialism, foreign involvement and the role of advertising, however most significantly changed after the 1990’s emergence of satellite technology. Arab Programming often tagged as “anti-western” propaganda has led to unfounded U.S involvement in the Arab Media landscape. The establishment of American Media outlets solely broadcasted in the Middle East to instill “American Sentiments” must be challenged. In the current globailized world of transnational satellite programming the U.S ought to limit its involvement in the Arab television landscape to entertainment programming. The future relationship of the U.S in the Arab Media Landscape ought to diminish media its imperialism attempting to combat “Anti-American Propaganda.”


Table of Contents

I. Arab Television Industry (Structural & Historical Evolution)……... p.4-7
Introduction to Arab Networks
Ownership & Competition
Media Landscape Evolution
II. Programmatic Trends (cause/effect)……………………………………. p.7-9
Arab Entertainment Programs
U.S programmatic influence
External Forces: Liberalization & Globalization
III. U.S Involvement and Relationship with Arab Television………… p.9-11
Context of U.S Involvement
Purpose of U.S Media Presence: Counter Anti-Western sentiments
IV. The Future Landscape of Arab Media……………………………….. p.11-13
Development of U.S and Arab media relations
Arab Media Evolution Projection
V. Bibliography……………………………………………………………. p.14-15



Arab Television Industry

Up until the 1950’s-60’s the media landscape throughout the entire Middle East region was managed and profited by the colonizing powers. The advent of all Middle East television and Radio networks later introduced by those colonial powers fostered a shift from public broadcasting to national ownership. That shift from public to national control took place in 1948 in Israel, 1952 in Egypt, and throughout the 1950’s-70’s to the rest of the region. According to the renowned media scholar Andrew Hammond: “it would be no exaggeration to say that the model for media as a weapon for state control in the Arab world was established by the Egyptians.” Egypt quickly became the transnational Arab media source creating and exporting the most programmatic content throughout the Arab World. However the significant shift in the landscape of the Arab Television Industry occurred in during the 1990’s with the emergence of satellite technology. Prior to the satellite breakthrough Arab government monopolies operated and controlled the media outlets completely relying on national unity, political control, and the banning of private groups. Media monopolies dictated the landscape by 1954 in Morocco, 1956 in Iraq, and in additional countries such as Algeria and Lebanon.
The control was maintained using two power systems: one included the strict- control model where there was no criticism of the government policy where the state-owned media served as a mouthpiece to deliver the governments political platform; or the latter was a loyalist model where the media outlets were loyal to the monarchies and favored but not owned. Countries such as Morocco, Tunisia, Kuwait, and Qatar adopted the loyalist system while Israel and Lebanon served as the Middle East region exceptions, embracing the free media market. The four media systems adopted by countries in this region cover the entire spectrum of government-media-audience dynamics conveying the levels of journalistic autonomy, state-control, and media ownership. The four systems are: Nationalized: government controlled, funded, and filtered (ex. Syria, Libya, Sudan, and Algeria) Loyalist: independent but corresponds with government agenda (ex. UAE, Qatar, Oman) Diverse: free from government involvement, competitive open market (Kuwait, Morocco, Yemen + Israel, Lebanon) Transitional: undetermined fusion of government involvement and private control (Egypt).
The transnationalisation of the media landscape created divergence in broadcasting formats: between public service formats of top-down control, rooted in overtly political, ideological neutrality, and non-commercial incentives. The public service aims to educate the masses (such as the BBC) to commercial networks such as the (U.S Media Market) focused on commercial gains, entertainment, and presentation of a spectrum of perspectives. In 1991 MBC: the Middle East Broadcasting Center, currently a private Dubai operated network, started in London as the first satellite, free-to-air multi-channel media group of its kind in the Arab world. MBC 1 took to the airwaves during the Gulf War in 1991 with the first-ever independent pan-Arab news. Over the past 15 years, MBC added five TV and two radio channels, a drama series and hit reality TV shows, with a strong commitment to local programming it continues to serve as the number one family viewing option in the region Middle East coverage. Other Arab nations quickly followed suit which the establishment of their own networks such as: Al Manar- meaning the “lighthouse,” founded in 1991 as Hezbollah’s resistance media network based in Lebanon.
Interestingly, The forces of deregulation and liberalization in the West have led to the transformation of broadcasting form mainly a cultural to an economic activity in the last few decades. Though in many Arab Nations the Media is still state regulated to some extent the process of ‘setting the media free’ has transformed broadcasting institutions based on notions of public service into ones concerned with commercial or quasi-commercial objectives. One would assume the arrival of commercialization would increase profits, but Al Jazeera interestingly unlike some other Arab networks makes very little in profits as a result of not being supported by the Saudi Arabian government. Also it has “cut the umbilical cord to state funding in some regards.
The satellite revolution of the 1990’s led by Saudis, Qataris, and the Lebanese infringed upon Egypt as the transnational Arab media hegemony. As the media infrastructure of the Arab world shifted in the 1990’s with the introduction of satellite media networks, governments formerly controlling their national media coverage were suddenly challenged by borderless transmission. The first Arab satellite TV network to challenge the realm of individual Arab governments was Al-Jazeera, the first leading, 24 hour, Arabic-language news network delivering fair local coverage with exposure to the often underrepresented Arab perspective in global media of the Middle East. It was during the historical moment in which the United States invaded Afghanistan, in 2001, that the mapping of truly transnational Arab Media landscape commenced.
This transition in Arab Television, which began in 1996 with the establishment of the Al Jazeera headquarters based in Doha, Qatar, changed the Middle Eastern Media Landscape forever. It can be argued that for the first time since the early 1970’s Al Jazeera managed to unite Arabs behind a single issue. With the Middle East population over 300 million, the majority of which is young and living in very strict societies ruled by governments who whish to stay in power and maintain control at any cost, it seems that with its launching, al Jazeera managed to target a previously untapped audience. Although half of the Middle East population is illiterate, filled with dreams of liberation and basic freedoms the network provides an interstate representation of civil rights and liberties.
Despite its leading ratings, being a global competitor to CNN many Arab governments have been highly critical of the media outlet blaming that its coverage of the Palestinian uprising “threatened the stability of their regimes and exposed them to criticism by their own people.” Ironically, Egypt and Jordan have been more critical of al Jazeera than has Israel, which could theoretically ban al Jazeera correspondents from operating freely within its borders if it believed it helps incite Palestinians to riot. Today more than 350 channels exist, “free to air” on satellite television in the Arab world with no subscription necessary. Although many networks are deemed sensationalist or polarized, perhaps by western media critics, they aim to provide an authentic local perspective. Following Al Jazeera’s footsteps other stations surfaced, in 1996 the LBC: Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation founded initially in 1985 went Global, generating most popular Lebanese programs and then in 2003 Press TV emerged, an Iranian Tehran based station generating what was often tagged as oppositional anti-American sentiment surfaced.

Programmatic Trends

As Negrine and S. Papathanassopoulos discuss in The Internationalisation of Television: a “key indicator of internationalization is the degree of commonality of television programs across frontiers- the more programs are shared and exchanged the more television fare of different countries begins to look alike.” Post 1990’s the abundance and diversity of Arab Media Programs has spiked dramatically in addition to higher foreign programmatic imports. Lila Abu-Lughod exploration of Egyptian serials exemplifies one popular realm of Arab programmatic production and its effects. Her demonstration exemplifies how the serials produce a national community in Egypt. Because the television in Egypt is state-controlled, as is the case with many other Arab media outlets, Lila assesses how the entertainment in Egypt provided to these large audiences that cross boundaries of class, gender, and region, articulates with national politics, policies, and cultural identities. In studies of media in the non-Western world alarms are often sounded about cultural imperialism in the domination of national culture and production by international imports, usually from the U.S. and Britain. But Egypt, much like India, Brazil, and Mexico, produces and even exports a healthy amount of film and television programming of its own. She demonstrates that within Egypt, local productions are often more popular and widely viewed than imported films and television serials, which are subtitled and there- fore largely inaccessible to the non-literate population. Her analysis of the internal politics of these national productions alongside who controls these messages and who is excluded in the serials reveals a lot about Egyptian and Arab culture. While these Ramadan serials can range in topic and setting, the mini series air exclusively during the holy month of Ramadan, when most Muslim families spend the day fasting and the evening watching television with their families. These shows “account for nearly a quarter of the years advertising revenues, the equivalent of American sweeps weeks combined with the Super Bowl,” demonstrating how strong a presence the media and commerce are making in the Muslim world.
Another example of a program in the programmatic sphere of the Arab media landscape includes the hit show ‘Star Academy.’ Marwan M. Kraidy’s research on the Star Academy, a programme launched by LBCI in December 2003, which quickly became the most controversial show in the history of Arab satellite television, depicts the pan-Arab media event as a platform for political discourse. Kraidy considers connections between the entertainment industry and politics and further narrows the case study to show links between reality TV and politics. The show thus became political as it “articulated an alternative view of public participation in the public process” and recognizably was a local format adaptation. However despite the dramatic growth in the Arab Media landscape with programmes like Star Academy, some may still be inclined to apply the “media imperialism thesis” to the Middle East. Countries such as the USA dominate both national and international media structures and contents whereby they impose their cultures, values, and ideologies on the receiving nations. Some tag this as a process of domination that is intentional or part of a ‘conspiracy’ whereas some describe it as an imbalance of trade, dealing with imports and exports often with the west and ‘developing countries’ but the programmatic media development in the Arab region proves how its development. There are all these false notions of a supposed-backwards Arab world- when really most major leading Arab Nations are media producing nations, which have fully embraced modernity. The constant development and expansion of local Arab programs resulting in increased ratings, such as the case with these Ramadan Serials, proves that the Arab World wants and relates to its own cultural content. This notion is only further supported by Berlusconi’s view ‘that equal quality domestic product will always triumph over foreign product.’ With that in mind the assessment of U.S involvement and future relationship with the Arab Media Landscape is more than necessary.

U.S Involvement and Relationship with Arab Television

Despite pluralistic representations in the Arab media and what many consider to be programmatic expression of modernity, the new public sphere created by the Arab Media has stirred much controversy, especially concerning U.S relations. Al Hurrah operated by The Middle East Television Network, Inc., a non-profit corporation funded by the U.S. Congress through the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) airs in 22 Arab nations via satellites. Its programming is reportedly often met with skepticism, being thought of as American propaganda although the Lebanese director, Muafac Harb, maintains that one of the missions of his network is to deliver accurate and balanced coverage. Anne Marie Baylouny discusses Al-Hurrah: “The U.S. station accused of preaching, condescension, and cultural inappropriateness. Its name, the “free one,” assumes the traditional U.S. stance of representing the better society but contradicts its actual journalistic nature” Another news media network that has stirred much skepticism has been Al Arabiya, a Dubai based station, widely popular in the Arab world, that isn’t owned or regulated by the U.S but rather harshly criticized. Al-Arabiya has been regularly critiqued by the U.S. government for its news coverage of Iraq, which allegedly incites violence against the U.S coalition there. After broadcasting footage of masked men inciting attacks against Iraqi Governing Council members as well as U.S. interests in Iraq, Al-Arabiya was banned several times. Their Baghdad office was shut down and their equipment seized following the airing of an audiotape that claimed to be the voice of deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein calling on the Iraqi people to resist the U.S.- led forces. Though its coverage is sometimes viewed as provocative, founder Walid al Ibrahim, who reportedly views the work of the station as a step toward advancing the Arab World and freeing it from dictatorship and repression, promised that their coverage would be objective and accurate. The BBC reported, "Across the Arab world, Al-Arabiya probably has about 20 million viewers, as compared to Al-Jazeera's 35 million."
R.S Zaharna discusses how on the surface footage is very different, however below the surface the American networks and Al Jazeera appear to share the same philosophy and approach, covering the story from a local angle and the audience’s perspective. Hence you see, Americans focusing on the Military goals, weaponry and troops, whereas al Jazeera assesses Iraq from the personal up-close perspective, where many viewers have family members living in Iraq (Zaharna, p.199) . Here we see to perspectives from opposite sides of the reporting spectrum providing to differing local angles. It is rather significant to note that Al-Jazeera English is censored in the United States, resulting from fears that it should be banned because Osama Bin Laden was using it for secret encoding or so-called terrorist goals. Donald Rumsfeld even went so far as to call it “the mouthpiece of terrorism.” In the revolutionary documentary Control Room, created in 2003 about the Iraq War, the highly critical documentary of U.S incentives conveyed that American sentiments or approach should not be: “Democratize or I’ll shoot you” or “bombing people into submission” (Control Room, 2003). The U.S involvement in the future landscape of the Arab Media has to be thoroughly revised.

The Future Landscape of Arab Media

Mark Yudof put the role of the government well- “what seems as first blush a paradox or antinomy… may really be a question of balance” acquiring the balance between government power and media influence. The role of the media will have a lasting effect on the development of the relationship of these two international spheres of influence. What may at first appear to be mutual incompatibility between the Arab World and the West, can be mediated by the media and overcome. Is it true as Hussein Amin, a communications professor from the American University in Cairo suggests: “that in the new world of television, censorship basically does not exist?” . One sociology professor disagreed claiming that the new freedom is “contrived at best” with “one step forward and two steps back” but with censorship only some of the “red lines are gone.” In the coming years will new Arab media outlets that arise be able to challenge Al-Jazeera’s credibility, audience size, and financial resources? As of right now no Arab Satellite TV network other than al Jazeera has ever attempted to present Arab views, opinions, and beliefs with such “vigor and legitimacy” even Al-Arabiya still lagging behind short of 15 million viewers. Perhaps as more Arab satellite channels and entertainment outlets spring up, while Al-Jazeera continues to develop its massive media enterprise, the polarizing notions of the “anti-Islam” U.S and the “anti-American” Arab world will fade. There exists a flourishing possibility that the evolution of Middle Eastern Media sphere will dissipate the perceived antinomy of the Arab world and modernization.
As progressive media centers such as Al-Jazeera and media networks like it continue to dominate news content in the Arab World and in the transnational media landscape, Arab television has a long road ahead. By offering unique coverage and transmitting news content across oceans, further dispelling stereotypical perceptions, U.S involvement in the Arab media production will perhaps be even more so less accepted and eventually terminated (as Al-Hurrah ratings are already alarmingly low). David Chambers for Middle Eastern Times OP-ED expressed: “Expect also to see Al-Hurrah TV drop from its average 1 percent rating to 0 percent” being state-sponsored channel of “retro-style propaganda.” He advised the U.S. Government to "pull the plug" on al-Hurrah, hoping it will recognize …”Democracy should mean first and foremost open access to information” (David Chambers). Despite some lash back from individuals highly critical of its “Arab agenda” the Arab Media will become more widely circulated in the international sphere in the coming decade. Will the U.S using “soft power” truly sway Muslim world public opinion? For news media content probably not. They don’t fall for “Americanized propaganda” they read right through it. But in terms of entertainment media- with all of the U.S sought after programming, there’s a good chance the demand for U.S Programme formats will only increase in the Arab media landscape.
Amahl Bishara, an assistant professor of anthropology at Tufts University, recently spent two years in the West Bank studying media, and observed that MBC2, which carries American movies, was particularly popular “ (Amahl Bishara). There’s an acute understanding of the difference between the U.S. government and the American people,” she said. “And they look at U.S. entertainment as just that, entertainment.” It appears that demand for American-produced television shows is stronger than it has ever been as American culture is blossoming even in the Middle East despite polls consistently showing starkly negative views of the United States. Viacom started MTV Arabia last fall and introduced Nickelodeon Arabia in July on satellite services — endeavors that entail lessons in cultural sensitivity. Much of America’s programming is beamed to Middle Eastern audiences from two satellite channels, MBC2 and MBC4, airing American shows such as ABC sitcom “8 Simple Rules,” “Inside Edition” and the Oprah Winfrey show. The increasing Arab audience proves there’s more than enough demand for American entertainment programs. That is where America should get involved in Arab Television- predominantly in the entertainment sphere not with disseminating political agenda (though some do argue entertainment is fused with some subliminal political sway). The U.S must stop perpetuating this Arab propaganda and Islamic terrorism message to the West, so that the Arab World and the West finally overcome the “media terrorism relationship.”


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References

Link TV.org Mosaic: http://www.linktv.org/whoweare
MBC: http://www.mbc.net/about-mbc-en/
Al-Ahram: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/index.htm
Al-Manar: http://www.almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/Programs.aspx?language=en
Press-TV: http://www.presstv.ir/aboutus.aspx
LBC: http://www.lbcgroup.tv/LBC/Templates/AboutUs.aspx