Al Jazeera Phenomenon: Critical Perspectives on New Arab Media

ISBN-13: 9781594511257 / Angielski / Twarda / 2005 / 232 str.

Mohamed Zayani

Opis

Few phenomena in the Arab world are more controversial than Al Jazeera - the satellite television news channel that, despite its brief history, has made its impact known throughout the world and changed the face of a formerly parochial Arab media.

This timely collection of articles, many by Arabic-speaking scholars, gives us more information and analysis of the network - and how it has affected the public and even the foreign policies of Western governments - than any other of the very few books published in English up to now.

The book provides rare insights into Al Jazeera's politics, its agenda, its programs, its coverage of regional crises, and its treatment of the West. The authors attempt to gauge the station's impact on ordinary Arab viewers, understand its effect on an increasingly visible Arab public sphere, and map out the role it plays in regional Arab politics. The image of Al Jazeera that emerges from this book is much more complex than its depiction in American media. It reveals the powerful role that the network plays in shaping ideas and reconstructing Arab identities during a crucial juncture in Middle Eastern history and politics.

Spis treści

Acknowledgments, 1 Introduction—Al Jazeera and the Vicissitudes of the New Arab Mediascape, I Al Jazeera, Regional Politics and the Public Sphere, 2 The Politics of Al Jazeera or the Diplomacy of Doha, 3 Influence without Power: Al Jazeera and the Arab Public Sphere, 4: Aljazeera.net: Identity Choices and the Logic of the Media, II Al Jazeera Programming, 5 The Opposite Direction: A Program which Changed the Face of Arab Television, 6 Media Brinkmanship in the Arab World: Al Jazeera’s The Opposite Direction as a Fighting Arena, 7 Women, Development and Al Jazeera: A Balance Sheet, III Al Jazeera and Regional Crises, 8 Al Jazeera and the War in Afghanistan: A Delivery System or a Mouthpiece?, 9 Witnessing the Intifada: Al Jazeera’s Coverage of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict, 10 Al Jazeera and American Public Diplomacy: A Dance of Intercultural (Mis-)Communication, Afterword—Arab Media Studies: Some Methodological Considerations, Select Bibliography, Notes on Contributors, Index

O autorze

Mohamed Zayani is an Associate Professor of critical theory at the American University of Sharjah, UAE. He received his Ph.D. from Indiana University in Bloomington. Since then, he has taught at several universities both in the United States and in the Middle East. He is the author of Reading the Symptom and Arab Satellite Television and Politics in the Middle East. Currently, he is working on a Social Science Research Council collaborative research project on media in the Arab world.