Since the middle of the 1990s, the Arab Middle East has experienced a great satellite news media explosion. Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya in particular have been responsible for dramatic improvements in news media quality in the Region. Taking Egypt as a case study, this book examines the complex relationship between these Pan-Arab satellite news media and Arab national media systems. During the last fifteen years in fact Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya have engaged Arab national newspapers and televisions in an impossible competition: Pan-Arab media rely on more economic and professional re- sources, together with an higher degree of editorial freedom. Such factors have assured these players a great success in term of popularity among Arab audiences, putting under strong pressure national actors. Constrained by censorship and self-censorship and limited by scarce economic resources, national journalists are forced to redefine their professional position vis a vis the public, political actors and competitors in a context inhabited also by non-national subjects. Starting from this perspective, the text focus on Arab journalists as actors in a “transna- tional relationship”. Through a discussion of the negotiation process involving journalists in defining values and practices of their own professional culture, the research investigates how far the coverage and practices of pan-Arab all news broadcasters have blurred the borders of national media systems, creating new spaces and systems. In investigating the relationship between pan-Arab broadcast journalists and journalists employed in national news organiza- tions this study tries to reconsider the idea of “national media system” and its permeability to external influences in the context of the Arab World. The idea of hybrid structures, neither homogeneous nor defined by common rules, strategies or goals but, at the same time, defining important arenas of exchange, is presented as the more appropriate analytical model to understand the reality of the contemporary Arab news media environment. The book is based on a multi-sited fieldwork conducted in Egypt, Doha and Dubai (where Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya headquarters are located). Being the relationship between national (Egyptian) journalists and Pan-Arab journalists the cornerstone of the research, it was in fact crucial investigating the attitude of all the different actors involved in such a relation. Moreover the book wants to suggest that the existence of transnational hybrid systems affects not only professionals employed inside national media systems. On the contrary here is assumed that direct or mediated relations with different national media systems and per- sons influence also journalists working for pan-Arab broadcasters, in defining their own pro- fessional culture.
Effetto Al Jazeera. Transnazionalismo e ibridizzazioni nei sistemi del giornalismo arabo contemporaneo
VALERIANI, AUGUSTO
2010
Abstract
Since the middle of the 1990s, the Arab Middle East has experienced a great satellite news media explosion. Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya in particular have been responsible for dramatic improvements in news media quality in the Region. Taking Egypt as a case study, this book examines the complex relationship between these Pan-Arab satellite news media and Arab national media systems. During the last fifteen years in fact Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya have engaged Arab national newspapers and televisions in an impossible competition: Pan-Arab media rely on more economic and professional re- sources, together with an higher degree of editorial freedom. Such factors have assured these players a great success in term of popularity among Arab audiences, putting under strong pressure national actors. Constrained by censorship and self-censorship and limited by scarce economic resources, national journalists are forced to redefine their professional position vis a vis the public, political actors and competitors in a context inhabited also by non-national subjects. Starting from this perspective, the text focus on Arab journalists as actors in a “transna- tional relationship”. Through a discussion of the negotiation process involving journalists in defining values and practices of their own professional culture, the research investigates how far the coverage and practices of pan-Arab all news broadcasters have blurred the borders of national media systems, creating new spaces and systems. In investigating the relationship between pan-Arab broadcast journalists and journalists employed in national news organiza- tions this study tries to reconsider the idea of “national media system” and its permeability to external influences in the context of the Arab World. The idea of hybrid structures, neither homogeneous nor defined by common rules, strategies or goals but, at the same time, defining important arenas of exchange, is presented as the more appropriate analytical model to understand the reality of the contemporary Arab news media environment. The book is based on a multi-sited fieldwork conducted in Egypt, Doha and Dubai (where Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya headquarters are located). Being the relationship between national (Egyptian) journalists and Pan-Arab journalists the cornerstone of the research, it was in fact crucial investigating the attitude of all the different actors involved in such a relation. Moreover the book wants to suggest that the existence of transnational hybrid systems affects not only professionals employed inside national media systems. On the contrary here is assumed that direct or mediated relations with different national media systems and per- sons influence also journalists working for pan-Arab broadcasters, in defining their own pro- fessional culture.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
