Globalisation and media in the Arab world E-Book

Alexandra Samoleit

• Herausgeber: GRIN Verlag
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2006

Beschreibung

Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject History - Asia, grade: 1,7, University of Erfurt, course: Globalisation and the Muslim World, language: English, abstract: The focus of this paper is the media system of the Arab world, its development, and the local and global factors that have had considerable influence during the last years. Different theories question the importance of communication and media for globalisation and vice versa, therefore the existence of a global communication network or global media and the participation of the Arab world in the global media evolution is observed. In the last fifty years print media, television, and internet have proven to be important agents of social change even if their development has always been accompanied by censorship arrangements in the different political systems of the region. The Arab world has not been isolated from global changes in the media sector. Mass media, especially the Internet, and their importance for global economy are seen as motor of globalization but capital and technology are expanding faster than the development of trans-cultural communication is able to. This displacement in the action-reaction chain can be observed in the way global content and media are domesticised, transformed, controlled and rejected in the Arab countries and how important topics like cultural imperialism, indigenous values, international norms of journalism, and freedom of speech are discussed and negotiated in these societies.

Leseprobe

Table of Content

1. Introduction.

2. Theoretical basis- Globalisation and Media.

2.1 Global communication system.

3. Development of Media in the Arab World.

3.1 Print Media.

3.2 Television.

3.3 Satellite Television.

4. Internet.

5. Censorship.

6. Global Influence on Media and Society.

6.1 Problems in the Arab Society.

6.2 Media Development models in the Arab World.

7. Summary p

Page 1

Universität Erfurt Fachbereich Westasiatische Geschichte

Seminar: Globalisation and the Muslim World

„ Globalisation and Media in the Arab World“

Eingereicht von:

Alexandra Samoleit

Page 1

1. Introduction

I would like to take a look at the media system of the Arab world, its development and the local and global factors that influence it.

Therefore I will start with different theories that question the importance of communication and media for globalisation and vice versa.

Connected with that is the question of the existence of a global communication network or global media. I will first say something about their characteristics and will than try to apply this to the media in the Arab world to see in how far they are part of a global media evolution.

I will give an overview over the evolving of mass media in Arab countries in the last 50 years, with concentration on print media, television and Internet.

I won’t say much about radio, because it is more a leisure time activity to settle around a radio set, than the medium having a particular political or social importance besides this. In the 50s and 60s radio was the most used medium for people in the region, especially if they wanted to get international news and it was a medium that did not require special skills. People did not even have to be able to read to use it.

But with the mass introduction of television during the next 20 years, radio lost its importance for social change.

I will later on say something about censorship arrangements concerning print media, television and Internet, before I will try to describe the influence media had on society and the influence global changes had on the media system in the Arab world.

I use “Arab world” or “Arab media” as summarizing terms, which does not mean countries with an Arab population and their media systems are homogenous entities. I tried not to describe every system separate and look at every country but search for differences and equal factors on a more general level to be able to analyse them in a global context.