Special
 The
Arab American National Museum
Immigrants in NJ
Freezing Charity
Survey:
Arab and Jewish Americans
Human Rights in
the US
|
Arab Journalism: Between De-Westernization
and Objectivity
Adel Iskandar
The growing ranks of media experts expressing
opinions on the state of Arab journalism have come to the
conclusion that, in spite of the increased number of sources,
origins and contents, they all come under the heading of
something that is ideologically evil. This has justified a
significant number of institutions (both governmental and non)
with the objective of providing assistance to improve Arab
journalism and encourage greater freedom for the media in that
region. Arab scholars, however, tend to see things differently
and believe that Western programming in Arabic is in fact an
euphemism for the word "propaganda".
This is the text of the speech
held by the author at the
Doha
International Conference, organized in Qatar by Reset
Dialogues on Civilizations on February 26th 2008.
At a time of infinite regress, there is a growing chorus among
Western media scholars and media development specialists as well
as representatives of Western political institutions regarding
the “state” of Arab journalism. Caught between the rhetoric of
accusatory and the congratulatory, much of this anthem has
concluded that despite the upsurge in the number of media
sources, their origins, content, allegiances, and markets, all
fall under the realm of the ideologically maligned and
journalistically anemic. This has justified a substantial and
sustained corpus of institutions (governmental, NGOs,
contractors, and subcontractors) whose purpose is to offer
remedial and corrective assistance to support and improve Arab
journalism. While it is not my intention here to review these
initiative, I would rather draw attention to the premises on
which they are built.
Much of this discussion is a byproduct of the events of
September 11, 2001, either explicitly or implicitly, thereby
suggesting that there is a definitive battle of ideas between
news narratives from the Arab world and the West. This has
further invigorated the contestation of discourses about media
institutions in both regions and their varying approaches to
news. However, these debates precede 9/11 and are instead an
extension of a substantial body of literature from both the
dependency theory and the cultural imperialism
traditions—traditions which have also influenced attempts to
describe and categorize regional media systems. Abdelrahman
(1989), for example, questions Rugh’s typology of Arab media on
the premise that it imposes Western theories of the press on the
Arab World. She further argues that this omission overlooks the
possibility that the region’s media have been shaped by the
specific social and cultural history of the Arabic-Islamic
World. While the take-up of technology, innovation, and
institutional practice is a far less exclusive terrain for Arab
and Islamic media, the argument nevertheless possesses much
currency in the region.
Decades of Western colonialism throughout the Arab world and
numerous foreign military engagements in the region have set the
ground for published works tackling the relationship between the
two media systems—Western and Arab. In most cases, both
environments are cast as separate and distinct. Indeed, many
works written in the Arab world see Western press and
broadcasting as a threat (Abdelrahman, 1996, 2002; Abdo, 1949;
Abdullah, 2005; Awdat, 1990; Fahd, 1975; Haris, 2006; Khalifah,
1980a/b; Saab, 1984). For example, Abdelrahman (1996) discusses
the extent to which Arab journalism is capable of confronting
“Zionist propaganda”, a model of Arab journalism that Western
observers of the Arab media seem to have overlooked in the
Arabic literature..Examining the role played by journalists in
producing sociopolitical change in the face of perceived (or
actual) external threat, Abdelrahman highlights a social history
that is unaccounted for in the discussion of characteristics of
Arab media. Her assessment suggests that Arab journalism, in
this sense, constitutes an alternative and revolutionary press
which advocates for freedom, liberty, and independence.
Although for many in the West, a key role of Western
Arabic-language programming is to enable greater freedom for the
region’s media, Arab scholarship tends to see things
differently. Some notable Arab analysts believe that foreign
government programming (or what the US government refers to as
public diplomacy) is a euphemism for propaganda. Three
expressions are used commonly throughout the Arab media to refer
to “public diplomacy” (Iskandar, 2005). The most neutral of
these is a direct translation of the same term, al-diblomasiya
al-sha’biya. The second, al-i’lam al muwajah, translates to
“directional media.” The third term, Al-ikhtirak, is the most
common, and also the most subversive. The term translates as
“penetration.” In a Freudian reading of the term, it signifies
the violation and dispossession of the body and mind, especially
when stated as al-ikhtirak al thihny (penetration of the mind).
In other Arabic media writings, such as Abdelrahman’s study of
“Zionist broadcasting” intended for the Arab world, this notion
of ikhtirak is understood not only as a violation of viewer’s
mind but also a transnational force that penetrates political
boundaries. Hence it is important to comprehend how Arab media
studies in the region have constructed and reproduced a sense of
common belonging in their classification of Arab media. As a
response to foreign broadcasting and the perception of an
imperial media project, the very term Arab media comes denotes a
pan-Arab journalistic tradition with a sense of common
belonging—a necessary component of any discussion of Arab media
typologies.
The proposition that Arab media is a model for cultural
de-Westernization has produced a litany of accounts
investigating whether Arab media constitute a genuinely
alternative modality. One intriguing example pertains to the
rights of journalists in the Arab world (Salih, 2004). In an
appeal for the protection of journalists’ rights, Salih states
that he dreams of a “free press for a free nation” in Egypt (p.
5). As would be expected, he argues this can only be
accomplished with the solidarity of professional collectives,
journalism and broadcasting syndicates, and public support for
journalist rights. But contrary to Western norms, he also
advocates contesting what he describes as Western “myths” of
objectivity and the over-reliance of Arab journalism on Western
models in both language and style. In addition, Salih argues the
ideal environment would ensure complete freedom and protection
for journalists, but would also expect from journalists
responsibility and commitment to the nation. His vision of a
thriving native Arab journalism is fundamentally at odds with
any American model. Instead, his enthusiasm for what he labels
the Arab “freedom-responsibility” theory of the press leads him
to suggest that it could be a new model for journalism in the
region and serve as an exemplar for the world, thereby reversing
the unidirectional flow of communication principles from west to
east.
Nonetheless, the prevailing notions that media systems from the
West are on a head on collision with their rivals in the Arab
world, act to reify and ossify the categorical distinctions
between media systems “here” and “there.” This is evident in a
significant number of treatises on Al Jazeera for instance. The
construction of Al Jazeera as inflammatory and unprofessional,
Arab national media systems as authoritarian and regressive, and
the private entertainment stations as dulling and numbing can
produce a singular image of regional media which is
unsalvageable. Elsewhere, Arab media are seen as a positive
force—the oppositional “other” vis-à-vis a Western counterpart.
The rise of Al Jazeera, as the chief Arab media export, often
features prominently in these descriptions where a seemingly
concerted counter-hegemonic approach poses significant
challenges to the global order of news. The view that Al Jazeera
offers a variable model outside classical Western-centric media
research extends into studies of mass communication where the
peculiar institutional and political economic order of the
network Al Jazeera is believed to be inapplicable with the
epistemological and methodological approaches to traditional
media research (Wojcieszak, 2007).
It is on this very premise and at this moment that Western media
development and aid initiatives enter the fray and offer an
opening salvo in the campaign to transform Arab media. With most
of these projects focused squarely on transforming the Arab
media systems into something akin to Western private
profit-based institutions with an objective outlook on news
construction and production, they often end up missing the very
essence of what makes Arab media inherently post-colonial. So
the view that Arab media have an counterhegemonic, anti-imperial
responsibility and imperative is often set in opposition to the
professionalization of contemporary journalism. Objectivity is
seen as irreconcilable with advocacy. Government media and
alternative agendas alike pose an inherent problem for advocates
of objectivity.
While in its totality, Western media influence in the region
(from its early days of Radio Bari onwards), has been able to
create vestiges of Western media institutions in the region,
Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiyah being notable examples, the task of
taking the “Arab” perspective out of these media has becoming
increasingly dauntingly and infinitely improbable. Hence, media
aid, assistance and development agencies operating in the Arab
world and their partners in the region will not be going out of
business anytime soon. All the while, ironically, publics
worldwide are turning to the Arab media in ever-growing numbers
for a corrective alternative interpretation on news events.
Adel Iskandar is the co-author
of Al-Jazeera: The Story of the Network that is Rattling
Governments and Redefining Modern Journalism (Westview, 2003),
and co-editor of Edward Said: Emancipation & Representation
(University of California Press, forthcoming 2008). Iskandar is
Visiting Scholar at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies
(CCAS), Georgetown University. |
|
The autumn/winter edition of
Banipal Magazine is dedicated to the
memory of Palestinian poet Mahmoud
Darwish.
Click here for more... 
