Comparing Media Systems Beyond the Western World (Communication, Society and Politics) by Hallin Daniel C

Author:Hallin, Daniel C. [Hallin, Daniel C.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781139202794
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2011-12-05T16:00:00+00:00

Part II Methods and Approaches

9 The Rise of Transnational Media Systems Implications of Pan-Arab Media for Comparative Research

Marwan M. Kraidy

The nation-state as unit of analysis underpins the three models of media and politics Hallin and Mancini develop in Comparing Media Systems (2004b). Although they “take the nation-state as [our] primary unit of analysis…and media systems have to a large extent been organized at this level over the past couple of centuries,” the authors recognize that “it is important to keep in mind that this in some ways misleading” (Hallin and Mancini, 2004b: 71). Livingstone similarly argued that “the nation is itself not a proper unit of comparison” and that “any project seeking to conduct cross-national comparisons must surely argue the case for treating the nation as a unit, rather than simply presuming the legitimacy of such a research strategy” (Livingstone, 2003: 479–80). This chapter explores one world region in which the primacy of the nation-state as an analytical category may indeed be misleading; through analyzing the rise of pan-Arab media as a transnational system, I raise questions about the universal applicability of the nation-state and provide significant fodder to Hallin's statement that “media systems do not necessarily coincide neatly with nation-state boundaries” (Hallin, 2009: 101).

Since 1990, Arab national broadcasting systems focused on development, propaganda, and national unity have been overshadowed by a pan-Arab satellite television industry whose ownership and agendas converge and compete with nation-state policies. This development encompasses twenty-two nation-states located in one of the world's intractable geopolitical flashpoints. Contemporary Arab media consist of an unevenly integrated regional (pan-Arab) market, superimposed onto national systems and increasingly integrated into the global media market, although in many respects distinct from both: It is a transnational media system.

The system is internally differentiated. Oil monarchies of the Gulf Cooperation Council (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates) are wealthier and socially more conservative than other countries in the Levant (Jordan, Lebanon, Palestinian Authority, and Syria) and the Maghreb (Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia). Within each of these areas, political and media systems vary widely: Saudi Arabia's clerico-political authoritarianism and quiescent media contrast with Kuwait's feisty press and robust legislature, and Lebanon's fragmented polity and pluralist media differ greatly from Syria's one-party state and mostly monolithic press and broadcasting. The region's high-density urban centers have radically different social dynamics than do its rural areas. Another important cleavage exists between demographic heavyweights like Egypt and Saudi Arabia and small countries like Lebanon and Qatar. A sharp generational contrast, with youth accounting for more than 70 percent of the population (World Population Prospects, 2003), shapes media markets. Finally, the simultaneous rise of religiosity and consumerism undergirds a variety of sociocultural tensions and transformations.

These differences notwithstanding, a distinct transnational system has emerged. This chapter explores tensions between national and regional forces that shape the pan-Arab media system by focusing on Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, both instrumental in shaping the regional media order but occupying opposite poles of the sociopolitical spectrum: Saudi Arabia is the

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.