Arab Media Systems

This volume provides a comparative analysis of media systems in the Arab world, based on criteria informed by the historical, political, social, and economic factors influencing a country’s media. Reaching beyond classical western media system typologies, 'Arab Media Systems' brings together contributions from experts in the field of media in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) to provide valuable insights into the heterogeneity of this region’s media systems. It focuses on trends in government stances towards media, media ownership models, technological innovation, and the role of transnational mobility in shaping media structure and practices. Each chapter in the volume traces a specific country’s media – from Lebanon to Morocco – and assesses its media system in terms of historical roots, political and legal frameworks, media economy and ownership patterns, technology and infrastructure, and social factors (including diversity and equality in gender, age, ethnicities, religions, and languages). This book is a welcome contribution to the field of media studies, constituting the only edited collection in recent years to provide a comprehensive and systematic overview of Arab media systems. As such, it will be of great use to students and scholars in media, journalism and communication studies, as well as political scientists, sociologists, and anthropologists with an interest in the MENA region

Democracy And The Press In The Middle East

This paper examines relationships between Arab media and several different institutions including government in general, democracy specifically, and Islam. The primary purpose of this research is to gain not only broad, but also in-depth understanding of Arab governments and their control of media. One of the key issues discussed is the role of the Arabic media channel, Al-Jazeera, in the Arab region. A literature review has been provided that serves the purpose of providing valuable background on Islam and democracy, Arab media history and the new Arab media. The literature review provides a context for the use of normative theories, authoritarian theories, Social Theory of the Media, Spiral of Silence theory and Deception theory. The review revealed four important unanswered research questions: (1) How Westerners have a different meaning of democracy than Arabs? If so why? (2) Do media experts differ from Al-Jazeera employees in their interpretation of democracy? (3) How media experts and Al-Jazeera employees agree that Al-Jazeera shows have increased public-sphere discussions, if so why? (4) Do media experts differ from Al-Jazeera employees in terms of critiquing the free information access through the Al-Jazeera channel? In order to examine these four questions, two groups of Arab media experts were interviewed: scholarly Arab Media experts in the United Arab Emirates and Al-Jazeera channel employees in Qatar. The researcher used face-to-face and phone interviews in order to gather the research data. The researcher took notes, and there were no video and audio tape recordings used. The data were content analyzed for themes relevant to each of the two respective Arab media groups. The researcher divided the research themes into two different sections, each section summarized the interviewees\u27 concepts and suggestions. Conclusions are made that Islam ideals lead to press freedom and the personal right of information access is established. Arab people seek freedom through the right of elections in different countries like Kuwait and Bahrain, and Al-Jazeera has a positive influence on change in the Arab public sphere

Development of the Arabic Loria Automatic Speech Recognition system (ALASR) and its evaluation for Algerian dialect

International audienceThis paper addresses the development of an Automatic Speech Recognition system for Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and its extension to Algerian dialect. Algerian dialect is very different from Arabic dialects of the Middle-East, since it is highly influenced by the French language. In this article, we start by presenting the new automatic speech recognition named ALASR (Arabic Loria Automatic Speech Recognition) system. The acoustic model of ALASR is based on a DNN approach and the language model is a classical n-gram. Several options are investigated in this paper to find the best combination of models and parameters. ALASR achieves good results for MSA in terms of WER (14.02%), but it completely collapses on an Algerian dialect data set of 70 minutes (a WER of 89%). In order to take into account the impact of the French language, on the Algerian dialect, we combine in ALASR two acoustic models, the original one (MSA) and a French one trained on ESTER corpus. This solution has been adopted because no transcribed speech data for Algerian dialect are available. This combination leads to a substantial absolute reduction of the word error of 24%. c 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 3rd International Conference on Arabic Computational Linguistics

Arab Media Systems

"This volume provides a comparative analysis of media systems in the Arab world, based on criteria informed by the historical, political, social, and economic factors influencing a country’s media. Reaching beyond classical western media system typologies, Arab Media Systems brings together contributions from experts in the field of media in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) to provide valuable insights into the heterogeneity of this region’s media systems. It focuses on trends in government stances towards media, media ownership models, technological innovation, and the role of transnational mobility in shaping media structure and practices. Each chapter in the volume traces a specific country’s media – from Lebanon to Morocco – and assesses its media system in terms of historical roots, political and legal frameworks, media economy and ownership patterns, technology and infrastructure, and social factors (including diversity and equality in gender, age, ethnicities, religions, and languages). This book is a welcome contribution to the field of media studies, constituting the only edited collection in recent years to provide a comprehensive and systematic overview of Arab media systems. As such, it will be of great use to students and scholars in media, journalism and communication studies, as well as political scientists, sociologists, and anthropologists with an interest in the MENA region.

Al-Jazeera Television: Intifada on the Air

The Doha-based, pan-Arab al-Jazeera Satellite Channel came to life on November 1, 1996 by a Qatari Emiri decree, and began a 24-hour operationon February 1, 1998. Although sponsored by an autocratic government that is similar to other Arab regimes in terms of the wide gap separating them fromtheir masses, al-Jazeera has become, and continues to be, the most popular and trusted news channel in the Arabworld. Media scholars and commentators agree that the popularity of al-Jazeera derives mainly fromits identification with the radicalism of the Arab public, as evidenced by the starkly anti-establishment tone characterizing much of the medium\u27s discourses. There is a disagreement, however, over the meaning and implications of the Channel\u27s anti-establishment discourses. Some argue that al-Jazeera is radicalizing the Arab audiences; others argue that it is moderating the beliefs of both of the Arab publicand the Arab regimes. Nottaking the Channel\u27s radical discourses literally, however, a third group of scholars and commentators argues that al-Jazeera isin line with other official mass media whose objective is to advance and defend the interests of the host-government. Al-Jazeera, then, may help perpetuate Arab autocracy. Alternatively, I argue that both the radicalizing- and moderating effect perspectives do not provide an accurate interpretation of the Channel\u27s anti-establishment discourses and their implications. I also contend that the third group\u27s argument has more credibility. However, whilethe proponents of the third argument tell us what al-Jazeera does, they rarely tell us how al-Jazeera does it. To answer this animating question, and in order to discern thetrue nature and motives of al-Jazeera\u27s political rhetoric, I offer a close reading of the Channel\u27s political discourses on issues that sharply divide theArab public from the Qatari government and other Arab regimes. Textual evidence indicates that by initially identifying itself with the viewers\u27 radicalism, al-Jazeera, indirectly, deflects such radicalism and channels it towards non-violent political ideologiesthat are conducive to the Qatari interests and policies. Furthermore, by indirectly connecting Qatar with the anti-establishment viewers, al-Jazeera re-invents Qatari autocracy depicting it as an acceptable form of governance

Al Jazeera as a political tool within the contradictions of Qatar

This thesis explores three issues regarding Al Jazeera satellite network and its host country, the state of Qatar. The first theme discusses the political power of Al Jazeera vis-Ã -vis its relationship with Qatar since Al Jazeera\u27s foundation of 1996 to the present day. In light of the fact that Al Jazeera\u27s impact on the Middle East and international affairs is disproportionate to Qatar\u27s global influence, this thesis argues that the state-owned Al Jazeera is not merely a media giant but also a powerful player in Arab politics. Specifically, as a case study, the Qatari-Saudi rivalry in the respective reporting of Al Jazeera and the Saudi-operated Al Arabiya is discussed. The second theme examines five sociopolitical contradictions of Qatar caused by the Emir\u27s diverse reforms, namely â democratizationâ by the absolute leader, rapid modernization in a Wahhabi country, an exploding young population and increasing foreign labor, its controversial relationship with Israel, and its reliance on U.S. forces for national security. An analysis of these contradictions is crucial to comprehending Qatar\u27s contemporary politics, which wield a significant influence on Al Jazeera\u27s news coverage. The last theme analyzes Qatar\u27s â omnidirectional diplomacyâ in order to understand how the Qatari government and the Emir of Qatar have manipulated Al Jazeera as an effective political instrument. This thesis focuses on Qatar\u27s niche strategy to draw the supports of the West in general and the United States in particular. Finally, by highlighting Qatar\u27s ambitions to be a regional power, it becomes obvious that pan-Arab Al Jazeera functions as a critical media outlet for Qatar\u27s survival in this turbulent region. This thesis also tries to examine briefly Al Jazeera\u27s role in the recent popular uprisings across the Arab world, taking into consideration the future prospects of Al Jazeera and Qatar

International news contraflow in the United States and Canada: struggles over North American media markets and regulation of Al Jazeera and China Central Television

In this dissertation, I examine news media contraflow, flows of news and information from historically underrepresented parts of the globe into advanced media systems. I assess North American governance of news media flows in light of increased availability of nonwestern news organizations. The research in the following chapters examines the cases of the Al Jazeera Network (AJ) and China Central Television (CCTV) to more fully account for transformations in the gatekeeper roles of regulatory bodies, media distribution industries and communication norms that govern North America’s engagement with these emergent news providers. The proliferation of foreign news broadcasters makes examining institutions of reception – state regulators, public activist groups and distribution industries – increasingly important. Through case studies, I look, first, to recent changes in the production of international news in the neoliberal landscape of global communication. I examine significant new news content creators and identify what I call a hybrid media production model. State media enterprises are becoming savvy users of communication networks transformed by neoliberalism. In the second part of the dissertation, I outline the inchoate “foreign media policies” of the United States and Canada by analyzing the complex of law, norms and market conditions that influenced the reception of AJ and CCTV

Football as Soft Power: The Political Use of Football in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

In November 2022 Qatar hosts the first Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region FIFA World Cup. This paper seeks to understand the use of football as a soft power political tool in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Based on culture, values and policies, soft power is power through attraction as opposed to coercion. The stronger one player’s values, culture and policies are, the more soft power that player has. Qatar, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, traditional fossil fuel-based states, suffer from a lack of attraction. By investing in football, each nation hopes to project a new image and ensure future relevance. Qatar uses football to increase its standing in the international community, helping to ensure its own protection in case of regional disputes. The UAE uses football to help convert itself into an international travel and business centre, while Saudi Arabia invests in football to help project a progressive image of itself to the world and ensure regime securityhttps://ecommons.aku.edu/uk_ismc_series_ops/1009/thumbnail.jp

Inventor Business Card: Prof. Naila Rabbani

The launch of "Qatar University Research Magazine" marks the university's numerous achievements in the field of scientific research. It will also serve as a platform to highlight all our research related initiatives and activities carried out by the various research centers and colleges within the university