Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and the Changing Arab Information Order

This article explores the impact of Arab reality television on Arab governance. Reality television activates hypermedia space (Kraidy, 2006c), a broadly defined inter-media symbolic field, because its commercial logic promotes ostensibly participatory practices like voting, campaigning and alliance building via mobile telephones and the Internet. How does hypermedia space contribute to changing the ways in which Arab citizens and regimes access, use, create and control information? How do the new information dynamics affect the way citizens and governments relate to each other? To address these questions, this article focuses on recent social and political developments in Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, treating the two countries as a dynamic pair whose multi-faceted interactions shape a pan-Arab hypermedia space. This article will endeavor to explain how various Saudi and Lebanese actors have appropriated the reality TV show Star Academy for social and political purposes, and how increased public awareness of the hypermedia space engendered by the program has affected the nature of governance in the two countries. This article concludes with a discussion of how hypermedia space contributes to shifts in the nature and boundaries of social and political agency

Youth, Media and Culture in the Arab World

\u27Traditionally, Arab society dealt with youth in a superficial and slightly condescending manner’, an Arab columnist wrote recently, ‘offering the occasional sports club and scout troop, a usually underfunded and dysfunctional govemment ministry or organization for youth issues, and a correspondingly noncredible occasional speech by a highranking official stressing that youths are the promise of the future\u27(Khouri, 2005). In light of this somber diagnosis with which many analysts of the Arab world would concur, it appears paradoxical that, today, Arab youth is at the center of some of the most important and controversial debates, from the impact of Western modernity on gender roles and social relations to consumerism and radical political violence. The scope of these debates transcends the borders of the 22 states making up the Arab world in a post September 11, 2001, environment where Arab youth has become a site that is contested both internally and externally. Young Arab women and men are simultaneously subjected to competing and oftentimes conflicting messages from their parents, educational and religious institutions, the vibrant Arab satellite television industry, \u27public diplomacy\u27 from the USA, Iran and others, and the interlocking economic, technological and cultural forces of globalization

Reality Television, Gender, and Authenticity in Saudi Arabia

Drawn from a bigger project (Kraidy, 2009, in press), this article examines the heated debate triggered by the pan-Arab reality show Star Academy in Saudi Arabia. It examines how controversies over authenticity spawned by popular culture crystallize broader social and political struggles. The article focuses on Star Academy as a contentious media event, describing and analyzing various Saudi reactions to Star Academy, and zeroing in on what the controversy reveals about Saudi politics. The article concludes that Star Academy was so polemical in Saudi Arabia because the show subverted the religious bases of Saudi social order by promoting women’s agency, featuring cultural hybridity and individuating authenticity

Shifting Geertz: Toward a Theory of Translocalism in Global Communication Studies

Though the anthropologist Clifford Geertz has been tremendously influential across the humanities and social sciences, his impact on media and communication scholarship remains unclear. Geertzian theory, this article argues, can rejuvenate global communication studies by providing a foundation to build a theory of translocalism. The article first highlights the theoretical affinities between Geertz’s interpretive anthropology and communication studies. The following sections explicate Geertz’s perspectives on the local and on meaning. Then, we explore how Geertz’s notion of the local can serve as a context for a new understanding of power in global communication studies. In light of this, the article then turns to an analysis of the notion of translocalism as it transpires in Geertz’s work. The final section elaborates the implications of translocalism for global communication studies through a discussion of global television formats and foreign news correspondents

E-Administration in The Public Schools of The Abu Dhabi Education Council From Teachers' View Point

Since the e-administration is something new, and the studies in this field still rare, and this is a very important sector in management, another reason also is to motivate the specialists to study this subject in theory and to apply it in actual life, and like that we can utilize the e-administration. The purpose of this study was to reveal the level of applying e-administration of public schools in the Abu Dhabi Education Council. The study population consisted of all teachers in the Abu Dhabi Education Council during the academic year 2014/2015. The sample of the study consisted of (153) teachers who were selected randomly from the study population. To achieve the objectives of the study, the researchers prepared a questionnaire that included (48) items distributed among three types. The results of the study showed that the level of applying e-administration from the teachers was high, and the The individuals in the study sample thinks that it is important to apply the e-administration in the public schools Abu Dhabi Education Council. The results also showed that the level of acceptance of the e-administration among teachers in the public schools in Abu Dhabi Education Council was high depend of TAM and the correlation coefficient indicated a high positive relationship between TAM elements.  Finally the individuals in a study sample think that there are obstacles to apply the e-administration in the public schools in the Abu Dhabi Education Council. Keywords: E-administration, TAM, Abu Dhabi Education Council

Investigating role of interactivity in effectiveness of e-learning

This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University London.In last decade or so, e-learning seems to be emerging as the dominant model of learning but questions are being raised about the trade-offs in switching from traditional classroom based learning to e-learning; for example, e-learning is cost effective, round the clock accessible and convenient but there are questions raised about its quality and effectiveness. In last decade Saudi government has undertaken several steps for reforming the education system in the Kingdom including provision of education for all. E-learning can play a vital role in helping Saudi government reach its ambitious targets but despite its obvious benefits the overall adoption of e-learning in the Kingdom has remained low. The key problem in this regard is lo perceived effectiveness of e-learning. E-learning is quite beneficial in that it can help individuals not only acquire knowledge but also skills which allows them to learn independently without constraints using the vast amount of education resources available online. However, the main focus of the e-learning community in the Kingdom has remained restricted to teaching specific subjects. This research argues that the true potential of e-learning is much broader and useful than currently perceived by the e-learning community in the Kingdom. E-learning has the potential of producing lifelong learners. Hence the focus of e-learning community should be on overall skills development. This research thus defines e-learning effectiveness in terms of both short term goals (that is, learning about the subject) and long term goals (improving skills and motivations for being lifelong and independent learner). This research investigates impact of four kinds of interactivity (Student-Student, Student-teacher, Student-content, Student-System) on effectiveness of e-learning. This is a mixed methods research. Data was collected using focus groups and questionnaire surveys. This research finds that all four kinds of interactivity play a role in improving effectiveness of e -learning All four kinds of interactivities were found significant for improving course learning. Student-teacher, Student-Student and Student-Content interactivities were found critical for improving independent learning skills. Student-Student an Student-Content interactivity was found critical for improving motivation for being lifelong e-learner