Lounsbury: The Media Question

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January 29, 2005

The Media Question

If I may, my response to the media question in the Open Q&A:

Media:

�Do Arabs currently have a free choice between FOX, CNN, Al-Jazeera and Al-Jazeera clones? If not, do you think the vast majority of them would stick to AlJ and ALJ-clones?�

I am not sure what is meant here. Free choice in what sense? Access? Ability to understand?

First, it strikes me that except in the very poorest households in the countryside, most people have satellite TV � even in shanty towns. Egypt is a bit of an exception, but to what extent depends on where you are. Situation may have changed since I last lived there.

Second, as a general matter most people watch the Arabsats, but Western channels are in general available � on ArabSat, which gives the best regional reception, there are several, EuroSat and Hotbird both carry a full panalopy of largely un-scrambled.channels, and pirated decoding is widespread.

In short, for most of the region, access to Western channels, including news channels is perfectly possible, although excepting CNN International I don�t know American ones are carried on the Sats.

Now the next the question is, can people understand them. Certainly in North Africa French is widespread enough on at least on oral basis that channels such as Euronews are fairly widely watched. The same can�t be said for the Middle East proper, but certainly the offering of English language news is there for those who have at least a modicum of oral English.

Now, if the question is are there Arabic language clones of Western channels, or American points of view, that�s entirely different. Perhaps the only free market Arabic language channel with a vaguely Western point of view is CNBC Al Arabiyah, but this is a business focused channel, a bit different.

I am not sure what is meant by �al-Jazeera clones� but what I can say is that al-Jazeera�s coverage is very much market driven and reflects local tastes. Al Arabiyah, it�s most popular competitor (it may have a better viewership numbers than al-Jazeera) certainly gets accused by USG as being anti American often enough. I frankly think this a gross misunderstanding but there it is.

The answer in short is that the ArabSat channels reflect local tastes.

This also tells you the way most Americans talk about and analyze the media issue in the Arab world (as if it was Eastern Europe 1980) is utterly wrong-headed. Thus the idiotic "Radio Sawa" and "al Hurra" - they both utterly misconstrue the problem.

�If they had democracy ( that is, the demos elects people who then vote laws ), do you think that would be better or worse for women's status?�

It depends on what you mean by women�s status.

In the short term, I would expect that formal legal status for women in areas sensitive to local mores to respond more clearly to local mores rather than elite Western desires.

�Do you think religion and politics would be more of less interwined then they are?�

No, why would one think so? Has religion disappeared from politics in the USA? After a period of time the relationship might get healthier, however.

" Would states be more or less hostile ( actively so ) than they are right now?"

Hostile to whom?

�I realise that results may vary from one country to another. If so, please indicate the general trend and the exceptions.�

Well, that goes a bit beyond the time I have available at the moment, hopefully above gave a decent view.

January 29, 2005

The Media Question

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