Arab Television Today

(Paperback)

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Description

There is a great deal at stake for everyone in the future of Arab television. Political and social upheavals in this central but unsettled region are increasingly played out on television screens and in the tussles over programming that take place behind them. Al-Jazeera is of course only one player among a still-growing throng of satellite channels, which now include private terrestrial stations in some Arab states. It is an industry urgently needing to be made sense of; this book does exactly this in a very readable and authoritative way, through exploring and explaining the evolving structures and content choices in both entertainment and news of contemporary Arab television. It shows how owners, investors, journalists, presenters, production companies, advertisers, regulators and media freedom advocates influence each other in a geolinguistic marketplace that encompasses the Arab region itself and communities abroad.
Probing internal and external interventions in the Arab television landscape, the book offers a timely and compelling sequel to Naomi Sakr's "Satellite Realms: Transnational Television, Globalization and the Middle East", which won the Middle Eastern Studies Book Prize in 2003.

Reviews

''One of the book's salient features is that its discussion is grounded in specific country cases. ...this is a must read for anyone interested in the political economy of the Arab television industry....'' -- Arab Media & Society

Author Bio

Naomi Sakr is a Reader in Communication in the School of Media, Arts and Design at the University of Westminster. She is the author of Middle Eastern Studies Book Prize-winner, 'Satellite Realms': Transnational Television, Globalisation and the Middle East', and she has edited two books, 'Women and Media in the Middle East': Power through Self-Expression and 'Arab Media and Political Renewal': Community, Legitimacy and Public Life. All were published by I B Tauris.