The essential message of William Rugh's updated study of the Arab world (he wrote the foundational book "The Arab Press" in the 1970s), is the government shapes the media and, to a certain extent, the media shapes the government. This is particularly interesting in the Arab world because, while the Arab countries share numerous similarities, the environments can be vastly different as a result of the government in place. (and I would add, it can also be different depending on the amount of internet penetration. Compare Lebanon and Saudi Arabia).
The mass media play a larger role than other forms of communication in the daily lives of people everywhere, but especially in the Arab world. These media are consequently regarded by politicians and governments as having great political importance. In fact, the acquisition and distribution of news has been seen for a long time as a vital political function in society because the news items may have political impact very quickly on large numbers of people...The way government and society deal with this institution (mass media) is significant for an understanding of that government and society as well as of the mass communications process. (Rugh xiv)
Reviews: Essay, “Local Contexts of Islamism in Popular Media,” “Reporting Islam,” and “Muslims and the News Media.”
This post will be a review of the three different works I’ve sampled in the past two weeks. All of them are so interrelated that it makes sense to summarize them together.
“Local Contexts of Islamism in Popular Media”
In this essay, Lila Abu-Lughod talks about the degree to which Egyptian television serials in the past two decades have shaped Egyptian perceptions of Islamism, the piety movement. She notes that Egyptian television serials work differently from other nations. Egyptian serials run day-after-day for a maximum of 30 episodes and then they’re finished. And often these serials run through the nation’s religious authority, al-Azhar. She notes that in the early 90s, there were few depictions of Islam (or Islamism) in television serials.
“All that viewers could see were people for whom religion was taken for granted as part of their identity and that sometimes offered solace in times of personal trouble. Piety was seen only among the elderly” (Abu-Lughod 8).
The essential message of William Rugh's updated study of the Arab world (he wrote the foundational book "The Arab Press" in the 1970s), is the government shapes the media and, to a certain extent, the media shapes the government. This is particularly interesting in the Arab world because, while the Arab countries share numerous similarities, the environments can be vastly different as a result of the government in place. (and I would add, it can also be different depending on the amount of internet penetration. Compare Lebanon and Saudi Arabia).
