Arabic-L:GEN:Arab Media and Society TBS Journal

[Dilworth Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Wed 13 Dec 2006
Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <dilworth_parkinson at byu.edu>
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1) Subject:Arab Media and Society TBS Journal

-------------------------Messages-----------------------------------
1)
Date: 13 Dec 2006
From:Afra Al-Mussawir <afraalmussawir at yahoo.com>
Subject:Arab Media and Society TBS Journal

[reposted from aaamideast]

Dear Arab Media and Society Contributors,

We are now under two months away from the launch of TBS journal under
its
new name.  As I'm sure you will already know, we are building a new
site for
this re-launch and plan to release four issues a year, instead of two
at
present.  The first issue, due to be released in February, will look
at the
impact of blogging on political change in the Middle East.

With this in mind, I would like to encourage you to consider
contributing to
the second and third issues of the journal. Themes we plan to cover
are
outlined below.  If you have any story idea or are conducting some
relevant
research on Arab media and society, please do get in touch.

With best wishes,
George Weyman

Themes for the second and third issues of Arab Media and Society

1.      William Rugh's typology of the Arab media which first
appeared in
1979 as "The Arab Press" has been thrust back into the limelight more
recently with his new edition "


<http://www.amazon.co.uk/Arab-Mass-Media-Newspapers-Television/dp/ 
0275982122



/sr=1-2/qid=1165512327/ref=sr_1_2/202-5779957-1930220?ie=UTF8&s=books>

The
Arab Mass Media: Newspapers, Radio and Television in Arab Politics"
(2004)
and the criticisms of his typology in Noha Mellor's 2005 "The Making
of Arab
News."  We are asking Rugh to reconsider his typology and point to
ways in
which it could be adapted to map the changing media landscape in the
Middle
East.  But what would your typology of the Arab media look like?



2.      With one or two notable exceptions (particularly Marlin
Dick's
analysis of the popular Syrian comedy Spotlight), this journal has
devoted
relatively little attention to Arab comedy. Comedy is a fascinating
venue
for charting shifting taboos, changing perceptions about the state
and
national politics, and the construction of in-groups.  What is funny
depends
greatly on shared knowledge, shared traditions, shared language.
Indeed,
comedy can also establish new kinds of shared discourse. Analyzing
comedy in
a considered way could tell us a great deal about Arab responses to
national
and global political developments, and could inform our understanding
of
identity, gender and social politics in the Arab world.  We want
contributors who can analyze comedy in the Arab world-satirical
op-eds and
cartoons in newspapers; Syrian and Egyptian musalsals; films;
recordings of
popular theatre comics-as an important venue of social contest.  What
makes
good satire in the Arab world and why?



3.       The political fall-out from the Israel-Hizbullah conflict is
still
in its early phases. As a journal studying the changing social and
political
map of the Middle East through media, we need to contribute to the
analysis
of coverage of Lebanon within the Lebanese media and Arab media more
generally.


Would you be interested in writing on this topic?  You could consider
how
the different outlets of the Lebanese news media have reported on the
war's
aftermath (reconstruction, the UN ceasefire, regional politics,
Pierre
Gemayel's assassination, Hizbullah pressure on the government)
according to
their political affiliations.  Comparisons between LBC, Future, An
Nahar,
and As Safir on the one hand, and Al Manar, and other pro-Syrian
outlets on
the other could be very interesting.  Are there links between
Hizbullah and
Iranian media outlets? Also how are Arab outlets with vested
interests in
Lebanon and likely hostile to Hizbullah (particularly the Saudi-owned
outlets like Al Hayat) responding to this current crisis?

4.      Writings on women and the veil can feel tired and clichéd.
But
there is always so much that could or should be said, but isn't.  We
are
building a package of articles on women in Arab media-television,
press, and
films-which can ask new questions and seek new answers.  How are
women
represented in musalsals?  Why are more Egyptian film stars donning
the
hijab and what are they doing to prove their professions of piety?
Who are
the key women journalists on Arab satellite TV and how do they
overcome
stereotypes to produce authoritative news? What's the state of play
in media
companies-are women cultural producers and journalists taking the
lead in
new ways?  How great a role do women play in Islamic satellite
channels and
how are they represented? What are the main debates about women in
national
press outlets? This is an exciting chance to combine analysis of
women in
popular culture along side analysis of women in journalism and news
coverage.



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End of Arabic-L:  13 Dec 2006