Arab Media in the Information AGE

نبذة عن كتاب Arab Media in the Information AGE

In recent years, the Arab media has achieved both qualitative and quantitative progress, facilitating the spead of more information, reaching more readers and audiences than ever before, and playing a more prominent role in covering global events. This has been achieved by means of Arab satellite stations, Arabic websites on the internet and transnational Arab newspapers and magazines. Nevertheless,the Arab media scene still exhibits structural imbalances and weaknesses that need to be highlighted with a view to addressing and overcoming them. An elite gathering of reputed Arab and foreign experts, academics and media professionals participated in the ECSSR Tenth Annual Conference on Arab Media in the information age, held in Abu Dhabi from January 9-11,2005. The conference presentations compiled in this volume represent the collective insight of these experts.
This book makes a contribution towards understanding the current realities of the Arab media and enhancing its future effectiveness by assessing its performance and content; exploring its societal functions; and examining its influence in shaping Arab public opinion and the western perspective of Arabs, in addition to studying the experience of the newly established Arab news channels. The book also seeks to address issues such as media independence and credibility, and the impact of commercial interests and political influence on the media. Furthermore, it presents comparative studies on the western media experience, examines the role of the media during wartime and under occupation, and highlights the growing importance of the Internet in Arab societies.