Introduction
The media in the world today has earned an irreplaceable position and role becoming as indispensable as food or even clothing. The society is strengthened, empowered, enlightened and entertained courtesy of the media that continues to penetrate its roots in the lives of humans. Throughout the world, media houses have taken upon themselves the responsibility of ensuring that lives are shaped and impacted, giving them the popular name “the mirror” of the society (McCombs and Shaw, 1972, pg. 181). The television, radios, dramas, the internet, magazines, newspapers and movies continue to extend a powerful and influential hand upon cultures, people’s behavior and socialism with their incredibly powerful forces that can hardly be described. According to Hafez (2008, pg. 321), it is more than a decade ago since Neil Postman who was an educationist described the decline of print media and the emergence of the age of television as the most momentous and noteworthy American cultural and educational fact of the second last half of the twentieth century. The United States in a report published in 2015 continues to reign and dominate when it comes to the most prestigious and largest media houses with Comcast Corporation sitting on the peak of the world media business (Noam 2016, pg, 12). However, the power and influence of the media continues to gain ground in most parts of the world with the Arab world being one of them. The media and media houses have not only shaped the way of life of people in the Arab speaking nations in the world, but has also played significant roles in the political realm sparking revolutions and justice struggles such as the Arab spring of the middle east and parts of north Africa. Media houses have the power to emancipate a people and advocate for a better planet earth (Merkel 2009 pg. 149; McLeod, Scheufele and Moy, 1999, pg. 319). This paper discusses the role of media houses in the Arab world.
Literature Review
In the Middle East and to be precise the Arab speaking countries, the idea of a powerful, independent and authoritative media houses has been welcomed with a lot of optimism and enthusiasm. Compared to other developed democracies that is often seen in North America, the European countries and the Japan, the role of media houses as eyes of the society and government watchdogs has always been rivaled by the view that the media as an institution has been ripped off of it independence and succumbed to commercial interests. In such democracies, the expectations are way much below unlike in Arab speaking nations where the authoritarian rule and stagnation of opinionated development is still a characteristic. Lynch (2006, pg. 69) points out, much more is expected and more eyes are glued to media houses in Arab speaking nations as compared to countries in the postmodern western world. The question as to whether these media houses can be bold enough to stand up for democracy and agitate for the eradication of political monopoly in these states continues to linger in people’s minds as Hafez (2008, pg. 321) writes. The use of media in Arab speaking countries can be traced way back in the 19th century. The first printed publication written by Arabs for use in Arab speaking countries was made in 1816 with the name jurnal al – Iraq and appeared in Baghdad the capital of Iraq. Four years down the line, two newspaper companies started producing journals in Cairo Egypt in Arabic followed by Algeria in the year 1847 (Martin and Copeland, 2003, pg. 16). This became a breakthrough with other countries following suit with Beirut publishing in 1858, Tunisia, Damascus and Libya in the early 1860s, Casablanca in 1889 and Mecca in 1908. Lebanon and Egypt have since been the leaders in print media till date (Ghannam 2011, pg. 24).
In the past, the Arabic speaking nations were seen as places where media houses could not grow and realize their full potential (Ghannam 2011, pg. 13). Cairo and Beirut were the only tangible and favorable fertile grounds with the necessary talent base, more enabling and liberal environments and desirable interface for media centers to survive since they were receptive of the western culture and values. However, the trend and times are changing across the Arab world with governments seeing the need to invest in media centers, and loosening regulatory milieus (Lynch 2006, pg. 201). Media cities have been established and others continue to get shape. International figure and leaders in the field of journalism such as BBC, Thomson Reuters and CNN have since been seen joining hands with Arabic household names such as Al Jazeera and the Middle East Broadcasting Center (MBC) all in an effort to push the global media agenda forward (Kearney 2009, pg. 2).
The Pan-Arab Media and Entertainment Industry has been seen as the fastest growing media house in the Arab world with its worth in 2007 being estimated at ten billion dollars (Kearney 2009, pg. 9). This tremendous uprising is attributable to the fact that governments in the Arab world continue to reduce regulatory barriers over the media. Of significance is the recent lift on the ban on cinemas by the Saudi Arabian government after over thirty years of restriction spelling a message of liberalization in the region. Although the broadband infiltration into most of the Arabic speaking countries and the Middle East remains low as compared to the rest of the world, the regions exponential growth is fueled by the dominant younger population boosted by a wealthy and strong private sector (Kohut et.al 2011, pg. 16). This is supported by studies that have shown that half of the population living in Middle East is between 25 – 30 years compared to USA and most countries of Europe where only 25% and 18% correspondingly are below the age of 25 years (Kearney 2009, pg 13). This study further affirms that Middle East is among the few markets in the world if not the only one that still have both the income and demand for customary newspapers still growing.
According to Hafez (2008, pg. 321) in his publication The Role of Media in the Arab World’s Transformation Process, the emergence of more than two hundred brand new satellite stations, the survival ad gradual growth of the print media in many Arabic speaking countries and the fascination and quick adoption of the social media by the young generation has driven the emergence of a new sphere in the Arab world. He observes that a century later after the first world war, the Arab governments have allowed some space to media houses and the leaders in broadcasting can today discuss hot political, social and economic issues openly.
The media has taken upon itself to highlight sensitive issues like rape and the controversial communal stigmatization of women in Arab countries. Through television programs such as the Egyptian soap opera popularly musalsal , media in the Arab world seek to emancipate the masses and highlight the ills that hold the societies behind (Hafez 2008, pg.321). Further, the media houses such as the Arab Satellite Television according to Hafez have taken upon their shoulders to demonstrate that the Arabic culture is not as hierarchical and fixed as many believe. On the contrary, the media has portrayed the Arab culture as one which encompasses a plethora of viewpoints, perspectives, ideologies, and traditionally passed views such as Nasserism, Islamism, liberalism and conservatism. The modern role played by the Arabic media is more balancing of power compared to the last century and even a couple of decades ago. Hafez (2008, pg. 321) boldly says that while Islamism seeks to mobilize and dominate them through manipulating the pillars of morality, political organizations and social networks, the media endeavors to mobilize them through their joie de vivre, vitality, dynamism and plurality.
Hafez (2008, pg. 321) sets out on an expedition to find out just how much the media houses can be powerful in agitating for political transformation and change in the Arab world. Even though the most governments in the Arab world have loosened their regulatory powers on media houses, the preconditions for political metamorphosis from abject authoritarianism to total democracy has not been fully realized. From a revolutionist point of view, the media in the Arab world has been seen as a replacement of political parties charged with the responsibility of airing the public opinion especially about politics and administration (Merkel 2009, pg. 151).
The iconic Al Jazeera has been seen rattling and pushing authoritarian governments to the wall about certain political subjects, molding, and shaping the public opinion and modernizing the society (Lynch 2006, pg.111). The level of liberty within the media cities escalated to the extent of sparking what has been termed as ‘Arab Street’ or demonstrations that have undoubtedly influenced the reactions of Arabic regimes across the Arab world (Lynch 2006, pg. 112). It is apparent that the media in any part of the world including in postmodern democracies possess varying potential to impact change in different phases of a political revolution. However, it is true that the media is not a direct actor or player in the political arena of any region, but rather, it is a mediator as Howard and Hussain (2011, pg. 41) puts it. The media mediates between the governments, the opposition and the people to create a balance and harmonious coexistence for prosperity to be realized.
The role of advertising by media houses has gone through many changes and advancements in the Arab world according to Kearney (2009, pg. 17). Television advertising in most Arab countries has gained a lot of popularity even though the revenues still lag according to a report by the Arab Advisors Group Media Survey of 2008. This is attributed to the lack of an unswerving and dependable system that can carry out audience measurement. The analysis insists that buyers in the Arab world lack the capacity to carry outtargeted stratagem with the degree of precision they yearn for which affects the promotion rates. Consequently, the advertising revenues are way much below bar as compared to other regions in the world.
Kearney (2009, pg 12) writes that this has prompted Nielsen to announce intentions of launching a viewer metering modern system that will ensure that improvement is realized. Television advertising in U.S. dollars per household in the year 2008 was estimated at 47 in the pan-Arab territory with a corresponding 7 dollars per capita according to the PWC 2008 Global and Media Outlook report. The advertising role of the media is the Arab world and particularly middle east is projected to that its growth will be 14% every year thanks to the 20% annual increase in the revenues accrued with pay TV expected to grow at almost 6% per annum (Kearney 2009, pg.13). Additionally, the massive penetration of broadband is expected to fuel mobile television advertising due to the consequential penetration of mobile phones. Experts in the field of communication observe that middle east and generally the Arab world is unique in the sense that the potential for growth for all the segments of media is tangible unlike other mature markets where there is cannibalization of some of the segments is prevalent.
Reference to Practice
The Arab world has been implicated in what has been termed as the Arab uprising or better still the democracy spring. This refers to a ground-breaking wave that rocked the Arab world punctuated by violently aggressive and in some cases nonviolent demonstrations, remonstrations, unrests, coup d’état and civil struggles that started in Tunisia during the ninth month of 2010 (Democratization 2014, pg. 39). The revolutionary wave swept across many nations around the Arab world with countries like Iraq, Yemen, Bahrain, Egypt Libya, Syria, and Iran being the most affected (Lynch 2006, pg. 97). In spite of the fact that the demonstrations occurred in different Arab countries at different times span between 2010 and late 2012, most of the participants used a slogan coined in Arab that meant ‘the people want to bring the regime down.’ It is distinctively clear that so many factors influenced, sparked, fueled and sustained the widespread unrest in the Arab world, but the lingering question that prompted this research is, just how much did the media and media houses take a center stage role in the uprising? The Arab uprising according to many studies was caused by widespread authoritarian governance in most Arabic regimes, political corruption, the violation of human rights, high levels of unemployment with significantly exaggerated inflation levels, kleptocracy, and complex demographical structural factors among many others (Democratization 2014, pg. 39).
In early 2012, a baseline research to find out the role of the media and media houses in shaping political transformation in the Arab world and its involvement in the Arab Uprising according to Democratization (2014, pg. 39) was conducted in Egypt, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain which are some of the most affected countries in the Arab world. The study involved a quantitative survey of 3000 young adults drawn from the four Arabic speaking countries. On average, the participants were young adults of 22 years and above, literate in the sense that they could both read and write notwithstanding their individual levels of education. A requirement to be a participant was to simply have lived in the Arab country of interest for more than ten years, be of sound mind and be conversant with the local media houses and media platforms that are commonly used by a majority of Arabs.
Further, in-depth interviews with 12 media specialists drawn from all the countries of study were conducted in a bid to get views from both divides of the population as McCombs and Shaw (1972, pg. 178) believe that media experts are key opinion shapers in subjects that revolve around their field. These media experts were selected according to the country of origin with three coming from each of the four Arab nations. The study lasted for two months where both informal and formal conversations, interviews, and informant discussion groups were conducted. The research explored the role of media houses in influencing political transformations across the Arab world. This means that in the process of ascertaining the role of the media in the Arabic political sphere, the level of independence and media freedom can be described together as the two go hand in hand. The media in this case included Television broadcasting, social media platforms such as twitter and Facebook, the print media that includes newspapers among other mediums used by media houses to reach out to people.
The measures of the study include the level of access of people to different media of communication such as television, social media platforms and the internet generally. This is important because it gives provides an insight on the most reliable source of information to the people in the Arab world. The survey also seeks to measure the quantitatively how much media house use their different types of media to discuss political issues affecting their countries and if possible influence and shape the people’s opinions and actions. Regarding the Arab uprising, the study sets out to find out the role played by the social media which was purportedly a key player in the unfolding of the revolutionary wave. Also, the level of confidence of the people in the existing media houses when it comes to giving information about the political developments in specific countries is an important measure in determining the role of the media in political transformations.
Comparative research according to Merkel (2009, pg.152) has shown that political liberalization and transformation in any society is achievable only through five models that bring forth change of system. He singles out slow evolution which takes place over hundreds of year, self-induced regime change, the revolutionary or enforced regime change, regime collapse, and the famous and most effective and feasible negotiated system change. The negotiated change of system has been seen as the most successful from a historical perspective. It gives room for participation of the mass and small media which play an utterly significant decisive role (Howard and Hussain, 2011, pg. 37). It is therefore true that the media is effective and most functional in the political transformation sphere only under the negotiated change of systems that yield democracy.
Findings
Unlike the popular assumption that social media was a causal instrument in the democracy uprising in the Arab world, the study found that the role of social media was to update the outside world about the happenings that were taking place on the ground during the uprisings. This finding is supported by the fact that majority of people in the countries of study and particularly Egypt do not use the internet. This is according to the findings from the Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project which indicate that almost 65% of Egyptian population cannot access the internet (Kearney 2009, pg. 14, Kohut et al. 2011, pg. 22).
Most people in the Arab world (86%) rely on television for news and updates on political developments in their countries, even though most of them still think that the content that is aired is prone to doctoring and tailoring by authoritarian governments. This is because according to Democratization (2014, pg. 39), those who chose to visit the internet term it as the only means of reliable information. This is 82% of those who can access the internet. According to a study by Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project, 84% of Egyptians who can access the internet go online to get information about the country’s political situation (Kearney 2009, pg.9). Media specialist from the research at 75% admitted that the Arab media houses are compelled to compete with information that is generated with users about political developments which is easily available to audiences. Respondents at 94% singled out Al Jazeera, Egyptian Media and Production City (EMPC) and Middle East Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) as their most trusted television broadcasting media houses when it comes to political issues that affect all the Arab speaking countries which is in line with Kearney’s report of 2007 (Kearney 2009, pg.9).
Nevertheless, 89% of the respondents agree that the media freedom has improved over the years due to reduced regulatory strategies by Arabic governments as Lynch (2006, pg. 286) observes. Of the four countries studied, Saudi Arabia recorded the highest number of total newspaper circulation at 53 dailies per 1000 inhabitants, a finding that slightly differs with what Kearney reports; 58 dailies per 100 inhabitants in 2006 (Kearney 2009, pg.13). In terms of spearheading political transformations, 70% of the respondents believe that the media has not done enough while 68% of them being optimistic that the media will be a key player in effecting transformations in the near future (Kearney 2009, pg.13).
Conclusion
The burning question of this paper as to whether Arab media houses have achieved the role of influencing political transformation or not leaves true that ancient theory that the media is not a social player or an opposition to any government, but a negotiator of democracy is authoritarian systems. In the long run, it is true that the Arab media has played some role no matter how small it might be to create changes though subtle in the Arab culture and sociality. The endearing enthusiasm and courage shown by some Arab media houses in agitating for political transformation is a demonstration of willingness to see change. All in all, a lot has to be done by media houses in the Arab world, right from seeking for more liberty to fueling democratization.
Reference List
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