Media System In Middle East

INTRODUCTION

For the past 40 years, the communications ecology of the Middle East has been shaped by a mass media regime, a one-to-many model of communication, with a strong structural ‘fit’ with authoritarian, centralized regimes. This model, dominated by representations of state power, authority and symbolic legitimacy, has been important in defining a mass citizenry that has been largely seen as conforming to the views of the state.

Development of the media ecology in the Middle East has for the past 40 years been shaped by the policies of authoritarian regimes as well as by commercial imperatives. The media in the region is, in general, controlled and monitored closely by governments - either by direct ownership or through strict laws and regulations that direct the media agenda. The major role of the media in the Middle East is as a propaganda tool to promote the government’s political, cultural, and economic programs. Since the eighteenth century, the media has operated in an environment of direct censorship by the state and self-censorship by journalists, editors and publishers. Many journalists in the region are convinced that the authorities are using new monitoring and surveillance technologies to record their actions and ultimately punish them if they transgress established policies. The media thus continues to favor protocol news in which content registers state power and enforces national political solidarity. The Middle Eastern media remains largely composed of government monopolies, with the advent of the Internet and new communications technology being viewed by governments in the region as yet another platform to publicize their viewpoints.

ECONOMY
Middle Eastern economies range from being very poor (such as Gaza and Yemen) to extremely wealthy nations (such as Qatar, UAE and Saudi Arabia). Overall, as of 2007, according to the CIA World Factbook, all nations in the Middle East are maintaining a positive rate of growth.
According to the World’s Bank World Development Indicators database published on July 1, 2009, the three largest Middle Eastern economies in 2008 were Turkey ($ 794,228,000,000), Saudi Arabia ($ 467,601,000,000) and Iran ($ 385,143,000,000) in terms of Nominal GDP. Turkey ($ 1,028,897,000,000), Iran ($ 839,438,000,000) and Saudi Arabia ($ 589,531,000,000) had the largest economies in terms of GDP-PPP. When it comes to per capita (PPP)-based income, the three highest-ranking countries are Qatar ($80,900), Kuwait ($39,300) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) ($37,300). The lowest-ranking country in the Middle East in terms of per capita income (PPP) is the autonomous Palestinian Authority of Gaza and the West Bank ($1,100).
The economic structure of Middle Eastern nations are different in the sense that while some nations are heavily dependent on export of only oil and oil-related products (such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait), others have a highly diverse economic base (such as Israel, Turkey and Egypt). Industries of the Middle Eastern region include oil and oil-related products, agriculture, cotton, cattle, dairy, textiles, leather products, surgical instruments, defense equipment (guns, ammunition, tanks, submarines, fighter jets, UAVs, and missiles). Banking is also an important sector of the economies, especially in the case of UAE and Bahrain.
With the exception of Turkey, Egypt, Lebanon and Israel, tourism has been a relatively undeveloped area of the economy, due in part to the socially conservative nature of the region as well as political turmoil in certain regions of the Middle East. In recent years, however, countries such as the UAE, Bahrain, and Jordan have begun attracting greater number of tourists due to improving tourist facilities and the relaxing of tourism-related restrictive policies.
Unemployment is notably high in the Middle East and North Africa region, particularly among young people aged 15–29, a demographic representing 30% of the region’s total population.

POLITICS
National politics still play the crucial role in shaping the media environment of any given Arab country. the most important causal variable affecting the political role of the mass media in each country is the underlying political system that prevails in that country. Other factors such as geography turned out to be not very important. The mass media system in Lebanon, for example, seemed less like the media in neighboring Syria and more similar to the media in Morocco. Morocco, in turn, was quite unlike the media in its neighbor Algeria. Media systems are fundamentally rooted in existing political systems. When a political system changes, a transformation takes place in the media system. In the past, when national governments had more control over Arab media, there were always some cross-border information flows. Some people listened to the BBC from London, VOA from Washington, or the Voice of the Arabs from Cairo, or they were able to import foreign newspapers. Others who happened to live in border areas where television from a neighboring country was visible, could watch that. But many people only had access to the media that were produced within the borders of their home countries, and those media were heavily influenced by the political circumstances in those countries. In Saddam’s Iraq, for example, the public essentially had access only to information and ideas that Saddam wanted them to have, since he presided over a mobilization press, banned foreign print media and jammed foreign broadcasts.
Today the situation has changed because of greater globalization and regionalization of the media, especially due to satellite television. As a result, many more people have access to information produced outside the borders of their home countries. This has made the Arab media picture much more complicated than it once was. The controls that state governments once had have been eroded somewhat because many more alternative sources of information and comment have now become available to the Arab public. Yet national political, economic and cultural constraints and influences have not disappeared
The basic political conditions inside individual Arab countries remained fairly stable during the 1980s and into the 1990s, and as a result the media systems did not change very much during that period. During the past decade, however, significant political changes have taken place in a number of Arab countries, and this had the effect of modifying the media systems in those countries. As a consequence, some media systems shifted categories.
Some newspapers, typically the larger circulation ones, tended to be more supportive of the government, while others, typically owned by private individuals and political parties, had more limited circulations and were more likely to criticize the government. Their freedom was reinforced by the existence of multiple political parties. But the regime had some advantages in the explicit and implicit taboos and red lines that existed, plus laws and economic incentives and disincentives. The fact that media systems change as a result of changes in the political environment validates the basic premise that national political realities are a major variable influencing Arab media. And in the future, if political conditions do change anywhere, it is likely that the media systems will also be subject to change.
Modifications in any analysis of Arab media must be made on a continuing basis, because the Arab media scene is changing rapidly now. It is no longer as static as it was in the past, and to paint an accurate picture we need to follow closely the media developments in each Arab country and the region as a whole, adjusting our analysis accordingly. Significant changes have taken place in the past decade, in contrast to the immediately preceding decades, making shifts in the typology necessary. It has therefore now become more difficult to predict what will happen to media systems in the coming years. It may be, for example, that more countries will follow the recent examples of Yemen and Iraq and move into the diverse media category because of changes that take place in their national political systems. And media in other countries, perhaps affected by the great increase in cross-border media penetration from satellite television and the Internet, may show increased signs of diversity, and even become “transitional” as they seek a new formula for media organization. At the same time, individual media outlets, such as Al Manar, may become more strident voices for advancing specific political agendas of reminiscent of a mobilization broadcaster as their patrons struggle against their political adversaries. Yet Al Manar is only able to play that role because it exists within the permissive environment of the diverse Lebanese media structure that is in turn based on a pluralistic Lebanese national political system.

CULTURE
The Arab world is usually considered to be comprised of the following nineteen countries: Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Chad, Lebanon, Egypt, Sudan, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Yemen. There are also significant Arab populations in Iran, Turkey, East Africa, South America, Europe, and Southeast Asia.

The Middle East is very diverse when it comes to religions, most of which originated there. Islam in its many forms is by far the largest religion in the Middle East, but other faiths, such as Judaism and Christianity, are also important. There are also important minority religions like Bahá'í, Yazdanism, Zoroastrianism.
Arabic is the most widely spoken language in the Middle East, being official in all the Arab countries. It is also spoken in some adjacent areas in neighboring Middle Eastern non-Arab countries. It is a Semitic language. Second most-numerous language is Persian, and while it is confined to Iran and some border areas in neighbouring countries, the country is one of the region's largest and most populous. It is an Indo-European language with lots of Arabic and Aramaic influences. Third most numerous is the Turkish language also confined to Turkey (also one of the region's largest and populous countries) and areas with neighboring countries. It is an Altaic language with origins in Central Asia.
Other languages spoken in the region include Syriac (a form of Aramaic), Armenian, Azeri, Berber languages, Circassian, Gilaki language and Mazandarani languages, Hebrew, Kurdish, Luri, and other Turkic languages, Somali and Greek. In Turkey, Kurdish, Dimli (or Zaza), Azeri, Kabardian, and Gagauz languages are spoken, in addition to the Turkish language. Several modern South Arabian languages are also spoken. English is also spoken, especially among the middle and upper class, in countries such as Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Iraq, and Kuwait French is spoken in Algeria, Israel, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, and Egypt. Urdu is spoken in many Middle Eastern countries, such as Arab states the United Arab Emirates, Israel, and Qatar, which have large numbers of Pakistani immigrants. The largest Romanian-speaking community in the Middle East is found in Israel, where as of 1995 Romanian is spoken by 5% of the population. Romanian is spoken mostly as a secondary language by people from Arab-speaking countries that made their studies in Romania. It is estimated that almost half a million Middle Eastern Arabs studied in Romania during the 1980s. Russian language is also spoken by a large portion of the Israeli population, due to emigration in the late 1990s.

NEWSPAPERS
Newspapers in the Arab countries can be divided into three categories: those that are government-owned (together with semi-official papers such as al-Ahram in Egypt), those owned by political parties, and the “independent” press.
Very few of the privately-owned newspapers can be considered editorially independent; they are often owned by wealthy individuals who have political aspirations or seek to wield influence. Qatar, for instance, has six newspapers – all of them technically independent but actually owned by members of the ruling family or businessmen with close ties to the ruling family.
In general, Arab governments seek to keep a lid on political discourse and activity – especially any that might be perceived as a threat to the established order – though the degree of control varies from country to country. Besides the more obvious methods such as censorship and suppression, a number of bureaucratic and legal devices are used to restrict freedom of expression.

TELEVISION
Until the 1990s almost all television channels in the Arab countries were government owned and rigidly controlled. These channels still exist but the situation began to change in the 1990s with the spread of satellite television. Privately owned and non-governmental channels introduced livelier programs aimed at a pan-Arab audience and also adopted a more professional approach to news and current affairs.
The pioneer in this field was the news channel, al-Jazeera, which is financed by the government of Qatar but has enjoyed a large measure of independence. Al-Jazeera, many of whose staff originally came from the BBC, became the first Arabic channel to provide extensive live news coverage, even sending reporters to previously unthinkable places, such as Israel. Al-Jazeera also broke new ground with its discussion programs which looked at issues from more than one point of view and often raised subjects that had previously been taboo. The most common satellite channels are al-Jazeera, al-Arabiya, al-Hurra, al-Manar etc.

INTERNET
The Arab countries lagged behind most of the world in adopting the internet. One factor, until the late 1990s, was the technical difficulty of using Arabic on the internet (and on computers more generally) which tended to restrict use to those who could work in English or, in some cases, French. Another factor was cost (including high connection charges, often through a government-controlled monopoly). Saudi Arabia and Iraq were the last Arab countries to provide public internet access, in 1999 and 2000 respectively.
By the middle of 2008, more than 38 million Arabs were believed to be using the internet at least once a month and overall internet penetration (users as a percentage of population) had reached 11.1% .This was still only about half the world average (21.9%) but all the signs pointed towards continuing rapid growth. The largest numbers of users were in Egypt (8.6 million), Morocco (7.3 million) and Saudi Arabia (6.2 million). As might be expected, the highest penetration levels were found in some of the wealthy Gulf States: the UAE (49.8%), Qatar (37.8%), Bahrain (34.8%) and Kuwait (34.7%) – all well above the world average. Further down the list, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Morocco were near or slightly above the world average. Middle Eastern Internet analysts have determined that low Internet penetration in the Middle East exists due to a number of factors relating to weak infrastructure, poor economic growth, high illiteracy levels, lack of relevant language, content and applications as well as cultural factors.
Having accepted the inevitability of the internet, the first instinct of Arab regimes was to look for ways to control it. This was based partly on their fears of political subversion but also on the fears of conservative and religious elements that it would undermine “traditional” values – fears that in both cases were well-founded. The favored approach often reflected the broader mindset of the regimes concerned: the Saudis opted for an extravagant high-cost, high-tech solution, while Iraq under Saddam Hussein surrounded internet use with barely-penetrable bureaucracy. Questions are being raised about the increasing interest of the new US administration in the 'new media' at the expense of traditional media, especially the written press, as that may not reflect the actual situation in the Arab world, where only a small percentage use websites such as Twitter and Facebook. Latest statistics indicate that only 8.3% of Facebook users are from the Arab . However, internet rules vary from country to country in Arab itself.

Media and Middle Eastern women
Women in the Middle East still bear the burden of traditions that bind their freedom to choose the way of her life and, even, their husbands. There is no doubt that Arab countries have made progress in advancing women’s causes, as shown by figures pertaining to development, education, employment and social advancement of women, but a lot remains to be done to achieve real equality in citizenship and professional promotion, as well as self-fulfillment.The women’s movement has greatly benefited from mass media, such as internet, chat rooms, television and radio debates which have enabled them to make a foray in to different fields they would not have accessed if they had relied only on the press. These means furthered heightening awareness of gender issues such as equality as an ideal alternative to discrimination and difference of sexes.
Women’s employment in Arab countries’ radio and television or press was the crowning achievement of their educational qualification (60 to 70% of information and communications Institutes’ students are women).7 However, they have not been able to access high-level positions that allow them to influence media strategies in a way that changes tradition’s negative views of women or how women’s issues are presented – still considered a taboo on many TV channels, such as sexual abuse, citizenship, legal equality in marital rights, love, husband choosing, woman’s right to seek divorce and to travel alone, as well as likening women to poverty, as in the saying ‘Poverty is a woman’s face’. Consequently, women remain procreating machines and sex objects. Moreover, they shoulder responsibility for corruption, prostitution, unemployment, poverty … earthquakes and all tribulations.
Survey Notes
The MediaSource/Insight Middle East Journalist Survey 2009 was conducted as an online poll of journalists in Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

Among other key findings of the 2009 survey are:
• There are more press releases being issued, but the heartening news for the PR industry is more of them are being used. Two years ago 58% of respondents claimed to use ‘none’ or ‘less than 10 percent’ of the releases they received, compared with 45% in 2009. The use of releases has increased significantly among the Arabic language press with 41% claiming to use a quarter or more of all releases they receive.

• There has been a big drop in confidence among the Arabic-language media in the value of on-the-record briefings. Whereas 88% regarded them as either ‘very’ or ‘somewhat’ important in 2007, that figure has halved to 44% two years later. There has been an almost identical decline in how the Arabic press values off-the-record briefings - 81% rated them as either ‘very’ or ‘somewhat’ important in 2007, compared with 44% now.

• The Arabic-language media has a higher opinion of regional PR agencies than their English-language counterparts with 31% believing their needs are understood either ‘Very Well’ or ‘Fairly Well’, compared with 19% of the English-language press who feel the same.

Media In Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, though a pioneer of pan-Arab satellite television, has long had one of the most tightly-controlled media environments in the Middle-East. Criticism of the government and royal family and the questioning of religious tenets are not generally tolerated.
But by 2003 there were signs of increasing openness, with some formerly taboo topics receiving press and TV coverage. The September 11 attacks on the US and instances of domestics militancy were said to have brought about and more candid reporting.
The state-run Broadcasting service of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (BSKSA) is responsible for all broadcasting. It operates four TV networks, including news channel al-Ikhbariya. The minister of culture and information chairs the body which oversees radio and TV operations.
Private radio and TV stations cannot operate from Saudi soil, but the country is a key market for pan-Arab satellite and pay-TV broadcasters. Saudi investors are behind some of these networks, including Dubai-based MBC and Bahrain-based Orbit. Viewers in the east can pick up TV stations from more liberal Gulf neighbors.
Saudi newspapers are created by royal decree. There are more than a dozen dailies and many magazines. Pan-Arab papers, subject to censorship, are available. Newspapers tend to follow the lead of the state-run news agency on whether or not to publish stories on sensitive subjects.
The government has invested heavily in security systems to block access to websites it deems offensive, said to range in subject matter from religion to swimwear.
There were 6.2 million internet users by March 2008(ITU). Many surfers are said to be women, possibly a result of restrictions on their movements. There are said to be many as 5,000 Saudi blogs.

The press
• Al-watan – Abha based daily
• Al-Riyadh – Riyadh based daily
• Okaz – Jeddah based daily
• Al-Jazirah- Riyadh based daily
• Al-Sharq al-Awsat- Riyadh based daily, English-language web pages
• Arab news – Jedah-based English-language daily
• Saudi Gazette- Jeddah-based English-language daily
Television
• Saudi TV- state-run, operates four networks
Radio
• Saudi Radio – state run

News Agency
• Saudi Press Agency- state run