RIYADH, 30 June 2004 — Most people in the international community rely on a handful of foreign news channels for information about the Arab and Muslim world, which has yet to find a voice in the international media.
It is therefore no surprise that Dr. Ali Al-Garni, the president of the Saudi Association for Media and Communication (SAMC) and a professor of journalism at King Saud University, feels Muslims should play a greater role in the international media.
“The Arab and Muslim media is not doing what it needs to do,” he said.
In Saudi Arabia, journalism is slowly gaining ground, he added, but is still largely locally oriented. That is why he wants an upgrade in journalism education at the university level as well as greater professionalism in the media here.
“Our goal is to increase scientific thinking about the media. Most of our thinking is based on experience rather than research, which should be given greater emphasis,” he said.
The SAMC and the recently established Saudi Journalists Association are working to effect positive changes.
“The SAMC is the first association in Saudi Arabia dealing with journalism and mass communication and was established two years ago,” he said. “SAMC comprises more than 800 members from different regions in the Kingdom. They include university professors, staff, and students, as well as media professionals from radio and television.”
But what are they doing? The second SAMC forum, postponed from its original date, will be held this year in October, he said. The forum is predictably entitled “The Image of Saudi Arabia in the World.”
Dr. Al-Garni said Arabic satellite news channels were not considerably better than some of the local news channels. Indeed, emerging news channels like Al-Ikhbariya, a Saudi-based all-news satellite channel launched in January this year, offered viewers a better alternative. The trouble was that they only addressed a very narrow audience concentrated largely in the Arab world.
That means the Arab and Muslim perspective on important domestic and world issues does not reach viewers in the West, who many believe should be the primary audience at this time.
Dr. Al-Garni said there were many young Saudis interested in a media career, as evidenced by the large enrollment in the Kingdom’s mass communication courses.
But the education system needs to improve since much of the material currently used is hopelessly out of date, he said.
When asked about media training for women, which is almost non-existent in the Kingdom, he said there were plans to establish communication departments for girls at King Saud University and King Abdul Aziz University. His own organization has some 130 female members, but progress has undoubtedly been slow.
“In the first SAMC forum, we heard recommendations for a communication department for girls. One year later, the plans are still under discussion,” said Dr. Al-Garni.
There are several qualified female journalists working in the Kingdom, but they continue to face limitations like low salaries and lack of job security — obstacles they hope the SJA’s two women board members, Nawal Al-Rashed and Nahed Bashatah, will address during their tenure.
Given that their difficulties fit in well with the backward and misogynistic international image of Muslims, Dr. Al-Garni said Muslim themselves are partly to blame for their distorted representation.
“From a historical perspective, international media organizations have long been distorting the image of Muslims, but Muslims are also aiding them in that distortion,” he said.
Most Muslims live peaceful and successful lives and are part of diverse cultures and ethnic backgrounds, he said. But it was also true that a number of Muslims committed atrocities and injustices in the name of Islam.
While one out of every five people in the world is a Muslim, contrary to popular belief fewer than 15 percent of Muslims are Arab.
Dr. Al-Garni said the problem was lack of unity in the Muslim world, adding that Muslim countries — there are more than 50 — are often more concerned with their own national image rather than the image of the Muslim body or the Ummah as a whole.
“Every Muslim has to participate in improving the image of Islam. We have to participate at both the individual and institutional level, and we need to work harder to correct the damage already done,” he said.
