A report recently published in the Arabic edition of Forbes magazine analyzed trends, successes, failures, strategies and the financial side of the Arabic media.
The report contains an amazing quantity of accurate and dependable statistics — something we sorely lack in the Arab world — dealing with the number of media outlets in the Arab world, the success stories and the main players on the scene. A careful reading of the report gives a sense of what the Arabic audience wants and, most interestingly, what it lacks. It also reflects, with all the accompanying contradictions, the present cultural atmosphere in the Arab world.
The report begins with a comparison of the performance of government-backed media outlets and the new so-called “independent” ones. It is at once apparent that the official outlets have taken a back seat; all are aware of how politics limits what they can report and how they can report it.
Formerly of course, they had the entire market to themselves and so did not work on improving themselves or their performance. Each country’s official media dealt only with that country and generally enjoyed a monopoly.
About 1990, however, the scene changed as satellite channels began to cater to the wider Arabic audience instead on concentrating on individual countries and stories of only local interest.
Forbes’ report discusses many important aspects of the media scene in the Arab world. One of the aspects, for example, is the lack of freedom and independence even in the new satellite channels and the print media as well. Each channel favors and pays compliments to a certain group of influential authorities, often those who hold the channel’s purse strings.
Some have tried to break away and enjoy a wider range of press freedoms but they have often been prevented from doing what they wanted to do. The report even suggests that perhaps the censor in those cases may be an internal one; in other words, the channel is making sure it allies itself with the winning side.
In the Arab world, as in most other countries in the world, it is evident that entertainment rules — since entertainment produces profits.
Driven by the desire for easy profit and the public demand, most channels turn to pure entertainment while some others resort to spicing up their programs by adding entertaining celebrity gossip shows and music clips; such things attract more viewers and the report cites an economic channel which does in order to avoid losing viewers. Not only on satellite channels is entertainment a major magnet but also printed publications dealing with celebrities and movie stars have a large readership.
The look that has come to dominate the new wave is derived primarily from Lebanese TV channels; they attracted vast numbers of viewers as soon as they entered the arena. Even today, having a Lebanese element in a program’s production and presentation can be a major contributor to the program’s success. The number of channels is increasing; the report mentions 90 applications for satellite channels which are being processed in Dubai Media City alone. As an investment, the financial rewards have tempted many businessmen to try for a slice of what is a very rich cake.
The major problem with this is that most investors have no clear strategy on what they want to produce and they always end up by turning to what is the most profitable choice — music channels.
The latest custom here is to make unknown singers pay to get their work broadcast; the amount mentioned was some $1700 for airtime three times a day. This might explain the large — and ever increasing — numbers of new singers that seem to pop up constantly. So noticeable is the phenomenon that there is joke that every citizen has been allotted a singer!
Audiences are divided in their responses to the new music and entertainment channels. Some consider them immoral, reflecting the spread of what they disapprove of.
Others seem to enjoy having so much variety and make a point of following closely all the new trends. Young viewers are naturally the main target for the entertainment channels, especially the music ones.
To make sure young people stick to the TV screens, a scroll for chat has been added to the bottom of the screen on most music channels; it runs all day, bringing in messages from all over the world to what is nothing but on-screen public flirtation.
When the Forbes report was published on a well-known Arabic website, one reader e-mailed the comment that Arabic satellite culture could be divided into two elements: Entertainment and religion.
As far as that reader is concerned, the channels provide either entertainment or a one-sided religious view. He believes the channels should do more to foster tolerance, to encourage open discussions and to accept different opinions.
The reader seemed to have completely missed what is surely the third element in the broadcasting machine — news channels which certainly have a large audience.
Predictably, another reader suggested that the whole new satellite culture was a conspiracy against Arab culture and beliefs since they bring in Western ideas and practices that do not agree with the mainstream culture. This view was clear in the general condemnation of the reality TV show ‘Big Brother’ which was ultimately cancelled because of people’s reactions and a public outcry.
The entire report seems to suggest that the local media is no longer effective as a general Arab one. Local newspapers do not seem to enjoy the same readership as general Arabic newspapers which are directed to a wider Arab audience.
In all, the Arabized approach might work in the long run in bringing Arab citizens together, something which politics have so far not succeeded in doing. And this might yet be the strongest point in favor of the new media wave in the Arab world.
The media scene in general reflects a reality in which Arab audiences crave more interaction with each other, and in which their desire for change is obvious. It also reflects a lack of trust in old traditional ways of communication and points out a need for free and open discussions.
