An amazing transformation is taking place in the Arab world driven by hundreds of pan-Arab satellite TV channels. These channels bring all kinds of entertainment, sports, news, and music programming and much more into previously closed societies.
Imagine someone living in Syria or Libya where civil liberties are scarce and all media is state-owned. Today, at a very low cost, this viewer can watch 24-hour a day news coverage, in Arabic, on several regional channels and see no-holds-barred political debates on every issue imaginable....even debates on the future of ruling regimes in Syria, Libya and elsewhere.
Like everywhere, the entertainment channels showing game shows (like American Idol inspired contests), movies, and American fare are very popular. While these channels contribute to changing societal norms, the all-news channels are in the forefront of political change. The best known of these channels is Al Jazeera. But its top news competitor, Al Arabiya, is quickly gaining a substantial audience. Both stations are staffed by journalists with substantial training in Western universities and experience at top Western news operations.
When these channels began popping up over a decade ago, national leaders in the region alternately tried to ignore them or shut them down. American officials praised the channels as the harbinger of greater political freedom and debate. Today, area governments are responding. And the American response is muddy at best.
Area Response
Governments all across the Middle East seemed to have resigned themselves to the fact that Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya are not going away. The audience for state-run television stations has dried up partially because the old-fashioned, Soviet-style staging of traditional, government produced newscasts doesn't stand a chance against the flashy, Western-style graphics and lighting of the new, well-financed stations. But more importantly, the new channels stripped bare the hollow, self-serving spin and lies that are often at the core of stories in state-run TV, radio, newspapers, and magazines. Viewers had their long-time suspicions about state media brutally confirmed.
So nations, even ones like Syria, are trying to cope. Syrian TV is changing and new "independent" media outlets are testing their boundaries. My friend Professor Ramez Maluf tells a great story about how mass demonstrators in Lebanon used television as an interactive medium to send a message to Syria.
American Response
Just after 9/11, American officials began a critical assault on several pan-Arab satellite TV channels, but the most frequent target was (and often still is) Al Jazeera. Even so, American officials (like Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy Karen Hughes) have appeared recently on Al Jazeera. And U.S. military spokesmen located in the Persian Gulf region note a growing maturity in Al Jazeera's editorial decisions.
The United States has also decided to join the media frenzy in the region. U.S. government-run Radio Sawa broadcasts local and Western music along with short, Arabic newscasts. Al Hurra is a U.S. government run pan-Arab television channel broadcasting an eclectic mix of news and public affairs type programming to the region. Reliable polls show Radio Sawa's music mix has built an audience, but there seems to be little viewer enthusiasm for Al Hurra.
The Marketplace
To some extent, the marketplace is working. Al Arabiya provides a more moderate, less sensational take on daily events....which forces Al Jazeera to respond and change. Both stations bring greater awareness of world (and regional) affairs which forces government-run media to respond and change.
But the marketplace also carries the strict logic of economic survival of the fittest. So far only a couple of entertainment channels are breaking even (or turning a profit) with advertising sales. Experts agree that Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya are losing money.... but their financiers (for Al Jazeera the royal family of Qatar, for Al Arabiya Saudi investors) seem willing to fund these projects for quite some time. And even expand them.
Al Jazeera is launching a global, English language satellite channel yet this month.
Full Disclosure: I served as co-producer of the new public radio documentary "24/7: The Rise and Influence of Arab Media." Many of the links above are taken from material gathered for this project. The documentary was produced by the Stanley Foundation in association with KQED public radio in San Francisco.
A very nice PDF print version of the documentary is available here.
A more in-depth policy discussion of the global security implications of open Arab media is also available.