A door opened

by  Abeer Mishkhas

Since the late 90s, satellite television has dominated the information scene in the Middle East. From their earliest days, these satellite channels promised the public a margin of freedom of expression that was unprecedented on localized channels. The Qatari news channel Al Jazeera ruled households with its continuous news coverage, its relative freedom from censorship and the opportunities it offered viewers to participate in its talk shows.

Now, almost 70 percent of Gulf Arabs get their news from satellite TV. The number of new channels popping up is almost overwhelming. Competition is heated between the news channels and increasingly additional channels appear, offering more coverage and promising viewers more objectivity.

To an audience used to state-owned TV with its many restrictions and censored news, the advent of these channels was a door opened on the world. Viewers in the Arab world became more in tune with each other’s problems, which strengthened the concept of Arabism or a shared Arab identity. Through the various talk shows aired daily on these channels, the public was able to voice their opinions on all sorts of matters, even those subjects deemed taboo in their own countries.

Due to the novelty of the experience, there were some drawbacks. For one, some of the public could not understand the concept of a public debate; there were always people attacking others and asking that views be censored. But in general, practice has proven that what people in the Middle East needed most was to speak out and know more.

Some channels managed to influence general opinion, using causes such as the Palestinian intifada, the war on Iraq, and so on. Objectivity sometimes fell victim, too, since the programming was incessantly pointing audiences in directions supported by the broadcasters. But what continued to attract viewers was that they felt the importance of their own feedback.

Not all channels were dedicated to news coverage; many were purely after entertainment. The Lebanese channels, LBC and Future, introduced the "Lebanese phenomenon" to the Arab world as a whole. The Arab public has always been fascinated by Lebanon, and after the end of its civil war, there was a surge in interest in this country. So with the introduction of Lebanese satellite channels, new concepts of entertainment were introduced that challenged Egypt's dominance in the entertainment world. The public's attachment to these Lebanese channels grew so much that other Arab channels started to imitate them.

Music channels invaded the airspace with all sorts of video clips that eventually drew an angry response from viewers in the region; the channels were too closely following the European and American music video culture, critics said. Though many frown upon this trend, it appears to have huge popularity among younger generations, creating a hip wave of young Arabs who are fascinated by the western world and happy to watch an Arabic version of MTV.

Globalization further illustrated itself in the Arabization of American and European programs, beginning with the Arabic version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" avidly watched in Arab homes, to the latest craze of reality television. Reality TV programs started shyly with “Ala al Hawa Sawa,” which aired 24 hours a day and depicted girls seeking husbands living out their lives day in and day out, as they selected suitable grooms from callers. The program was not that popular and hence did not attract much negative attention. But with the start of the Arabic version of "Big Brother," some people were angered by the idea of watching young men and women mixing on these shows for 24 hours straight. The show was eventually suspended after critical calls from Bahraini viewers.

The next program to come under fire was "Star Academy." The program was on the air for only a few months before conservatives noticed. This was a case of extreme success in audience draw; it had fans from all over the Arab world and its participants came from various Arabic countries. The campaign against the program did not deter the public from following it until the very end, its last episode registering one of the highest viewer ratings ever.

A political commentator observed that this program gave viewers a chance to practice voting freely. People were asked to vote for the participants to determine the winner, and millions of callers and voters participated. This was due to the fact that participants knew that their votes would be counted and that they would ultimately have a say in choosing the winner, contrary to the local political scene where they know it is useless to vote.

Satellite television has crossed many boundaries to reach its Arab audience. For one, it crossed the illiteracy barrier that has negatively affected the growth of print media in the region. The other barrier surmounted was governments' control of content. As a result, most of these channels are enjoying success these days, though as they develop, some thought should be given to coverage of the real issues of the Arab world.-Published 22/4/04©bitterlemons-international

Abeer Mishkhas is a Saudi Arabian journalist and an editor at the Arab News newspaper in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.