Media has been a critical tool for shaping communities’ and countries’ history. Based on the latest research, modern media services have a noticeable contribution in informing community members on emerging occurrences in society and educating community members on the most reliable means of coping with modern challenges. In particular, both local and international media were relatively influential in shaping the history of the countries that experienced the Arab Spring. The Arab Spring is the concept used in defining the revolutionary waves of protest, demonstration, riot and civil wars in Arab countries.
The Arab Spring background
The revolutionary wave started as a simple resistance against the sitting Tunisian regime in December 2010. After detailed media coverage at local and international levels, the civil unrest spread to other Arab countries including Egypt. By the end of December 2013, the problem had spread to several Arabic countries including Libya, Yemen, Algeria, Jordan, Kuwait, morocco, Saudi Arabia, and Oman (McDowall 28). In all these protests, media played a decisive and influential role in ensuring that the international community understood the cause of the problem and the political status of the affected countries. Recent survey by modern journalists affirms that mass media and social media played a centre role in accelerating the revolutionary wave in Arab countries. The study further asserts that society members and revolutionists relied on media in advocating for the political changes in their countries. Media coverage was also relatively influential in shaping the future status of the government and audiences in the affected countries. Therefore, knowledge on the manner in which media coverage influenced a...
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...s encouraged all Arab nations to engage in the revolution (Ottaway and Choucair-Vizoso 78).
So far, some Arabic countries are still in Arab Spring due to the influence of international media and other global human right activists. Recent survey further confirms that the ideologies communicated by local and international media played a decisive role in facilitating political, social, and economic transformation in Arabic countries and most specifically Egypt. As observed by South America and European national media, lack of development in Arab countries was because of poor leadership and governance. Poor leaders and dictatorship also led to the creation of unnecessary tension among professionals and business executive hindering individual growth and economic development. In their coverage, international media emphasised on the importance of teamwork among all Arab
Shaheen, J. (1985). Media Coverage of the Middle East: Perception of Foreign Policy. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, v482, pp. 160-75.
Washington University, author Marc Lynch pens a work he titled The Arab Uprising: The Unfinished Revolutions of the New Middle East to dispel thoughts and misconceptions that unrest in the Middle East, particularly in the areas of political and social mobilizations, are in fact a new phenomenon. Utilizing his wealth of experience within the Middle East and topics pertaining to it, Lynch choose to analyze what lead to the downfall of four of the Middle East’s regimes in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, and Syria along with the unfolding of events leading up to the “Arab Spring,” along with the results and aftermath of aforementioned events. The “Arab Awakening” or the “Arab Spring,” as ordained by westernized news outlets, was a series of both non-violent
Looking the historical moment we are living at, it is undeniable that the media plays a crucial role on who we are both as individuals and as a society, and how we look at the...
During the Israeli War of Independence in 1948 an Arab refugee crisis began, and there is still not a clear answer of what caused it. As inhabitants of Israel Arabs were greatly affected by the establishment of a Jewish State, because their home was governed by others. Nonetheless, the Palestinian Arabs contributed in the making of the refugee crisis. The Arabs were given the choice of becoming equal citizens of Israel and refused. The United Nations came up with Partition Plan for Palestine, but it was rejected. Therefore, instead of having their own country the Arabs fled to neighboring Arab countries to avoid the crossfire of impending war. Arabs were thrown out of their homes by the Haganah (pre-state army), and placed
The authoritarian regimes of the Middles cycled through a pattern of anti-western policy until the globalization effects of economics and information demanded reform. As conservative Arab states try to maintain the autocracy they relied on after gaining independence, their citizens, affected by information and education expansion, challenge their resistant governments as typified by Syria’s unwillingness to capitulate. The proliferation of information and education underscored the protest movements of the Arab Spring because citizens’ contempt for their obstinate governments grew to large under economic pressures, as the current situation in Syria demonstrates.
398).It is also stated that news divisions reduced their costs, and raised the entertainment factor of the broadcasts put on air. (p. 400). Secondly, the media determines its sources for stories by putting the best journalists on the case and assign them to areas where news worthy stories just emanates. (p.400). Third, the media decides how to present the news by taking the most controversial or relevant events and compressing them into 30 second sound-bites. (p.402). finally, the authors also explain how the media affects the general public. The authors’ state “The effect of one news story on public opinion may be trivial but the cumulative effect of dozens of news stories may be important. This shows a direct correlation between public opinions and what the media may find “relevant”. (Edwards, Wattenberg, Lineberry, 2015, p.
While many people throughout the world see social media as a trendy new application in the service of personal amusement, the political upheavals in the Arab world have shown how it can change the dynamics of modern day activism. The Arab Spring Uprising interlaced social unrest with a technological revolution. Blogs, news websites, twitter feeds, and political list servers became avenues for communication, information flow and solidarity. Being capable of sharing an immense amount of uncensored information through social media sites has contributed to the success of many Arab Spring activists. Social media played a role in facilitating the events of the Arab Spring, but the main issues are rooted in a broader set of economic, political, and social factors. This paper will examine how social media impacted the Arab Spring Uprising. Specifically, I will look at how social media introduced a novel resource that helped to created internet activist communities, changed the dynamics of social mobilization and revolutionized interactions between protesters and the rest of the world.
The Arab Spring was an event which became known throughout the world. According to Jason Brownlee, Tarek Masoud and Andrew Reynolds (2013), the Arab Spring started at the end of 2010 in a Middle Eastern country identified as Tunisia (p.29). This shows that a Middle Eastern country had ejaculated a force of civil motivations of activism in the Arab Spring, and this played an important role for the oppressed Arab citizens to demand equality and human rights. Yakub Halabi (2014) claims that a majority of Arab nations have ‘authoritarian’ systems of government with a lack of a unified community (p.100-101). This shows that democracy is lacking in many Arab nations in the Middle East while the citizens of those countries are vulnerable to conflict because of the social circumstances surrounding Arab nations. In addition, Brownlee, Masoud and Reynolds (2013) elaborates on the idea that subsequent to Tunisia’s Arab Spring, Egypt, Libya and Yemen had participated in the Arab Spring, and this caused the risk of civil, political and social unrest being extremely high in 2013 (p.29). This is relevant evidence that Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen are in a worse position than they were before the Arab Spring. The Arab Spring was portrayed as a stride for Middle Eastern states to become an equal democratic utopia. However, an unstable economy, foreign intervention and paid terrorists were some of the reasons of the Arab Spring being unsuccessful for inserting democracy into the channels of politics in several Middle Eastern countries.
Media has always had the power to transform ideas through what it represents. Most of the media we experience today is part of a global message which we absorb into our everyday lives; our customs, cultural coding, religious views and political standings. Due to satellite televesion, nations everywhere are able to tune into the world on a larger scale putting each nation under a single umbrella of opinions and views e...
The Mass Media is a unique feature of modern society; its development has accompanied an increase in the magnitude and complexity of societal actions and engagements, rapid social change, technological innovation, rising personal income and standard of living and the decline of some traditional forms of control and authority.
In fact, most media content are no longer merely artistic and informational – they are meant to engage the masses thus to exert profound influence not only on individual development but also on social advancement. No one can deny that in the contemporary world, media, composed of dynamic and various platforms, is widely perceived to be the predominant means of communication. Noticeably, the term media is first used with the advent of newspaper and magazines; yet with the passage of time, the term is broadened by the inventions of radio, television, video and internet, which are all adapted as forms of media that bring the world closer to us. Indeed, media depends on its wild audience coverage, active public engagement and open, two-way communication to create a highly interactive platform through which “humanity, fully connected, collaboratively build and share a global world”(McLuhan 160).Without doubt, media presents a strong impact upon individual and society in the proc...
Malcolm X, a human rights activist, once said, “The media´s the most powerful entity on Earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and the guilty innocent, and that´s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.” Through numerous studies and considerable amount of research, it has become clear that the media has a significant effect on society and its perception. This applies to all topics, but mostly to issues that are difficult for the mass to experience for themselves. For example, our views of government and social institutions are largely based on the medium’s reports, not our own experiences.
A. Starting in 1948, right in the middle of the Arab-Israeli war, the initiation of the Arab League boycott of Israel was a coherent effort by Arab League member states, whose intention was to isolate Israel financially and economically (Perez). The League ventured effortlessly to prevent Arab states and disincentivize non-Arabs from providing support to Israel or adding to Israel's economic stability. The boycott was also designed to deter Jewish immigration to the region (Consequences of the War). There was a total of 22 Middle Eastern and African countries that supported the boycott and its effort to prevent any and all economic growth in Israel. Throughout the period of this ongoing boycott, many trade barriers have been put in place, limiting trade between Israel and other countries (Slavicek 65).
Birth and death in the Arab culture has being one of the most interesting topics that is being discussed more frequently. When people talk or hear about the Arab culture they tend to think about different things about them like they are being considered as terrorist, they oppress their women and many things like that. But we tend to forget that this people, the Arabs are also human beings that they have normal day-to-day activities like people in the other part of the so-called westernized world.
In conclusion, the medium is the message. The way that information is presented to us plays a key role in our understanding of the topic itself. By framing the crisis in Egypt a particular way, both the old and new media sources are able to give the audience two separate understandings of the social and cultural issues at hand. The media is less interested in telling the audience about the actual story and more interested in the underlying messages of society they provide. These underlying messages lead us to define social and cultural issues the way that the media want us to. Since the media sell us both products and ideas, both personalities and worldviews, the message becomes the medium.