As long as we live in a world with different languages, religions, cultures and geography we will always have a diverse and localized media. Technological innovations in the 20th and 21st centuries – the automobile, the telephone, television, cinema, computers, fibre optics, the Internet and on and on – have indeed contracted our world dramatically, and yet in many ways, the world remains as diverse and provincial as ever. In America, which is undoubtedly the most plugged-in nation on earth, only about 6 per cent of the population possess passports. So, very few Americans actually travel beyond their own borders to see the way other people really live. For all their varied and sophisticated media landscape, I would venture to say that the vast majority of Americans haven’t much more understanding about the outside world than people from other less media-rich societies.
When Johannes Gutenberg invented moveable type and the printing press in 1436, the face of media changed forever, yet the world remained pretty much the same and evolved over time, as a result of a complex combination of factors – social, political, economic, military, agricultural, etc. The printing press contributed to this evolution to be sure but the idea that a medium can totally transform society in and of itself is questionable to say the least.
The media acts as a mirror, catalyst and accelerator rather than as a transformer. In the best
sense, the media takes what is already happening in the world and brings people together. The heartbreaking images of starving Ethiopian children captured by the late Kenyan photographer and videographer Mohamed Amin and transmitted around the world through the international media, produced a global outpouring of sympathy and aid which alleviated the affects of this tragic famine. The landmark “Live Aid” concert organized by Bob Geldof, was just one of the media events emanating out of Mohamed Amin’s images. Conversely media can reinforce divisions, xenophobia, and prejudices. Leni Riefenstahl’s astonishing documentary, “Triumph of the Will” celebrating Hitler and the Third Reich could be said to have galvanized an entire nation and helped set it on the road to war.
A quarter of a century ago, the French leftist intellectual Regis Debray said,
“The single most significant political development of the post-World War Two era is the resurgence of Islam.” This was long before the media had even picked up on Islam as a force in the world. In our time, the rise of Islamic extremism may have been accelerated by the mass media, the Internet in particular, but the terrifying rift between the Islamic world and the non-Islamic world is the end result of a complex web of historical circumstances that can be traced back centuries. So I would say that we have to be careful not to overestimate the transformative role of global media in terms of actually shaping what is happening to our world. There can be a cross-cultural dialogue. There are sincere attempts at creating bridges of understanding through the media, but most societies are inward looking and too preoccupied to contemplate change based on a media opportunity.
While I’m not at all sure that global media has a direct, transformative impact on the world as a whole, I think one can safely say that in the Arab world the proliferation and diversification of regional media over the last 5-10 years has been a very positive force for change. In the Middle East, the media environment has already experienced a breathtaking transformation since the first tentative steps toward private sector satellite broadcasting and the advent of the Internet in the aftermath of the first Gulf War. Audiences across the Arab world raised on state-controlled media designed to limit the inflow of information and manipulate public opinion now have access to a deluge of information and entertainment opportunities that would have been unimaginable 15 years ago. Broadcast media liberated from state control has an inherently democratizing influence on any society it reaches and this has been strikingly evident in the Middle East.
The overriding aim of setting up a business media enterprise in the Middle East, and, indeed, anywhere else, should be to provide information, insight and knowledge that can empower ordinary people and give them an understanding of how business and economics – which for centuries in our world has been the province of the elites – impacts on their lives. Information and knowledge can change societies by opening opportunities, stimulating entrepreneurship and raising awareness of vital issues that affect the way we live, from inflation and recession to investment and environment to development and innovation. Whether global media can affect change is a moot point at this stage but there is no doubt that regional media has and will continue to have a very powerful impact on the future of the Middle East.
When Johannes Gutenberg invented moveable type and the printing press in 1436, the face of media changed forever, yet the world remained pretty much the same and evolved over time, as a result of a complex combination of factors – social, political, economic, military, agricultural, etc. The printing press contributed to this evolution to be sure but the idea that a medium can totally transform society in and of itself is questionable to say the least.
The media acts as a mirror, catalyst and accelerator rather than as a transformer. In the best
sense, the media takes what is already happening in the world and brings people together. The heartbreaking images of starving Ethiopian children captured by the late Kenyan photographer and videographer Mohamed Amin and transmitted around the world through the international media, produced a global outpouring of sympathy and aid which alleviated the affects of this tragic famine. The landmark “Live Aid” concert organized by Bob Geldof, was just one of the media events emanating out of Mohamed Amin’s images. Conversely media can reinforce divisions, xenophobia, and prejudices. Leni Riefenstahl’s astonishing documentary, “Triumph of the Will” celebrating Hitler and the Third Reich could be said to have galvanized an entire nation and helped set it on the road to war.A quarter of a century ago, the French leftist intellectual Regis Debray said,
“The single most significant political development of the post-World War Two era is the resurgence of Islam.” This was long before the media had even picked up on Islam as a force in the world. In our time, the rise of Islamic extremism may have been accelerated by the mass media, the Internet in particular, but the terrifying rift between the Islamic world and the non-Islamic world is the end result of a complex web of historical circumstances that can be traced back centuries. So I would say that we have to be careful not to overestimate the transformative role of global media in terms of actually shaping what is happening to our world. There can be a cross-cultural dialogue. There are sincere attempts at creating bridges of understanding through the media, but most societies are inward looking and too preoccupied to contemplate change based on a media opportunity.While I’m not at all sure that global media has a direct, transformative impact on the world as a whole, I think one can safely say that in the Arab world the proliferation and diversification of regional media over the last 5-10 years has been a very positive force for change. In the Middle East, the media environment has already experienced a breathtaking transformation since the first tentative steps toward private sector satellite broadcasting and the advent of the Internet in the aftermath of the first Gulf War. Audiences across the Arab world raised on state-controlled media designed to limit the inflow of information and manipulate public opinion now have access to a deluge of information and entertainment opportunities that would have been unimaginable 15 years ago. Broadcast media liberated from state control has an inherently democratizing influence on any society it reaches and this has been strikingly evident in the Middle East.
The overriding aim of setting up a business media enterprise in the Middle East, and, indeed, anywhere else, should be to provide information, insight and knowledge that can empower ordinary people and give them an understanding of how business and economics – which for centuries in our world has been the province of the elites – impacts on their lives. Information and knowledge can change societies by opening opportunities, stimulating entrepreneurship and raising awareness of vital issues that affect the way we live, from inflation and recession to investment and environment to development and innovation. Whether global media can affect change is a moot point at this stage but there is no doubt that regional media has and will continue to have a very powerful impact on the future of the Middle East.
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