US-Arab Publics: Minding the Gap

With a Qatari plan to launch an English-language satellite television in mid 2004 and a US project of an Arabic-language television network targeting the Middle East end of the year, the Arab and American publics might be experiencing another war, but this time to win their hearts and minds.

The ‘Information War’, as some media experts like to call it, comes in response to augmented concerns of both sides (the Arabs and the US) about their deteriorating images following the 9-11 attacks and the latest war against the former Iraqi regime.

Al-Jazeera in English

A Western media campaign against the Arab countries triggered by a long list of Arab members of Al-Qaeda network made the Arab governments more apprehensive about their image. The Arab League held several meetings and called for Arab cooperation to revamp their image in the West, but nothing fruitful came out of their summits and calls.

Leaning on the success of the Qatari Al-Jazeera, the Qatari government seems to be taking the initiative and acting alone towards better international understanding of the Arab causes and problems. A senior broadcaster at Al-Jazeera head office in the Qatari capital, Doha, told Cairo Times the Qatari government is planning to launch an English language channel, but that will not before mid 2004. “It will not be an English version of the current Al-Jazeera, but it will be independent, while co-operating with Al-Jazeera in Arabic.”

“It became clear the importance of addressing the Western mentality in a more persuasive way and more Western style while using a common language. The Arabs realized that this would help explain and defend themselves against what they consider a wave of hatreds and misunderstanding,” he said.

Al-Jazeera already has its English-language web site working since March. According to the BBC online, the site is ranked the eighth among the most searched news sites.

“After 9-11 it seemed there is an urgent need to bridge the gap between two worlds apart: the West and the Middle East. Each side wanted to reach out and talk to the other in a way, which is more convincing: talking the same language,” he said.

Beside Al-Jazeera’s sister English TV, some Arab satellite TV channels have started to offer some programs targeting English speakers. The Middle East Broadcasting Center, MBC, has launched MBC2 (Al-Thaniya), an English language entertainment channel with a daily news program that includes the day’s news and interviews with guests. The Dubai-based Al-Majd television has an English service channel presenting programs mainly about Islam.

America Speaks Arabic

Likewise, during its war on Afghanistan and then on Iraq, the US government felt Al-Jazeera’s and other Arabic channels’ airing of fighting have been drawing people’s wrath against the US in the Arab world. Senior US officials have repeatedly asked the Qatari ruler, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, to use his influence to tone down Al-Jazeera’s news coverage. The station, however, seems to continue its policy hosting anti-American political commentators and analysts and exposing the Arab public’s anti-American sentiment. For this, winning the hearts and minds of the Arabs and Muslims has become a necessity particularly with an American open-ended existence in Iraq.

The AFP reported in February that the US Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), an autonomous agency that overseas US-funded broadcasts abroad, has allocated 30 million dollars to start up the Middle East Television Network.

The network is part of the State Department’s efforts to influence the Arab public opinion and it will help “overcome problems faced by Washington in coaxing Arab governments to air American official ads in state-run Arab channels and TV networks,” reported FreeRepulic.com, an American online news forum.

“Specific details of the new network were not immediately available although it is intended to be a companion to Radio Sawa, a new Arabic-language broadcasting service initiated by the BBG last year to provide news and entertainment to listeners in the Middle East,” it stated.

The US State Department also hired a veteran marketing expert, Charlotte Beers, to take over the task of buffing up the American image in the Middle East. According to the site, “Beers’ campaign relies on all forms of communication from the Internet to television. Her office will next target Islamic youth with a magazine and an education science and technology television show designed for 12-20 year old Egyptians.”

“Self interest or, as it is often said, to win “the hearts and minds” of people in the Middle East and Moslem world. Through the establishment of satellite TV, radio broadcasts, and Arabic publications, the American Administration will be able to override the Middle East media by directly disseminating its pre-packaged version of news and information,” says professor Yahya Kamalipour, head of the Department of Communication and Creative Arts at Purdue University in Indiana.

Kamalipour envisages an information war in full swing “as the US communication strategists (propagandists) are poised to influence the Arab and Muslim public opinion.” He believes Al-Jazeera has become a powerful medium of global communication and its increasing popularity has motivated the Bush Administration to counter it, as well as other exiting and emerging Arabic satellite TV channels, by starting new TV channels aimed at the Arab World.

“In fact, the Bush administration is engaged in a global communication campaign to mend the increasingly negative global perception of the US and to appease the approximately 1.3 billion Muslims throughout the world,” Kamalipour explains.

Marwan Kraidy, professor of international communication at the American University in Washington, thinks the US government has a certain political agenda for the Middle East; however, its success could not be based only on communication campaigns. “Most of the Arab audiences do understand and appreciate facets of US culture and society, but reject US foreign policy in the Middle East, with the Palestinian cause serving as a lighting rod.

“This is a very tricky issue, but in this age of abundant information, no power can redraw maps and changes geopolitics in secret. So, that will be a fascinating issue, and media war to observe,” Kraidy says.

Kamalipour agrees that action always speaks louder than words. “The best propaganda techniques, the most sophisticated marketing campaigns, the most professionally packaged media messages, and glittery publications will not work until and unless people in the US and throughout the world see meaningful and tangible positive economic, social and political results in their daily lives,” he says.

Al-Jazeera’s senior broadcaster also agrees it will take the US administration more than a TV channel to gain the trust of Arabs who will doubt the content of such a channel once he receives it because of the uncertainties about the US policies in the region.

“Unless the US TV channel-Arabic service addresses Arabs in a way which understands its cultural background and traditions- which is an important factor to gain success and win the hearts and minds of Arab viewers, it will be a waste of time and money,” he says.

Yomna Kamel

( an edited version of the report appeared in the Egyptian news weekly Cairo Times)
Cairo Times