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COMING INTO FOCUS

BY REHAB EL-BAKRY

The Middle East has always been a media hot spot, but for decades international coverage of the region almost invariably highlighted its turmoil and armed conflicts. In recent years, however, western news networks have broadened their scope to include topics previously deemed of little interest to their viewers. Welcome to the new era of television news.

As violence flared in Lebanon last summer, television images of missile attacks, destroyed homes and blood-soaked hospital wards streamed into people’s homes around the world. International news networks broadcast live dispatches by their correspondents in Israel and southern Lebanon, while Arabic networks provided their own on-the-ground coverage of the conflict from their reporters on the scene, many of whom were able to present interviews, public opinion and coverage not carried on any western television channel.

More than anything, coverage of the war between Israel and Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon highlighted the divergent perspectives behind the conflict, and the manner in which the media presents them. While Arabs accuse the international media of an interminable bias towards Israel, western viewers argue that the Arab media is too emotionally involved to cover the region’s conflicts impartially. Such allegations have always been there, but with more journalists from both sides covering the region, their disparate views have never been clearer.

For over 50 years the Middle East has been a focal point of the international press. The problem, says Naela Hamdy, a lecturer in the Mass Communications Department at the American University in Cairo (AUC), is that international media coverage of the region has largely been limited to covering its political turmoil and armed conflicts. “Stories about this region have focused entirely on war,” she says. “In a lot of ways, this set in people’s mind that this part of the world is characterized by conflict.”

According to Hamdy, a former CBS television correspondent, the international press has taken particular interest in the Middle East over the past 15 years owing to the increased US presence in the region. Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990 marked the beginning of new geopolitical alignments, with a larger and more involved US presence in the region, and more stories of western interest. In response, the media focused its reporting on the American military buildup in the region and US initiatives to end the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The 9/11 terrorist attack in 2001, however, saw a significant shift in viewer interest. For the first time, western audiences were less interested in stories that highlighted American strategic interests and more concerned with what makes the region tick. “Audiences in the West [had questions] that were simply not answered by the traditional stories,” says Hamdy. “They wanted to know all kinds of details about the people of this region. On the other hand, people in this region were pressuring [the foreign media outlets] to expand the context of their coverage.”

Many western viewers, she continues, felt the international news networks had failed to inform the public of the anger building up in the region against the West in general and the US in particular. As their criticism mounted, news organizations reevaluated their coverage. War and politics were not enough. Viewers wanted stories that shed light on the social and economic arenas.

Local perspective

While international media outlets reassessed their programming, newly created Arab satellite news networks were challenging their coverage by providing, for the first time, the region’s news from a truly local perspective. Qatar’s Al Jazeera satellite channel, launched in 1996, was going head-to-head with news heavyweights BBC and CNN. Bankrolled by the Qatari government and private investors, the widely acclaimed and often criticized Al Jazeera news channel was providing a fresh perspective on the region for over 300 million native Arabic speakers. Its success spawned Dubai-based Al Arabiya 24-hour news channel and the recently launched Arab Business Channel, a privately funded all-news satellite channel dedicated to economic and business reports from the region.

For Arab viewers, these networks offer credible coverage of the region through Arab eyes, says Hamdy. The pan-Arab satellite channels have neither the jaundiced eye of western media nor the censorship and propaganda of state-controlled terrestrial Arab television. “For the first time, Arabs had an alternative news source that neither reflected what they perceived as the bias of the West against the East nor the severe content control exercised by the government,” she says.

They have also broadened the content of news. While Al Jazeera is often accused by western critics of splashing the screen with tear-jerking images of Arab babies wounded by US bombs, it has also managed to present breaking news and pertinent analysis without all the preconceived notions of western media. “Suddenly the stories were no longer filled with stereotypes about the people and the region. And for the first time people began to believe that there is more to this region than bombs and conflict,” says Hamdy.

Bureau chiefs were taking notice, says Ahmed Alqadi, Al Jazeera television’s acting head of business news. “The international news channels have traditionally been the opinion setters, [but they] also began to monitor and refer to Al Jazeera and other Arabic channels in order to compare everything from how stories were being covered to who was being interviewed and even fish for leads,” he told Business Monthly.

Certainly, admits Ben Wedeman, CNN’s senior correspondent in Tel Aviv and former Cairo bureau chief. He says the emergence of Arabic news channels has ushered in changes in the way the international media covers the region. Pan-Arab news stations presented politics and breaking news, but they also had “debates and officials conversing back and forth, and sometimes being criticized, which was something that few in the region had ever experienced,” he says. “[Of course] this did influence what international channels were covering, even though we’re not in competition with the Arabic-language news channels. They also helped us keep tabs on what stories were making headlines in the region. We had to keep an eye on them.”

Meeting the challenge

Pan-Arab news channels had thrown down the gauntlet, challenging not only the way the press covers the region, but how much coverage they devote to it. The BBC was among the first international networks to respond. In 2003, the British media network launched the Middle East Business Report, a weekly 30-minute television program covering business in the region that airs on BBC International. Peter Eustace, editor of the Television Section at the BBC’s Economics & Business Centre, says the show evolved out of the network’s recognition that the region had good stories that needed to be told. “We were looking to expand our Business Reports series and we were all very convinced by the early 2000s that there was real progress being made in the Middle East. The region’s economy was booming and this was one aspect of life in the region that people outside it didn’t know,” he explains.

Eustace says television was so saturated with images of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the War on Terror and fighting in Iraq that many western viewers simply couldn’t grasp the fact that life in the region did not revolve entirely around conflict. “There were some very interesting business stories to be told about the Middle East and we felt that we should tell them, not only because they were good stories, but also because it’s part of our role to our audiences to present the full picture,” he explains.

He says the BBC’s decision to launch Middle East Business Report came in response to the tangible economic transformations among countries in the region. Over the past decade, countries such as Egypt, United Arab Emirates and Qatar have transformed from sluggish bureaucracies and oil-based rent economies into vibrant free markets with diversified private sectors. “This is a region where the economies have been undergoing a transformation after being closed off to the international community for a very long time,” he says. “In terms of business, this is a big story that has to be told… There are tremendous opportunities for those looking to invest in the region.”

The editorial team at CNN International also saw good reasons to expand its coverage of the region. Also in 2003, the 24-hour news network launched Inside the Middle East, a monthly 30-minute news journal of economic, social and cultural reports from countries inside the region. “These were valid stories that needed to be told, but they didn’t get enough airtime because they were competing with breaking international news,” says Hala Gorani, the show’s host. “However, telling these stories through a program like this makes it a lot easier for these stories to get airtime.”

She explains that each episode is divided into an average of five reports from CNN correspondents and freelance local journalists. “Our mission statement is to cover the Middle East from a different angle. This doesn’t mean that we are going to ignore that there is war in Iraq or the fact that bombs go off and kill people because we’re journalists and that’s what people are interested in. But we have a monthly show to cover stories that a [traditional] half hour news program would not have the time to cover.”

Wedeman believes the new genre of soft news programming should help to broaden viewers’ perspectives on the region. “Many [viewers] don’t understand that life in this region is completely normal with an entertainment industry, people doing very big business, and people go to schools and malls,” he says. “Even in countries where full-fledged wars are taking place, the conflict might be in just one neighborhood in the city, [while] in the rest of the city, life is normal. This is what people can’t seem to get about this part of the world, and this is what coverage of other stories in the region will do.”

The business card

Alqadi says it’s hard to believe the big international news channels all of a sudden “sat up and realized that they’ve been unfair in their coverage of the region for the past 20 years and that the best solution was to launch region-specific programs,” he says. “The fact of the matter is they needed to expand their coverage of the region. Changing the way they cover politics is possible, however it’s a very touchy matter. But they can launch business programs about the region that would appeal to audiences without running the risk of alienating anyone. That’s why business news was a very popular choice as were other lighter news pieces.”

It’s no secret that producers take advertising into account when launching a program, asserts Hani Soubra, BBC’s Middle East, North America and Pakistan sales director. “Let’s face it, to launch a program, any program, you have to be sure that you can either sell advertising or have it sponsored,” he says. “If you’re [reporting on] the politics of the Middle East it could scare away some advertisers who don’t want to be accused, at any time, of siding with one party or another in any of the many conflicts in the region. Business, however, is very different. Simply put, there’s very little to worry about when it comes to placing an ad during a business segment or show [as opposed to] placing it in the middle of a political show or news segment.”

With less focus on thorny politics, advertisers – particularly multinationals engaged in or hoping to do business in the region – beefed up their ad budgets. Meanwhile, Middle East businesses – and even governments – recognize these regional news programs as vehicles for attracting investment and business partners. Orascom Telecom and Egypt’s Tourism Development Authority are two of CNN Inside the Middle East’s biggest sponsors, their slick ads occupying the show’s prime slots. Meanwhile, Vodafone International, Nissan and Iraqna are among the most visible sponsors of the BBC’s Middle East Business Report.

According to Hamdy, the influx of advertising on these international channels comes as a result of a paradigm shift in media relations in the region. “Suddenly it dawned on businessmen and government officials that with the increased interest by the press, the best mode of behavior is not to shut down and become evasive, [but rather] to provide information to the press because otherwise they will loose the opportunity to promote their products and initiatives to the international community,” she says.

Governments in particular have become more responsive to the press, says Gorani, who feels this new openness has made her job easier. “There was an overall change in the way that governments view access to information and the role of the press,” she says. “Traditionally it would take us days and sometimes weeks to track and secure an interview; now it’s as simple as a phone call. [We are able to get] interviews with officials in the region who we never thought we could access before.”

Alqadi credits the Arabic media networks, not their foreign counterparts, for creating greater transparency in the region. “The media has always been a political tool in this region. Information was always controlled. However, the presence of television channels such as Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya gave people an alternative source of information, so the only choice that governments had was to change the way they provide coverage,” he says.

But it didn’t come easy. Al Jazeera in particular weathered a storm of criticism, first by the international community for its “Arabic propaganda” and then by regional state officials over its relentless attacks on their governments and its uncanny ability to dig up all sorts of skeletons in their closets. While the public was often already aware of these scandalous items, they rarely made it onto the air. It was the first time for Middle East governments, accustomed to having control over all terrestrial TV broadcasts, to have to reckon with them.

In response, some governments launched smear campaigns against the Qatari station; others arrested and deported the network’s correspondents. But when these tactics only appeared to give Al Jazeera credibility, governments not only agreed to improve access to state officials and data, but changed the format of state-run news services. “We were the ones who had to [bear the brunt] of this anger, but in the long term it paid off for us in credibility.”

Furthermore, he continues, by educating the public about business and particularly capital markets, the Arabic-language news channels created a greater public awareness that helped make business in the region more transparent. “We created this awareness because we believed that if we had the chance to build up the public’s information about business in the region, then business in the region would flourish,” Alqadi explains. “We [Al Jazeera] were the first to begin to cover business in the Middle East because we knew that there was a good story to be told about the economies of the region to the residents of the Middle East, but also to the international community. And everyone followed suit.”

Raising the bar

Certainly a more educated public is a more demanding public. In an effort to better connect with the Middle East’s local audiences and advertisers, international news organizations have introduced Arabic content. Both CNN and BBC have launched online Arabic versions of their websites, while BBC also broadcasts its radio service in Arabic. Similarly, international news magazine Newsweek began publishing an Arabic version of the weekly in 2003.

For the first time, these news outlets are able to reach people who speak only Arabic. Gorani sees this as a positive development, as it will give the local populace more access to varied media opinion. “Media organizations have been launching websites and radio in Arabic to reduce the language barrier,” she says. “I would not be surprised if we see Arabic-language channels launched very soon.”

Probably sooner rather than later. The BBC and CNN are rumored to conducting feasibility studies on the possibility of launching Arabic news channels to compete with Al Jazeera’s growing repertoire of specialized news channels.

The increased interest in the region from outside, and the challenge of more credible coverage from inside, has put pressure on international networks to raise the bar on their reporting. Increasingly, they are selecting correspondents that speak fluent Arabic, have spent a large portion of their lives in the region, or are of Arabic descent. Gorani, who has Syrian-American parentage, says this trend will only serve to improve the content and credibility of the news. “There is no way for anyone to see the fact that I have Arab origins as a bad thing because it gives me great cultural awareness so that I can understand how to tell the story,” she says. “This is also true of journalists who have been covering the region for a very long time. They understand the region and the way it works.”

Wedeman knows it better than most. The veteran journalist holds a master’s degree in Arabic translation and has spent over 16 years covering the region, eight as CNN’s Cairo bureau chief. While he says it’s impossible to find experts in every field in every country, news agencies prefer their correspondents to be specialists. “There have been times when I was sent on assignment in countries I knew nothing about,” he admits. “In the Middle East [in particular] it’s very complicated to have people parachuted into it. There’s more room for error.”

While international news agencies are trying to Arabize their content to tap into the local market, Al Jazeera has created an English-language news website and is currently preparing to launch an English-language news channel. The 24-hour satellite news channel is hiring recognized local and foreign news anchors and correspondents to present the news in English to viewers outside the region. “We gave the public in the region an alternative source of news and we will do the same for the international community,” says Alqadi. “This is how we can also make the effort to provide balanced coverage of the region in the same way that the international press is trying to tap into our audiences. I think this is the new trend, and I think it’s a very important one.”

And one that is not likely to end anytime soon. “I don’t think that this region is likely to fall out of favor with the press,” says Wedeman. “I think that we’re going to see this interest only intensify over the years and I think that it’s a good thing because despite how often this region is in the press, it’s only recently that we’ve seen people truly paying attention to the way it’s portrayed and maybe getting to know the truth about it.”

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