The advent of satellite television and its adoption in the Maghreb brought about a profound social change. This book, which explores the relationships between the media and the public sphere, shows that the simple and quotidian act of watching satellite television as opposed to national television mobilizes novel ways of expressing identities along with a range of critical positions targeting political regimes. By bringing certain topics hitherto hardly present to the center of homes, the media reveals the pivotal functions of gender relations, which are today at the heart of social and political matters in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. Based on extensive fieldwork, this book offers a unique interpretation of the use of satellite television in authoritarian contexts and contributes to a better understanding of the media and the political public sphere. The book will interest teachers and students in communication, political studies, gender studies, sociology and anthropology of the Arab worlds and the Mediterranean.

The introduction of satellite television and Web-based communications in traditional societies are often taken as manifestations of a new more democratic public sphere. In the book this Western intellectual tradition is taken to task for failing to grasp the real dynamics of an Arab public sphere that has yet to be realized. The author argues that we could not conceive of the Arab public sphere outside the boundaries of sustainable egalitarian and participatory political developments in Arabian societies.Ayish harnesses the notion of 'Islamocracy' or Islamic democracy to put forward a new public sphere perspective that draws on both Islamic moral values and contemporary political practices. According to the author, this synthesist approach holds a great promise both for inter-Arab World communications as well as for dialogue with other cultures based on mutual recognition and peaceful coexistence. Muhammad I. Ayish is Professor and Dean of the College of Communication at the University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates.He holds a Ph.D. in international communication (University of Minnesota, Twin-Cities). Ayish has published two books and over 50 articles in both Arabic and English on issues ranging from political communication to media convergence to war coverage to women representation.

Over the last several years, the debate about publics seems to have newly emerged. This debate critically reflects the Habermasian ideal of a (national) public sphere in a transnational context. However, it seems that the issue of a reconstruction of a global public sphere is more complex. In this brilliant and provocative book, Ingrid Volkmer argues that a reflective approach of globalization is required in order to identify and deconstruct key strata of deliberate public discourse in supra- and subnational societal formations. This construction helps to understand the new processes of legitimacy at the beginning of the 21st century in which the traditional conception of a ‘public’ and its role as a legitimizing force are being challenged and transformed. The book unfolds this key phenomenon of global deliberate interconnectedness as a discursive and negotiated dimension within ‘reflective’ globalization, i.e. continuously constituting, maintaining and refining the ‘life’ of the global public and conceptualizes a global public sphere. Offering insightful case studies to illustrate this new theory of the global public sphere, the book will be essential reading for students and scholars of media and communication studies , and social and political theory.

In the last ten years, television has reinvented itself in numerous ways. The demise of the U.S. three-network system, the rise of multi-channel cable and global satellite delivery, changes in regulation policies and ownership rules, technological innovations in screen design, and the development of digital systems like TiVo have combined to transform the practice we call watching tv. If tv refers to the technologies, program forms, government policies, and practices of looking associated with the medium in its classic public service and three-network age, it appears that we are now entering a new phase of television. Exploring these changes, the essays in this collection consider the future of television in the United States and Europe and the scholarship and activism focused on it. With historical, critical, and speculative essays by some of the leading television and media scholars, Television after TV examines both commercial and public service traditions and evaluates their dual (and some say merging) fates in our global, digital culture of convergence. The essays explore a broad range of topics, including contemporary programming and advertising strategies, the use of television and the Internet among diasporic and minority populations, the innovations of new technologies like TiVo, the rise of program forms from reality tv to lifestyle programs, television’s changing role in public places and at home, the Internet’s use as a means of social activism, and television’s role in education and the arts. In dialogue with previous media theorists and historians, the contributors collectively rethink the goals of media scholarship, pointing toward new ways of accounting for television’s past, present, and future. Contributors. William Boddy, Charlotte Brunsdon, John T. Caldwell, Michael Curtin, Julie D’Acci, Anna Everett, Jostein Gripsrud, John Hartley, Anna McCarthy, David Morley, Jan Olsson, Priscilla Peña Ovalle, Lisa Parks, Jeffrey Sconce, Lynn Spigel, William Uricchio

A global perspective on the nature and evolution of nationalism, from the early modern era to the present The current rise of nationalism across the globe is a reminder that we are not, after all, living in a borderless world of virtual connectivity. In Nationalism, historian Eric Storm sheds light on contemporary nationalist movements by exploring the global evolution of nationalism, beginning with the rise of the nation-state in the eighteenth century through the revival of nationalist ideas in the present day. Storm traces the emergence of the unitary nation-state—which brought citizenship rights to some while excluding a multitude of “others”—and the pervasive spread of nationalist ideas through politics and culture. Storm shows how nationalism influences the arts and humanities, mapping its dissemination through newspapers, television, and social media. Sports and tourism, too, have helped fashion a world of discrete nations, each with its own character, heroes, and highlights. Nationalism saturates the physical environment, not only in the form of national museums and patriotic statues but also in efforts to preserve cultural heritage, create national parks, invent ethnic dishes and beverages, promote traditional building practices, and cultivate native plants. Nationalism has even been used for selling cars, furniture, and fashion. By tracing these tendencies across countries, Storm shows that nationalism’s watershed moments were global. He argues that the rise of new nation-states was largely determined by shifts in the international context, that the relationships between nation-states and their citizens largely developed according to global patterns, and that worldwide intellectual trends influenced the nationalization of both culture and environment. Over the centuries, nationalism has transformed both geopolitics and the everyday life of ordinary people.

Algeria: Nation, Culture and Transnationalism covers a specific period of time (1988-2015) that has taken on a significantly different socio-political configuration to that of the first 25 years of post-independence Algeria (1962-1987).

"Book Abstract: The sociology of the Middle East has been an expanding field of inquiry since the aftermath of WWII when phenomena as diverse as urbanization, internal and international migration, and peasant societies attracted the attention of scholars working on the region. The Middle East became central in key sociological debates on modernization theory and the critical responses. The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of the Middle East connects this historical trajectory with the emergence of the sociology of Islam, inspired by Max Weber. It explores how within the global community, the Middle East has become a terrain of heightened concern within the post-Cold War context, where the promising rise of civic (and often religiously-inspired) sociopolitical movements in the 1980s and 1990s has been slowly overwhelmed by the affirmation of jihadist networks, authoritarian states, and complex supranational security apparatuses. This foundational volume starts by engaging in a critical examination of the field itself, starting with a historical sociology of the making of the idea itself of the Middle East and linking it with the legacy of colonialism and the evolving dynamics of global power. In repurposing the sociology of the Middle East within a growing interdisciplinary multifield, the Handbook develops the critical argument that the exploration of social dynamics in the Middle East cannot be disjoined from the analysis of culture and politics. By connecting the vexed state-society relations in the region with movements of transformation and the affirmation of rights and creativity in the public arenas, it provides a comprehensive perspective to investigate longstanding regional and new transregional and global dynamics and their impact on the life of people in the region. Keywords: sociology of the Middle East, sociology of Islam, Max Weber, historical sociology, Middle East and North Africa region, MENA"--

Building on a growing body of literature, this Handbook provides an up-to-date and authoritative survey of Arab cinema. The collection includes contributions from academics and filmmakers from across the Arab region, Europe, and North America, and fills a gap in media studies by examining the entire Arab region, rather than focusing on one country or theme. The Handbook also sheds light on the heterogeneity of Arab filmmaking not only within the Arab region, but also globally, within diasporic communities. It is split into six parts: Part 1 provides an overview of each sub-region in the Arab world, including a chapter on Arab animation films. Parts 2, 3, and 4 address topical themes, encompassing the representation of gender, religion, and identity politics in Arab cinema. Part 5 discusses the theme of diaspora and Part 6 concludes the volume with reflective essays penned by selected diasporic filmmakers. This book is an essential reference for Arab media and cinema scholars, students, and professional filmmakers. With case studies from across the Arab region, it's also a valuable resource for anyone interested in film and media, global cinema, and the Middle East generally.

Recent events such as ‘Iran’s Green Revolution’ and the ‘Arab Uprisings’ have exploded notions that human rights are irrelevant to Middle Eastern and North African politics. Increasingly seen as a global concern, human rights are at the fulcrum of the region’s on-the-ground politics, transnational intellectual debates, and global political intersections. The Routledge Handbook on Human Rights and the Middle East and North Africa: emphasises the need to consider human rights in all their dimensions, rather than solely focusing on the political dimension, in order to understand the structural reasons behind the persistence of human rights violations; explores the various frameworks in which to consider human rights—conceptual, political and transnational/international; discusses issue areas subject to particularly intense debate—gender, religion, sexuality, transitions and accountability; contains contributions from perspectives that span from global theory to grassroots reflections, emphasising the need for academic work on human rights to seriously engage with the thoughts and practices of those working on the ground. A multidisciplinary approach from scholars with a wide range of expertise allows the book to capture the complex dynamics by which human rights have had, or could have, an impact on Middle Eastern and North African politics. This book will therefore be a key resource for students and scholars of Middle Eastern and North African politics and society, as well as anyone with a concern for Human Rights across the globe.

The Handbook of Global Media Research “Ingrid Volkmer has collected an admirably rich, thought-provoking, and diverse collection of views to guide critical scholarship as our topic (‘the media’ and ‘media cultures’), methods (which must now be comparative), and the knowledge we produce are all transformed by globalization” Sonia Livingstone, author of Media Regulation: Governance and the Interests of Citizens and Consumers “In this handbook, leading academic and practitioner analysts give us valuable insight into globalized forms of communication, their diversity, the global/local dialectic, and the challenges of critical historical and comparative study of transnational media and communication.” Robin Mansell, author of Imagining the Internet: Communication, Innovation, and Governance “With a stellar list of contributors and an engagement with the global that both traces and transcends its boundaries, Ingrid Volkmer’s volume is the cardinal chart of our media worlds.” Mark Deuze, author of Media Life and Media Works “This is a long-overdue volume. The distinguished contributors to The Handbook of Global Media Research have produced a challenging and authoritative guide to understanding the latest developments in global media.” Thomas R. Lindlof, University of Kentucky As new forms of media proliferate, and communication becomes ever more global, transnational media is increasingly capable of both enhancing political, cultural, and economic globalization and shaping worldviews and civic identity. Research into the development of transnational media is therefore an essential element of understanding the changes created by advanced globalization. The Handbook of Global Media Research explores and articulates the key themes and competing approaches of this dynamic and developing field. Bringing together the ideas of more than 40 internationally respected authors from around the world, it provides valuable and varied insights into a globalized media landscape, setting the agenda for the future of transnational media and communications research.