Module ARA3049 for 2021/2
- Overview
- Aims and Learning Outcomes
- Module Content
- Indicative Reading List
- Assessment
Undergraduate Module Descriptor
ARA3049: Media, Culture and Politics in the Middle East
This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.
Module Aims
The module is designed to cover a broad range of topics including the history and development of the Arab press, the role played by radio and television in the national building process, the relationship between cinema and literature, the rise of satellite television and the Al-Jazeera phenomenon and the advent of digital media. Media will be analysed in relation to the rise of specific genres (soap operas, reality shows, auto fictional blogs, YouTube comedies) and specific historical moments which shook the region (e.g. the coup of 1952 in Egypt, the Iranian revolution of 1979, the Arab Spring).
By employing media research drawn from interdisciplinary sources, the course examines a range of cultural, theoretical and comparative research undertaken in the field. The purpose of the module is to engage students in critical thinking and analyses beyond the academic environment, understand global phenomena and work with others in shared projects.
The class format (mini-lectures, class discussions, presentations, group work, screenings and interactions with guest speakers) combined to the interdisciplinary nature of the module and the variety of materials (books, articles, think tank publications, documentaries, films, social media outlets, news outlets) aim to widen your understanding of the region and equip you with new tools of analysis which can support you as academics, independent researchers and practitioners.
| On successfully completing the programme you will be able to: | |
|---|---|
| Module-Specific Skills | 1. Demonstrate factual and theoretical understanding of important media issues and trends in the Middle East 2. Demonstrate detailed knowledge of the role media plays in Middle Eastern culture and politics |
| Discipline-Specific Skills | 3. Employ and analyse a growing and diverse body of literature and scholarship and a variety of approaches to studying Arab media 4. Demonstrate how to link theory to practice and apply concepts learnt in a global perspective |
| Personal and Key Skills | 5. Conduct critical and thorough analyses of the subject topics in written work and oral presentation 6. Demonstrate high degree of autonomy and effective collaboration when conducting research 7. Demonstrate high quality of research, evaluation and synthesis from a wide range of sources |
Indicative Reading List
This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.
Sreberny, Annabelle. “The Analytic Challenges of Studying the Middle East and its Evolving Media Environment.” Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication 1.1 (2008): 8-23.
Sabry, Tarik. “Arab Media and Cultural Studies: Rehearsing New Questions.” In Kai Hafez (ed.), Arab Media: Power and Weakness (New York: Continuum, 2008), pp. 237-51.
Dajani, Nabil. “Arab Press.” In Noha Mellor, Muhammad Ayish, Nabil Dajani & Khalil Rinnawi (eds), Arab Media Globalization and Emerging Media Industries (Cambridge: Polity, 2011), pp. 45-66.
Kraidy, Marwan M. & Khalil, Joe F. Arab Television Industries (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009). Chapter 1: A Short History of Arab Television”, pp. 9-32.
Rugh, William A. “Arab Information Media: Function and Structure.” In The Arab Press: News Media and Political Process in the Arab World (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2004), pp. 1-27
Mellor, Noha. Modern Arab Journalism: Problems and Perspectives (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007). Mellor, Noha. The Making of Arab News (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield: 2005).
Zayani, Mohamed. “Courting and Containing the Arab Street: Arab Public Opinion, the Middle East and U.S. Public Diplomacy." Arab Studies Quarterly 30.2 (2008): 45-64.
Lynch, Marc. Voices of the New Arab Public: Iraq, Al Jazeera, and Middle East Politics Today (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006). (Chapter i)
Zayani, Mohamed (ed.). The Al Jazeera Phenomenon: Critical Perspectives on new Arab Media (London: Pluto Press, 2005). Zayani, Mohamed and Sofiane Sahraoui. The Culture of Al Jazeera: Inside an Arab Media Giant. (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2007).
Seib, Philip. The Al Jazeera Effect: How the New Global Media are Reshaping World Politics (Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books, 2008). (Chapter vii: Transforming the Middle East, pp. 141-173).
Alterman, Jon B. New Media, New Politics: From Satellite Television to the Internet in the Arab World (Washington: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 1998).
Anabelle Sreberney and Ali Mohammadi. Small Media, Big Revolution: Communication, Culture, and the Iranian Revolution (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1994)
Wheeler, Deborah L. The Internet in the Middle East: Global Expectations and Local Imaginations in Kuwait (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2006).
Herrera, Linda. “Egypt’s Revolution 2.0: The Facebook Factor.” In Iskandar, Adel and Haddad, Bassam (eds). Mediating the Arab Uprisings (Washington, DC: Tadween Publishing, 2013)
Armbrust, Walter. “Synchronizing Watches: The State, the Consumer, and Sacred Time in Ramadan Television.” In Birgit Meyer and Annaleis Moors (eds), Religion, Media and the Public Sphere (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005), pp. 207-226.
Thussu, Daya Kishan (ed.). Media on the Move: Global Flow and Contra-Flow (London: Routledge, 2007).
Mernissi, Fatema. “The Satellite, the Prince and Sheherazade: The Rise of Women as Communicators in Digital Islam”, Transnational Broadcasting Studies, No. 12 (Spring 2004),
Sakr, Naomi. Women and Media in the Middle East: Power through Self Expression (London: I.B. Tauris, 2004). (Chapter i: Women-Media Interaction in the Middle East, pp. 1-14)
Matar, Dina. “Heya TV: A Feminist Counterpublic for Arab Women?” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 27.3 (2007): 13-24.
