Shift or Stasis| The Business Push and Audience Pull in Arab Entertainment Television

Authors

  • Joe F. Khalil Northwestern University in Qatar

Keywords:

Arab, television, global media, localization, format TV, entertainment, audiences, YouTube

Abstract

This article seeks to identify complex dynamics in Arab media. It argues that Arab entertainment television is subject to twin processes of “business push” and “local audience pull.” It also illustrates how multiple power structures hinder or facilitate these processes. Using an overview of the past five years in Arab entertainment television, the article analyzes transformative practices that illustrate key fractures in global media codistribution, format television, and media investments, as well as signs of the reassertion of national broadcasters and the impact of the YouTube phenomenon. The article argues for investigating the push/pull vectors that foster links and interactions more than actors and structures. This approach is required to better understand current global media permutations.

Author Biography

Joe F. Khalil, Northwestern University in Qatar

Joe F. Khalil, Ph.D., is an associate professor in residence at Northwestern University and visiting research fellow at the London School of Economics. He is a leading expert on Arab television production and programming. He has more than fifteen years of professional television experience as director, executive producer and consultant with major Arab satellite channels. He is author of a monograph on Arab satellite entertainment television and co-author of Arab Television Industries (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009, with Marwan Kraidy). His scholarly articles appeared in Transnational Broadcasting Studies, Arab Media and Culture, Television and New Media as well as several anthologies including Encyclopedia of Social Movement Media, International Handbook of Children Media and Culture, and Meanings of Audiences. He is currently working his book manuscript on Youth-Generated Media.

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Published

2016-07-19

Issue

Vol. 10 (2016)

Section

Special Sections

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