Problems Arabic Media Faces Today - Essay Example

Running Head: Problems Arabic Media faces today Problems Arabic Media faces today [Institute's ProblemsArabic Media faces today Introduction to Culture When we study different culture's and try to understand different cultural situations, we learn the peoples beliefs on health and of different areas. As we move from one culture to different cultures we have in mind that there is something good in every culture, which means that cultures differs from other cultures and it is not necessarily wrong. In order to understand different cultures we need to understand their different beliefs, which differs from culture to culture, and keeping that in mind bring upon meaningful change. These cultural beliefs can be divided into three different criteria's; helpful, harmful or neither helpful nor harmful. We have to carefully access each belief by keeping in mind these different criteria's, which will help us, give our responses and will result in a well orientated research from which actions will take place. In short, we can say that culture can be known as the identity of a person, which varies from person to person. (Traditional beliefs and health problems, 1, n.d) Arabic Culture When we talk about Arab culture, there are many cultures because of which we can not say that the Arab culture comprises of only one culture, but this comprises of many cultures which is vary vast and rich in communities, groups and cultures. Within the countries there exist many different cultures due to which there are differences amongst themselves, which is not amongst the countries but within the countries as well. Arab is territory which ranges from Morocco across Northern Africa and then to the Persian Gulf. Arab countries are also being termed as Middle East and North Africa. The key component of Arab countries is that they are religious and culturally different having Islam as their most dominant religion. They include different races such as Muslims, Christians and Jews. Religion does play a vital role in the Arab countries and their politics. It has been observed that all Muslims are Arabs and all the Arabs are Muslims which is a wrong conception. Their culture is a civilized one in which the modern cities combine with the ancient cities. Religion plays a vital role in politics of the country. In the Arab countries women are subordinates of men in the society, which is being varied from country to country. Arabian Peninsula have the most restricted condition over women as compared to other countries such as Egypt and Lebanon, the women have less restrictions and are able to work with men in the society. They respect their families and friends and they act as a center for the Arabs in which Men are always the head of the family. (Arab Cultural Awareness, 1, 2006) Problems faced by Arab Media Today the Arab media is facing problems which include political, social, and cultural problems. It all began after the disastrous tragedy of 9/11, when the US government was shocked by attacks on them and Arab media played a major role to expose all the related information of the environment. The Arab media displayed the entire real picture of the on screen events as well as behind the scene. At that time, the US government was of the point of view that how the Arab media was showing and informing the people's mind. They launched an investigation into this matter to find out the real picture. Americans deeply investigated into the matters at how they are revealing information which has not been revealed before. All this started to cause problems for the Arab media which was researching deep analysis into the matters and providing information against the US Government. (Arab Media, 1, 2005) Cultural problems faced by Arab Media In the Arab countries companies are of the point of view not to leak out any sort of information which can be processed by the journalists. They try and keep things to themselves and do not share their internal information. The companies do not want themselves to be transparent. Such lack of transparency is because they do not rely on the government to publish their business news. Due to such views the journalists have to publish news relying on the rumors, which are basically not true and due to this give a misconception to the general public. These rumors do not affect the local companies of the Arab because they do not rely or respond to them. The companies do not share or talk about their companies and also the local people in the Arab countries do not like talking about their families, society or their culture. Hence the expatriates living in an Arab country know very little about their companies. The media faces a challenge to provide news which is accurate, but due to such theories they have to rely on rumors rather than on truth. It has also been revealed that the Arab countries being one of the noticed ones still refuses or are reluctant to speak about their society, corporate and government issues in public. The prime reason behind this is that they are still stuck at their culture, which restricts them to speak openly about themselves. More importantly in the Arab countries there are many foreigners residing, almost estimate of 90%, which means that the Emiratis are in a minority so they do not want to discuss their issues in common public. They do not speak about themselves and yet if someone speaks he is being silenced immediately. Arab media due to that are restricted in many manners and can not reveal the inside information of the Emiratis. Due to the fact that they do not reveal information the accurate data and figures are not evident, and only the local government is aware of such facts and figures. The public are limited to information and even Arab media which has played a role in giving information about different facts internationally can not reveal these facts and figures. According to the new law being imposed in the Arab countries all the public companies are required to disclose their annual results. There are two types of companies, big and local, which regards to family businesses and government owned corporations. Private companies due to the law that has been imposed by the government do not co-operate as they finance their dealings with personal credit and do not need to tell whether they had a profitable year or not. Both the types stay reluctant and due to this they are being regarded as suspicious companies. Media due to this can just assume, as they do not have the real facts and figures. The companies are also conservative about the arrests, deals and how the company is being run apart from facts and figures. Also in the Arab countries most multimillion companies are run over relationships and they deal with each other only. That is why it is evident that the cultural norms play a huge factor in the Arab countries and all the business companies can not ignore this fact as the business has to be run according to the local culture. The lack of transparency and accountability is the major cause of Arab media not being able to provide information and facts to the public due to which the public are quite conservative in their approach. Arab media has to assume such information and then show it, giving the general public misconceptions. (Baltaji, 1, n.d) Social Problems faced by Arab Media It has been studied recently that 3% of the Arabs read newspaper daily and the others rely on the electronic media. This is due to the low illiteracy rate in the Arab countries and most of the Arabs can not read. In the Arab countries the media is being controlled by the state, or Arabs which are abundant in oil resources. The media which exists in Arab countries is largely biased and has incomplete information or has a one sided information due to which they suffer different consequences, such as suspicion from the US government. They usually create misconceptions in the people's mind by giving different western views and critical updates are almost absent. The most recent example has been the journalist from Iraq, Muntather Al Zaidi, which has been regarded as a hero. They exaggerate and extensively discuss the torture faced by Abu Ghraib in Iraqi prison but do not show the torture that has prisoners in the Arab prisons are suffering. Due to this Arab media has been facing problems from the Western countries as they hush up corruption practices of their local people, and exaggerate and discuss different agendas of the corruption practices by the Western countries. The journalist are filled with sentiments rather than with facts due to which they provide unclear picture to the viewers about the West and those journalist who try to stress on the real side of the story are considered as biased and have a risk of losing his job. Also it has been pointed out that when journalists opposes the Americans and the Israelis and regard them as devil, the editor supports you and praises your work. Such problem has surrounded the Arab media and the Western countries are opposing and causing problems for them ever since the tragedy of the World Trade Center. The media which are being controlled by the State contain free analysis and report, which is being censored by the editors loyal to the government. Thus collectively they provide such facts and information that discredits America. Due to such irrational information which opposes America the media has been facing problems and are restricted in the Western countries. Americans have been strongly the Arab media in all parts of the world thus causing problems for them. Israeli government in relation to different opposes from the Arab media also started revealing information against the Arab media and Muslims in particular. (Alrabaa, 1, 2009) Political Problems faced by Arab Media Almost all the countries politics have relationship with the media and politics play a major role in the media as they keep a close look at how the media is operating in the environment. Arab media also have deep relationship with the politics of the country and they are subjected to different constraints and imperatives that are being imposed by the government. Government generally imposes restrictions such as culture, obeying the laws, and realities of economics. When the Arab countries are deeply studied we come across three different typologies; mobilization, loyalist and diverse types. In the mobilization type of media there is no opposition as it is being controlled by small groups. These political parties which are small in number do not compete for political superiority and also do not have elections. Such groups have monopoly of power where the journalist or media can not criticize the leaders or the policy set forth by the government. The group of leaders not only prevents the media from opposing the leaders but also use media as a tool to gather support for the political group. Sometimes the media is being controlled by the regime but most often they let the private people own such firms and controlling them in all the matters related to the country, whether directly or indirectly. In this way the Arab media is restricted to show information opposing their leaders. The second type is the loyalist media in which the as similar to the mobilization there are no political parties or elections but they have a more passive approach than compared to the mobilization type. They do not have aggressive approach to the media in opposing the media but rather they want the media not to oppose important policies of the government. They do not exercise direct control over the media but indirectly changes the laws so as to prevent media from being criticizing the government policies. They let the media be controlled by the private owners rather than running the matters themselves. The journalist and media can criticize the lower level policies of the government but do not exceed too much as the law does not allow them to do such practices. Finally there is a diverse type of media which is completely different from the other two types where the media can express their emotions freely. There are some limitations but that are very minimal if compared to the other two types. Media is controlled by the private and also the political parties which freely express their views. As there is different control over the media some media criticizes the government and their policies in order to change them into a better one, in their prospectus, and the other media channels defend policies of the government. Thus, political situation of the country plays a vital role by which the media is being governed and controlled in order to give a clear view to the general public about the situation of the country; domestically as well as internationally. (Rugh, 1, 2007) Conclusion This paper presents the different problems that the Arab problems are facing; social, culture, and political. Culture can be known as the identity of a person and the most important task of a country's media is show facts concerning their culture. Culture differs from one area to another and the culture basically presents the way the people think and do the things. There are many people who do not believe in following their culture but still there are many people who do believe in their culture and also follow the cultural beliefs. Although it is a fact that cultures provide sound remedies that are sometimes very much beneficial for the media but it does not happen always because the human response to the events is not always the same. The Arab countries do not like to share information about them which is why the media can not provide the general public with all the details rather they have to assume a lot of things. In business terms the media does not get the information or the real facts or figures which are why they assume and give a picture that the businesses in Arab countries are progressing very smoothly regardless of what the fact is and due to such assumptions the people are given an unclear picture. The Arab countries after the aftermath of World Trade Center displayed valuable information about how the tragedy occurred and the results after the tragedy. The US government was shocked at the revealed information by the Arab media and created problems for them by investigating how they were able to provide such information. Apart from this the Arab media always targeted the Americans and the Israeli people and revealed such information which could discredit them. The main aim of the Arab media was to provide information which systematically targeted the Western countries due to which all the Western countries have been criticizing them and standing against them. The western countries in relation to this have been opposing the entire Muslim community and creating problems for not only the Arab Media but also the Muslims in particular. The politics of a country plays a major role for the media structure and the information which is circulated by the journalists. There are different political parties which does not like the media to speak openly and against their rules and policies. Such political parties restrict media from different tasks and pass laws in order to restrict them violating their policies. They restrict them and also use media as a tool for the awareness of themselves rather than providing the general public with useful information that can help the country in its development. Hence political parties use media as a means of awareness of political parties and impose restrictions which limit them in informing the people with facts. Finally the main problem Arab media has faced is because they have been supporting their own culture. But the Western countries are of the point of view that the Arab media has been defending Muslims as a whole which is why they have been opposing and creating problems for them by launching problems through media. References Traditional Beliefs and Health Problems (no date) http://tilz.tearfund.org/Publications/Footsteps+1-10/Footsteps+8/Traditional+beliefs+and+health+problems.htm Accessed April 25, 2009 Arab Cultural Awareness (2006) http://72.14.235.132/searchq=cache:xsth-9A--JsJ:graphics8.nytimes.com/images/blogs/thelede/posts/arabculture.pdf+Arabic+Cultures&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=pk Accessed April 25, 2009 Arab Media: Tools for the Government (2005) http://www.usip.org/virtualdiplomacy/publications/reports/18.html Accessed April 26, 2009 Dana El-Baltaji (no date) http://www.arabmediasociety.com/index.phparticle=700&p=0 Accessed April 26, 2009 Dr. Sami Alrabaa (2009) http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.3021/pub_detail.asp Accessed April 26, 2009 William A. Rugh (2007) http://www.arabmediasociety.com/index.phparticle=225&p=0 Accessed April 26, 2009 Read More