continued: "American-Style Journalism and Arab World Television: An Exploratory Study of News Selection at Six Arab World Satellite Television Channels" by Muhammed I. Ayish

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References Tables

The Television Journalism Model Components
The new evolving television journalism model dominant in Arab television news seems to share two major features with American-style journalism: sensationalism and technical formats. On the other hand, it differs from the American model in two other features: commitment to issues of concern to viewers and emphasis on political news to the exclusion of human interest news.

a) Sensationalism: The use of television as a sensational medium of communication in the Arab world has been evident in the extensive use of video and images about demonstrators. The video film about the Palestinian boy Mohammed Al Durra being shot to death while lying in the lap of his grieving father was sufficient to attract viewers' attention and inflame anti-Israeli sentiments. Other images of stone-throwing Palestinians facing heavily armed Israeli soldiers and tanks added a great deal of drama to the coverage of events in the West Bank and Gaza. Similar images and video scenes of the fighting in Afghanistan and the Ivory Coast also reflected the playing up of violence as a means of catching viewers' attention. In two of the services covered by the study, the use of a video film showing some black South Africans being attacked by police dogs represented an over-dramatization of events to which exposure may not lead to favorable consequences. Another video scene also described a mob attack on a lone man in the Ivory Coast. The man was beaten to death on camera.

The sensational component in Arab world television news may be explained in two ways: to attract viewers' attention to the atrocities committed by Israeli forces against Palestinian civilians, especially children, using video scenes shot mostly by each station's crew in the West Bank and Gaza. Video scenes dealing with events in Afghanistan, the Ivory Coast, and South Africa do not seem to reflect purposeful political attitudes on the part of broadcasters, who used those items as received from international newsfilm agencies.

It should be noted that sensational news items on some satellite television newscasts are accompanied by heavy entertainment programming in which central cultural and religious values are ignored. The showing of semi-nude women on LBC and the production and transmission of liberal musical and game shows on ADSC and SSC seem to contravene the basic tenets of Arab-Islamic culture. This outrageous entertainment content was clearly noted on Lebanese channels as well as on ART and Orbit.

b) Technical Features: American television newscasts have traditionally followed a structured format drawing on field reports as the basic unit of the news program. A studio-based anchorperson serves to introduce reports dispatched by correspondents and reporters and to conduct in-studio and remote interviews. Professionally produced newscasts are those with rich visual and graphic materials, short fast-paced items, and timely or live delivery of news. This format has dominated a growing number of Arab world television channels for numerous reasons. First, the conventional on-camera or voiceover formats has proved a failure as viewers began to turn to sleek and visually attractive news programs carried by international television services like CNN, whose Western-style news layout seems to have had a notable impact on Arab world television news programs. Second, a new generation of television executives and practitioners with solid professional training in Western media settings ahs pushed for the opening up of traditionally closed media systems, including news formats and delivery modes. This feature has been quite evident in the news programs of ADSC, Al-Jazeera, MBC, and LBC. The Syrian Satellite Channel continues to follow a traditional format drawing on voiceovers and on-camera items. The introduction of these technical features has been viewed as an integral component of a professional broadcast outlook. The use of digital and computer-based technologies in television news production is thus taken as a craft governed by professional standards that bear heavily not only on message format, but on content as well.

The realization of the visual potential of television in Arab world television programs may fall in tune with an emerging fast-paced life in modern Arab societies. On the other hand, the presentation of news in discrete short news "capsules" may not effectively appeal to viewers who are used to detailed and mostly redundant media messages. LBC's flash news reports, sometimes no longer than 30 seconds, may serve to confuse viewers who are thirsty for news about developments bearing on their personal lives in the region. In the case of LBC in particular, this very short news item format seems to be complicated by the channel's resort to colloquial Lebanese language in some of its field reports. In the other stations, the duration of news reports varies from one minute to three and a half minutes, allowing viewers to gain more information about the event or issue being reported.

On the other hand, for young viewers in tune with computer-based interactive technologies, the sleek newscast formats seem to be the most appealing. Young viewers seem to be attracted mostly to the conversational nature of news delivery, the use of digital technologies and virtual designs and the timely reporting of events from around the world. In the cases of ADSC, Al-Jazeera, and MBC, a good number of interviews were conducted live with personalities in the West Bank and some Arab capitals. Al-Jazeera went one step further by showing live footage of clashes in Jerusalem between Palestinian stone throwers and heavily armed Israeli soliders.

c) Politics as the News of All News: The fact that the Middle East has been experiencing political developments in the past 50 years seems to have created deep consciousness among people in the region of the centrality of politics in shaping their lives. The term politics denotes the activities of national leaders and relations among countries. Because television has evolved as a government institution in the Arab world, political news was bound to top news agendas. In the American journalism model, news is defined in terms of what is fit to print. News is selected on the basis of criteria of worthiness deemed appropriate by gatekeepers according to well-established practices and norms. According to this definition, politics may not by itself be newsworthy unless it deals with issues that are important, relevant, timely, and with significant consequences for the audience.

The nature of Middle East developments over the past 50 years seems to have placed political news on top of media agendas at the expense of cultural and human interest news. One implication of this trend has been the production of elitist news programs that seem to be little concerned with developments relating to grassroots groups and organizations falling outside existing political arrangements at local and regional Arab world levels. The playing up of political news has also come at the expense of human interest news describing ordinary individuals. News about culture seems also to be less visible in newscasts aired by the five broadcasters. This may be due to the fact that such topics are covered in detail in other thematic programs aired by those channels. One implication of this emphasis on political news on Arab world television seems to be the politicization of Arab viewers who, unlike their counterparts in Western countries, consider it an essential part of their lives to be politically educated.

d) Commitment to Issues: Another departure of Arab world television news programs from the American model relates to the Western notion of objectivity. It has been noted in the analysis that TV broadcasters' handling of events and issues seems to be contingent on the nature of the situation at hand. When it comes to issues enjoying pan-Arab consensus, objectivity in the sense of balanced reporting of conflicting views seems to be virtually non-existent. The case of the Palestinian Al-Aqsa Intifada is a case in point. All broadcasters used the term "martyr" to refer to Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in the two-month clashes. The Israelis, on the other hand, were referred to as aggressors. In issues relating to Egyptian elections or the situation in Sudan, all broadcasters were reporting government and opposition groups' positions on the different issues. Although Al-Jazeera and MBC were drawing on Israeli sources for information on developments in the Palestinian territories, the way those sources were handled reflected broadcasters' commitment to the Palestinians as the underdog in the ongoing conflict.

The supportive role of satellite television broadcasters for the Palestinian uprising has been viewed by observers as an important factor accounting for sustaining acts of resistance in the Palestinian territories despite the heavy losses incurred. It has been noted that the 2000 uprising differs from the 1988 uprising in some important features, the most outstanding of which has been the satellite television reporting of the events. In 1988, the Middle East had no satellite television as all world and regional events were reported by government-controlled services on a limited basis. Television broadcasters in 2000 seem to be convinced that in order to attract their viewers' loyalty, they have to be in line with their political expectations about national and regional issues like that of Palestine. When some TV channels were hosting Israeli personalities during the uprising, they came under fire for acting irresponsibly regarding the Arabs' central issue: Palestine.

Conclusion
This study shows that while television journalism in the Arab world shares some important features with American broadcast journalism models, it also exhibits some peculiar characteristics. The writer notes that ethical standards should be established to expand news scope to include human interest news and commitment to national issues to cope with public opinion orientations. New production and delivery techniques should be utilized to maximize message efficiency. Objectivity should be valued in news practices, but when it comes to highly central issues like Palestine and Iraq, commitment to those issues should be taken for granted. The dramatic use of television pictures as an audience-attracting tool should be regulated given the negative consequences of violence on audiences, especially children. Broadcasters should take action in ensure that footage received from international newsfilm agencies is not used unscrupulously in news programs. Commitment to the Palestinian or Iraqi issues may dictate the showing of graphic images of human suffering to arouse national sentiments of support for oppressed Arab people in both countries. But the playing up of video scenes of violence in other countries may not be ethically justifiable given the political and cultural irrelevance of those events to audiences. TBS