Issue No.588
Opinion
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30 May - 5 June 2002 Issue No.588 Opinion |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Recommend this page | ||
Soapbox
Contemporary media discourse
In the wake of the events of 11 September developing Arab and Muslim media discourse has become a matter of some urgency. More than ever before the transformations that the world is experiencing, and the risks they have brought, require that we must effectively break the codes that have governed our communications with the West.
What is most required, indeed, is an appropriately international discourse, as opposed to the local and restrictive discourses that are currently prevalent. Arabs and Muslims, rather than adequately addressing the West, have, in effect, been speaking largely to themselves.
The Arab and Muslim media's principal failure relates to its inability to effectively differentiate between the way in which it addresses a local, and an international, audience.
It is finally dawning on the powers that be that in order to express an Arab or Muslim perspective account has to be taken of the audience for whom this perspective is being elucidated, and the often anti-Arab discourse with which that audience is most accustomed.
The methodology through which this might be achieved rests on accepting the other, respecting cultural and psychological differences and legitimate interests. This requires an understanding of the language today's world speaks, both at the literal and metaphorical level: an appropriate command of English, the dominant language of international communication, and a grasp of the essential concepts -- efficiency, competitiveness and performance, for example -- are both necessary prerequisites. Several other considerations have to be taken into account: that we now live in the age of globalisation; that the future is more important than the present; that modern science is paramount in development and that the emergence of strong foundations for civil society must be supported.
* This week's Soapbox speaker is a professor of political science at Helwan University.
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