Media explosion

By Salama A Salama

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Practically overnight, the detention and subsequent release of British sailors in Iran became a big story, with media services vying to get the latest details. Another story that rapidly turned into a big issue was Al-Jazeera's film about torture in Egyptian police stations. Media wars now mirror real wars. Likewise, international conflicts feed the hungry in the media. It is no wonder that so many media wars are taking place in the Middle East.

In the span of one week, German and French stations promised to launch television services in Arabic. The BBC has plans for an Arabic language television channel, and so does Japan and Russia. We may expect the Chinese to follow suit in the near future. Counting local Arab television stations, this part of the world is now serviced by over 200 television channels in total.

What exactly is going on? Why are international services so eager to get into the Arab market? The answer is simple: globalisation. Everyone is trying to win the hearts and minds of people in this region. The Americans were the first to launch international television news services, but now everyone is getting into the game. And the Middle East, with all its contradictions, failings and conflicts, is acting like a magnet for international media.

We're being flooded by news from every possible angle: radio, television, the Internet and phones. Our mobile phones have turned into news receivers. Meanwhile, most European media providers have ventured into every conceivable form of communication -- radio, television and the Internet included. Now it is necessary for anyone working in the media to be trained in more than one medium. Journalists now need higher levels of professional skills to handle an increasing variety of media forms. As a result, the teaching of media is becoming more elaborate than it used to be.

Unfortunately, we don't seem to be keeping up with the new trends. The tide of new skills is beyond the grasp of many of our journalists. A prominent Egyptian media specialist told me that we have about 30 college media departments in Egypt, all of which are incapable of keeping up with rapid changes in media provision. The worst aspect is that our best trained and talented journalists tend to work for foreign or regional media, while local media hires the less trained and talented.

The media revolution is unstoppable. No government or censor will be able to stop the flood of news to the public. This increasing power of the media to reach the public is not without political implications. Because of the wide gap between the developed and less developed worlds, along with the great rift between the free and repressed worlds, a lot of discontent is to be expected.

Take Egypt for example. During the recent referendum on constitutional amendments official reports on turnout and fairness were quite rosy. They were also challenged by independent sources. The picture one got from the Internet was at great variance with the official story. And satellite television channels carried images of deserted polling stations to underline the point. This is true of many other events. Human rights violations, for example, are no longer easy to hide.

As foreign satellite stations venture into the Arab sphere things are likely to change. Arab societies that have been deprived, closed and repressed are likely to obtain more information and therefore develop more needs. So let's not waste our time complaining about intellectual invasion, biased foreigners or outside interests. In civilised countries, the public is allowed to decide who and what to believe. Governments are no longer in a position to tell us right from wrong.