LLAS News Blog

News articles of interest to higher education LLAS subject fields.

Tuesday 11 March 2008

BBC launches Arabic TV channel

The BBC has launched a new Arabic language TV channel.

The channel is free to everyone in North Africa and the Middle East with a satellite or cable connection.

Tuesday, 11 March 2008
BBC website
Posted by John Canning at 16:37
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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

In a climate clouded by perceptions seen favouring the crown and the clans, the Arab audience will judge how BBC Arabic can rise up as conciliatory media that embodies certain idealized roles of media in the development and maintenance of a peaceful, democratic civil society.

A conciliatory media that works to offer in-depth and diverse perspectives with regard to issues of collective social importance. Cottle (2006), Lynch & McGoldrick, and Howard outline seven characteristics of media that best serve a conciliatory function: (1) “image to the invisible”; (2) “claims, reason and public argumentation”; (3) “public performance and credibility”; (4) “personal accounts and experimental testimonies”; (5) “reconciling the past, towards the present”; (6) “media reflexivity”; (7) “bearing witness in a globalized world”; (8) Avoiding victimizing and demonizing terminology; and (9) demonstrating a commitment towards finding mutually agreeable political solutions rather than enflaming existing hostilities.

Can the Arab viewer expect that BBC Arabic embodies such characteristics, and will work towards debunking cross-cultural stereotypes, inject a multicultural knowledge into the public sphere, and even work to produce reconciliation among cultural antagonists. The big question here is whether BBC Arabic is up to the task?

March 12, 2008

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