Reality TV is managing to do in Iraq what few other Western imports have over the last three and a half years — gain a large and devoted grass-roots following. With more than a dozen home-grown shows already having taken to the Iraqi airwaves, the phenomenon has added another country to its global conquest. “These shows are appealing to anyone, but more so in Iraq because it’s being handed to people starving for a vision of something better,” says Dr. Douglas Gentile, Director of Research at the National Institute on Media and the Family. “We’re talking about a country experiencing [...]
BEIRUT, Lebanon — A few days before the outbreak of violence between Israel and Hezbollah here, I was sipping strong coffee and talking with a highly influential Lebanese man about something totally unrelated to war: The mass media popular culture revolution that has swept the Arab world in recent years. Karim Sarkis, deputy head of broadcast for the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC) — the outfit whose smash hit reality show “Star Academy” rewrote the book on how to make money in the world of Arab satellite television — told me that one of the most significant new trends in the [...]
DAMASCUS, Syria — There has been a lot of talk in the international community, and in Syria and Lebanon in particular, about the status of the disputed Sheba Farms. The small area, made up of 14 farms spread out over 25 square kilometers, has been occupied by Israel since 1967. The governments of Syria and Lebanon insist that Sheba is Lebanese, while Israel and the U.N. claim that it belongs to Syria, since it was under the jurisdiction of Syria at the time of its occupation in the Arab-Israeli War of 1967. (Lebanon, after all, was not even involved in [...]
