Week 1
Introduction and Course overview
Said, Edward (1978) Orientalism. New York, Penguin Books. Preface to the 2003 edition + Introduction
Watching
Selected clips on Orientalism in the media
Week 2
De-Orientalizing the study of media in the Arab world
Selected readings from:
Kraidy, Marwan and Khalil, Joe “Arab media industries”, Palgrave, MacMillan, 2009
Sakr, Naomi, “Arab Television today”, I.B. Tauris, 2007
Watching
Selected clips from Arab media
Week3
Transnational Broadcasting in the Arab world: historical overview (1960s-1980s)
Selected readings from:
Boyd, Douglas “Broadcasting in the Arab world (a survey of electronic media in the Middle East)”, Iowa State University Press/Ames 3rd edition, 1999
Abu-Lughod, Lila “Islam and public culture. The politics of Egyptian television serials”, Middle East Report, January-February, 1993
Watching
Selected clips from Egyptian films and TV series
Week 4
Transnational Broadcasting in the Arab world: the rise of Pan Arab networks (1990s-2010s)
Selected readings from:
Mellor, Noha; Rinnawi, Khalil; Dajani, Nabil & Ayish, Muhammad I. “Arab Media: Globalization and Emerging Media Industries”, Polity Press, 2011
Sakr, Naomi, “Arab Television today”, I.B. Tauris, 2007
Watching
Selected clips from Pan Arab channels
Week 5
The Political Economy of Arab media: Ownership and Media Moguls
Selected readings from:
Della Ratta, Sakr, Skovgaard-Petersen (eds) “Arab Media Moguls”, I.B . Tauris 2015
Sakr, Naomi “Satellite realms. Transnational Television, Globalization & the Middle East”, I.B. Tauris, 2001
Watching
Selected clips from Pan Arab channels
Week 6
Al Jazeera and the all-news revolution
Selected readings from:
Lynch, Marc “Voices of the new Arab public. Iraq, al Jazeera, and Middle East Politics today”, Columbia University Press 2007
Zayani, Mohamed and Sahraoui, Sofiane “The culture of Al Jazeera: inside an Arab media giant”, McFarland and Company, 2007
Watching
Selected clips from Al Jazeera's shows and news items; “The control room” (2004)
Week 7
Recap and Midterm exam
Week 8
Entertainment & TV Fiction in Arab Media
Selected readings from:
Kraidy, Marwan and Khalil, Joe “Arab media industries”, Palgrave, MacMillan, 2009
Kraidy, Marwan “Reality television and Arab politics. Contention in public life”, Cambridge University Press, 2010
Watching
Selected clips from entertainment programs and TV series
Week 9
Part I. A Changing Media Landscape in the post Arab Spring: news coverage, social media, and citizen journalism
Selected readings from:
Kraidy, Marwan, “The naked blogger of Cairo”, Harvard University Press 2016
al-Ghazzi, Omar “Citizen Journalism in the Syrian uprising: problematizing Western narratives in a local context”, Communication Theory, 2014Snowdon, Peter, “The revolution will be uploaded: Vernacular Video and the Arab Spring”, Culture Unbound 6, (2014): 401–429.
Watching
Selected coverage of the Arab Spring by Arabic all news channels and citizen journalists; “The square” (2013)
Week 10
Part II. A Changing Media Landscape in the post Arab Spring: Real-time TV Drama, from terrorism to the refugee crisis
Reading
Della Ratta, Donatella “Making Real-Time Drama: The Political Economy of Cultural Production in Syria’s Uprising”, The Annenberg School for Communication, Pennsylvania University, PARGC Press, PARGC Paper 2, Fall 2014
Della Ratta, Donatella “Dramas of the authoritarian state,” Middle East Report online, February, 2012
Salamandra, Christa “Prelude to an uprising: Syrian fictional television and socio-political critique”, Jadaliyya, May 17, 2012
Watching
Selected clips from post-2011 TV series
Week 11
Part I: Armed groups and terrorist organizations as media actors: from Al Qaeda to Isis
Reading
Winter, Charlie “Media Jihad: The Islamic State's Doctrine for Information Warfare”, Institute for Strategic Dialogue, 2017
Della Ratta, Donatella “ISIL and Western media: accidental allies?”, Al Jazeera English , 25 September 2014
Watching
Selected clips from al-Qaeda and ISIS propaganda (graphic material won't be shown)
Week 12
Part II: Armed groups and terrorist organizations as media actors: from Al Qaeda to Isis
Reading
Della Ratta, Donatella “Fighting ISIL through TV drama: the case of Black Crows”, Al Jazeera English, 19 June 2017
Khader, Jamil “On ISIL, Arab TV and post-ideological politics”, Al Jazeera English, 22 June 2017
Atran, Scott “ISIS is a revolution”, AEON, 2015
Watching
Selected clips from anti-extremism Arab TV series (“Beautiful Maidens” 2005, “Black Crows”, 2017), anti-ISIS Ramadan campaign from Zain (2017)
Week 13
Post-2011 documentary films: a focus on Syria
Selected readings from:
Della Ratta, Donatella. ‘Shooting a Revolution: Visual Media and Warfare in Syria’, Pluto Press, 2018.
Dickinson, Kay “Arab Cinema Travels: Transnational Syria, Palestine, Dubai and beyond”, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016
Tarnowski, Stefan “What have we been watching? What have we been watching?”, Bidayyat, 2017
Watching
Selected clips from post-2011 independent documentaries from Syria; “The pixelated Revolution” (lecture performance, 2012)
Week 14
Recap and wrap up
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