الاستشراق والإعلام بحث لمؤتمر
The
Fourth Annual BIMA Conference
At the
Lebanese American University
Media
and the Transformations of Arab Societies
Beirut,
Lebanon
March
16-18, 2004
Orientalism
and the Media: The Case of the BBC
By
Mazin S.
Motabagani
Associate
Professor Orientalistics
Al-Madinah
Center for the Study of Orientalism
Introduction
Many
intellectuals think that Orientalists are mere scholars living in their ivory
towers and have no real relation to the living world. This may be because most
Orientalists either worked for certain governments as agents or experts, or
were academics working in different institutions or unviversities.Though their
presence in the media is very limited but, when we study this deeply we find
that many of the Orientalists took their
knowledge to the Media whether it was journalism, Radio, television and now the
internet.
To study this phenomenon of the relationship
between Orientalism and the media deserves to be tackled by many scholars and
would need much more than just a short paper to be presented to this
conference. So this paper will take the BBC as a case study hoping to continue
the research in this field.
After the First World War many European
countries have established radio stations directed to the Arab and Muslim
World. Along with these radio stations magazines and newspapers dealt with
topics that can be classified as Orientalism. To take but one example the BBC
which was established in 1922 has started its Arabic section in 1938 with a
clear agenda. The BBC started its magazine "Al-Mustamie Al Arabi" for
many years. Then another magazine came out to support the audio services of the
BBC which was "Huna London" Now this radio station has a magazine called
"Al-Mushahid Assiasy". Just before the 2ed. World war some prominent
Orientalists have written to the magazine such as H.A.R. Gibb, Bernard Lewis,
Arbery, Joseph Sacht and others.
Since
then the media whether it be written, audio, audio visual or internet have
given Orientalists and Middle East specialists' ample space to participate in
the major programs or main pages of the media. In France for examples the major
French Newspapers and magazines dealt with issues relating to the colonized
countries and particularly to Islamic countries. In Algeria for example the
reformist movement devoted much space in its magazines to refute some of the
writings appeared in French newspapers such "Le Temps" or "L'
observitoir" One of the BBC famous programs is " Politics
Q&A" or "Assiasa bain Assael wa Al mujeeb" was mostly
answered by Orientalists and Middle East specialists.
The
BBC has been studied as a directed radio station from communication point of
view. Some of these studies were masters or PhD theses ([1]). However this may be the first study of BBC
and its relations with Orientalism. It was rather difficult to find all the
volumes of the first publication of the BBC "al-Mustame Al Arabi".
The university library of Muhammad Ben Saud University has only few of
these volumes.([2]) Here we
will devote this paper to the BBC since the beginning in 1938 and its magazines
mentioned above. The paper will be divided into three sections:
·
The first part
will be devoted to give a historical background to the relations between
Orientalism and the media.
·
The second part The BBC and Orientalism
where will survey
some
of the major names in Orientalism and also major topics that are of interest to
them.
·
The third part : an
examination of some of the material published in these magazines and apply
content analysis on them.
Part I
Historical Background: The
Media and Orientalism
This relation with the Media may have be
traced back to the beginning of Journalism, but what is important to us in this
paper that during the period Algeria was colonized by France many French
Scholars wrote about Algeria and Islam. In the first years of the Twentieth
Century the leading French Newspaper put forward a question about the future of
the Muslim World to a number of leading Orientalists.
When the Second World War broke out, the
Allies and the Axis competed in their propaganda and directed their media
towards the Arab World and this was the main cause behind the creation of the
BBC directed programs towards the Arab World.
The relationship between Orientalism and the
media continued through countless number of magazines and newspapers. Just to
name a few we mention the following: The Atlantic Monthly, Commentary, New
Republic, La Figaro, New York Review of Books, The Newsweek, the Times, Los
Angeles Times …etc. Some weekly political magazines issued published
special issues on the topic of “ Islamic Fundamentalism’ – for example. Even
some magazines which were not known to deal with controversial topics or
politics per se such as the Readers' Digest indulged in the topic or
"Islamic fundamentalism" or "radicalism ".
Orientalists were attracted by radio and TV.
As early as the late nineteen fifties Bernard Lewis was dispatched by the
British government to speak to radio and TV stations, newspapers and magazines
in addition to giving lectures at some public places.
As for radio the BBC broadcasting started in
1938 where Orientalists were given great importance to speak in the radio.
Bernard Lewis presented a program of many episodes about the British
contribution in the Arabic and Islamic Studies. Then the station invited
another famous Orientalist Arbery to talk on almost the same topic.
Nowadays the TV news or other political
programs do host many Orientalists, Middle East specialists, Arabists or
Islamists to present their views on the currant issues in the Arab or Muslim
World. I can site some examples such as Bernard Lewis, John Esposito, Judith
Tucker, Daniel Pipes, and others.
The Cinema industry also were affected by
Orientalism or promoted many of the stereotyping of the Orientalism. Or
Orientalism was the source for the writers or producers in the Cinema. The case
of the Walt Disney movies and the negative stereotyping of Arabs and Muslims is
well known.
And If we turn to the Internet, we would find
tens of thousands of pages and sites run by Orientalists and devoted to the
spreading the ideas of Orientalism. Some of these sites are run by Middle
Eastern Studies departments or research centers or institutes. Some are run by
individual Orientalists or their students.
Part II
The BBC and Orientalism
The BBC started its broadcasting on almost on
the same wave length of Radio Bari station in 1938. The first aim was to combat
the propaganda of the Axis war propaganda.([3])
Then the aims developed into more deep aims such as spreading the cultural
values of Britain and the West in general. Some programs are devoted to
teaching English.
Some
researchers go beyond these goals to state that the stations were meant to
portray Islam as a backward religion and misrepresent Muslims. ([4])
Some would add to these aims is to improve the relationships with the Arab
world after the grave role of Britain in creating the Zionist regime in
Palestine. ([5]) The
radio station program was divided into four categories: political, literary and
cultural, songs and music and finally scientific programs. ([6])
Since the Station was established for
political purposes so politics was given ample time. One of the most popular
programs was:" Politics Q and A. or in Arabic "Assiyasah bayn Assael
Wa Almujeeb" This program depended mainly on the questions sent to the
station from listeners from allover the Arab World. But at times question were
faked to publicize the point view of the station. ([7])
Answers to the question in this program were
given by either editors in the station itself or editors of some British
newspapers or magazines or some of the Orientalists (or Middle East specialist)
I have found that some questions seem to be faked in order that the station spreads
the views it holds on a certain topic. In one episode of this same program a
question was asked about Sudan and the application of Islamic Law and whether
the motto (Islam is the solution) is a practical one or just an empty slogan?([8])
The Orientalists were recruited to
participate in the cultural, political and scientific programs. Their
participation appeared in the different publications. I will give here few
examples of these participations:
1-Joseph Sacht," Saudi Arabia and the
art of Printing" Vol. 5 no. 18 (special issue on Saudi Arabia.)
2-Cratchofisky. " Arabic Studies in the
Soviet Union" Vol. 5, No. 12
3-Joseph Sacht. "British Travelers in
Arab Land in the 19th. Century". Vol. 5 No. 14.
4-" Orientalism and Occidentalism"
Vol. 5, No. 2.
5- “Mary Ziyadah” by Joseph Sacht. Vo. 5,
no.6
6- “The Arab philosopher Ibn Bajah” by the
English Orientalst D. M Dunloup. Vol.5, no. 7
[1] - Sami Ashsharif . An Analytical Comparative study of the Political
programs of Both the BBC and Voice of America.(Unpublished M.A
Theses.) Also see Maji Halawani, Introduction to the Directed Radio
Stations.( Cairo: Dar Alfikr Al-Arabi) 1982
[2] - This paper is hoped to be a first search
on this topic which I propose to become a Ph.D these.
[3] -
جيهان أحمد رشتي. الإعلام الدولي بالراديو التلفزيون. (القاهرة:دار الفكر
العربي، 1979) ص 19
[4] -محسن
محمد علي عطية. بعض قضايا المسلمين والمسيحيين في إذاعة لندن: دراسة تطبيقية
على برامج الأخبار والأحاديث من 12/11/1406جتى 12/ 12/1406 ( بحث تكميلي
للحصول على الماجستير من قسم الإعلام بالمعهد العالي للدعوة الإسلامية بالمدينة
المنورة) بحث غير منشور.
[5] -ياسر الفهد. بين الثقافة
والصحافة:دراسات ف التطوير الثقافي. ص 99
[8] - Attiyah, op.cit.,
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