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 universities. Many Orientalists or Middle
East experts have taken their knowledge to the Media whether it
was journalism, Radio, television and now the internet.
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 Sachet and
others.
The Arab media took interest in Orientalism as scores of
articles were published in the leading Arab newspapers and magazines. For
example Al-Madinah newspaper had a weekly column to deal with the Orientalism,
other newspapers such as Okaz,
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
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
·
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.
[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
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