Arab Media and Society

The premiere issue of the journal Arab Media and Society has just been released - with all content available free online.   Arab Media and Society succeeds Transnational Broadcasting Studies, which had carved out a well-deserved reputation as the leading journal about the Arab media.   It's an innovative attempt to combine a serious scholarly journal with the internet:  these are long articles, with footnotes and everything, along with comment threads and updated links and more.    As co-editor Larry Pintak put it in his lead editorial, the mandate is

The impact of the pan-Arab satellite revolution is today felt at every level of Arab society – and in every form of media. Which is why Arab Media & Society is the logical incarnation of TBS Journal, covering not just television, but all forms of media and their interaction with society-at-large, from politics and business to culture and religion, as well as the way in which Arab media change resonates in the broader Muslim world.

The inaugural issue of Arab Media and Society focuses on blogging.  My lead article, "Blogging the New Arab Public," attempts to tease out at some length the potential political impact of Arab bloggers, and offers a general framework for analyzing their role in contentious politics and a new public sphere. (This, by the way, is the article I've mentioned several times... when I wrote it, there had been almost nothing written on the topic, and then half a dozen articles were published about it while it was in production.  Oh well, it's here now!)   It is followed by topical and country-specific articles by Mona Eltahawy, Rania el-Maliki (Egypt), Sharon Otterman (women), Luke Schleusener (Bahrain),  Claudia Gazzini (Libya), Sune Haugboll (Lebanon), and more.   Beyond the special section, there is an abundance of fascinating, rich content on various aspects of the Arab media.  Congratulations to co-editor George Weyman for pulling it all together - check it all out!