The Fall 2004 issue of the Global Media Journal (GMJ) is dedicated entirely to Media and the Middle East. One of GMJ's aims is to encourage "newcomers" in the field of global media and Middle East media investigation; this issue provides a forum for these researchers, in the hope that they will be encouraged to continue in this important work. This issue also features the excellent work of world-renowned researchers and scholars - highly specialized in their field of investigation. Although GMJ's focus is on the Middle East, the journal attracted papers from around the world showing international participation and interest in the topic. The papers presented in this issue cover a large spectrum of topics including governance, media laws, rules and regulations as well as issues of politics, censorship, ownership patterns and control, and media education. In addition, commercial and non-commercial Arab media systems were also discussed in this issue.

The highlights of the invited papers section are an article by Dr. Mohsenian-Rad of Imam Sadegh University in Iran, who analyzed issues of culture and globalization in his study titled Globalization, Culture and Message Bazaar and another by and Iranian public relations specialist and journalist, Tahereh Saheb, who presents a paper on Media and Water crisis management In the Middle East. In addition, Prof. Dr. Kai Hafez of University of Erfurt, Germany, presents a timely and relevant discussion of the Iraq War 2003 in Western Media and Public Opinion: A Case Study of the Effects of Military (Non-) Involvement on Conflict Perception. We are also very pleased to present the findings of an important study on How Washington Confronts Arab Media by Ambassador William A. Rugh, former head of AMIDEAST.

This issue of GMJ features refereed articles that highlight different approaches for the many issues related to the media in the Middle East. Mohammed Nawawi, assistant professor at Georgia State University, examined the issue of terrorism in his paper titled Terrorist or Freedom Fighter? The Arab Media Coverage of "Terrorism" or "So-Called Terrorism". Bassuni Hamada, professor of Communication, United Arab Emirates University, studied concepts of culture clashes in his paper, Global Culture or Cultural Clash: An Islamic Intercultural Communication Perspective. Naila N. Hamdy, lecturer, Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at the American University in Cairo, Egypt, discusses issues of new media and national development in her paper titled The Internet and Egypt’s National Development. Media and public diplomacy in the Middle East are debated by James J. Napoli and Josh Fejeran, Journalism Department, Western Washington University Bellingham, Washington, in their research titled Of Two Minds: U.S. Public Diplomacy and the Middle East. Ralph D. Berenger, assistant professor at the American University in Cairo, Egypt, looks at media coverage of war in his paper titled Gulf War Fallout: A Theoretical Approach to Understand and Improve Media Coverage of the Middle East. Media production cities that have recently been established in Egypt, Jordan, and Dubai are the focus of the research presented by Stephen Quinn, Tim Walters and John Whiteoak from Zayed University Dubai, United Arab Emirates, titled A Tale of Three (Media) Cities. Concepts related to media and modernization are debated in Gregory Mendel Selber and Salma I. Ghanem from University of Texas - Pan American in their research titled Modernization and Media in the Arab World. Phil Auter, assistant professor of communication at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, studies new Arab news media websites from a public relations viewpoint in his piece titled Meeting the Needs of Multiple Audiences: An Examination of the Aljazeera and English Aljazeera Websites from the Public Relations Perspective. Issues of culture and advertising are debated in Reading Culture in Arab Television Advertising: A Content Analysis of Egyptian Advertising by Nagwa El Gazzar of the Faculty of Mass Communication, Misr International University, Cairo, Egypt.

In our commentaries section, we feature two selections by researchers from the American University in Cairo. The first is prolific and renowned media author and well known scholar John C. Merrill, visiting professor at the department of Journalism and Mass Communication, the American University in Cairo, comments on media performance in the region in his piece titled Media Professionalization: A Middle East Imperative. The second is S. Abdallah Schelifer, professor and director of the Adham Center for Television Journalism at the American University in Cairo, comments on war media coverage in his article Meditations on Covering Conflict: Media and the Middle East.

I truly hope that our current selection of articles is of interest to GMJ readers.

Sincerely,

Hussein Amin, Guest Editor
Professor of Journalism and Mass Communication
The American University in Cairo, Egypt