Instant Nationalism

Badreya Al-Jenaibi

University Of North Dakota

Instant Nationalism: McArabism al-Jazeera, and the Transnational Media in the Arab World, by Khalil Rinnawi. Maryland: University Press of America, 2006, 195 pp. (ISBN 978-0-7618-3440-3).

Khalil Rinnawi, in his book Instant Nationalism, describes the impact of "transnational media" upon the Arab sense of identity and national sentiment. The new media, emerging both domestically and internationally, is not only a stimulating force for political reform and increased democracy in Arab nation states, but it can also be a vehicle for dissent, alienation and radicalism. Rinnawi’s book is a consideration of the emergence of a new Arab voice through the broadcasts of Al-Jazeera and other news stations. Al-Jazeera was the first modern broadcast organization to break through traditional government barriers to offer an uncensored source of news with a distinctive Arab perspective. The typical Arab media before Al-Jazeera was recognized among Arab citizens to be nothing more than a "state-sponsored monologue" to reaffirm the legitimacy of current regimes. However, satellite technology "has offered a new participatory space to engage Arab screens, and importantly, convey new imaginings of a regional Arab identity" (p. ix).

Rinnawi uses the emergence of Al-Jazeera as a case study to describe the various nuances and consequences of an Arab transnational media on Arab politics, society, culture and even religion. The development of an Al-Jazeera is a signal of the failure of current regimes to be able to exert control of Arab media, and its creation is also a reflection of the changing relationship between the Arab World and the West, according to Rinnawi. Al-Jazeera not only rose above the normally marginalized role of Arab media, it has challenged the supremacy of major networks like CNN and BBC. Rinnawi attributes these developments in part to three major trends: 1) the development of advanced media technologies where the state no longer has the ability to control media content; 2) significant change in the media Arab environment itself, and 3) a distinctive process of regionalization which Rinnawi labels McArabism, a reference to Barber’s (1992) Jihad and McWorld, a discussion of the opposite forces of localization/tribalism and globalization. For Rinnawi, the consequential tension that is a result of the two opposing forces of tribalism and globalization is McArabism. On the one hand, the trend of global consumerism and culture to compel similar wants, desires, perceptions and responses is a simultaneous force with the trend of "tribe" pitted against tribe. Neither offers much encouragement as people seek greater democratization of their societies argues Rinnawi. Whether either trend is hopeful or not, it is clear that modern media has caused a confrontation between these two powerful forces in the world today.

Rinnawi first begins his analysis by discussing media theory and analysis, with a focus on developing countries. He then offers a theory to explain his vision of McArabism, followed by an examination of Arab satellite television, the regulation of Arab television, a case study of Al-Jazeera, and finally, a discussion of the implications and effects of pan-Arab media. In the chapter on McArabism, Rinnawi explains that he uses Benedict Anderson’s (1983, 1998) concept of an imagined community to explore the effects that transnational media has on regionalization. As described by Anderson, "The emergence of new nationalisms results from a process of re-imagination conditioned by drastic transformations in the conscience and media with a modern framework" (p. 7). The Arab model of modern development is quite different from a Western model, and the imagining of a new sense of community in the Arab world has developed from "new" Arab historians and intellectuals of the al-Nahda period. For this new sense of community to emerge, people must see themselves as groups who live "parallel" to other groups where they share language, religion, customs, values, history and so forth. Most people who belong to these groups will never know, meet or even really understand the people in their parallel groups, but they imagine that they are a community with a "deep, horizontal comradeship" (p. 8). Rinnawi argues that the transnational media facilitates this imagined community first put forth and described by Anderson. Often simultaneously, while a new sense of community emerges, past history is rewritten or "reimagined" to be more positive and/or relevant to current attitudes than it may have really been. The central concepts to this re-imagining are Arab heritage and Islam, although there are other histories at work, such as the creation of Israel. Just as the rituals of Islam in the past psychologically joined together large masses of people who imagined all other Muslims participating in the same daily ritual, Rinnawi believes that the new media provides a sense of belonging for people to a community of others they will never know because they all participate in the same socio-ritual of mass media. This new medium is the foundation of a new Arab consciousness and the development of "new/old collective identities," (p. 9) leaning more toward a regional identity rather than a national identity, as the media appeals to a regional Arab market (to gain a larger market share), emphasizing a pan-Arab perspective. Previously, with state-controlled media, the particular nation state emphasized its own agenda, but the new Western-style news stations, seeking their larger and larger audience, are no longer focusing on national issues, but on transnational images, stories and messages that would appeal to a general Arab audience rather than a national one. The shared identity that is emerging and articulated through the media is an "outcome of long and short term processes in the Arab world, cinlduing the failure of Nasserite pan-Arabism; a period of state-state disengagement and isolation, marked with increasing foreign intervention, inflicted both by state regimes and international actors; the rise of pan-Islam as an alternative to Arabism and the marginalization, discrediting and diminishment of the secular Left in the Arab world" (p. 16).

The new identity and shared feelings of comradeship have not been articulated particularly well by any one group; however, Arab-Islamic movements such as Hizbollah are the strongest "imaginers" presenting a vision of Arabism and Islam working together to create a new society. While Hizbollah is more religious in nature, Hamas is more secular with visions of nationhood and ethnic identity to justify its activities. Although one is more religious and one more secular, the leaders of either group promote traditional Arab-leftist criticisms based on concepts of imperialism, indigenous power, the need for moral and economic unity, and shared interests regarding such issues and outcomes as Palestine and Iraq. Rinnawi points out that the influence of groups like Hamas and Hizbollah "only increases with political persecution" (p. 17).

Rinnawi offers an interesting review of the processes in which McArabism take place:

• News—the dramatic increase in the frequency of news broadcasts;

• Shared concern—emphasizing issues that are of interest to a pan-Arab audience;

• Pan-Arab and Islamic programs—the aim to educate the audience through historical, educational and political programs regarding the Arab and Islamic world.

• Entertainment programs—movies, dramas, soap operas, comedy and music shows purposely created for regional audiences rather than national ones. A good example is found in new music programs. In the past, music programs presented on Arab media used local dialects and were not appealing to a regional market; today, the music is more pan-Arab and general in nature, and promotes a new appreciation of different Arabic dialects.

• A shared stance—a regional dialogue on issues of shared interest such as the outcome of the Iraq war.

• Sensationalized or emotive footage—using footage that is clearly meant to stimulate an emotional response, which "allows audiences to experience deeper forms of engagement. Beyond a rational level of acknowledgement or sharing issues of concern, the use of emotional footage posits the audience in an imagined community, or a participant/viewer of a part of his/her community on screen" (p. 22).

• New methods of reporting news that is based on direct engagement—live reporting, reporters stationed in actual locations of important events, interviews with people of differing views, etc. (none of these were done with government-controlled television).

The impact of new media in the Arab world cannot be underestimated after reading this book by Rinnawi. The regimes of the Arabic world can no longer control media content because of satellite technology, and the newly emerging news and entertainment broadcast organizations have breached the barriers placed upon social and political taboos. As described by Rinnawi, the "most important impact of both foreign and regional media on the Arab societies is the degree of exposure it provides to secular, principally European and North American, values, lifestyles and more importantly, patterns of thought" (p. 139). Ironically, as more sensational programming has opened doors to new images and meanings based on non-Arab values and understandings, more space has been given to Islamists and secular intellectuals as a sort of backlash or response to the new views. While the more sensational programs and stations are gaining popularity, in recent years, new conservative Islamic stations are being created at the same time; these new conservative programs are often sponsored by state regimes like Saudi Arabia to try and counteract the type of programming that is seen as threatening to the conservative state.

Of the many books written so far about the impact of Al-Jazeera and the new Arab media on Arab and Western audiences, Khalil Rinnawi’s Instant Nationalism may be one of the most important. His is a sophisticated, comprehensive and significant evaluation of the social, economic, and political impact that modern broadcast technology and the rise of Arab media has had on Arab identity and politics. For anyone who wants to better understand the workings of the Arab world, Arab political and social sensibility and Arab media, this is a significant book to read. It clarifies not only the impact that media has upon the Arab world, but also the significance of modern mass media in general to shape "imagined communities." While on the one hand, the gulf and resentment between groups can be minimized by mass media, that same gulf can also be widened and intensified due to the nature of modern media organizations that seek to become regional in nature in order to capture a larger audience share, among other things. Using all the rhetorical tools available to modern news and entertainment programming, including sensationalized reporting, Arab media has had a major impact on modern audiences in its short history. For those concerned about the way to reach "Arab hearts and minds" as President Bush hoped to do, or at the every least, to gain an understanding of how those hearts and minds operate, Khalil Rinnawi’s book is profound, objective, and provocative and a reading I would strongly recommend.