Editors’ Notes

Welcome to the Spring 2009 issue of the Global Media Journal-American Edition which includes eight of the selected English language papers presented at the October 20-21, 2008 Global Communication Association Conference, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman.  Approximately, half of the conference papers were presented in the Arabic language; hence those papers were not considered for publication. This issue also includes four selected papers, related to the theme of the conference, Globalization and Media in the Middle East, which were submitted to GMJ by their authors.  Two of these papers (Payne; Uyasal) are included in the main section and two (Matusitz & Breen; Ghani) in the Graduate Research section.

Gathering articles in a timely fashion, prior and after the conference, and putting them through the blind-review process--for the refereed section--proved to be extremely challenging.  Hence, as you will note, this issue does not include any refereed papers.

This issue includes 5 book reviews which were coordinated by the GMJ Book Review Editor, Dr. Hemant Shah, University of Wisconsin, Madison. We thank Dr. Shah for his professionalism, commitment, contributions, and continued support.

It should be noted that some of the papers in this edition are written by scholars whose first language is not English; hence there are inconsistencies in tone, style, and level of sophistication.  Despite these and other short comings, the papers offer divers perspectives on a number of issues related to the media in the Middle East.

“Impact and implications of new information technology on Middle Eastern youth” by Dr. Mahboub E. Hashem of the American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, presents and reflects upon Middle Eastern youth’s use of new information technology (IT) and the implications of that use.  In his research, Dr. Hashem found that Middle Eastern youth are fond of their IT use mostly because of their ability to access all sorts of information and communicate with the outside world, including friends and family members abroad.

“Disparity between journalism education and journalism practice in four Maghreb states” by Dr. Kuldip Roy Rampal of University of Central Missouri examines the major educational and training programs in journalism and broadcasting in Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Libya, and difficulties posed by the political, legal and media structural factors in the application of professional skills acquired through mass communication education.

“Critical media analysis: A comparative study of print media in Oman and UAE” by Prof. Sushil Kumar Sharma of Sur College of Applied Science, Oman, presents an analyses of the content of print media (ratio of visuals and text) in the United Arab Emirates and the Sultanate of Oman.  The main objective of the study is to identify the ratio of the space devoted to visuals (pictures, graphics etc) and texts (words) by the Print Media (National English Dailies) in these two countries.

“The language of inclusion and exclusion: Media and social movement in Turkey” by Prof. Ahmet Uysal of Dumlupinar University, Turkey, (not presented at the conference) focuses on the media framing of two social movements, namely, environmental, and feminist.  In doing so, the author examines the cultural, economic and political contexts to analyze the media framing of these movements.  By analyzing the three most popular newspapers in Turkey, professor Uysal attempts to establish the nature of media framing of social movements in Turkey.

“Higher education in the Middle East: Opportunities and challenges for U.S. universities and Middle East partners” by Dr. Richard Rupp of Purdue University Calumet, Indiana, USA, examines the challenges and opportunities that are found in the evolving establishment of regional institutions of higher education in the Middle East, with particular attention to the Persian Gulf region.  Dr. Rupp argues that at first glance the proliferation of partnerships may appear an obvious good for all concerned but, like any institution, there are flaws in American higher education that educators, administrators, students, and politicians are quick to note.

 “Multiple mirrors of the Arab digital gap” by Dr. Ilhem Allagui the American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, discusses the digital divide in the Arab region. Professor Allagui explains the digital divide on two dimensions: the access and the usage.  The access gap measures the “have” and “have-not” of the Internet, whereas the usage gap measures the quality of audience use of the Internet.  A comparison with the leading global websites sets a benchmark of usage quality.

“How Arab is Al‑Jazeera English? Comparative Study of Al‑Jazeera Arabic and Al‑Jazeera English News Channels” by Professor Abeer I. al‑Najjar American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (not presented at the conference), explains and identifies the similarities and differences between Al‑Jazeera English (AJE) and Al‑Jazeera Arabic (AJA) according to their representation by country and region on the one hand and story placement and story type on the other.

“The impact of political transition on media rebuilding: Lessons from the Iraqi case” by Dr. Jassim M Jaber Al-Mljawi Sohar College of Applied Sciences (Sohar University), Oman, focuses on the occupation and overthrowing Saddam Hussein government and subsequent changes in Iraq and its mass media.  He argues that in recent years, in response to some shifts in the political situations in Baghdad, hundreds of new publications, television stations, and radio channels have emerged in Iraq.

“Qanun and the modernization of political thought in Iran” by Dr Hassan Bashir of Imam Sadegh University, Iran, focuses on one of the influential 19^th century Iranian newspapers, Qanun.  The author argues that like many other non-western countries, Iran had a chance of entering the age of modernization and globalization in a similar manner.  Many internal and external factors had facilitated this change and development.  Newspapers, especially those in exile, had much effect on the changing processes in Iran.

“Pathology of ‘audience phantasm’ in media: Globalization and the era of after global village” by Dr. Mehdi Mohsenian-Rad of Imam Sadegh University, Iran, presents an overview of the evolution of the role phantasm on the so-called “people who are exposed to the media” and discusses the differences among the chronologically developed terms such as “audience,” “receivers,” “users,” and very recently “communicatees”.  Dr. Rad argues that the ongoing developments towards globalization, require thinking of “people who are exposed to the media” as active beings rather than passive beings.

“Mediated Communication and Integration of Diasporic Communities: Toward a Theoretical Model” by Dr. Gregg A. Payne of Chapman University, California, USA, (not presented at the conference) argues that traditional investigations of the relationship between community integration and media use have suffered from an inadequate conceptual framework.  Research examining the community integration hypothesis has been preoccupied with the integrative capacity of mass media, particularly newspapers, in affecting integration in spatially defined communities.  Dr. Payne elucidates the conceptual content of mass and demassified audiences and media.

In “Reviewing National, Polar and Global Identities in Relation to Formation of Polarization and Globalization,” Dr. Ardeshir Entezari of Allameh Tabatabaei University, Iran, focuses on the formation of a global identity and trends that work against its formation.

And finally, in “Blogging – Redefining Global Modern Journalism: An Omani Perspective,” Professor Samskrati Gulvady of College of Applied Sciences, Ministry of Higher Education, Sultanate of Oman, discusses the increasing importance of citizen-journalism on the Internet.  He argues that since the popularity of the Internet and blogging around the world, the new media is making an impact Oman too.

The following two papers (not presented at the conference) are included in the Graduate Section of this issue:

“Is the BBC Urdu Service becoming Pakistan’s national broadcaster? An enquiry into the causes of BBC Urdu’s success in Pakistan” by Wasim Ghani of the Ryerson University and York University, Toronto.  The author explores BBC Urdu Service’s role in the national life of Pakistan and discusses the state’s media policies and its interaction with the BBC Urdu service.

Finally, “Inoculation Theory: A Theoretical and Practical Framework for Conferring Resistance to Pack Journalism Tendencies” by Gerald-Mark Breen and Dr. Jonathan Matusitz of the University of Central Florida examines the nature of Inoculation Theory (IT), a process through which attitude change can be resisted in the face of counter attitudinal communication intended to change existing attitudes.  The paper also examines how the theory applies to pack journalism, an unethical media practice where herds of journalists repeatedly and widely cover one particular story and storm the targets (i.e., people, buildings, etc.) with their overwhelming presence.

Sincerely,