22/9/2014 WHAT DOES THE ARAB NEWSPAPER THINK ABOUT ITSELF? September 22, 2014 HOME CONTACT US SITEMAP Posts GLORIA Center Global Research in International Affairs Center Search this website … Search Home About MERIA » Turkish Studies » Free Books Bookstore Donate IDC Herzliya Egypt Iran Israel Lebanon Palestinians Radical Movements Syria Turkey MidEast U.S. Policy More Topics » You are here: Home / MERIA / Media Coverage of the Middle East / WHAT DOES THE ARAB NEWSPAPER THINK ABOUT ITSELF? WHAT DOES THE ARAB NEWSPAPER THINK ABOUT ITSELF? By Yonatan Gonen July 17, 2014 0 Tweet 0 PDF version available here http://www.gloria-center.org/2014/07/what-does-the-arab-newspaper-think-about-itself/ 1/14 22/9/2014 WHAT DOES THE ARAB NEWSPAPER THINK ABOUT ITSELF? Arab newspapers at the newsstand. Recent data appear to demonstrate the weakening of the Arab newspapers versus strengthening of the digital media. However, this weakening is less extensive than the corresponding erosion of Western newspapers in their own markets. This study examines the question of how Arab newspapers see themselves. A content and discourse analysis of articles in seven newspapers of different characteristics and distribution zones indicates an ambivalent attitude towards the Arab newspaper: On the one hand, many articles and reports express a positive attitude towards the newspapers and a hostile attitude to the Internet, but, on the other hand, more than a quarter of the articles expressed a negative attitude towards the newspapers and most of the articles admitted that Arab newspapers are in crisis. Based on this finding, the reporters and editors of the Arab newspapers can be seen as an interpretive community, which structures its identity. The shared discourse that they produce around the topic of newspapers’ status is a marker of how they see themselves as journalists. INTRODUCTION Since newspapers first arrived in the Middle East, around the beginning of the 19th century, newspapers have played important roles in the life of Arab residents. Although many newspapers do not allow space for discussion and do not investigate governmental injustices, they provide valuable information that affects a large public, reinforce cultural values and instill a rich intellectual heritage[1]. In recent years, these newspapers, like many newspapers in the West, have experience a decline in revenues and have seen new media bite into their share of popularity. This is particularly notable in light of the events of the “Arab Spring.” However, these difficulties are not as severe as the crisis facing the Western press, and it seems that the Arab newspapers survive, for now, the technological wave[2]. The Arab newspapers’ current status and their vague future receive a large echo among the Arab public. One reason for this is the fear among some groups in the Middle East that the advancement of new media signifies a broader dangerous trend towards a technological area that will put Arab legacy at risk. Shaykh Saalih al-Fawzaan, for example, appealed in November 2013 to all Muslims, recommending: “Don’t bring them [the new media] into your homes. Don’t leave them with your children and your wives because they are what hinder from the religion and from the path of Allah, and divert them from being upright and cause them to fall into deviation and misguidance’[3]. This topic is also discussed within the print journalism community itself, an interpretive community which still constitutes a powerful opinion leader in the Middle East. However, the question of how the Arab newspaper sees its status has not been studied yet. This study aims to address this absence, examining whether Arab newspapers define their own http://www.gloria-center.org/2014/07/what-does-the-arab-newspaper-think-about-itself/ 2/14 22/9/2014 WHAT DOES THE ARAB NEWSPAPER THINK ABOUT ITSELF? condition as a crisis, and exploring their attitudes about whether they will survive the digital revolution and about relationships between the newspapers and the internet. These issues are examined in this study through a content analysis of Arab newspapers. First, a literature review will focus on the global journalism crisis, the causes that led to it and its implications. This part also presents current research about the situation of newspapers in the Arab world and theories about journalistic communities. Following a discussion of research method, a qualitative analysis of content and discourse of articles in Arab print newspapers that deal with the condition of this press, the findings of this research are presented. Finally, this study concludes with a brief summary offering conclusions and recommendations for further research. THE PRESS CRISIS Many recent studies have dealt with the crisis facing newspapers today, its causes and its meaning, especially in the West. Many of them paint a negative picture of the future of the press[4]. A small number of studies has dealt with the status of newspapers in developing countries. Some of them have shown that the circulation of newspapers in these countries has actually increased[5]. The newspaper crisis has been mainly caused by economic factors, including dependence on advertising as a source of income. The income from sales of papers has decreased and technological changes, particularly the Internet, have also deteriorated of newspapers’ standing with their readership. The Internet has changed customs and values in the process of news production, and the rise of new media and formats has changed the way readers consume news[6]. At the same time, the crisis of newspapers in several countries is attributed to broader social changes, such as loss of confidence in newspapers given the history of fraud, corruption and ethical crimes associated with them[7]. Studies have demonstrated the repercussions of this crisis: fewer young people reading newspapers, declining circulation, dismissal of journalists and closing of newspapers[8]. The crisis has also had a negative impact on democracy, undermining the “watchdog” role of the press and the role of journalism as a tool for free expression[9] To address the crisis, studies have suggested that newspapers reduce costs and develop business models that are not solely based on advertising revenue, but take into account the change in producing news and its consumption[10]. Other solutions have focused on professional practices: changing newspapers’ content and improving their quality[11]. Finally, researchers have emphasized the need to embrace new media and see it as an opportunity to involve readers in the process of creating news[12]. On the other hand, some researchers warn against the blind assumption that the use of Internet will necessarily infuse a new liveliness into journalism and, with it, into democracy[13]. JOURNALISTS AS INTERPRETIVE COMMUNITIES To date, no quantitative or qualitative studies have been conducted, into how newspapers present their own situation through reports and articles. However, some scholars have dealt with the question of how journalistic communities structure their identity, delineate their boundaries and strengthen their authority. Zelizer proposed viewing journalists as members of an “interpretive community,” united by its shared discourse and collective interpretations of key public events[14]. The shared discourse that journalists produce is thus a marker of how they see themselves as journalists. Journalists consolidate themselves as an interpretive community when discussing everyday work. Reporters use discourse to discuss, consider and at times challenge the reigning consensus surrounding journalistic practice even as they adapt to changing technologies, changing circumstances and the changing stature of the news industry. For example, Tenenboim-Weinblatt used the figure of Jon Stewart — host of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart – and the stages and strategies by which Stewart was embedded by journalists and the public into mainstream journalistic discourse to show how the journalistic http://www.gloria-center.org/2014/07/what-does-the-arab-newspaper-think-about-itself/ 3/14 22/9/2014 WHAT DOES THE ARAB NEWSPAPER THINK ABOUT ITSELF? community negotiates its identity, boundaries, and authority in relation to individuals and cultural forms that challenge the definitions of what constitutes journalism[15]. Carlson[16] discussed how journalists come together through the mediated discussion of news practices occurring in mainstream news media and how journalists confront the challenges of their ever-changing economic, political, technological and cultural context through discourse about their work. Journalists seek definitional control over the meaning of their work against external critics, and the notion of interpretive communities demonstrates efforts by journalists to maintain their cultural authority and to shore up journalistic boundaries in the face of dispute and uncertainty over contemporary news practices. Carlson’s book will retain a central role in this article since it provides a useful framework for examining how the condition of newspapers affects both journalism and the larger public. Although no studies have been conducted about the way newspapers present their situation, less formal surveys and interviews on this issue have been done among journalists in the West. In these interviews, newspaper workers expressed concern due to the decrease in readership and gave a low overall score to rival newspapers[17]. Journalists also worried about loss of journalistic craft and standards, for example because of the recycling of print content on online sites. Many journalists even predicted that the newspaper for which they worked would be closed and admitted that their newspaper was less popular than its competitors. As a matter of fact, these journalists admitted to using the same competitors as a source of information[18]. Optimistic views of digital technologies anticipated better news coverage, diversity and access. The report “Journalism at the speed of bytes” did not detect widespread feelings of disempowerment or resignation amongst newspaper journalists. On the contrary, it revealed a forward-thinking, optimistic mood. The majority of journalists it surveyed were looking ahead with enthusiastic views as to what could or should be done to improve news content, exploit the newsgathering and reporting potential of digital technologies, or simply beat the competition[19]. The Arab press: Press in crisis? The love of newspapers has a long history in the Middle East, where newspapers began to appear at the beginning of the 19th century. While newspapers globally are today witnessing a decline in circulation and advertising revenues, print circulation in the Arab region has, until recently, demonstrated greater resilience. Although challenges remain in gathering accurate and audited numbers for the region, newspaper circulation saw some growth in 2010 and 2011, albeit at a slower pace than previously. Moreover, newspaper income still constitutes nearly 40 percent of advertising revenues among the Arab media. Perhaps these are the reasons for the small quantity of studies about the “crisis” in the Arab newspapers. The question is why the Arab newspapers have not experienced the same decline as newspapers in the West? The answer may lie in the strong “newspaper culture” of the region: The Arab news consumers still like to hold a newspaper in their hands as they sip their coffee. Investors are aware of this. Beyond that, in spite of the improvement of the digital infrastructure in the Middle East, many still find it difficult to get quick and easy access to the Internet, and most residents of the area are not connected to the Internet[20]. Quite a few people in the Middle East also mistrust the content of digital media[21] The overall growth in the region, however, masks some important disparities between countries and sub-regions. Egypt, the largest market by circulation, maintained healthy growth in 2011, while the rest of the Arab region experienced a decline of 2 percent in print circulation over the same year. The decline in circulation was particularly pronounced in the Gulf region. The number of newspaper titles in the region had remained relatively flat over the previous few years, with the number of new entrants balancing the exits from the market and the migrations to online-only status. A number of newspapers were launched in the wake of the country’s political uprisings to present independent views. Some of these newspapers tried to challenge the traditional press, which is sympathetic to the local regimes. Many of the newly-launched papers aimed to target younger readers, who remained aloof from print media and consumed news mainly from online sites. On the other hand, several titles shut down over that period for commercial or political reasons[22]. http://www.gloria-center.org/2014/07/what-does-the-arab-newspaper-think-about-itself/ 4/14 22/9/2014 WHAT DOES THE ARAB NEWSPAPER THINK ABOUT ITSELF? So far, the digital revolution has not offered competition to the Arab newspapers in the form of serious content that would disturb their editors’ sleep. But these newspapers are not totally immune from this revolution. More and more people in the Arab world prefer to use Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and news portals to obtain information. In public opinion research conducted in 2011 in the Persian Gulf, 76 percent of participants testified that they had reduced or stopped reading newspapers in favor of news sites. Another survey determined that only 7 percent of media workers in the Arab world believe that newspapers influenced the events of the “Arab spring.” Digital media in the Arab world constituted only 4 percent of the total media advertising revenue in 2011, but its future is brighter–this is the fastest-growing platform in the region, at the expense of newspapers. Regional corporations and international brands in the region are allocating an increasing share of their marketing spending to digital media. Large advertisers, which were initially shy of venturing into online advertising, are increasingly experimenting with the use of social media and a few campaigns have met with resounding success.[23] Political uprisings across the Arab region have contributed in no small part to the increased time spent online and the popularity of social networking platforms. Moreover, the Middle East is a young region, where 53% of the population is under the age of 25, and young people prefer to consume their news online[24]. Arab newspapers have not sat idly by, and, although we still cannot point to a significant deterioration in their condition, as of June 2014, most have already “migrated” to digital media in some form. Regional publishers have achieved some success in digital migration, with online revenues for some titles already constituting a significant share of total advertising revenues. Publishers are also increasingly launching digital versions of their titles[25]. Method This study is based on qualitative analysis of content and discourse of articles in Arab print newspapers that deal with the condition of this press. This analysis is backed by general quantitative data on the prevalence of particular phenomena and themes in the articles. The study analyzed articles and reports published in seven major print dailies in the Arab world. Four of those newspapers are published in four Arab states and enjoy a large readership: al-Ahram (Egypt), al-Rai (Jordan), alRiyadh (Saudi Arabia) and al-Safir (Lebanon). Some of them sympathize with the establishment in their countries (al-Rai), some are independent but support the government (al-Riyadh) and some are oppositional (al-Safir). In addition, three widely-circulated inter-Arab dailies were selected: al-Sharq al-Awsat, al-Hayat and al-Quds al-Arabi. Alongside their popularity, another major reason to select these seven papers was that their online sites republish articles from the print newspaper, allowing easier access to them. Using Arabic keywords, a wide search was done in the newspapers’ archives for articles relating to the situation of Arab newspapers. The search was restricted to the year 2012, and during the search 49 relevant articles were identified. The articles were analyzed using a coding book that examined the attitude of the texts towards newspapers, their future and modern media, the advantages and disadvantages of each media and the solutions offered in any articles which stated that the Arab press is in crisis. Also, the questions in the codebook referred to issues such as freedom of expression and media control. FINDINGS Positive Attitude to Newspapers/ Negative Attitude to Other Media Of the articles analyzed which dealt with the state of the Arab newspaper, twenty-one (42.9 percent) showed a positive attitude towards it. They emphasized that the newspapers are key partners in the transformations in the Middle East, that the new media cannot replace them[26] and that the newspaper is still more reliable and accurate than its competitors[27]. The Saudi paper al-Riyadh explained that reading newspapers is still considered an irreplaceable pleasure among many Arab readers[28]. Some of the articles enshrined independent Arab newspapers, which are less subject to http://www.gloria-center.org/2014/07/what-does-the-arab-newspaper-think-about-itself/ 5/14 22/9/2014 WHAT DOES THE ARAB NEWSPAPER THINK ABOUT ITSELF? government dictates and devote space to reader opinion[29]. Some tied the stable state of newspapers in the Arab world to the fact that most Middle Easterners are not aware of or do not know how to use the Internet: It is not strange that the media are becoming electronic, although this development requires a degree of [knowledge from] the human being to deal with it. I think that this degree exists in the United States and Europe, but here, in the Arab countries, a very small percentage of people are able to operate with the electronic media. Therefore, it is difficult not to resort to the printed media.[30] This supportive attitude towards newspapers is sometimes accompanied by hostility to the Internet. 16 (32.7 percent) of the articles expressed a negative attitude to the Internet. Furthermore, 30 articles (61.2 percent) demonstrated drawbacks of the internet or cited advantages of newspapers. Several newspapers argued that internet sites are characterized by superficial articles[31]; shallow language[32]; and limited ability to influence the society[33]. Another argument was that “surferreporters” cannot replace the work of professional reporters, because they lack the required training[34]. This lack of professionalism of news websites was highlighted in many articles. For example, Iman al-Salem from al-Hayat[35] mentioned the suffering of Saudi newspapers, which have fallen victim to deliberate online plagiarism. Al-Salem attributes this “copying and illegal quotes” by the electronic media to its inability to bear the costs of content production. The phenomenon of copying information from the written press was named by the publicist Ibrahim al-Buddy “My eye, your eye.” He condemned the hasty criticism that people rush to throw towards the press and wrote: One of the common trends in Saudi Arabia is a condemnation of the printing press. This criticism is often attached to a missionary preaching in favor of the online press, or–in its famous name–the ‘new media’. In general, criticizing the press for its evaluation is required and respected (…), but some of those critics, if not most, just bear a grudge. I refer here especially to those who accuse the newspapers in absence of reliability, professionalism and accuracy and forget that these qualities are the weak points of the digital media itself.[36] Al-Riyadh even made a journalistic inquiry on some cases of copying from the newspapers. In this inquiry, news sites were displayed as “copy-paste newspapers,” “parasites,” “uninvited guests” and “a plate of beggars.” Saud al-Matiri, who wrote the extensive report, said that the online papers in his country do not operate by an ethical code of journalism: In most of them there is one person who’s good in one operation–‘Copy and Paste’. (…) All he needs to do is to wake up early in the morning every day, flip the pages of all the newspapers and then compile the information, the investigations the materials that are seen appropriate. (…) The bold face of these net-papers is manifested in the fact that they delete every detail indicating that the news was taken from another newspaper. (…) They made great anarchy, and made the news and the news material to an orphaned child who lacks identity. [37] One newspaper editor interviewed in the report said angrily: “I don’t accept that I, as a professional editor, invest a huge effort to access journalistic material and then this material ‘is lost’ in this way.” Another editor who works in one of the Saudi newspapers told the reporter that this situation reminds him of …[T]he story of an old man who owns some goats. He went to them one morning with a friend, milked them and drank the milk. Then he [the old man] offered his friend a chance to go to the market to buy a breeding-goat for them [for the goats]. When he came to the market – a distance of seventy kilometers – he found that the goats, which his stomach has not yet had time to digest their milk, are in distress. [He realized that] a thief stole them, followed him and brought them to the market! http://www.gloria-center.org/2014/07/what-does-the-arab-newspaper-think-about-itself/ 6/14 22/9/2014 WHAT DOES THE ARAB NEWSPAPER THINK ABOUT ITSELF? This editor uses the word “Takhrij” to indicate the distress of the goats. In the Arabic world of writing, this word is used to specify plagiarism. In other words, the allegory was intended to show that a very short time passes between the publication of news in newspapers and their appearance–in a copied form and without credit–on another news source’s website. More specifically, extensive criticism was directed to the social networks, which “are nothing but tools for interaction and organization”[38]. Fadel al-Amani[39] mentioned the difficulty to control the “information Tsunami” flooding these networks. In his article, “No to the Twitter,” Samir Ata Allah contrasted Twitter to the “art of journalistic writing” and explained why this network will not survive: Tomorrow people will discover that it [Twitter] cut their knowledge, destroyed their thought process, neutralized their thinking (…) and erased the beautiful and necessary details of the life. The writing will fight against this stumble [Twitter] that totally lost its mind (…), and the journalistic art will flourish. (…) Sooner or later, we will discover that the Twitter is a temporary tool to connect between people. Whatever the scope of its activity, Twitter doesn’t have the effect of the newspapers[40]. Negative attitude to newspapers / positive attitude to other media Among the 49 articles from seven newspapers analyzed for this study, 13 (26.5 percent) expressed a negative attitude towards newspapers and 18 articles (36.7 percent) expressed a positive attitude to the Internet. Thirty-one articles (63.3 percent) mention disadvantages of newspapers or discuss advantages of the Internet. One of the arguments of the articles against Arab newspapers was that many of them are nothing but government mouthpieces, calling their credibility–not just their independence–into question.[41] Nearly half, 20 articles (40.8 percent), mentioned the Arab regimes’ control over newspapers or the papers’ limited freedom of expression. In this context, the articles argued that digital media is a stick in the wheels of the regimes[42] and a tool for bypassing censorship[43]. “My fellow workers in the newspapers, forgive me, but I guess it would be hard to find an independent newspaper,” wrote Ahmed Salem of al-Riyadh[44]. In addition, it is argued that the print media are “slow and boring,”[45] obsolete , do not address the concerns of younger citizens[46] and do not involve citizens in the producing of news.[47] Fadel al-Amani of al-Riyadh linked the disadvantages of Arab newspapers to the advantages of websites: All the ideas, methods and values of the traditional media are in front of the rising of a new era (…). People and companies all over the world have found what they wanted in the new media, after decades, perhaps centuries, of exclusion, discrimination, oppression, dictatorship and slavery. New media allows them to communicate in a way that reflects their true shape, in transparency and reliability, without adornment. This media, on its strong digital arms, holds the ability to enter worlds and areas that were blocked in the shadow of hegemony of the traditional, supervisor media[48]. Alongside the capacity of websites to publish “unique and shocking materials” and expose corruption[49], the articles mentioned other benefits to news websites: their speed, rich content, affordable cost, significant influence, ability to combine videos, and their extensive civic involvement. [50] The Internet’s ease of use was also noted: “As the person moved in the history from nomadism to agriculture, to industry and to technology, on all its manifestations, he is passing today from a newspaper, which he holds and reads page after page, to another place where he can look through the newspaper, maybe newspapers, in moments, and not for hours.”[51] This was not the only example in which the advantages of the Internet were highlighted using historical background. For example, Abed Hazndar of al-Riyadh wrote: “We have moved into a new era, similar to the transition from an agricultural economy to industrial economy. (…) What is now happening on social networks like Twitter, Facebook and blogs, is similar to what happened at the outset of the press. (…) Nobody can hide the facts from that people.”[52] As can be seen from the last example, some of the articles had a positive attitude towards social networks. It was argued that both the social networks and the blogs contributed to the events of the “Arab Spring.”[53] Under the http://www.gloria-center.org/2014/07/what-does-the-arab-newspaper-think-about-itself/ 7/14 22/9/2014 WHAT DOES THE ARAB NEWSPAPER THINK ABOUT ITSELF? headline “Twitter – the new editor of the media,” al-Sharq al-Awsat[54] declared that Twitter is one of the latest tools for creating public opinion. Press in crisis 36 articles (73.5 percent) presented the situation of the Arab newspapers as a crisis. Of these 36 articles, 31 (86.1 percent) see the Internet and new technologies as one of the reasons for this crisis. Another medium, television, was held responsible for the crisis by nine of the 36 articles (25%). AlSharq al-Awsat stated, for example, that television “has begun to pull the rug from under the feet of the newspapers” and that it made the reading of newspapers unnecessary for some people, because it appeals to everyone, including those who do not know how to read. In that article, the situation was highlighted by its description of “scary” data from Iraq indicating that illiteracy rates have reached 25 percent and that only eight percent of the population read a newspaper every day. The newspaper attributes the precarious situation of the press in Iraq to the difficult economic situation: “Everyone knows that the purchase ability of some residents does not place the buying of newspapers in the highest priority. We see more and more people only skim the news headlines at the seller store.” [55] Despite these claims, only four of the 36 articles (11.1 percent) attributed the newspaper crisis to topics relating to Arab society, such as distancing of young people from newspapers, changes in consumer habits and illiteracy rates. “The generation which was used to read the newspaper while drinking coffee from Finjan (a small metal coffee pot) is on the verge of extinction,” the Jordanian newspaper al-Rai admitted[56]. In his article “The crisis of Arab culture,” Ghanem al-Alwan al-Jamili addressed Arab readers directly: “We must agree that we, in our Arab world, suffer from a culture crisis in the full sense of the word. (…) Perhaps the main reason for this cultural crisis is ignorance.”[57] Of the 36 articles that presented the situation of the Arab press as being in crisis, eight (22.2 percent) attributed this crisis to problems inherent in the newspapers themselves. Al-Sharq al-Awsat stated that the main reason for the crisis is the fact that the papers represent political parties, a fact that hurts their credibility[58]. As a result, it was mentioned that the newspapers are nothing but a stage for taunting senior figures.[59] Only six of the 36 articles (16.7 percent) attributed the crisis to the decline in publications, investors and distribution. Al-Rai mentioned the Jordanian dailies’ circulation decline in recent years and the decline in advertising, as opposed to the websites, which “thrive in terms of advertising revenues.”[60] The future of newspapers About half of the articles (24, 49 percent) treated the future of Arab newspapers. Of these 24, 18 (75 percent) mentioned the possible extinction of newspapers. It was explained that new media present a major challenge to traditional media, which may cause its extinction, and that the latter “will be defeated in the race” by the former.[61] Besides the race metaphor, newspapers often use anthropomorphic descriptions to describe the potential extinction of the Arab newspaper. “It [the Arab newspaper] will die in the end,” wrote Khaled Sadek of al-Riyadh[62]; Ibrahim Badi of al-Hayat[63] also mentioned the “dying” process of newspapers. Another article states: “The newspapers are in the front of the media that are in danger of death due to the glowing of new communication technologies”[64]. On the other hand, there were a few who used personification to actually predict a more optimistic future. Fatah al-Rahman Yusuf of al-Sharq al-Awsat announced, for example, that the print media “will stay alive forever.”[65] Others wrote that it may “coexist” alongside the Internet, that “it is important that it will not say a tearful farewell”[66] and that “its heart is still beating”[67]. Suleiman Jawda of al-Sharq al-Awsat linked the closure of the American magazine Newsweek and the murky future of the Arab print media. Under the title “See you, [newspaper]’, he wrote: When the world will celebrate in 31.12.12 the end of this year and the arrival of the New Year, it will mark the publication of the last printed issue of the US magazine Newsweek. http://www.gloria-center.org/2014/07/what-does-the-arab-newspaper-think-about-itself/ 8/14 22/9/2014 WHAT DOES THE ARAB NEWSPAPER THINK ABOUT ITSELF? Interesting thing is that Egyptian newspapers have given to this topic a tiny place, as if they fear that one day the same thing that happened to the noble Newsweek will happen to them.[68] Jawda described the future of the newspaper with the word “sunset,” claiming that there was “a kind of agreement that this sunset, which was shining for a long time, is fast approaching, inevitably. The debate is conducted only around the time that the word ‘approaching’ symbolizes. Is it ten years?! 20?! 30?!.” A more optimistic position was held by an editor-in-chief of a Jordanian newspaper, who said in an interview in al-Rai that the printing press “will not be eradicated” just as the radio did not disappear with the advent of television, because even advanced means of communication are faced with their own challenges.[69] Similar statements were made by a chief editor of a Saudi newspaper, according to which newspapers continue to compete with the Internet.[70] Only 12 articles (24.5 percent) offered possible solutions to the state of the Arab newspaper. Among the solutions offered by these articles: focusing on in-depth articles and commentary[71] and improving the education system to increase the literacy rate.[72] Some articles called on newspapers to adopt new technology and build websites to attract new readers. Al-Sharq al-Awsat mentioned that Saudi newspapers have already created Twitter accounts to publicize stories, as was explained by one Saudi newspaper editor: “We, in al-Watan, have a department for Internet advertising. In addition to the electronic copy of the paper, our editors publish links and important news on Twitter, to reach readers everywhere.”[73]. CONCLUSION Recent data indicate the weakening of Arab newspapers even as digital media are growing stronger. This trend is reflected, among other things, in reduced investment in newspaper advertising. However, this weakening is less catastrophic than the corresponding erosion process has been among Western newspapers, and it is unclear whether the Arab newspaper necessarily finds itself in a deep crisis. In the shadow of these vague data, this study was designed to answer the question of how Arab newspapers see themselves. Seven newspapers of different characteristics and distribution zones indicated an ambivalent attitude towards the Arab newspaper. On the one hand, many articles and reports expressed a positive attitude towards the newspapers and argued that they have a significant effect which is both accurate and irreplaceable. Such articles often expressed a hostile attitude to the Internet, claiming its content is superficial, unprofessional and frequently plagiarized. Broad criticism was expressed against social networks, arguing that they are not a substitute for newspapers. Thus, it seems that newspapers are emphasizing the quality of their writing in order to bolster themselves against the digital competitor. On the other hand, more than a quarter of the articles analyzed in this study expressed a negative attitude towards newspapers. One of the main arguments against them is that many of them are dedicated to the service of the ruling party, which restricts their freedom of expression. These claims were, not surprisingly, mostly found in non-establishment newspapers, which are proud of their independence. In addition, these articles argued that print media are slow, boring, outdated, addressing only adults and don’t involve the readers. These negative features of the papers were highlighted alongside advantages of the Internet, which include reliability, convenience, responsiveness to readers and the ability to post videos. Why would newspapers call attention to their own negative attributes? One possible explanation for this is concession of defeat to the web press, which can be a quality tool in bypassing censorship in the Arab Middle East. Indeed, despite the encouraging data regarding newspapers, most of the articles analyzed in this study admitted that Arab newspapers are in crisis. Most of the articles attributed this crisis to the Internet and a minority to the power of television in the Arab world, high illiteracy rates, the moving away of young people from the papers and the fact that many newspapers represent political factors. In contrast to the state of the Western press, only a few articles in the Arab newspapers attribute the http://www.gloria-center.org/2014/07/what-does-the-arab-newspaper-think-about-itself/ 9/14 22/9/2014 WHAT DOES THE ARAB NEWSPAPER THINK ABOUT ITSELF? crisis to economic causes such as a decline in advertising. The admission of the Arab newspapers to this crisis may be largely due to unwillingness to present false information to readers, many of whom have already lost confidence in newspapers. For the newspaper, it seems, all that remains is to accept the situation and join the digital world, creating their own websites and social media accounts, promoting internet content in their newspapers’ pages and cooperating, in terms of advertising and content, with other media on the web. Normally, asking proponents of any medium about its future would probably evoke a smile (real or false), and optimistic tales spun of bright possibilities. But the Arab newspaper is different. About a third of its articles, as surveyed in this study, referred to its approaching or possible extinction, especially in light of the strengthening of the Internet as an information source in the Arab region. Using personification, such as death metaphors, the Arab newspapers describe how they are going to crash. But in this awareness lies also the potential of the newspapers to help themselves emerge from the crisis. Thus, in the articles themselves we can identify an understanding that newspapers must use the platforms provided by the new media in order to survive. As Zelizer described, reporters and editors of Arab newspapers can truly be seen as an interpretive community, which structures its own identity. The shared discourse that Arab press journalists produce around the topic of newspapers’ status is a marker of how they see themselves as journalists. Through their articles, journalists reveal their own awareness, and even their own fear, of the vague futureof their medium in light of the advancement of new media. In other words, journalists within the Arab press come together through the mediated discussion of news practices occurring in the Arab newspapers and try to confront, verbally, the challenges of an ever-changing technological context through discourse about their work. As Carlson and Tenenboim-Weinblatt have said, they seek definitional control over the meaning of their works against their competitors (new media): they negotiate their identity, boundaries, and authority in relation to these new media, and, when they accept, and even praise, the advancement of these media, they challenge the reigning consensus surrounding traditional journalistic practice, facilitating their adaptation to changing technology. It is interesting that, in Arabic, the words which mean “printing press” bear another meaning: “unreal press,” or “fabricated press.” Considering this second interpretation, we can perhaps say that the language itself, which is the true power of the press, foresees its own downfall: the “real” press, therefore, lies in new technologies. But only the future will have the last word when it comes to Arab newspapers. Meanwhile, they continue to be read alongside coffee each morning, providing discussion topics in public spheres throughout the Arab world. Studies should continue to examine the situation of these newspapers and rigorously measure their changing properties, circulation and coverage compared with the corresponding characteristics of online news media. *Yonatan Gonen is currently starting his PhD in communication at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, focusing in his research on the Pan-Arab media and the representation of the IsraeliPalestinian conflict in the Palestinian news media. He worked as a journalist in leading Israeli news organizations (Channel 10 and Ynet), focusing on events in the Arab world. NOTES [1] William A. Rugh, Arab Mass Media: Newspapers, Radio and Television in Arab Politics (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004). [2] Dubai Press Club, Arab Media Outlook 2011-2015, 2012. 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[68] Suleiman Jawda, al-Sharq al-Awsat, 28.10.12. http://www.gloria-center.org/2014/07/what-does-the-arab-newspaper-think-about-itself/ 13/14 22/9/2014 WHAT DOES THE ARAB NEWSPAPER THINK ABOUT ITSELF? [69] Al-Rai, 19.3.12. [70] Atallah al-Amrani, al-Riyadh, 5.6.12. [71] al-Rai, 19.3.12. [72] Ghanem al-Alwan al-Jamili, al-Riyadh, 13.5.12. [73] Ali Sharaya, al-Sharq al-Awsat, 20.12.12. 0 Tweet 0 Filed Under: Media Coverage of the Middle East, MERIA Journal Volume 18, Number 2 (Summer 2014) Tagged With: Arabic-speaking world, egypt, jordan, Lebanon, media coverage, Saudi Arabia The Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya, P.O. Box 167, Herzliya, 46150, Israel info@gloria-center.org - Phone: +972-9-960-2736 © 2011 All rights reserved | Terms and Use | Design By: Gregg Roman | Developed By: Gregg Roman http://www.gloria-center.org/2014/07/what-does-the-arab-newspaper-think-about-itself/ 14/14