 Winning
hearts and minds?
Or earning trust and respect in the Middle East
By Haleh Vaziri
May 5, 2003
The Iranian
International television and radio broadcasters have battled, especially
since 9-11, to "win the hearts and minds" of the Middle
East. What they really want then is to woo the eyes and ears of
people in the region.
How to do this? This is the pressing question, and it underscores
the need to answer others: What is the region's appetite for
news and information? Which media do people depend on and trust?
In other words, what do we know about attitudes and behavior towards
media in the Middle East's diverse societies?
Little quantitative data is readily available, and only some qualitative
research has emerged during the last decade illuminating media consumption
patterns in this crisis-ridden area. However, media moguls and producers,
editors and journalists have been designing television and radio
programming based on assumptions that are questionable at best and
perhaps no longer valid -- among these:
* Domestic media competition is thin throughout the Middle East.
* News coverage is overwhelmingly censored, with reports about the
U.S. and the West intentionally skewed.
* Nationalism and religiosity are the predominant themes underlying
domestic coverage of local, regional, and international events.
Data collected so far by the InterMedia Survey Institute --
quantitative, qualitative, and anecdotal -- increasingly
refute this conventional wisdom, revealing a growing sophistication
among Middle Eastern audiences. The data point to four seemingly
nascent trends that deserve exploration by media researchers as
they formulate their hypotheses for testing, and attention by international
broadcasters as they court the region's viewers and listeners.
* Producers and consumers of TV and radio in parts of the region
-- Morocco, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraqi Kurdistan, Iran, Qatar, the UAE,
and Afghanistan -- are experiencing political liberalization and
experimenting with free expression. Yet the red lines delineating
what is and is not acceptable are unclear and seem to shift suddenly.
* Audiences from Morocco to Afghanistan, from Turkey to Yemen crave
the "truth" defined as accuracy in reporting.
* Viewers and listeners are skeptical if not downright suspicious
of claims to objectivity, seeking instead media that are balanced
-- or at least honest about their perspectives.
* Audiences want international media to provide an understanding
of the world beyond their geographical and mental boundaries while
respecting the Middle East's multiple cultural realities.
As some regional governments have recently implemented liberalization
measures, producers and consumers of TV and radio are experimenting
with free expression. Turkey is the Middle East's only long-standing
democracy among the region's Muslim societies, but other governments
are also putting press freedom high on their agendas.
The reasons for this development vary. Morocco's and Jordan's monarchs
are recognizing the utility of media as a legitimate channel for
the expression of popular frustrations. Lebanon's religious sects
and political parties all have their own media outlets, and their
entrepreneurial spirit is thriving. Iraqi Kurdish media has proliferated,
protected by the American-British no-fly zones and likely to fare
even better after Saddam Hussein's ouster.
Iran's journalists have spearheaded the reformist movement that
elected President Mohammad Khatami in two landslides. Afghanistan's
media organizations are re-emerging, starting from scratch after
some two decades of civil-international war. Qatar's and the UAE's
emirs have pioneered the establishment of pan-Arab satellite television
and free-media zones, reaping regional clout and economic rewards
for their citizens.
Whatever the reason, local media markets have become quite competitive
if not rather chaotic. Gone are the days when state-run television
and radio programs were the only viewing and listening options for
Middle Eastern consumers. InterMedia's studies suggest that with
many options available, regional audiences -- particularly those
with higher education, identifying themselves as middle class, and
living in urban centers -- regularly turn to numerous news sources.
Consumers check domestic sources against international ones, and
vice versa, to receive a fuller account of major events. International
media -- BBC World, Canal France International, CNN, Deutsche Welle
Radio and Television, Euronews, RFE/RL, VOA, etc. -- face stiff
competition from the Middle East's domestic and pan-Arab news sources.
Regional journalists have improved their professional skills, and
with their intuitive grasp of local concerns and sensitivities,
are surprising their counterparts in international media with their
effectiveness and popularity.
Yet political liberalization and increased free expression have
their opponents in the region, and the red lines delineating what
is and is not acceptable are unclear, shifting all too suddenly
as editors, journalists, and producers find themselves in trouble.
Indeed, sectarian bosses in Lebanon, conservatives among Iran's
ruling clergy, and Afghan tribal chiefs have challenged free expression,
clamping down on domestic media that dare tread on what they deem
politically and religiously sacred. Arab governments have likewise
restricted coverage by Al-Jazeera and other satellite stations whose
coverage they find unflattering.
Media markets that swing like a pendulum between the extremes of
competition and control, freedom and fear produce chaos, but also
make audiences even hungrier for truthful and balanced reporting.
How do regional audiences define and identify the truth? While consumers
appreciate the newly free media they have in some countries, they
realize that freedom does not necessarily lead to accuracy and fairness.
As audiences in InterMedia's in-depth interview studies remark,
freedom is the midwife to "warlord media" in Afghanistan
and "[Massoud] Barzani and [Jalal] Talabani media" in
Iraqi Kurdistan (referring to the Kurdish Democratic Party's and
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan's leaders).
Truth may prove an elusive concept, but regional audiences seem
to define it as the media's best efforts to report all that happened
without omission or embellishment and to the best of the journalist's
knowledge. This type of accurate reporting does not need to be "objective"
as the adjective is commonly used in the West, especially in the
U.S. In fact, InterMedia's studies indicate that Middle Eastern
consumers distrust if not reject claims to objectivity, whether
by the Voice of America or by CNN, because they believe that all
news sources reflect and represent politically and/or commercially
motivated, vested interests.
Regional audiences value sources that are balanced, examining a
story from as many angles as possible, or that are at least honest
about their perspective. This sense of balance and honesty enables
the consumer to exercise choice. As one interview participant in
Iran declared to InterMedia shortly after 9-11, "Political
news is like a puzzle. The more complicated the story, the more
sources I need to turn to. Each one provides its specific perspective
on the event and emphasizes what it sees as being important."
(Female, 25 years old, Tehran resident).
Besides looking for accurate and fair coverage of events, viewers
and listeners in the Middle East are curious about the world beyond
their geographical and mental boundaries. Studies show that audiences
consume international media, even those sources they regard as biased,
because they wish to understand cultural, economic, and scientific
developments outside their region. This is particularly so in the
most restrictive and repressive states -- Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and
Syria, for example. As Iraqi research respondents explain, international
media has been a crucial link for Iraqis living under Saddam's terror
and international sanctions, with viewers and listeners taking significant
risks of official punishment for tuning in.
Consumers want international media to respect the region's diverse
customs and faith traditions. Depictions of the region as monolithically
Arab or Muslim, uniquely prone to extremism and violence, and drowning
in barrels of oil wealth are all too common. Middle Eastern viewers
and listeners expect international media organizations to transcend
these over-simplifications and offer a more nuanced picture of their
and other societies. As regional satellite stations have demonstrated,
people are eager to express their views and have them heard. Adopting
a dialogical format to culturally sensitive issues is a strategy
like to succeed for international media producers too.
In short, a small but growing body of research on media consumption
patterns in the Middle East should make producers of international
TV and radio think twice about assumptions that have passed for
wisdom as they reach out to regional audiences. The complexities
of markets and sophistication of consumers should inspire and indeed
necessitates the boldness and creativity of media researchers and
producers in testing hypotheses among and conceiving programming
for regional viewers and listeners.
Winning hearts and minds may miss the point. Wooing the eyes and
ears entails earning the trust and respect of audiences -- a tall
but not impossible order, and one that media researchers and producers
not only share but would be wise to accomplish together in the Middle
East as soon as possible.
Author
Dr. Haleh Vaziri is the Regional Research Manager for Central
Asia, the Middle East & North Africa at the InterMedia Survey
Institute in Washington, D.C. This article will be published in
The Channel, (April-June 2003), the journal of the Association
of International Broadcasters (UK).
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Winning
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