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VOL. V NO. 12, May 22-June 04, 2009

Reality TV Transforms Arab Media Landscape

The Harvard Arab Alumni Association met in Cairo last week for its fourth annual conference entitled “The Arab World: Shaping the Future,” reports Zawya.

The growing influence of broadcast media, combined with the need to provide objective, informative and culturally sensitive television programs, were among the topics discussed.

The conference was attended by a variety of dignitaries and media personnel, including Mazen Hayek of MBC Group and Egyptian Finance Minister H.E Dr. Youssef Boutros Ghali, who “addressed the topic of the Arab world in light of the global economic crisis,” continues Zawya.

Underlying this discussion was the reality, according to Hayek, that “TV remains the most impactful mass media vehicle of content, ideas, entertainment, news and sports to Arab audiences.”

This trend can be seen in the recent release of a number of popular reality TV shows. Last week marked the release of a new show called “Stars of Science,” which will be broadcast for the next four weeks to millions of homes across the Arab world, according to AME Info.

This show brings together sixteen top students from eleven different countries to compete to create and market their own product in the field of science and innovation. The show, sponsored by the Qatar Foundation, is set to run from May 29th to June 26th.

The show is part of a renewed effort to counteract the reputation of the Arab world as lagging behind in terms of innovation and scientific progress.

“The series will allow audiences to learn about science in an entertaining way,” noted Dr Abdulla bin Ali Al-Thani, Vice-President of Education for the Qatar Foundation. “We are dedicated to reviving our region's reputation for learning and discovery, and a reality TV show is a wonderful way to reach the young people who are the future of the Arab world.”

The show, which will allow viewers to vote on which contestant they think has created the best product, is intended to be as interactive as possible.

Another reality TV show entitled The Prince of Poets, which is set to air on June eleventh, will focus on the tradition of classical Arabic poetry, reports Al-Bawaba. This show will highlight the efforts of 300 young Arab poets who will recite their original work in front of an audience of 2000 people and a panel of distinguished judges.

The show, which is produced by Pyramedia on behalf of the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage, “was created in an effort to encourage Arab youth to excel in an artistic area that extends back to the Pre-Islamic era.”

The Prince of Poets features state-of-the-art facilities and high-definition cameras used to provide footage which is as up-to-date as possible. Mona Al-Ruwaini, one of the producers of the show, noted, “This is our third season producing the live reality TV show and each year we have grown to expand our capabilities of producing quality content for TV.”

Interactive reality TV shows is just one way in which Arab television is adapting to the changing realities and possibilities of 21st century technology and innovation. The trend can be seen to extend as far as Indonesia, writes Norimitsu Onishi for The New York Times. The country with the largest Muslim population in the world is seeing the birth of a number of new “reality” shows.

Ariel Heryanto, a well-known Indonesian scholar and editor of “Popular Culture in Indonesia,” (a collection of essays on Indonesian film and television), noted the American roots of such programming. “The influence of American culture is growing, and these reality TV shows present not an innocent hope for the future, but a particular American version of it.”

The proliferation of new reality TV shows is just one part of a larger trend across the Arabic-speaking world to keep up with the changing landscape of technology and media. As Mazen Hayek noted, "the importance of providing interactive and culturally stimulating programs which offer new and inspiring models for Arab society is just as important as providing clear and objective news sources in print and broadcast media."

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