Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Preface
- Introduction: Beyond al-Jazeera
- 1 Screens of Contention: The Battle for Arab Viewers
- 2 Voting Islam Off the Island? Big Brother in Bahrain
- 3 The Saudi-Lebanese Connection
- 4 Contesting Reality: Star Academy and Islamic Authenticity in Saudi Arabia
- 5 Gendering Reality: Kuwait in the Eye of the Storm
- 6 A Battle of Nations: Superstar and the Lebanon-Syria Media War
- 7 The “New Middle East”? Reality Television and the “Independence Intifada”
- Conclusion: Performing Politics, Taming Modernity
- List of Interviews
- Further Readings
- Bibliography
- Index
- Titles in the Series
Preface
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Preface
- Introduction: Beyond al-Jazeera
- 1 Screens of Contention: The Battle for Arab Viewers
- 2 Voting Islam Off the Island? Big Brother in Bahrain
- 3 The Saudi-Lebanese Connection
- 4 Contesting Reality: Star Academy and Islamic Authenticity in Saudi Arabia
- 5 Gendering Reality: Kuwait in the Eye of the Storm
- 6 A Battle of Nations: Superstar and the Lebanon-Syria Media War
- 7 The “New Middle East”? Reality Television and the “Independence Intifada”
- Conclusion: Performing Politics, Taming Modernity
- List of Interviews
- Further Readings
- Bibliography
- Index
- Titles in the Series
Summary
On a warm summer evening, making our way up a narrow street, we left behind the fishermen's harbor of the ancient city of Byblos, Lebanon. I had been in the country for about two months, since early April 2004, doing research on what I initially conceived as a study of the overlaps between popular culture and politics in the Arab world, guided as much by a long-standing conceptual interest in the issue as by my mounting frustration with the obsession with al-Jazeera as a stand-in for Arab media. We were in Byblos to see my brother giving a piano concert in the old Saint Jean Marc church up the street. Suddenly, my two-year-old son leapt onto the street.
“Bruno!” I called, panicked by the sight of my toddler jumping onto a street that had a fair amount of car traffic. As I hauled my son back to safety, we were quickly surrounded by a group of teenagers, mostly girls, some smiling, others giggling, and several excitedly repeating “Esmo Bruno? Esmo Bruno!” (His name is Bruno? His name is Bruno!) Among them were several school girls wearing the veil, on a school trip from the Northern city of Tripoli to visit Byblos's ancient ruins; some teenage tourists in jeans, t-shirts, and tank tops; and a few local boys and girls stepping out from the souvenir stores and eateries dotting the area. The name Bruno is uncommon though not unheard of in Lebanon.
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- Information
- Reality Television and Arab PoliticsContention in Public Life, pp. xv - xviPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009