The Making of Arab News [Paperback]

Noha Mellor (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0742538192 | ISBN-13: 978-0742538191 | Publication Date: January 28, 2005

Since September 11, Arab and American journalists have been trading barbs, accusing each other of bias and a lack of objectivity. But is news coverage in Arab countries all that different from American coverage? The Making of Arab News draws comparisons, including examples of Arabic news language and their English translations, to show how Arab news values have been Americanized and how these values are reflected in the language used in the Arab news. Noha Mellor further discusses claims that the current development in the Arab news media could be the first step toward democratization.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The Making of Arab News is a good contribution to Arab Media Studies. It offers an unprecedented rich mélange of literature on the topic, drawing on empirical research conducted by both Arab and Western scholars. A very informative book. (Middle East Journal )

Noha Mellor's The Making of Arab News is a welcome addition to the scholarship in that it widens the scope of the discussion by looking at the linguistic and cutural parameters under which Arab news media operate. (European Journal Of Communication )

An indispensable resource for working journalists and scholars seeking to understand the Arab journalism world. Mellor's book traces the origin of journalistic practices and gives pause to those who thought they already knew everything they needed to know about Arab journalism. The author questions existing Western theories and concepts of the Arab press and provides readers with an invaluable alternative to currently accepted ideas of why Arab journalists do what they do. This is a highly readable book that deserves a place in any serious scholarly discussion of current and future Arab journalism. (Dr. Ralph D. Berenger Journal Of Transnational Broadcasting Studies )

About the Author

Noha Mellor is a journalist and an external lecturer at the Institute of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Copenhagen.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (January 28, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0742538192
• ISBN-13: 978-0742538191
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,868,000 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Superb analysis of Arab newsmaking, May 14, 2005

By 

Ralph D. Berenger (Sharjah, United Arab Emirates) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Making of Arab News (Paperback)

International scholars are often puzzled by the way translations of Arab news stories, printed and broadcast, are constructed and organized. The same scholars are confused over the definition of objective reporting, which to the Western mind often seems just the opposite of what Arabic reporters practice despite their insistence that they hold objectivity as an important news value. Thank goodness someone like Noha Mellor is around to clear us a path.

Mellor, a hybrid journalist-cum-academic-cum-journalist in Copenhagen, has done some serious work here that is highly readable.

The Making of Arab News rides the crest of Western interest in Arab mass media and is an indispensable resource for working journalists and scholars seeking to understand the world of Arab journalism.

The author traces the origin of journalistic practices -- in the Middle East and the West --, questions existing Western theories and concepts of the Arab press, and provides readers with an invaluable alternative to currently accepted ideas of why Arab journalists do what they do.

In Part 1 of the book (four short chapters), the author analyzes similarities and differences between Arab and Western news construction and organization, and delves into levels of objectivity, political implications, public opinion, war coverage, and how American-style news formats have influenced Arab news coverage. However, Mellor is quick to point out that the Arab world is neither monolithic culturally nor linguistically, which the US seems not to understand when it tries pan-Arabic broadcasting experiments like Radio Sawa and Alhurra TV.

Students will find her comparativist approach to Western and Arab media development not only interesting but also critical to their understanding media systems in those spheres.

A short history of Arab journalism offers readers a road map they can follow to see how broadcast journalists, for example, have developed their own styles of delivery and story order. It also revisits William Rugh's taxonomy (see review in TBS 12), and takes issue with some ways the ambassador classifies media in various countries. For example, Mellor says the impact of foreign-licensed pan-Arab media, primarily magazines, are changing the way traditional print media is developing; and international and transnational broadcasting are having an impact on local media as well. Both issues receive only minor treatment in Rugh's 2003 book, and he "does not directly account for the role this type of press plays in public opinion..." (p. 61).

In Part II of the book (three chapters), which in the main is very strong and very interesting for bilingual Arab students, she goes into great detail about the development of Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and how languages throughout the Middle East are becoming bifurcated or even trifurcated by the reality of a vernacular language used every day, MSA in the media, and the Classical Arabic spoken in the mosques as the language of the Koran. She calls this a diglossia or a triglossia. Young students, she says, favor English and vernacular Arabic languages over either MSA or Classical Arabic, because the former are "living languages" that are constantly changing in form and meaning.

In a particularly thought-provoking section, Mellor compares Arab story construction with the way Western journalists-and Arab students studying journalism at the proliferating Americanized universities throughout the Middle East-learn how to construct news stories, which is often through the summary lead (the 5w's and h) within the classic inverted pyramid organization. Arab journalists traditionally have not communicated that way -- in print or broadcast media -- though they are learning to do so since international print and broadcast media are ubiquitous in the region. Classic Arab journalists in the Middle East's golden era of journalism -- who, we learn from Mellor's book, were mostly trained at Cairo's Al Azhar, the world's oldest university -- used different forms, either a "right up pyramid" or a "step pyramid"-that more closely resembles the story telling narrative form (p.128-129).

A section discusses the differences between Arab and Western news values (p.97), which is helpful to both Arab and Western audiences who view transnational news programs and wonder how stories are selected.

Of particular interest to Arabic-speaking students are the examples, written in MSA and then translated into English, that illustrate the difference. This aspect of Mellor's book, the actually usage of Arabic to illustrate the point, is invaluable for instructors of Arab students whose own Arabic might not be up to snuff. However, there is not so much of it that it turns off monolingual students.

The book's major shortcoming is its lack of an index. Researchers will be frustrated in trying to quickly locate material and concepts inside this edition, albeit a thin tome that is fairly well organized into seven chapters. An alphabetical index would be an invaluable addition to subsequent printings.

Noha Mellor lectures in Arabic language and media at the Institute of Middle East Studies, University of Copenhagen, combining research and teaching while working as a journalist.
--Transnational Broadcasting Studies Journal

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent primer lends clarity to a complex subject, January 25, 2006

By 

J. Kim - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Making of Arab News (Paperback)

THE MAKING OF ARAB NEWS is a great book for both students and practioners. Its aim "is to shed light on the current news values in the Arab news media as formulated by Arab and western scholars and observers alike" (p. 3).

The book provides valuable insights on both regional and pan-Arab news values and trends. It manages to intelligently discuss the reach of new media and its unifying effect on certain segments of the press while problematizing the concept of a single, universal set of Arab news values. In other words, it is not another al-Jazeera book (not that there's anything wrong with that).

This well-researched guide covers an impressive range of previous research, including a substantive critique of Rugh's standard text (pp. 49-73). As a student, I found the book served as an ideal entry point to further research in the field. I expecially appreciated Mellor's wealth of bibliographic citations, and (as always) clear writing is a plus.

Finally, the author's attention to the history and mechanics of MSA (pp. 109 -142) -- which includes using Arabic news scripts and their translations -- is commendable. I sincerely look forward to Mellor's future scholarship.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally! a book that gets it right!, December 20, 2005

By 

Jad Melki - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Making of Arab News (Paperback)

This is an excellent book on the news media in the Arabic World. It is comprehensive, critical and easy to read (not to mention it's about 150 pages). If you are interested in accurate information on the Arabic media, read this book before you look at anything on this topic. Mellor covers most of the topics and questions and reviews almost all the recent literature on this topic. The book includes an amazing list of resources and references and is of superb scholarly quality.

The focus of the book is "Arab news values and how they are manifested textually in the news." It sheds light on the current news values in the Arab news media and compares that to values of news in the American press. Mellor combines the theories and views of Arab, American and European media scholars and journalists and comes up with an amazing understanding of this topic.