The Middle East

The explosion of Arab media into the scene has been heralded as the clearest indication of forces of globalization, renewed faith in the role of media in social change, and prospect of democratization. Yet the rapid process of internationalization from the very start contained a number of significant paradoxes. Media systems in general, and the television industry in particular provide one important and visible example of the attempt to subordinate national economies to the powers of international and domestic capital. This chapter examines some of the regional media giants that are explicitly linked to the growth of Gulf capital and highlights how capitalist development in the region, including development of media, is politically determined in a number of ways.