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LONDON: Journalists from the UK and US must do more to recognize the diversity between nations in the Middle East, according to a new book edited by a London-based academic.
Dr. Zahera Harb, a senior lecturer at the City, University of London, said news organizations in the West can present negative and simplistic views of Islam and the Arab world, despite there being more than a billion Muslims worldwide and more than 350 million Arabs spread across multiple countries.
Dr. Harb told Arab News: “Some Anglo-American journalists apply their own prejudice and stereotypes of Islam, Muslims and Arabs to their reporting … Some seem to have the tendency to apply their preconceived perceptions on the region and its people without any effort to question them. Discourses matter; blanket labeling and generalization lead to the rise of (a) phenomenon like Islamophobia, which recent incidents in London show (is) indeed on the rise.
“Some of the reporting (on the Middle East) reflects ignorance on behalf of the journalist (and a reluctance to learn) basic knowledge of the cultural sensitivities and complexities of the region. The one-model-fit-for-all approach has misinformed (rather) than informed readers in the West.”
In “Reporting the Middle East: The Practice of News in the Twenty-First Century,” the book edited by Dr. Harb, authors including journalism academic Dr. James Rodgers recommend a country-by-country approach to (the) analysis of the region.
The book provides a detailed analysis of the complexities of reporting from the Middle East and how the media represents the region. Each chapter provides an overview of a country, including the political context, relationships to international politics and key elements relating to the place, as covered by the Western media.
Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, Palestine, Turkey and Iran are among the countries that come under focus, with chapters written predominantly by writers and scholars of Arab origin.
Dr. Harb said of the book: “Journalist readers will have the opportunity to compare practice and think more deeply about it, with the aid of these ideas. Media academics and students interested in the Middle East will add to their bodies of knowledge about the issues, but with the addition of the fine-grained and vivid detail that only eyewitness reporting can bring.”
The authors explore how media can be used to serve particular political agendas on both a regional and international level. They also consider the changes to the media landscape following the growth of digital and social media, showing how access to the media is no longer restricted to state or elite actors.