Border guards of the "Imagined" Watan: Arab Journalists and the New Arab Consciousness

Media plays a fundamental role in the formation of national identity, most famously detailed in Benedict Anderson's theory of the imagined community. In the Arab world, a media revolution is contributing to the emergence of a reawakened regional Arab consciousness. A comparison of data from the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Middle East journal 2009-04, Vol.63 (2), p.191-212
Main Author: Pintak, Lawrence
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Arab Cultural Groups
Arab nationalism
Arab people
Arabs
Boundaries
Communication
Community
Consciousness
Democracy
Identity
Identity formation
Identity politics
Ideology
Imagined communities
Information and communication technologies
Islam
Journalism
Journalists
Mass Media
Middle East
Muslims
Nation states
National Identity
Nationalism
News content
Pan Arabism
Political identity
Propaganda
Public opinion
Regional studies
Satellite television
Social consciousness
Social networks
Truces & cease fires
War
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Summary:Media plays a fundamental role in the formation of national identity, most famously detailed in Benedict Anderson's theory of the imagined community. In the Arab world, a media revolution is contributing to the emergence of a reawakened regional Arab consciousness. A comparison of data from the first major regional survey of Arab journalists and the results of various public opinion polls in the region indicate that Arab journalists stand on the borderlands of Arab identity, shaping an emerging "imagined" watan [nation] that, in some ways, transcends the traditional lines in the sand that define the nation-state.
ISSN:0026-3141
1940-3461
DOI:10.3751/63.2.11