Hot Chocolate and Adpapers

I was told to write an article about Arab Media. I thought it would be fun even though I was not actually the one who is supposed to write it. Anyway... I did write something. Something that was described as "my style throughout" and "will put me in trouble if it goes out!"

I was then asked to rewrite it and put some positive remarks! Basically lie.
I did...and guess what...the piece was still negative and would still put me in trouble! The magazine might publish it just because they reserved the spot for it! Miserable sods!


Any way... I did say that I will write something and it will go to my blog either way (I don't like wasting!)

So…here goes the original piece!

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As a long resident of the region, I’ve become an expert on how to read our local newspapers. My technique varies very slightly every day, but it mainly consists of scanning the death lines, aka the headlines, flipping through tens of colored and glossy pages, glancing at the business section, and then checking the classified, the almost single original piece of information in the ever growing bundle of daily papers! It doesn’t take me more than 15 minutes every morning to go through the different dailies, while I sip my cup of hot chocolate.

The media in the UAE and the surrounding areas, whether written or seen, suffers from one main shortcoming: the content, or the lack of it.

Why do specific issues, like the Palestinian Occupied Territories and Iraq, get the full coverage, while issues like poverty, education, health and prejudices in labor laws, to name just a few, are hardly discussed or even raised?

Yes, it is important to know about the injustices happening in Palestine and Iraq and media must cover them. I am not belittling these issues. But what our local media has is what I call “news diarrhea”. Everyone knows the history of the Palestinian struggle. Most journalists have been raised and fed the Palestinian conflict and they grasp its saga, chronicle and rundown perfectly. Accordingly everyone is a voluble expert.
So is the case with Iraq.
These are “easy” issues that any dabbler can become proficient in.

Another repeated issue is that of Political Islam and Islamists. Anyone with a beard who knows a couple of the Prophet’s sayings and a few verses of Quraan is a scholar who can give fatwa’s on Jihad and Hijab.

When the issue is exhausted, anyone can say their two pence worth. This is why we have thousands of commentators on the Palestinian issue and hundreds of thousands Islamic writers and academics!

On the other hand, if you look at the financial section in a newspaper or at the financial programs on the multiplying Arabic channels, you would find it a very dry and parched desert. It is a desert because to convert it into a flourishing oasis you would need to research and study. Research and study are unheard of components in Arabic journalism. Except if it is to research the translation of a specialized term.

Social issues like child abuse, poverty and health care are left uncovered and untold. Investigative reporting is scarce as it involves more work than blowing the regular tune in the trumpet.

What the Arabic media seems to have forgotten is that journalism is about new information, not repetitive infertile loud headlines.
Local media is focused on the global issues and has turned its back to the native problems. Whether intentional or not, this focus diverts and distracts the audiences from local troubles by minimizing the internal issues and amplifying the external danger.

What we need today is specialized real journalism. We need educated journalists specialized in law, medicine, technology, business & finance. Journalists that understand both the customers need and the demands of the competitive market.

Until then, I will continue to sip on my hot chocolate while flipping quickly through the Adpapers, aka the local dailies!

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