The Pan-Arab and Western Media: an unbridgeable or an overstated gap?

Supporting Debate about the Media

In May 2007 the Foundation hosted a dinner to mark the London Middle East Institute conference on ‘The Pan-Arab & Western Media: An Unbridgeable or an Overstate Gap?’ at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

The conference, sponsored by the Media Outreach Centre of the US Embassy in London, was designed to investigate the nature and magnitude of the alleged gap between the pan-Arab and western media. With the increasingly central role played by the media in shaping public opinion and impacting upon the strategies of political elites, public debate on such issues is vitally important.

In order to explore and reveal any differences between realities constructed by the pan-Arab and western media, and to do so with an appreciation of the substantial variations within both, journalists discussed aspects of their respective coverage/analysis and contemporary Middle East issues. They did so in three panels, each organised around a specific issue – these panels enabled both participants and the audience to hear for themselves whether or not journalists approached such vital issues from deeply different perspectives or at great variance.

Two briefer panels were devoted explicitly to the media, and a summary panel inclusive of different viewpoints drew upon the evidence provided in previous panels to try to answer the key question of whether or not the gap between the pan-Arab and western press is unbridgeable or overstated. All panel moderators were academic specialists on the Middle East and/or the media and the panellists included leading figures from the Arab and British press.

Panellists, moderators and sponsors were able to continue their discussions after the conference at the dinner hosted by the MBI Al Jaber Foundation.