Posted in: Yemen Observer
Written By: Raghda Gamal
Article Date: Dec 20, 2008
American Journalist Matt Labash once said "The best hope for little Americas developing in the Middle East could be Arab-produced reality TV!" This sentence expresses a clear plan to obliterate the Arab identity, and as part of it, over the last six years Arab Sky channels have begun airing all manner of improper foreign programs. There are a number of sub-categories of shows being broadcast by Arabic sky channels such as entertainment news, game shows, job search competitions, reality shows, self-improvement shows, social- experiment shows, talent search shows and the talk shows. These types of shows began in western countries in the 1940s, and in Arabic countries only in the early 2000s.
The shows
Entertainment News Entertainment Tonight, Inside Edition and The Insider are daily television entertainment news shows broadcast by MBC4. The shows are a mix of tabloid crime stories, investigative pieces, celebrity gossip and human interest stories.
Game shows
This category generally presents two contestants, or two groups who compete to win a prize, and one contestant per episode is removed by public vote. The Amazing Race broadcast by One TV shows teams of two people, who have some form of a personal relationship, racing around the world in competition with other teams. The team that arrives first in the final round is awarded a large cash grand prize, usually one million US dollars. Deal or No Deal is broadcast by LBC, and contestants are asked to pick the more valuable case out of several others and after several times the player answers the titular question: “Deal”, accepting the offer presented and ending the game, or “No Deal”, rejecting the offer and continuing to open cases. The American hit Survivor was broadcast by One TV and the Arabic version by the LBC. In the show, contestants are isolated in the wilderness and compete for cash and other prizes. The contestants vote off a weak member, until only one final contestant remains and wins the title of “Sole Survivor”. The Arabic version of Who wants to be A millionaire on MBC was the most popular show for years, and the host asks the contestant a series of questions of increasing difficulty, with increasingly large cash prizes for each correct answer until the contestant hits the 1 million jackpot.
Job search competition
Programs where competitors perform a variety of tasks based around a specific skill, in which the prize for the winner includes a contract to perform that kind of work such as Hell’s Kitchen (for chefs), So You Think You Can Dance (for dancers) by the MBC4 and Apprentice (for business-people) by One TV. Reality shows The Arabic version of the Star Academy program, by LBC or the special channel for the show Nagham where boys and girls live in a place called “The Academy” for around four months, managed by a director and various teachers who coach them in several artistic disciplines. The participants are filmed with cameras throughout the day and night. Every Friday, the contestants have to face a prime time show, where they sing the song they’ve prepared during the week. The live show will often feature special guest stars, with which some of the contestants have the opportunity to sing. Based on the judges' verdicts and viewer’s voting, the weakest contestant is dropped. The eventual winner is awarded a record deal and usually some amount of money.
Self-improvement theme
These kinds of shows let the contestants meet with a group of experts, who give them instructions on how to improve their lives, for instance The Biggest Loser, by MBC where overweight contestants compete to win by losing the highest percentage of their body weight. Or Super Nanny, a show with a child-rearing theme on MBC 4. Other programs include Made, where contestants have to attain difficult goals in several categories, which is shown on MTV Arabia, Pimp My Ride, about restoring cars on MBC action, and even Extreme Makeover on One TV and The Swan on MBC 4, which change the entire physical appearance of the contestants with plastic surgery.
Social- experiment theme
Social-experiment programs include the first season of the Simple Life, which was broadcast by Future TV. The comedy depicts two wealthy young girls (Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie) as they struggle doing manual, low-paying jobs such as cleaning rooms, doing farm work, serving meals in fast-food restaurants & working as camp counselors. Wife Swap on MBC4 presents two families from different social classes and lifestyles who exchange their mothers for two weeks. During the first week, the new wife must adhere to the same rules and lifestyle of the wife she is replacing. Then in second week, the new wives are allowed to establish their own rules, and their new families must adhere to these new household rules.
Talent search shows
Star Search is broadcast by MBC and American Idol by One TV, and the Arabic version called Superstar is shown on Future TV. These programs seek to discover the best singer in the country through a series of nationwide auditions. The outcomes of the later stages of this competition are determined by public, who vote by phone or text messages. America’s Got Talent is broadcast by MBC, and it features singers, dancers, magicians, comedians and other performers of all ages competing for the top prize of one million US $. Talk shows On talk shows, famous hosts interview a featured guest or discuss a chosen topic with a guest or panel of guests. These include Oprah, and Dr. Phil on MBC4, and the Tyra show and The View on One TV.
In one of his papers, Dr. Waleed al-Hudaithi from the Sana’a Faculty of Media said that the reasons that foreign news agency’s control over broadcasts and its effects on the Arab audience are the main reasons for such problems, though the weakness of local Arabic productions also contributes. Dr. al-Hudaithi added saying that effect of this kind of cultural invasion could lead to the enfeeblement of the Arabic language and the spread western culture.
In a research proposal presented by college teacher and psychologist Dr. Weal Fadhel, he explained that Arabic children who continued to watch Sky TV channels that broadcast values and principles against reality could result in causing a dangerous kind of ambivalence in them.
To Dr. al-Hudaithi, to solve these problems, Arabs should unify their efforts to build an Arabic media matrix that would contribute to a local plan to keep the Arabic and Islamic identity safe. Such a media matrix should oversee both foreign and Arabic media productions.
At the forty-first round of the Arab Media Ministers Board held last June, Arab Media ministers asked Arabian institutions and news agencies to pay greater attention to the kinds of programs that could destroy the Arabic image. From the Arab press network, Egyptian Media Minister, Anas al-Fa’hi said that some Arabic sky channels were broadcasting negative materials twenty four hours a day and they should be stopped as soon as possible.
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