- Illustration by Fatma AlHashemi (@F_Fotography)
What we often overlook or take for granted is just how much power the media holds. With media, the world has the ability to shed light on the most important and most pointless issues. The media can make things look really important or really irrelevant. Bottom line, the media is, unfortunately, what steers the wheels of human kind’s perspective.
Not so long ago, I saw a trailer of a show that will air in Ramadhan. It was a series about the life and times of one of Islam’s most important figures, Omar Bin Al Khatab, also known as ‘Al Farooq’. Words cannot describe how jubilant I was over the fact that Arab media has finally taken a turn to the better. Finally, our media will portray something that matters to us as Arabs and Muslims. Honestly, I am dead sick of all the pointless shows and carbon copies that are aired in the Arab media.
I have been tweeting like crazy about just how I do not approve of the media we have in our region since a good 80 percent of it is a carbon copy of the west, regardless if rights have been bought or not. I have expressed my enthusiasm for this upcoming series. I’ve learned about this remarkable figure many times in school and knowing that we aren’t exactly a region that reads as much as we’re supposed to read, I was beyond happy that Omar Bin Al Khatab’s life story would reach thousands of people in only 30 episodes or so. I expressed my enthusiasm on Twitter and guess what? Yup, you guessed it, I was attacked. Literally!
I’ve so far seen all the episodes that were aired, and I can’t stop myself from feeling proud. Our Islamic history is being documented in the most beautiful and respectful manner. Seeing something visually is ten times more powerful than reading a chapter from a book. I would love to see more productions highlighting such important figures from Islam. In a time where this region’s deeply affected by the West, reminding this generation about the importance of Islamic heroes is what we exactly need.
Why do we marvel on the most pointless shows being aired? Why are we fascinated by bimbo actresses hosting game shows during Ramadan? Why are we ‘entertained’ by actresses whose faces just scream ‘plastic surgery’, which is also Haram by the way, yet when we want to shed light on such an important Islamic figure, we’re suddenly all sentenced to Hell? I come from a generation that is just sick and tired of being labeled as useless and reckless. Unless we start seeing our pasts’ heroes in our media and stop highlighting completely untalented figures and bad influences, we cannot progress as a nation. And trust me, even if we do in fact progress as nation, someone somewhere is bound to complain and find something negative about it.
Great post Dubai; I have been working with Arab Media for a very long time and always raised similar concerns. Being neither an Arab or a Muslim my discomfort is mainly with the content hardly ever being original. I worked with so many VP and heads of channels that completely underestimated the intelligence of the viewerships. Copy pasting is still the rule even though western programming it's not providing the same quality of "hints"
Arab Media is still ruled by the same management as 10, 15 years ago. They don't see the discomfort of the viewers and they still believe they can utilize the same marketing strategies to sell same products. In western media success can be measured with different technologies , and if a Head of a Channel does not perform he will be accountable and replaced. If the program is a big success the Head of Channel will be most probably be hired by another station with a higher salary. In the Arab Media positions are mainly political rather than product driven.
Anyway I see the light at the end of the tunnel; the new generation of young Emirati, including yourself, will drive the change. What we really need is to produce original content tailored to local taste; we did the mistake to believe that if you speak Arabic you can then provide content for all 300 million Arabic speakers around the world; we did the mistake of outsourcing our media production to entities and individuals that had only personal profit in mind. Media is yet a business but also has the responsibility of being ethical and provide food for the brain.
We will get there, the time are changing fast and I cannot wait to witness a new wave of Emirati Media.
Thank you so much for your time Giorgio, I really appreciate it! I completely agree. We don't have the same ideas we had 15 years ago as a region, and now we are actually aware of all the 'Carbon copies'. Its about time we open the TV and see the heroes of our past. It's time to see who we are, and it's time to document our past. I think our media is a bit too happy with playing it safe and mediocre. Change will definitely happen, and to the better!