Bahrain
Kuwait
Oman
Qatar
Saudi Arabia
UAE
Print
Email
Discuss this article (1 Comments)Positive Press
by This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it on Thursday, 08 November 2007
There is not a media and marketing industry in the world that does not invite constant criticism. The phrase ‘popular press' is a contradiction in terms.
It goes with the territory: newspapers, television, radio, web sites and magazines can only ever please some of the people some of the time.
And they can certainly be unpopular to all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time. In many parts of the world journalists have become as popular to the average man on the street as lawyers, tax collectors and traffic wardens.
Marketing professionals don't fare much better. Banal adverts interrupt television programs; junk mail litters the post box; the industry gets precious little credit for its creativity.
The Middle East is therefore far from unique in finding fault with its media and marketing industry.
But it is worth asking dispassionately whether things are really much worse here than elsewhere in the world. And it is certainly important to recognise just how much progress has been made in the past decade.
The development that has taken ten years in this market took centuries in other parts of the world.
Television is a good place to start. When I first moved to Dubai in 1991, there were a handful of channels showing poorly produced, often repeated shows - either laughably amateur dramas from Arabic producers, government-made current affairs, or heavily censored Western programs with subtitles or dubbing.
There was only one English channel, and the worst of American daytime soap operas, such as The Bold and the Beautiful, became popular because they were so kitsch.
Today, satellite television beams hundreds of channels into millions of homes. Advanced technology like digital recorders are becoming commonplace so that people can pause and rewind live TV.
READERS' COMMENTS
Disclaimer: The views expressed here by our readers are not necessarily shared by ArabianBusiness.com or its employees.
Unfinished Symphony
Posted by Josh Culling, Dubai, UAE on Wednesday 14 November 2007 at 13:00 UAE time
Is there more of this article? It sort of stops in mid flow and was getting quite interesting.
Posted by Josh Culling, Dubai, UAE on Wednesday 14 November 2007 at 13:00 UAE time
Is there more of this article? It sort of stops in mid flow and was getting quite interesting.
Mobile
