Introduction: A return to the national perspective

Abstract

The 2011 Arab Spring confirms the importance of an analysis of Arab media especially focusing on the national scale. If influences exist, confirming that the notion of a regional system has its relevance, domestic trends remain very strong, and the most impacting political facts for Arab citizens occur at that level. Also, national broadcasting remains of the highest importance because it is accessible to a vast majority of the population, and is hence able to attract and bring together the most diverse segments of the societies which it is supposed to reflect. Nevertheless, a brief retrospective of the studies on Arab media in European or American universities reveals that only a few have tackled this topic with the same scientific distance which is commonly granted to ‘Western’ media.