Kings and People: Information and Authority in Oman, Qatar, and the Persian Gulf

Abstract

decades, the proliferation and accessibility of new media and communications, and the increasing ease of travel make it increasingly difficult for state and religious authorities to monopolize the tools of literary culture. The ideas, images, and practices of alternative social and political worlds have become a daily occurrence. They enter domestic space through satellite and cable television, and are better understood than in the past. Rapidly rising levels of literacy and familiarity with an educated Arabic formerly restricted to an elite facilitate this better comprehension. They also rehearse viewers to respond to those in authority in the common language of the Arabic of the classroom and the media.