Marwan Kraidy

A guide to understanding hybridity-the interaction of cultures.

Hybridity, Or the Cultural Logic of Globalization

Patrick D. Murphy

Global Media Studies explores the theoretical and methodological threats that are defining global media studies as a discipline. Emphasizing the connection of globalisation to local culture, this collection considers the diversity of modes of reception, reception contexts, uses of media content, and the performative and creative relationships that audiences develop with and through the media. Through ethnographic case studies from Brazil, Denmark, the UK, Japan, Lebanon, Mexico, South Africa, Turkey and the United States, the contributors address such questions as: what links media consumption to a lived global culture; what role cultural tradition plays globally in confronting transnational power; how global elements of mediated messages acquire class; and regional and local characteristics.

An Ethnographic Perspective

Global Media Studies

What does it mean to be modern outside the West? Based on a wealth of primary data collected over five years, Reality Television and Arab Politics analyzes how reality television stirred an explosive mix of religion, politics, and sexuality, fuelling heated polemics over cultural authenticity, gender relations, and political participation in the Arab world. The controversies, Kraidy argues, are best understood as a social laboratory in which actors experiment with various forms of modernity, continuing a long-standing Arab preoccupation with specifying terms of engagement with Western modernity. Women and youth take center stage in this process. Against the backdrop of dramatic upheaval in the Middle East, this book challenges the notion of a monolithic "Arab Street" and offers an original perspective on Arab media, shifting attention away from a narrow focus on al-Jazeera, toward a vibrant media sphere that compels broad popular engagement and contentious political performance.

Marwan Kraidy

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