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Shibley Telhami reveals a Western misconception of the situation in the Arab World

Posted on: 4/27/2007

On April 12, 2007, Shibley Telhami, the Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland and former Cornell faculty, presented a talk on “Media, Opinion, and Identity in the Arab World.” In his introductory remarks, Professor Nic van de Walle, Director of the Einaudi Center highlighted that Professor Telhami’s talk forms part of the Distinguished Speaker Series, sponsored by the Foreign Policy Initiative of the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies.

Telhami explained that the information revolution starting in the mid-1990s has changed the nature of the media market in Arab countries in two critical ways: firstly, governments have lost control of the media; as they have to compete with other news suppliers, for the first time media products become demand-driven. Secondly, the prototype of the consumer has changed; the media market is no longer limited by national borders. Access to television channels is therefore provided to a much larger public and only limited by language barriers.

Telhami’s public opinion poll project seeks to understand how the altered nature of the market influences the way people in the Arab world conceive of their identity. He presented findings of an annual public opinion poll, conducted last year, in six Arab countries: Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi-Arabia, and United Arab Emirates. The key findings of the poll included:

o The main threats to the security of the Arab States, as perceived by its citizens, is the opposite to that articulated in the West: More than 70% of the Arab population surveyed in the poll thinks that the United States is the most threatening country to them and in second place is Israel. Only 11% name Iran as one of the two countries that pose the biggest threat to them.

o Resentment directed at the U.S. is expressed in several responses in the poll. Upon being asked which world leader (outside of their own country) they admire the most, people chose leaders that had stood up against the U.S. in the past. Additionally, there was not a single Arab or Sunni leader amongst those nominated. Telhami interpreted this finding as a void in leadership in the Arab world. He further noted that things are admired negatively there; there is no common positive model.

o Finally, a majority of the population in the Arab world stated that the level of democracy in the region was decreasing since the U.S. had become more engaged in Iraq – contrary to the objective the Bush administration is advocating. 65% of the population believes that democracy-building is not a real U.S. objective and that more important objectives are oil, Israel, or the weakening of the Muslim world.

Telhami concluded that there was a correlation between media consumer behaviour and identity, but that the precise nature of the correlation is not yet clear. These latest opinion polls have revealed a Western misconception of the situation in the Arab World as well a huge gap between the behaviour of governments and the opinion of the broad public. The opinion polls laid the basis for his general conclusions on the flux of identity in the Arab world. Nonetheless, the influence of media on public opinion regarding core issues is far less than conceived: There is, for example, no statistically relevant relationship between what people watch and the degree of anti-American sentiment. On the issue of Iraq, Professor Telhami believes that the U.S. ability to affect the outcome in Iraq was very small. He suggests limiting resources in Iraq and paying more attention to other countries which might be affected by the developments in the region, such as Jordan, Syria or Israel –Palestine.

Contact Information
Heike Michelsen
Einaudi Center
255 8926
hm75@cornell.edu

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