Establishment and Objectives of Al Arabiya Arabic Media Outlet

Al-Arabiya Arabic media outlet (ALA)

On the3rd day of March 2003, the Al-Arabiya Arabic media outlet (ALA) was officially launched in its current base in Dubai. The owner of the newsroom is one Sheikh Walid al-Ibrahim and it is under the management of Abdul Rahman Al-Rashaed, who also hails from Saudi (Lahlali 20111:109). As a result of the attacks perpetuated by Aljazeera concerning the political order in Saudi for about 8 years, the ALA was founded to respond to the negative media coverage (Alhammouri 2013.31). The negative media coverage also covered the royal family thus necessitating the founding of ALA. As a result, the media house seeks to propagate the agenda of Saudi Arabia (Hanaysha 2011:105) coupled with the need to reduce the harsh criticism of the happenings in the political leadership of Saudi (Lahlali 2011:116). For students who are seeking insights into the dynamics of such media organizations, exploring the history and motivations behind ALA can provide the most valuable context in media dissertation help.

Due to the fact that ALA has been integrated in the Saudi Pan –Arab media, the main themes that it promotes include the clamor for reforms, liberty and modernity. It also strives to agitate for moderate ideologies and thoughts. Besides, it is friendly to the United States of America’s interests thus not very quick to criticize Washington. Conversely, it is a hash critique of al-Qaeda, Iran, Hezbollah among other of the same caliber that come out to combat the American dominance in the Arabian nations (Hammond 2007:68). However, due to the close ties that Israel has with the US, and the fact that the later supports the former’s occupation of the annexed territory of Iraq, there is now a current change in heart thus it does not promote the ideologies of Washington (Fandy, 2007:68). The media channel portrays Israel (Elmasry et al 2013), Hamas and the Brotherhood in bad light (Hanaysha 2011:105). It is one of the media houses that have supported the calls to unleash violence and sectarian organizations after the war in Iraq (Karlekar and Merchant 2007:168). At the same time, it discourages war on Iraq (Feuilherade 2003)

In dealing with the 17th February uprising in Libya, a distinction between revolution and uprising was made. Due to the fact that the issue revolves around the Libyan uprising, it is important to make a clear definition as to what uprising is, so as to clearly distinguish it from revolution. In the Arabica language, “thawra” means revolution, thus used to describe any popular rebellion or mutiny that is external from the regime and the ruler. It may is also synonymous with “intifada” which is loosely translated as uprising and gawma (insurgence, rising). Be as it may, the term uprising in the Arabic edict has passed undergone a lot of semantic its very transformations thus one can refer to it as a change in revolution in the wider sense. The Arabic scholars refer to revolution as a movement of complete change at the top of the old regime, which is initiated by enacting systems of legislations and regulations so as herald a new era of administrative, social and economic relations with the people. This is the purview of revolution (Osama Abdulrahman, 2011, p.12-13).

Antony Giddens, a sociologist, in his book, Sociology, Polity Press, 6th edition,(2009) creates a definition of “revolution” based on tree tenets that resulted from the scholarly study of various theories of revolution. Briefly, he opines that for a social movement to be referred to as “revolution” there must be a social movement en mass through a process that results into a systemic and fundamental shift thus reforms. In the course of springing up the reforms, the process is never smooth or peaceful as it is through the mass protests and it is violent in nature (Antony Giddens, 2009).In other words, the translation and the meaning of revolution implies that the use is mostly applied in large scale popular action to bring down the ruling regime.

In most circumstances, it is not just enough to have popular rebellion so as to disorganize the ruling regime and that we consider the actual change of the regime as the completion or the success of the revolution. Consequently, the debate concerning a revolution cannot be sustained if there was failure to oust the regime or if the agitators of the regime change were repulsed by the ruling machinery. If there was an attempt to change the power matrix mass protests and it did not succeed, it is basically referred to as political conflict whereby there is the normal competition that involves the interest groups in a situation that involve s intense power struggle which may be quelled by the alternative dispute resolutions. Some of the mechanisms for solving the political disputes may be by way of dialogue, mediation among others. Should the peaceful settlement of political dispute hit the snag, what then results is the violent split of the political class (Theories of Revolution: The Third Generation By Jack A. Goldstone, 1980).

There is need to distinguish between the discourse of revolution and its related terms which include the uprising. In the sociology of revolution, the difference lies in the fact that revolution is fast, unlike the later, which lasts longer to succeed. In the French revolution, is viewed as an uprising due to the timelines (eighteen years) it took by dint of the Arabic definition. Also, uprising takes the very form of revolution in the sense that it is a special way of acquiring power by force.

Similarly, the Libyan revolution of 17 February 2011 lasted for about eight months to overthrow the regime. This element of time distinguishes it from revolution and the revolts that are in its neighboring North African countries. Essentially, this means that the distinction does not contradict the meaning of uprising, which by and large means the seizure of power by force (ibid).

Uprising according to Arab reference (Abdalwhab Alkaeni, 1979, p. 875) is a spontaneous popular non-organized movement carried out by the people expressing their anger through the movement of rejection of a decision taken by the regime. It is done majorly through a civilized and comprehensive confrontation means, be it civil or violent or combination of both. Additionally, it may fade and rise again. The actors in an uprising may comprise of humanitarian groups or individuals who feel the injustice, corruption backwardness, despotic and ruthless regime among others to say that enough is enough.

Also, uprising is a state of protest, rebellion or open and violent but positive resistance without being necessarily being able to succeed due to the overwhelming power that the authority wields when it unleashes its machinery. Whereas it may not lead to a change in regime, there may be a result in administrative changes that the people demanded to be aligned. This notwithstanding, it may not be regarded as revolution but simply as a movement or an uprising as the regime is unchanged hence the main cause of suffering is not eliminated (Abdulrahman, 20111, p. 12-13).

In accordance to the shift from peaceful protest to long time lasting violence as in the case of Libyan uprising, Gaddafi would not cede power peacefully thus violence was necessary to change the regime. More specifically, it was a shift from a revolution to an uprising that lasted for eight months of civil war that had the regime on one side and the opposition on the other side, which wanted to overthrow it and end the suffering of the of the Libyan people.

Uprisings and insurrections comprise of rebellions by the people. Uprising is a primitive way of agitating for regime change, as it does not involve the use of arms. Insurrections do involve a given element of military experience and training and it also has some tenet of military organization. Thus, the rebels use the military weapons to and tactics. Guerrilla warfare is simply a style of warfare often used in rebellions and revolutions (Goldstone Jack, 2014). An ambiguity results from such as source because whereas some scholars do not use the term “revolution” to popular movements which do not succeed to oust regimes, other academics and authors avoid agreeing with it as a popular movement not under the control of the leadership with the ideology that brings in an image of the establishment after the revolution (Bishara, 2018, p. 18).

On the other hand, a military coup takes place within the establishment-in a way that is in most cases very organized in hierarchy. The people who plot the coup are not low ranking people but are very senior officials in the regime- being the military elite. The resultant effect of military coup is the change of guard while the regime simply continues. Most of the military coups are aimed at simply maintaining the status quo (Bishara, 2018 p. 18). In some scenarios, a military junta may make a deal with the social groups that consider themselves endangered by the regime to remove the ruler from the position. Notwithstanding the change or lack of it thereof, this comes with military coup, in the context of the Arab world, they are regarded as revolutions.

For instance, the coup against the leadership of Muammar Gaddafi, the then self-proclaimed revolutionary leader of the Guide of revolution (1969) had come to power through a military coup in the 1969. After taking over the reins of power, he became the ultimate ruler of the North African nation. According to his own philosophy of the state of the masses, he had little regard of the formal government. Under his watch, Libya was a revolutionary state run by the General People’s committee. The Libyan leader made all the state decisions and ruled by decree (Goldstone, 2014). Notably, no tangible evidence in view of democratic ideals exists that when popular revolutions take place reforms would be streamlined effectively; as opposed to an initiative carried out by the leadership structures (Bishara, 2018, p. 18).

In reality, the terms exact meanings of the terms can be implied from the discourse that is contextualized in a similar congruence. When revolutions take place, the leadership of the state totally changes thus an element of democracy grows up as the people determine their destiny (ibid 18). Ideally, the revolutionaries that agitate for good governance should have a vision that is beyond just the change of regime. The implication is that political reforms must be formulated and implemented after seizing power.

From the foregoing discussion, the chapter will highlight the difference between the central terms such as “revolution” “coup” and “uprising.” The main gist of the study is to differentiate revolution- which targets a change in regime and promotion of democratic ideals and socio-political reforms; from uprising (a process of socio political agitation devoid of necessarily changing the political leadership of the state), Bishara 2018.

Consequently, revolutions are precipitated whenever rulers become isolated or weak. The elites then begin to develop the tendency of ganging up against its policy as the government’s support wanes. The people develop a feeling that they are able to make reforms on their own if the top leadership does not listen to their plights. They become united under one umbrella and agitate for a change in the leadership of the state.

Some scholars hold that one of the qualifying factors of a revolution is the speed by which the people clamor for regime change while other aver that violence is a vital element for its success. Also, other pundits opine that class struggle precipitates a revolution that pits the poor against the economic elites. However, in accordance to the abovementioned discussion, there are diverse reasons that impel people to revolt. Recent studies show the correlation between the narratives of social justice and the mobilization and outcomes of the revolutions t the tail end (Goldstone Jack, 2014). Precisely, revolution is therefore accomplished when the people, through mass mobilization bring down the government for purposes of ensuring social justice and reformation of institutions (Goldstone Jack, 2014).

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