Journalism and Mass Communication, ISSN 2160-6579
May 2013, Vol. 3, No. 5, 319-323
大喷嚏Journalistic Transparency in the Media Orient:How Journalists
From Egypt and the UAE Deal With Instruments Creating
Journalistic Transparency
Andreas Straeter
Technical University of Dortmund, Dortmund, Germany
Driven by the political upheavals in the Arab world, media in Egypt and in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is on
its way to find new ways about how to deal with their audiences. Initial signs suggest that Emirati as well as
Egyptian media have drawn some first findings from the upheavals of the “Arab Spring”, so that the first flimsy
form of media accountability and a new openness is to be found in the media orient. Moreover, this study tries to
draw some parallels between the “old” Arab sphere (Egypt) and the “new” Arab world (U AE) in order to generate
new knowledge exploratively. Twelve journalists and media professionals from both countries have been
qualitatively interviewed between November 2011 and May 2012 in this regard at spot and via phone or skype.
This study distinguishes between two different media systems within the Arab sphere. International comparative
studies on the media systems within the heterogeneous world of Arabia are considered as a desideratum in the field
All Rights Rerved.
of journalistic rearch.
Keywords: journalistic transparency, Arab Spring, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt
Introduction
In disciplines like politics, economics, consumerism, and journalism, the issue of transparency has become
a high place-value. The globalization, the internet, and the first generation of digital natives are working as
engines in this process. If you have a clor look on hotel rating platforms, transparency can be regarded as a
business lling argument or not. In any ca, transparency creates accountability and reliance in all areas.
The findings are transferable to the field of journalism, especially in a digital world. Transparency prospers in a linked medium, for you can literally e the connections between the final draft’s claims and the
ideas that informed it. On printed paper, on the other hand, interactive links cannot be added. You can look up
background information, but that’s an expensive, time-consuming activity more likely to result in failure than
success. The prent era can be described as the Age of Links and transparency is the “emb edded ability to e
through the published draft” (Weinberger, 2009).
In a wired world of global connection and social networks, it ems almost impossible to suppress discussions and debates to manipulate recipients or to censor information. Media urs all over the
world have
received easier access to a fast, free, and ubiquitously accessible discour on media and its contents via social
media and the Web 2.0.
Andreas Straeter, M.A., Institute of Journalism, Technical University of Dortmund.
JOURNALISTIC TRANSPARENCY IN THE MEDIA ORIENT
320
Nevertheless, they have admitted that Arab journalists have to work within completely different conditions compared to their colleagues in the western world. With the help of occasional lf-censorship, they try to
protect themlves against the regime, especially in Egypt. Despite all the constraints, Arab journalists try to
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work as transparently as possible, they can be contacted via e-mail or telephone and receive feedback,
comments, and advices from their viewers, listeners, and readers.
Definition of Journalistic Transparency
The U.S. media scholars Craft and Heim (2009) situated the debate on transparency in an interdisciplinary global discour. They characterize the notion of transparency across all disciplines as “availability of
information and as a disclosure of it” (p. 219). The U.S. political scientist Florini (2002) described transparency
as the opposite of crecy and confidentiality. She rais transparency to a desirable standard in a world of
global integrity: “(...) Secrecy means deliberately hiding your actions; transparency means deliberately
revealing them. This element of volition makes the growing acceptance of transparency much more than a
resigned surrender of the technologically facilitated intrusiveness of the Information Age” (p. 14).
The business analysts Tapscott and Ticoll (2003) considered transparency from the perspective of economics and approach the concept in their first general definition: “Transparency is information about that
organization is available to people or to other organizations” (p. 22). They describe transparency as an “Engine
of Greatness”, as a forc e for innovation and future, and rely on models of success, among other platforms like
eBay, where transparency and rates makes n.
From the perspective of media economics, transparency in journalism can be regarded as a strategic option All Rights Rerved.
of the trust in order not to lo recipients and to stabilize the media brand (Meier, 2010; Evers/Eberwein, 2011).
Despite the high potential of transparency journalists are often afraid to u tools to create transparency and
publicity. For journalists, it has never been ambitious to disclo how and under what circumstances a金鱼的特征描写
journalistic contribution has arin (Meier & Reimer, 2011).
This study focus on “transparency”. In comparison to the term “accountability”, the effect is not intended in the concept of “transparency”. In previous studies on the subject, a clear-cut delineation between
instruments of transparency and the method of “media accountability” was missing (Fengler, 2011). The
difference lies in the definitions, especially in the fact that transparency instruments in themlves are
descriptive, while “media accountability” is normative. The ethically desirable establishing of trust is not
implied in the description of transparency instruments.
Craft and Heim (2009) described “accountability” as the result of transparency and believed that transparency instruments ultimately help to establish trust in the media: “This implied linkage among readers’
ability to witness, to evaluate, and therefore, to trust, indicates the valued role transparency plays in facilitating
journalistic accountability” (p. 222).
减肥餐食谱一周瘦十斤
A Categorization of Transparency Tools
In journalism, various instruments for creating transparency can be found. Journalism Scholars distinguish between journalism-internal and journalism-external instruments (Evers/Eberwein, 2011; Bettels, Fengler,
Sträter, & Trilling, 2011). On the one hand, internal instruments like the by-line, deep links, or additional
information are classified as transparency tools that are created by journalists themlves and that occasionally
lead to more information on the editorial department, on journalistic work process, on sources, and on
JOURNALISTIC TRANSPARENCY IN THE MEDIA ORIENT 321
editorial decision process (Bettels et al., 2011). On the other hand, there are external instruments like media
journalism, academic rearch, blogs, and media criticism in Social Networks or online comments that also lead
to a certain form of transparency (Fengler, 2008; Eberwein, Brinkmann, & Sträter, 2012).
配老花镜Moreover, the study distinguishes between simple and innovative instruments. Simple transparency instruments are instruments that are easy to install and that require little effort—like the by-line, like
烧菜菜谱大全做法大全information on the author or the possibility to comment. Innovative instruments are happening at a higher level
of lf-reflection like blogs, descriptions of the news production, or editorial blogs.
Transparency as a Certain Form of “Window Dressing”
Transparency in journalism should be considered more complex than one-sidedly positive, since a clor inspection illustrates pitfalls: Firstly, the effectiveness of many transparency instruments is not yet proved
empirically (Craft & Heim, 2009), becau the field of rearch in media science is relatively new and
unexplored. Secondly, the instruments also have a slightly illusionary effect and are installed due to publicity
and marketing reasons (Fengler, 2011). It is reverd that they tend to contribute to transparency by their very
nature, although this is not intended. The tools are mainly implemented, becau of business reasons in order to
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stabilize the media brand.
The German professor for international journalism, Fengler (2011) pointed out: “Good PR for the journal, but little transparency for the reader” (p. 82). The result is that this is merely an “illusion of inclusion” (p. 83).
Conquently, many accountability instruments simply lead to an increa publicity effect and, according to the
Dutch media expert de Haan (2011), “em to be more a form of window dressing than a true attempt to restore All Rights Rerved.
trust in their performance” (p. 208).
The idea of the having full transparency in the media with respect to the public and participation in the Arab world is still in its infancy (Lahlali, 2011). The news channel “Al Jazeera” was a pioneer in introducing
talk call-in shows with first participatory elements (Miles, 2005). Elwhere, it is mentioned that the internet
could lead to spread and compact the political discour in the Arab sphere (Hafez, 2006). According to the
social scientists Zweiri and Murphy (2011), the social web opens a new world of dialogue and conversation in
the Middle East.
The Methodology
Comparing the UAE with Egypt within heterogeneous Arab World is appealing, becau the countries have many differences in the same sphere. The discrepancies cannot only relate to the media systems, but
also on the political and cultural development of the two states (Hahn & Alawi, 2007; Hermann, 2011).
Many characteristics run diametrically above the other. Both states posss media scientific relevance,
particularly as the UAE boats reference media with an impact throughout the Arab World like “Abu Dhabi
TV” and “Al Arabiya”. Egypt has reference media outlets of the newspapers “Al Ahram” and “Al Akhbar”
(Rugh, 2004).
As there is no systematic knowledge in communication science about journalistic transparency instruments in the Arab sphere, knowledge and results are generated exploratively by using a qualitative method. This is
why 12 Arab journalists have been interviewed anonymously with mi-structured qualitative guidelines. Some
of them were interviewed at spot, some via telephone or Skype. Generally, it was important to create an open
conversation atmosphere.
JOURNALISTIC TRANSPARENCY IN THE MEDIA ORIENT
322
Results
The are the results of the study. In the UAE, there tends to be more openness towards innovative transparency instruments than in Egypt. In order to strengthen their market position, they generally u Twitter
and Facebook to suggest credibility. A journalist working for the TV-station “Al-Arabiya” in Dubai says: “I
think that Arab media has learnt a lot of les sons from the Arab Spring”.
Another journalist from Abu Dhabi points out the importance of what the Internet is offering and how journalists should deal with them. The media professional states:
The internet will increa pressures on conventional media organizations to be transparent and clear and not to hide information. Audiences have other ways to obtain information and are able to bypass traditional channels. If you don’t
watch out, you would be left behind. (…) Online media are the future communication platform on which all traditional
media will converge. If you don’t join the bandwagon, you would be the lor in this technological transition. (anonymous
interview)
A journalist from the Egyptian newspaper “Al-Akhbar” adds: “(…) What you hid is going to be there.
People want to have communication, so they start to communicate”.
The flare-up of journalistic transparency can be en in the political context of the impact of the “Arab Spring”. The two phenomena have in common that each citizen is able t o voice what he or she is thinking. A
great awareness of transparency in terms of making editorial process public ems only peripherally prent,
becau both countries need time for developing the idea of social participation and the idea of a lf-reflected
journalism.
A journalist working for the Abu Dhabi bad newspaper “The National” reflects: “There has been a major All Rights Rerved.
change. Not just for stories, but for journalism itlf. There is now a higher connection between the people and
journalists ... The y can comment everything I have written”. There has been a major change how media deals
with their recipients, she says, “Everything is now available to everyone. They can comment whatever they
think”. In the end, the comments lead to tighter conversations with the journalists and authors.
Comparing print and TV media to the issue of journalistic transparency, it is like striking that print media outlets are the leaders, although a general statement is hard to find in this context so that each medium should
be analyzed on its own in terms of transparency.
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