[Commlist] Media in and of Middle Eastern Television Drama published

We are pleased to announce the publication of “Politics in and of Middle 
Eastern Television,” a special issue of Middle East Critique, edited by 
Nour Halabi and Christa Salamandra, Vol. 28, no. 2.

The mass uprisings that spread through the Middle East in 2011, and the 
succession of social movements that have followed it, sparked a 
burgeoning of academic interest in the politics of Middle Eastern media. 
Most analysts have focused on the role social media has played in these 
phenomena, debating, for instance, the extent to which protests should 
be considered ‘Twitter Revolutions’ or ‘Facebook Revolutions.’ 
User-generated media has displaced television in academic literature, 
but not in the Middle East itself, where TV drama forms the primary 
platform for sociopolitical commentary. As contributions to this special 
issue evince, multi-media convergence has in fact intensified television 
drama’s reach and relevance. The Internet offers a virtual, year-round 
simulation of Ramadan—the long-standing TV broadcast season in 
Arabic-language media. Digital technologies enable binge-watching, 
breathing new life into long-form television. Audiences watch serials 
through streaming services and video-sharing sites. Fan cultures abound 
on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Media makers use these platforms to 
promote their works and—sometimes from sites of diaspora—communicate 
with each other and their audiences. Viewers are themselves producing 
and posting mashups, spoofs, critiques, and homages to TV serials and 
their creators.
This special issue seeks to realign scholarly interest with lived media 
realities in the Middle East. Contributors from a variety of 
disciplines—anthropology, communication, and law—analyze case studies 
from the region’s leading drama industries. They include seasoned 
academics who have dedicated their careers to following the debates 
occurring in and around Middle Eastern media and politics, as well as 
emerging scholars who build on earlier work by introducing fresh 
perspectives. All contributions attend to the complex nexus of relations 
linking producers, productions, broadcasting, and reception.

Guest Editors’ Introduction
Nour Halabi and Christa Salamandra

ResurReaction: Competing Versions of Turkey’s (proto)Ottoman Past in 
Magnificent Century and Resurrection Ertugrul, Josh Carney

Past Continuous: The Chronopolitics of Representation in Syrian 
Television Drama, Christa Salamandra

Social Media Activism in Egyptian Television Drama: Encoding the 
Counter-Revolution Narrative, Gianluca P. Parolin

Visualizing Inequality: The Spatial Politics of Revolution Depicted in 
Syrian Television Drama, Nour Halabi

Red Death and Black Life: Martyrdom and Shame, Esha Momeni

A Massacre Foretold: National Excommunication in Al-Gama‘a, Walter Armbrust


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