Sakr, Naomi
Professor of Media PolicyEmail: n.sakr01@wmin.ac.uk
Biography
Naomi Sakr was previously a journalist, editor and country analyst. She worked at the Economist Intelligence Unit (1985-97) as a Middle East specialist and managing editor of political risk and economic forecast reports. She left the EIU to research Arab media for a PhD and as a consultant to international organisations, including Article 19, Amnesty International and the United Nations Development Programme (1998-2004).
Her early published work on Arab television coincided with growing international interest in Al-Jazeera, and her first book, Satellite Realms: Transnational Television, Globalization and the Middle East (2001), appeared at a time of mounting Western concern over the uses of media in Arab states. Sakr became a Senior Lecturer at the University of Westminster in 2004, Reader in Communication in 2006, Director of CAMRI's Arab Media Centre in 2007, and Professor of Media Policy in April 2009 (see page 6 of Summer 2009 issue of Findings).
Awards
Middle Eastern Studies Book Prize, awarded in 2003, for Satellite Realms: Transnational Television, Globalization and the Middle East
Research Statement
In her work on the political economy of Arab media, Sakr focuses on transnational television, media policy, media development and human rights.Her two edited collections reflect these interests.
Arab Media and Political Renewal: Community, Legitimacy and Public Life (2007) resulted from a two-year international seminar series organised by the University of Westminster with ESRC funding. Women and Media in the Middle East: Power through Self-Expression (2004, reprinted 2007) followed Sakr's involvement in a Danish-funded project to research Arab media treatment of women's rights.
Her most recent single-author book, Arab Television Today (2007), explores conflicting political and economic impulses that stimulate and constrain competition among the region's proliferating channels. It investigates law and policy, content creation and the status of journalists, including women presenters and war reporters. Current projects involve further research on processes and outcomes of interplay between different agents, including content creators, and structures of Arab corporate cultural production.
Selected Publications
"Fragmentation or Consolidation? Factors in the Oprah-ization of Social Talk on Multi-Channel Arab TV", in Graeme Turner and Jinna Tay (eds) Television Studies After TV: Understanding Television in the Post-Broadcast Era, London: Routledge, 2009, pp. 168-177
"Le public et les 'questions de société' sur les chaînes arabes", in Yves Gonzalez-Quijano and Tourya Guaaybess (eds) Les Arabes parlent aux Arabes: La revolution de l'information dans le monde arabe, Paris: Editions Sindbad (Actes Sud) 2009, pp. 180-190
'Women and Media in Saudi Arabia: Rhetoric, Reductionism and Realities, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 35/3, December 2008, pp 385-404
"Diversity and Diaspora: Arab Communities and Satellite Communication in Europe", Global Media and Communication, 4/3, December 2008, pp 277-300
Arab Television Today, I B Tauris, London, September 2007
'Challenger or Lackey?: The Politics of News on Al-Jazeera' in D. K. Thussu (ed) Media on the Move (Routledge, 2006)
'Foreign Support for Media Freedom Advocacy in the Arab Mediterranean: Globalization from Above or Below?', Mediterranean Politics, 11 (1), 2006
'Media Policy in the Middle East: A Reappraisal', in J. Curran and M. Gurevitch (eds) Mass Media and Society, 4th edition (Hodder Arnold, 2005)
'The Changing Dynamics of Arab Journalism, in H. de Burgh (ed) Making Journalists (Routledge, 2005)
Sample of speaking invitations
Keynote lecture on Arab satellite broadcasting, Cambridge University, January 2010
Talk on human rights and Arab documentaries, Beirut Media Forum, November 2009
Talk on Arab media to journalists in Copenhagen, March 2009
Conference presentation on Gulf media laws, New York University Abu Dhabi, January 2009
Lecture on using media to promote women's economic rights in the Mediterranean, Brussels, November 2008
Talk on Arab media to European Commission Press and Information Officers, Brussels, April 2008
Panelist at New York Museum of Television & Radio debate, April 2007
Lecture on history of Arab satellite TV at Augsburg Film Festival, March 2007
Plenary Lecture on Media and Empires to IAMCR annual conference, Cairo, July 2006
Conference presentation on decision making in Arab TV, Georgetown University, May 2006
Guest lecture on competition and collaboration in Arab broadcasting, Lelio Basso Foundation, Rome, April 2006