Al Jazeera Center Launches Arabic Edition of Philip Seib’s book, The Al Jazeera Effect

The Al Jazeera Center for Studies will host a book launch at the 6th Al Jazeera Forum in Doha Qatar for the Arabic edition of The Al Jazeera Effect: How the New Global Media are Reshaping the World.

Social media platforms, text messaging and satellite television are allowing people 24/7 access to provide input on molding stories we see in the news and on issues discussed by policymakers. A subject made all the more relevant by current news headlines about the role of new media to spread information in the Middle East and North Africa, without the domination of Western media outlets. The Arabic edition of Seib's book will reach wider audiences and add further scholarly support to the discussion on the effects of new media around the world today.

The Arabic edition was translated by Ezzeddine Abdelmoula, and published by Arab Scientific Publishers. The original English edition of the book was released September 2008 by Potomac Books.

Praise for the book in 2008:

“The emergence of new media, concomitant with new democratic potentials and new forms of violence and terrorism worldwide, is not accidental. In The Al Jazeera Effect, Philip Seib provides a thoughtful and sophisticated account of these salient political and media trends and how they interconnect. This book contains a wealth of information about the Web, the blogosphere, and satellite TV, with particular focus on the Middle East; but its implications are complex, uncertain, and vast—extending beyond the Internet and other media in the Arab-Muslim world. ‘The Arab satellite channel itself,’ Seib writes, ‘is just the most visible player in a huge universe of new communications and information providers that are changing the relationships between those govern and those who are governed.’ The Al Jazeera Effect is an excellent primer for the brave new world of the 21st century and the rugged roads to democracy that lie ahead.”

-- Jeffrey Scheuer, author of The Big Picture: Why Democracies Need Journalistic Excellence

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