TY - BOOK ID - 68025540 TI - Reality television and Arab politics : contention in public life PY - 2010 SN - 9780521769198 9780521749046 9780511814259 9780511675294 0511675291 0511672047 9780511672040 0511814259 0521769191 0521749042 0511739052 9780511739057 1107209374 9781107209374 1282486675 9781282486676 9786612486678 6612486678 0511674104 9780511674105 0511670761 9780511670763 0511673310 9780511673313 0511669976 PB - Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, DB - UniCat KW - Public opinion KW - Reality television programs KW - Television viewers KW - Political aspects KW - History and criticism. KW - Attitudes. KW - Audiences, Television KW - Television audiences KW - Television fans KW - Television watchers KW - Viewers, Television KW - Mass media KW - Reality-based television programs KW - Reality shows (Television programs) KW - Nonfiction television programs KW - Audiences KW - Social Sciences KW - Political Science UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:68025540 AB - What does it mean to be modern outside the West? Based on a wealth of primary data collected over five years, Reality Television and Arab Politics analyzes how reality television stirred an explosive mix of religion, politics, and sexuality, fuelling heated polemics over cultural authenticity, gender relations, and political participation in the Arab world. The controversies, Kraidy argues, are best understood as a social laboratory in which actors experiment with various forms of modernity, continuing a long-standing Arab preoccupation with specifying terms of engagement with Western modernity. Women and youth take center stage in this process. Against the backdrop of dramatic upheaval in the Middle East, this book challenges the notion of a monolithic 'Arab Street' and offers an original perspective on Arab media, shifting attention away from a narrow focus on al-Jazeera, toward a vibrant media sphere that compels broad popular engagement and contentious political performance. ER -