The Other Air Force : U.S. Efforts to Reshape Middle Eastern Media Since 9/11 / Matt Sienkiewicz.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sienkiewicz, Matt, author.

Series:

War culture.

War Culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Economic assistance, American--Middle East.

Economic assistance, American.

Technical assistance, American--Middle East.

Technical assistance, American.

Mass media--Middle East--Influence.

Mass media.

Mass media policy--Middle East.

Mass media policy.

Mass media--Political aspects--Middle East.

Middle East--Civilization--American influences.

Middle East.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (230 pages).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Brunswick, NJ : Rutgers University Press, [2016]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

As it seeks to win the hearts and minds of citizens in the Muslim world, the United States has poured millions of dollars into local television and radio programming, hoping to generate pro-American currents on Middle Eastern airwaves. However, as this fascinating new book shows, the Middle Eastern media producers who rely on these funds are hardly puppets on an American string, but instead contribute their own political and creative agendas while working within U.S. restrictions. The Other Air Force gives readers a unique inside look at television and radio production in Afghanistan and the Palestinian territories, from the isolated villages of the Afghan Panjshir Valley to the congested streets of Ramallah. Communications scholar Matt Sienkiewicz explores how the U.S. takes a "soft-psy" approach to its media efforts combining "soft" methods of encouraging entertainment programming, such as adaptations of The Voice and The Apprentice with more militaristic "psy-ops" approaches to information control. Drawing from years of field research and interviews with everyone from millionaire executives to underpaid but ever resourceful cameramen, Sienkiewicz considers the perspectives of the Afghan and Palestinian media workers trying to forge viable broadcasting businesses without straying outside American-set boundaries for acceptable content. As it carefully examines the interplay of U.S. military and economic might with the capacity for local ingenuity and resistance, the book also analyzes the intriguingly complex programming that emerges from this tension. Combining eyewitness reportage with cutting-edge scholarship, The Other Air Force reveals the remarkable creative output that can emerge even from the world's tensest conflict zones.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Soft-Psy Media as U.S. Strategy

1. Shopping for Grocers: The Origins of Middle Eastern Soft-Psy Media

2. Our Men in Kabul and Bethlehem: Saad Mohseni and Raed Othman

3. Kind of Con Men: Self-Interest, Soft-Psy Media, and Resistance

4. Soft-Psy Media Under Cover: The Question of Gender

5. Mediating Mediations: Meta-Media, the Middle East, and Soft-Psy Strategy

Conclusion: The Trajectory of Soft-Psy Media from 9/11 to Today

Notes

Select Bibliography

Index

About the Author

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 04. Sep 2019)

ISBN:

9780813578002

0813578000

9780813577999

0813577993

OCLC:

960036315