National, regional, global TV in Algeria: University students and television audience after the 2012 Algerian media law

Abstract

This article investigates new trends in the consumption of national and transnational television channels in Algeria, following the changes introduced by the 2012 media law. Research on this topic was conducted through a small-scale audience survey among university students in Mostaganem, West Algeria, at the beginning of 2015. As other neighbouring countries, since the Eighties Algeria has been exposed to a rising amount of transnational television flows. After an initial French dominance, the last ten years saw a gradual growth in the Gulf channels' penetration, while national television became increasingly neglected. This partially changed after the 2011 uprisings, as many Arab countries accelerated a process of media liberalisation. In Algeria, the media law approved in 2012 opened the door to the creation of private television channels. The article explores the choices made by young Algerians in terms of national and transnational television content, both for news and entertainment. Based on the results of our survey and on other historical and contextual data, we argue that a new national perspective on news and current affairs is emerging in the country, together with the success of non-Western productions for entertainment formats. In both these domains, students from different faculties and backgrounds showed similar preferences, going beyond the linguistic, cultural and social segmentation that characterised the Algerian audience since the emergence of satellite television.

The end of pan-Arab media? National, transnational media and identity in Morocco, Tunisia and Jordan after 2011

“…This variety of national results does not point towards a new possible trend in the whole MENA region, but rather towards national differences reflectingand at the same time shapingthe post-2011 changes on several levels. We started from the hypothesis of a 'resurgence' of national media in the MENA area and of a decline in popularity of the pan-Arab channels following the 2011 Uprisings (Guaaybess, 2013;Kraidy, 2014;Lynch, 2015;Mellor, 2013;Sarnelli and Kobibi, 2017). To test this hypothesis, we compared the data on trust in state, private and international television channels in each country.…”

“…We started from the hypothesis of a ‘resurgence’ of national media in the MENA area and of a decline in popularity of the pan-Arab channels following the 2011 Uprisings (Guaaybess, 2013; Kraidy, 2014; Lynch, 2015; Mellor, 2013; Sarnelli and Kobibi, 2017). To test this hypothesis, we compared the data on trust in state, private and international television channels in each country.…”

“…Overall, the 2011 protests had a significant effect on the regional media environment, and introduced or emphasised some important differences among MENA countries. Several authors noticed a return to a national perspective (Guaaybess, 2013; Mellor, 2013; Sarnelli and Kobibi, 2017) or ‘a renaissance of national broadcasting’ (Kraidy, 2014) following the Uprisings. This process coincided with the decreasing popularity and credibility of pan-Arab broadcasters like Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera, despite the fundamental role they played during the protests in Tunisia and Egypt in connecting online and offline protesters (Sarnelli, 2013).…”

“…After 2011, however, the consolidation of a pan-Arab public and identity seems to have been interrupted. According to several observers, following the Uprisings the popularity of pan-Arab media started to decline, while at the same time new and old national broadcasters started to gain larger shares of the national audiences (Guaaybess, 2013; Kraidy, 2014; Mellor, 2013; Sarnelli and Kobibi, 2017). We tested this hypothesis with empirical data from the AT survey and found very different results in each of the three countries.…”