Stabilizing Authoritarianism

The book explores the close relationship between media institutions and power elites in Arab societies. This is occurring within an unprecedented state of competition among global powers for influence and control over necessary resources and consumer markets in the Middle East. These conflicts still ravage these societies, including Palestinian society, designated as a region characterized by "organized chaos," dominated by multiple forms of increasing political instability and complex sources of internal turmoil. Taking the specificity of the Palestinian internal conflict (the split) as a case study, the book explores the interrelationship among power elites at the three levels of international, regional, and domestic politics, via the news message of satellite TV news media outlets, examining its role in shaping the political reality of societies living conflicts, that are tearing apart their social fabric and threatening their future. This book will interest scholars of the Middle East, of media and authoritarianism, and of the sociology of the Arab world.