In the construction of their media infrastructure, most of the Arab countries are spending millions of dollars on US and Western contracts. Regarded as one of the fastest growing and dynamic markets for media technologies in the world, the region may lack a clear media policy as a guideline to shed light upon the mega million investments on the industry. Some critics suggest that the advanced media technologies provided to the Arab world are mostly initiated by Western sales/marketing strategy rather than Middle Eastern choice and initiative. They see the process as a reaction to the Western media practices, rather than a pre-planned policy. This study is directed toward constructing a critical understanding of the development, and current status, of media policy and infrastructure in the Arab world. Being undertaken as the basis of a Ph. D. thesis in an inter-disciplinary department, the research is informed by a strong inter-disciplinary perspective, but with a clear political economy emphasis. The study seeks to examine whether there is a clear media policy in the Arab world, either at a national or regional level. Within this context, ARABSAT, perhaps the most popular media system in the Arab world, constitutes a specific case study. Inaugurated in 1985, the system has been the subject of extensive debate, sometimes heatedly discussing its pros and cons. Its long period of operation, the extensive contribution of most Arab/Muslim countries in the process of the creation and operation of ARABSAT, as well as the footprint coverage of the system including the Middle East, most parts of Asia, the Indian subcontinent and some parts of Europe, make the contribution of ARABSAT within the Middle East media environment of particular interest. Now, nearly 15 years after the advent of ARABSAT, established and supported by the overwhelming majority of the Arab states, a critical assessment of the system in terms of policy/strategy is timely.

In the construction of their media infrastructure, most of the Arab countries are spending millions of dollars on US and Western contracts. Regarded as one of the fastest growing and dynamic markets for media technologies in the world, the region may lack a clear media policy as a guideline to shed light upon the mega million investments on the industry. Some critics suggest that the advanced media technologies provided to the Arab world are mostly initiated by Western sales/marketing strategy rather than Middle Eastern choice and initiative. They see the process as a reaction to the Western media practices, rather than a pre-planned policy. This study is directed toward constructing a critical understanding of the development, and current status, of media policy and infrastructure in the Arab world. Being undertaken as the basis of a Ph. D. thesis in an inter-disciplinary department, the research is informed by a strong inter-disciplinary perspective, but with a clear political economy emphasis. The study seeks to examine whether there is a clear media policy in the Arab world, either at a national or regional level. Within this context, ARABSAT, perhaps the most popular media system in the Arab world, constitutes a specific case study. Inaugurated in 1985, the system has been the subject of extensive debate, sometimes heatedly discussing its pros and cons. Its long period of operation, the extensive contribution of most Arab/Muslim countries in the process of the creation and operation of ARABSAT, as well as the footprint coverage of the system including the Middle East, most parts of Asia, the Indian subcontinent and some parts of Europe, make the contribution of ARABSAT within the Middle East media environment of particular interest. Now, nearly 15 years after the advent of ARABSAT, established and supported by the overwhelming majority of the Arab states, a critical assessment of the system in terms of policy/strategy is timely.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-14T13:27:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 8208772 bytes, checksum: 6418bc3f0e3532107d9d8d8ac64b836f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-07-04 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / Tis work is consequence of a research based on the participant observation method, complemented by a posture of observant participation, which objective was to understand, through an analysis of cultural and polictic-social activities organized by7 two collective actor in the anarchic punk scene in João Pessoa city, the processes through which these, inspired in the punk culture and in the anarchist ideology, build in their movement an alternative autonomist and contra cultural of organization that is contradiction to the hierarchical and bureaucratic models of the current official politics. Also it contradicts the industrial culture and its mass culture. . Trying to understand the peculiar style of organization of activities and events propagandized by collective actors in the mentioned scene, it was made a theoretic debate among urban sociologists and anthropologists that study young cultures and social movements, including some that wrote about movements anarchist, punk and anarch-punk. In this research it was also analyzed militancy source materials, such as informative bulletins, reports of anarchpunk meeting of the northeast region of Brazil and websites of anarch-punk organizations. Based in the research efforts, we realized that the style of organization of the anarch-punk acting in the João Pessoa scene, creates a new style of actuation influenced however different of the styles anarchist and punk. That happens because it is mixed in their activities cultural and polictic-social elements and aspects that before is only found separated or absent in each of these two styles of actuation. / Este trabalho é fruto de uma pesquisa embasada no método da observação participante, complementado por uma postura de participação observante, que objetivou compreender, através de uma análise das atividades culturais e polícito-sociais organizadas por dois coletivos atuantes na cena anarco-punk da cidade de João Pessoa/PB, os processos através dos quais estes, inspirados na cultura punk e na ideologia anarquista, constroem em suas movimentações uma alternativa autonomista e contracultural de organização que se contrapõe aos modelos hierárquicos e burocráticos das políticas oficiais da sociedade vigente, contrapondo-se também à indústria cultural e sua cultura de massas. procurando compreender este estilo peculiar de organização das atividades e eventos protagonizados pelos coletivos atuantes na referida cena, realizei um debate teórico com sociólogos e antropólogos urbanos estudiosos das culturas juvenis e dos movimentos sociais, dentre estes alguns que escreveram sobre os movimentos anarquista, punk e anarco-punk. Nesta pesquisa ainda foram analisados materiais de militância como boletins informativos, relatórios de encontros anarcopunks da região nordeste do Brasil e sites de organizações anarco-punks. Com base nesses esforços de pesquisa, cheguei ao entendimento de que o estilo de organização dos anarco-punks atuantes na cena de João Pessoa, funda um "novo" estilo de atuação, influenciado, mas diferente dos estilos de atuação anarquista e punk, ao mesclar em suas atividades elementos e aspectos culturais e político-sociais que antes se encontravam separados ou ausentes em cada um desses dois estilos de atuação.