Cette thèse étudie la configuration télévisuelle de l’identité arabe moderne à travers un des programmes phares de la chaine satellitaire libanaise LBC-Sat : la Star Academy Middle East. Elle interroge, d’un côté, les motivations et les contraintes institutionnelles et commerciales qui orientent le processus de création de sens à la télévision et se penche, de l’autre, sur le produit fini qui porte en lui les traces des tensions et des confrontations qui ont accompagné sa conception. Elle cherche à décoder la représentation de l’arabité proposée par la chaine libanaise dans un contexte régional instable, marqué par des bouleversements profonds. Les télévisions satellitaires panarabes, reflets des nouvelles technologies qui ont inondé le marché régional à une vitesse déconcertante à partir des années 1990, ont, en effet, entrainé une contraction de l’espace et du temps oriental ainsi qu’une abolition symbolique des frontières. Elles ont permis aux citoyens arabes, urbains comme ruraux, locaux comme de la diaspora, de s’informer, en temps réel, sur l’actualité arabe et mondiale et d’interagir avec des individus proches et lointains. Elles ont, de ce fait, facilité l’émergence d’un réseau d’échange horizontal et d’un espace public transnational qui a fait renaitre de ses cendres, mais sous une forme distincte, le rêve d’unité arabe. À travers leur discours dirigé vers la « rue arabe » et orienté par des considérations plus économiques que politiques, elles ont, d’une part, fragilisé les régimes autocratiques en place, en les dépossédant de leur monopole historique sur les médias, et de l’autre regroupé, à l’échelle internationale, un ensemble d’individus partageant les mêmes convictions, les mêmes attentes ou les mêmes centres d’intérêt. En accélérant l’autonomisation des opinions publiques par rapport aux idéologies officielles, elles ont obligé les régimes arabes à se repositionner vis-à-vis de ces producteurs de sens à l’influence grandissante. Leurs discours, qu’il soit inspiré d’une rhétorique islamique ou libérale s’élabore dans une sphère publique chargée de sens et de références et s’expose à des critiques qui témoignent de l’imbrication du politique, du religieux et du culturel dans le secteur médiatique arabe. La LBC-Sat, chaine satellitaire généraliste libanaise, née de l’association entre des entrepreneurs libanais et saoudiens, a intégré cette arène symbolique en 1996. Fille de la LBCI, la télévision la plus populaire du pays des Cèdres — celle qui représente, aux yeux des téléspectateurs arabes, l’essence de la culture libanaise — elle a très tôt affiché sa volonté de séduire l’audience régionale à travers une narration qui se démarque de celle de ses concurrentes. Constituée d’un mélange d’émissions à l’esthétique occidentale, au contenu audacieux, et au ton libéré et souvent frivole, sa programmation prend ses distances vis-à-vis des conservatismes régionaux et dénote une volonté de configurer une représentation différenciée de l’identité arabe, proche d’une conception singulière de l’identité libanaise, porteuse, selon les termes des idéologues du Liban moderne, d’une mission civilisatrice auprès des pays arabes et d’un pouvoir de conciliation entre les deux cultures occidentale et orientale. Les émissions de la LBC-Sat témoignent de son rôle autoproclamé de trait d’union entre ces deux mondes et participent à populariser cette vision auprès du public arabe. Son plus grand succès transnational, l’adaptation orientale de la télé-réalité d’Endemol Star Academy, montre, en effet, qu’il est possible d’imposer cette image dans l’imaginaire collectif régional à travers la construction d’un discours sur la jeunesse orientale, caractérisé par son d’hybridité et sa position à mi-chemin entre le global et le local. / This thesis studies the representation of modern Arab identities through one of the most influential reality shows in the Arab World: Star Academy Middle East.It seeks to understand the strategic and ideological discourse over Arabism constructed by one of the leading Lebanese satellite channel in the MENA region: LBC-Sat.Through the study of both the professional and commercial context of emergence of this discourse, as well as a qualitative content analysis of the first four seasons of the show, it tries to understand its rationale as well as its impact in the Arab World.We believe that this narrative is unfolding in an arena of controversies where a multitude of positions regarding Arab identities are debated. Indeed, since the establishment of the first Arab satellite channels that led to a prosperous television industry, a pan Arab public sphere arose. TV shows became political fields in which opinions were exposed and theories regarding political and social issues were considered. The once monopolistic control over media contents of authoritarian regimes gave way to a more liberal environment, where citizens were given the chance to participate in the debates framing there lives. Today, Arab satellite channels act as a lightning rod for what is known as “New Arabism”, a sense of belonging to an imagined community that is no longer imposed by a higher power but developed by the base. With their liberal aesthetic and messages that oppose those of more conservative Arab televisions, Lebanese channels play a crucial role in redefining Arab identities. Their discourse, inspired by a cultural and ideological interpretation of Lebanon’s position in the Arab world, translates into a plea to rebuild bridges between the East and the West. As a symbolic object composed of hybrid forms and ideas, Star Academy Middle East echoes this position.

Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Division of Society, Culture, Media and Philosophy, Department of International Communication, 2009. / Bibliography: p. 431-447. / Introduction -- Literature review -- Methodology -- The development and the actual situation of television industry in China -- Commercial television in the U.S. and public television in the U.K. -- Results and discussion -- Conclusions and recommendations -- Bibliography. / Over the past five decades, China's television industry has gone through various historical periods, which have seen marked changes in China's political and economic spheres, indeed in Chinese society overall. Over the last thirty years, since the reform and opening up of China in 1978, transformation of the original television systems, structure and industrial market chain has been attempted concomitant with the gradual relaxation of the restrictions applicable to China's television industry. Within these circumstances, the Chinese government, media practitioners, and scholars are actively exploring long-term, feasible and sustainable approaches to the further development of the television industry in China. The research examines China's approaches to the development of its television industry, using McQuail's political, economic and social framework, the relevant political economy traditions involving the neoclassic paradigm and the heterodox approach, and the principles of media economics and the 'market chain' theory of the television industry. This thesis first presents a concise review of how television developed in China: it then seeks to map perceived changes and to ascertain the problems throughout the process. Research methods employed are secondary data analysis, in-depth interview and focus group. Chinese scholars, officials and media practitioners are the participants of interviews and focus groups. The discussion draws on previous analyses and discussions, to assess the overall picture of television industrialisation reformation in China, additionally drawing on discourses surrounding commercial television in the United States and public television in the United Kingdom for valuable reference material that will support China's television development. The significance of this research lies in its providing an insight into China's television reformation and adding, to the field of communication and development, the Chinese experience. The research expects to propose a television development pathway with Chinese characteristics, drawing on Chinese as well as Western theories. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / xix, 461 p. ill

The aim of the present study was to investigate how the impermanence of contract work affects working lives, self-perceptions and the career strategies of Swedish screenwriters of finding and keeping work. Furthermore, it also explored how screenwriters experience their abilities to exercise authorial leverage over media content. Introducing the concept of “career authoring” to cover different aspects of the professional lives of screenwriters such as managing a career, establishing authorship and contractual negotiations, the study was able to embrace various mind-sets and strategies for career success. Combining ethnographical studies and textual analyses the study was able to ascertain that the contingency of the Swedish film and television industries necessitates strategies to cultivate reputations, industrial visibility, consciously receive writing credits and conform to a traditional division of labour. Moreover, the study illuminated the importance of contractual negotiations for career success in terms of both retaining and wavering rights to their work. Strategies for exercise increased authorial leverage were not only confined to the script, but extended beyond the page, where the latter  accentuated processes of reconfiguring traditional conceptions of screenwriters’ abilities to influence media content.