"Less than four per cent of people in the Arab world are internet users, according to ITU data. The penetration rate is just 3.7% - in a region with an 8.59% penetration in landline subscribers, and 14.51% in mobile subscribers." from AMEInfo.
Contrarily, satellite penetration is incredibly high. People in the Middle East encounter the world through their television sets, not through interactive discourse. The box tells them what to think, but there is no participation. The closest thing we have to global discussion is call-in programs on al Jazeera.
This blog is now a year old. At first, I was surprised that the majority of people reading this blog live in the United States, Australia, Canada, Great Britain, and France. While interested in informing the international community about Lebanon, my co-bloggers and I wanted to communicate with a Lebanese audience as well.
What we found was that many of our regular readers are Lebanese living abroad. However, the majority of readers are individuals from around the world who take interest in the minutiae of Lebanese politics.
Our Lebanese readers normally log in from university servers. We receive very few hits from outside of the Beirut metro area (although we've got some dedicated readers in the Bekaa).
Middle Eastern audiences are literally disconnected from the rest of the world and the rest of their countrymen. One of the greatest things the blogosphere has done for young Lebanese is to show that young people of different sects have remarkably similar opinions.
I've printed myriad complaints about my internet access and connection speed in Lebanon. Every time I leave the country (I'm abroad at the moment), I'm astounded at how fast connections have gotten. WiFi is widespread in places that one would never have thought would have high speed connections, like St. Petersburg.
I will continue fighting for faster internet connections in Lebanon. Hopefully, we will also be able to begin a program of providing internet access to people who cannot afford computers or internet cafes.
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
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8 comments:
L.P.
Although the numbers are probably too small to skew the results, some Lebanese readers (such as myself) access your blog through online rss agregators like google reader so in your logs you'll only see a hit from google's servers in the u.s..
Unless I come out of the woods to comment :-)
Pat.
and in the middle east, lebanon stands with syria and iraq, in the lowest rank of available bandweight ... no wonder why dsl is not possible even if they claim so
we re just having 3 hubs of 45 mega each to serve all lebanon!!!
another lie ...
yes you fight....ever heard of something called privatization? go and suggest that to the idiots you support at the grand serail
It'd be great to have more privatization in Lebanon and aggressive capitalism is the way to do it. Hariri should do what his father did but with cyberspace.
As for the Arab public watching Al-Jazeera, you should pick up Marc Lynch's new book, Voices of the New Arab Public: Iraq, Al-Jazeera, and Middle East Politics Today. In it he draws from samples of nearly 1000 programs from AJ and others to help define the new Arab public. The only problem is that he places way too much power/control/gravity on it. But it's a good read.
Rude Anon 4:39,
You obviously haven't been reading this blog for awhile. There's nothing wrong with that. But watch who you ignorantly insult.
Piccolo Voce,
I used to respect Marc Lynch. However, he recent papers and appearances on the BBC have strongly turned me against him and his MidEast Studies Department-like think about this region and its media.
The way Lynch thinks about the way media effects the entire region is pretty much only accurate when it comes to Jordan. For everywhere else, he's way off and uninformed.
I say this as someone who hires media advisers. Lynch is not high up on our list. He really doesn't know much about the way media effects people here. It's much better to talk to someone like Tariq Aintreizi.
L.P., I don't know if you have read "The Pentagons New Map" by Barnett, but it is pretty interesting. Your post about being connected with the world reminded me of his book.
There is a poll running on www.bteghrine.com
"Who will be the next president of Lebanon?"
What a coincidence...
I had a dream last night about Bteghrine, George Hawi, and former Communist Souha Bechara.
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