A Portrait of Arabic Websites Winners of the World Summit Awards: How Innovative are the New Media?

• Published in: International journal of technology, knowledge and society Vol. 3; no. 6; pp. 15 - 20
• Main Author: Allagui, Ilhem
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Champaign Common Ground Research Networks 01-01-2007
• Subjects: Arab Countries; Awards; Best practice; Communications technology; Content Analysis; Freedom; Freedom of speech; Information Society; Information technology; International organizations; Internet; Mass Media; Political Economy; Public sector; Public Space; Public spaces; Regions; Websites; Winners
• ISSN: 1832-3669
• DOI: 10.18848/1832-3669/CGP/v03i06/55796

New Information and Communication Technologies are recognized as having a great potential to drive development in the Arab world and reduce the digital gap among countries and regions. Efforts to promote this vision are displayed by private and public sector and by international organizations as well. The World Summit Awards for example, recognized the best practices and e-content strategies within the information society. This paper presents an analysis of the structure and e-content strategies of award winners Arabic websites under a political economy approach. When looking at these websites, it was possible to conclude “a reproduction of the system” with reference to media in the Arab region. Awarded websites are not controversial, not educational but mainly entertaining and cultural. This finding goes against the transformative view of the Internet as bringing by a better context for freedom of expression, interaction and discussion on the public space.