Development initiatives in programming on privately-ownedArab satellite television and their reception amongdisadvantaged Saudi women

This study analyses how media initiatives have sought to improve the coverage on private pan-Arab television channels, of poverty, illiteracy, and violence against disadvantaged Arab women. This was achieved by studying how women‘s status has been critiqued on MBC1, an entertainment channel, and on Al Arabiya, a news channel. Programmes on MBC1 that related to poverty, illiteracy and violence were examined through the eyes of young disadvantaged women in a Saudi Arabian village. How Al Arabiya and MBC1 applied media initiatives in their programming to improve women‘s status was also examined through interviews with key players in Queen Rania‘s Media Office and in the Middle East Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) Group. A textual analysis of programmes on MBC1 and Al Arabiya was also undertaken.

The study not only contributed to knowledge by covering areas not generally explored in existing research, such as development related programmes about women‘s status on
privately-owned pan-Arab satellite television, but it also explores the tug of war between two opposing powers in Saudi society: the reformists and the conservatives. The study used different methods, including ethnographic research, focus groups, and interviews with disadvantaged Saudi women, interviews with key players and decision makers involved in media output and, finally, a textual analysis of programmes dealing with the issues of poverty, illiteracy and violence. It discovers that the ontradictory forces in Saudi society are reflected in the way women‘s status and female empowerment are handled in television programmes. This study underlines the dominant ideology that forms the essence of initiatives aimed at developing women‘s status through media, especially those launched by 'first ladies‘, and the policies made by MBC Group officials in broadcasting development programmes for women. This dominant ideology was also examined in the light of the preconceptions and responses of disadvantaged women.