Adham Center News

Teel, Wheeler Address Students on Media and Civil Society

MAY 10, 2000  The Adham Center hosted Dr. Leonard Teel, Director of the Center for International Media Education (CIME) of Georgia State University and Dr. Deborah Wheeler, Faculty Fellow, Center for Internet Studies and Senior Lecturer, School of International Studies, University of Washington, for a forum on media and civil society.

Dr. Wheeler gave a brief history of how the Internet was originally developed as U.S. defense technology to maintain government communications in case of nuclear war. The second role of the Internet was to serve as a means of dialog and exchange of information between scientists—a role, she said, that would eventually develop into what it’s commonly used for today: entertainment, commerce, education, and communication.

Dr. Wheeler’s regional study was mainly on Kuwait and Egypt, two countries that came online in 1990s. She drew comparisons between how the Internet is used in the two countries, and profiled the typical Internet user—in both countries, a student or professional, well-off, educated, middle or upper-class, under 30. She said in time this would change with more steps being taken by both governments and private organizations to increase Internet usage among the poorer classes.

She also discussed Internet 2, the next generation of communications, which will be used mostly in the promotion and protection of academic knowledge and information.

Dr. Teel discussed the role of the media in civil society based on his case studies in Egypt, Morocco, Lebanon, and Jordan. NGOs, he said, “operate in the Middle East to help satisfy or meet the needs of the people.” But these organizations suffer not only government regulation but also problems with the media. Many NGOs, he said, have negative attitudes towards media because of “yellow journalism” or sensationalism, gossip, or distortion in coverage.

Teel conceptualized three methods by which NGOs and the media have learned to work together: concertive, collaborative, and conjunctive. In the concertive method the media writer is a member of the NGO, thus helping to ensure a favorable report. In the collaborative method the NGOs and the media work together from the beginning of a campaign or issue. Finally, in the conjunctive method an NGO and a news group join a campaign already underway to fight for a certain cause or issue.