Arab Spring

So the big question is: Is all the conflict, fight, bloodshed that is happening justufiable under the process of democracy seeking? Apparenlty, if so, then the Arabs have taken democracy to a whole new level where the term democracy could be interchanged with terms collective massacres and the ugliest crimes against humanity. Well, if that is what democracy has come to mean nowadays, save me from it. Please.

Arabs, we have misunderstood democracy. We can't achieve it before learning it. 

Popular culture

Popular culture (commonly known as pop culture) is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the late 20th and early 21st century. Heavily influenced by mass media, this collection of ideas permeates the everyday lives of the society.

HOW STRONG IS THE POPULAR CULTURE?

Popular culture has many fields: Sports, Movies, Movie Stars, Sports Heroes, Music Tracks, Even Video Games are all parts of popular culture. Everything that influences the audiences' thoughts, ideas, actions, habits, dress etc. is considered thus, popular culture. It was early categorized into the lowbrow, highbrow and the middle brow (the majority). It has a quantative, left-overs, mass culture, authentic as well as political importance.

Alot of companies, and adversiting agencies are relying heavily on stars and sports heroes to advertise their products, and make it seem to be the star's or the sport heroes' choice, thus; make the people blindly believe in their product. Let's have a look on just a few out of many examples:

COLLABORATION OF STARS: Pink, Britney Spears, Beyonce and Enrique Iglesias for Pepsi Commercial.

Michael Jackson (1982) Famous Pepsi Commercial:

David Beckham - "Impossible is Nothing" Adidas Commercial:



Tuba büyüküstün (known as: Lamees) in Pantene Commercial: 

K'nan and Nancy Ajram for CocaCola Soccer WorldCup commercial and WorldCup Theme Song 2010:

Charlize Theron - Christian Dior Commercial :

But what do you think? Are they properly influencing the audience? Feel Free to share your opinion.

Webseries

A web series is a series of episodes released on the Internt or also by mobile or cellular phone, and part of the newly emerging medium called web television. A single instance of a web series program is called an episode or webisode.
While the popularity of web series is continuing to rise, the concept itself isn't entirely new. Scott Zakarin created the first advertiser supported web series in 1995, The Spot. Homicide: Second Shift was a pioneering Internet web series that tied into the TV series Homicide: Life on the Street. The web series started in 1997 and was ultimately cancelled due to financial constraints and technological restrictions.
The rise in popularity of web series can be seen as a result of the increasing availability of broadband and the improved video streaming technology. This has allowed independent producers to create low budget series distributed on the Internet, but more recently major television production companies are using the Internet as a means of promoting their TV shows as well as developing specific media and shows for the Internet.

Webseries are growing more successful in the Arab world. Shankaboot is the best Arab webseries centered about a simple delivery boy, Suleiman, and the difficulties he encounters during his life. It an an Emmy-award winner as well as has been widely spread all across the Arab world, especially in Lebanon mainly because it is in Lebanese dialect. There are others too, like: Beirut, I Love you! and Al-Horeye. Their aim is to be realistic and very credible, well honestly, they succeed in that! Everyone could relate to them, and try to put themselves in their shoes! They are greatly challenging; they use high standarded techniques for shooting and are competing with Tv series and even movies, since they use close techniques. Their standard is considered very high as compared to amateurs, and their single-most beautiful feature is they are short and no-time consuming at all! (5 to 7 minutes maximum). I recommend that everybody start watching those series.

Media Conglomeration: Good or bad?

Good or Bad?


What is a conglomerate?
A corporation consisting of a number of subsidiciary companies or divisions in a variety of unrelated industries, usually as aresult or merger or acquisition.

What is a moNOPOLY?
Exclusive control of a commodity or service in a particular market, or a control that makes possible the manipulation of prices.

CONSEQUENCES OF CONGLOMERATES:

1) Media become loyal to sponsors, rather than to the public interest.

2) For the general public, there are fewer diverse opinions and voices available.

3) Only a few companies represent the interests of a minority elite control.

4) For minorities and others, fewer oppurtunities are available for voicing their concerns and reaching the public.

5) Healthy, market-based competition is absent, leading to slower innovation and increased prices.

BUT globally speaking, is it good or bad? Who decides? Individually speaking, is it good or bad for us? If so, then how?

A MUST-WATCH VIDEO:

(Revealing some hidden truth about media conglomerates that we never knew)

Leave it to you to decide, IS IT GOOD OR BAD?

The 50's and 60's Arab movies: No codes!?

Going 70 years back, the Arab Cinema was 180 degrees different.
Not only technically, but also the content of films were very different than today's. During the 50's and 60's era, most movies used to focus on men and women righteous and non-righteous relationships with few films talking about more serious topics. Women's clothes were a lot more revealing, in fact over exposing. A bellydancer was one important figure/character in a movie, and most of the times, the heroine of the movie herself dances! More kissing scenes were seen back then, and intimate scenes between the hero and heroine were something accepted and usually not censored.

    



However; today the case is greatly different. Due to the digital revolution that affected the movie industry, thus; the Arab's cinema as well, the technical procedures of producing and filming a movie has been entirely changed. But not only technically, however, the content differed a great deal as well. Cinema is now paid more attention, and the industry is growing bigger day by day; many talented young people are joining the industry to become filmmakers, producers and others. Those young people are influenced by the foreign cinema and their open-mindness they gained from education which made them pioneers in the Arab cinema industry. Many of them are innovators, and this is how the Arab cinema developed. Movies are no more with just only shallow-crystal-clear plots and themes; genres became more varied; more serious movies have been produced and movies today are very diversed; you can find the romantic, the comic, the tragic, the serious, the adventurous, and the one serving a particular human cause. The mentality of people changed, thus; the cinema changed with it. Today, censorship heavily exsist in the Arab cinema in general, especially in the gulf area; it is more enforced than in Lebanon, for example. Kissing scenes are barely found in Arab movies, and nudity or obscenity as well as voilent scenes are all stricty censored in foreign or American movies.

 



However, is censorship fully positive or can it be negative sometimes? Do Arab countries have to go on censoring many scenes or just join others and view the rating system as sufficiently enough to rely on?

The History of Egyptian Cinema...

The Golden Age of Egyptian Cinema – the 1940s to 1960s

Hind Rostom Arab cinematic production started in Egypt with the first news film in 1909, and silent movies in the 1920s. However, the foundations of the Egyptian film industry were not laid until 1935 when Misr Bank established Studio Misr, leading to the production of an average of 20 films per year by the early 40s. By 1948, six further studios were built, pushing up annual production to an average of 50 films, the level it maintained until the 90s. The first Studio Misr production was Wedad (1936), starring the legendary singer Um Kalthum. She was already a star when she appeared on film, and went on to act in 6 films, the last one, and possibly most interesting being Fatma (1947). There was a host of films featuring musical stars including Abdul Halim Hafez, Muhamad Abdel Wahab, Asmahan, and Farid El Atrash. The 1930s and 1940s are seen as the decade of the Egyptian musical with 50% of films produced belonging to that genre, and their influence remained strong until their eventual decline in the 1970s. Among them are Passion and Revenge (1944), an important visual record of Asmahan’s performances, and A Cigarette and a Drink (1955) starring Dalida, who would go on to become a big star in Europe (and France in particular) with 55 Gold Records. Music provided common ground with other Arab countries, and this facilitated the export of Egyptian cinema to the region. This has lead to a regional success story for Egyptian films and has made Egypt one of the biggest exporters of popular culture to the Arab world. The first Egyptian film to be successfully exported to other Arab countries was the musical Al Warda AL Bayda (The White Rose) (1933) directed by Mohamad Abdul Karim starring Mohamad Abdul Wahab. The film’s success was partly due to Abdul Wahab’s adaptation of music to film. The long instrumental introductions were dropped in favour of 6 minute musical pieces. In Egypt’s star led and populist cinema, actors, dancers, and musicians have significantly shaped the types of films produced to fit with their special talents. The best internationally known Egyptian actor is undoubtedly Omar Sharif who managed the difficult passage from Arab actor to international star. His first role was in a Youssef Chahine’s film, The Blazing Sky (1954) opposite his wife to be Faten Hamama, which started a long career of working with some of Egypt’s best directors, including Kamal El Sheikh and Henri Barakat. Another male lead of the Golden Age was Shukry Sarhan in roles including the award winning Chased by the Dogs (1962). Some of the most memorable female leads are Sarhan’s co-star in Chased by the Dogs, Chadia. Her other lead roles include Al Medaq Alley (1963). She shared the limelight with other great female leads such as the talented and prolific Faten Hamama, and Hind Rostom whose roles include the masterpiece of Youssef Chahine, Cairo Station (1958). The 1940s to 1960s are considered the golden age of Egyptian cinema. This period includes major historical events such as the rule of Egypt by its monarchy, colonialism, the second world war, the popularly backed takeover of power by Gamal Abdul Nasser, and the postcolonial age. Despite this turmoil, there was great consistency in the actors, filmmakers, and institutions from the late 1940s to mid 1950s. It was not until 1964 that the Egyptian film industry was nationalised, and then denationalised in 1970. Nationalisation gave the opportunity to certain directors to free themselves from some of the constraints that the commercial genre dictated. However, whether under the nationalised film industry or the commercial sector, the use of stars remained the norm, and both systems produced distinguished films. In the 1950s and 60s, directors producing films in the Realist genre were gaining great critical acclaim. The gangster film began to thrive in Egypt, with the 60s in particular seeing the rise of the thriller. The literary novel was emerging as a major influence too, with over 10% of films produced in Egypt between 1930 and 1993 being literary adaptations. Some 38 of the novels of Naguib Mahfouz, Egyptian Nobel Prize for literature laureate, have been adapted for the big screen. Some of the most notable of these collaborations are between Mahfouz and director Salah Abu Seif, and in particular the films Cairo 30(1966) and A Beginning and an End (1960). Salah Abu Seif is regarded as one of the foremost realist directors. Another key Realist director was Kamal Al Sheikh. Like Abu Seif, he began his career working for Studio Misr. Al Sheikh became known for making compelling thrillers such as House Number 13 (1952), a film noir about a psychologist who tries to use his friend to commit a murder; Life or Death (1955), which unusually for the 1950s was shot on location in Cairo, and The Last Night which was nominated for the Golden Palme at the Cannes Film Festival in 1964. One of his masterpieces is Chased By The Dogs (1962) which bore Al Sheikh’s trademark visual flair combined with the psychological depth and tension required for a good thriller. It was nominated for the Golden Berlin Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1963. The 50s and 60s also saw the appearance of accomplished realist films from Youssef Chahine, most notably The Blazing Sky (1954) nominated for the Grand Prix at the Cannes International Film Festival, and his masterpiece Cairo Station(1958) nominated for a Golden Berlin Bear. It was Chahine’s second film, Son of the Nile (1951) an early work of Social Realism, that started his international fame. The film focused on relations between traditional classes and elites, depicting the hard lives of peasant classes. Previous representations of peasants had used them largely as romanticised symbols of national identity. Son of the Nile was part of the official selection at the Cannes International Film Festival. Director Henri Barakat, like Youssef Chahine, Kamal Al-Sheikh and Salah Abu-Seif, made films in many genres. He began making films in the early 1940s and was one of the most prolific filmmakers in the history of Egyptian cinema. Internationally his most acclaimed films were realist works, such as The Sin (1965), about a peasant girl raped by the son of a wealthy landowner. She gives birth in the fields, and inadvertently smothers her baby while trying to stifle its cries. Unable to bear her dishonor and now her crime, the woman kills herself. The Sin’s ‘unhappy ending’ was in stark contrast to the approach of most Hollywood productions, and is more representative of an Egyptian socialist ethos. Other acclaimed films by Henri Barakat include his thriller A Man In our House (1961) starring Omar Sherif. Despite the sobering themes of the Realist genre, many of the films of the Egyptian Golden Age bear the quality of a bygone era that seems, in many respects, more glamorous and liberal than what was to follow.

Media Piracy in the Arab world!

Proceed to the following article:
http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2011/03/29/the-best-report-ever-on-media-piracy/

WHEN IT COMES TO THE MEDIA INDUSTRY; MUSIC, MOVIES, GAMES..

SHARING IS NOT CARING!

Media Piracy involves many things, however; all illegal. It is piracy; it is theft; it is copyrights infringement; it is criminal liability...

It is a growing issue in the Arab world to download music, movies, and games illegally. Intentionally or unintentionally, knowingly or unknowingly, is this act considered legally acceptable? If yes, then is it morally acceptable?

Campaigns are being issued to stop the illegal selling of DVDs and music CDs as well as the online downloads and serious actions have been taken in many Arab countries, such as the United Arab Emirates. However, there are still other countries that are totally blind to this issue, or let's say, acting blind to it, or perhaps, have much more important things to sort and look after, thus, pay no close attention to the media piracy issue. Whatever the case, we recognize very well that this act is entirely illegal and serious punishments are applied to the 'criminals' charged with the act of piracy, yet we also know that we can still get away easily with it in many ways that the responsible authorities cannot recognize. Besides, it might be legally O.K. in some countries who are still unaware of such important issues...

So the bigger question does not lie in the fact of it being legal or not...
The bigger question lies in the idea that...

IF LEGALLY ACCEPTED, OR IF LEGALLY UNACCEPTED BUT COULD BE STILL DONE EASILY...
THEN...
IS IT MORALLY ACCEPTED?




When it comes to morals, there is one and only one interpretation: It is morally and ethically wrong to steal.
Torrents and many other similar websites act as a huge temptation for offering millions of illegal music files, movies etc. and thus make it very easy for people to get away with their act of theft. However, it is not a question of laws and punishment, it is a question of your morals. Although it is very easy to get illegal music files and movies (not to mention that it usually costs you $0.00 to get them), but ask yourself, "Why do I allow myself to steal this music track, but not steal the original CD from the music store? Why do I allow myself to steal this DVD movie, but not steal a thousand dollars from a bank? Aren't the two acts originally similar?"

Please stop media piracy, it is only making the Arab media scene goes duller.

But I don't get it, why, countries like the United Arab Emirates - totally aware and harshly strict about such issues - are still keeping websites like 6rbtop.com and others, UNBLOCKED? :S