Star Academy Arabia is a talent show featuring 16 young Arab men and women who live together for four months and every week they compete against each other to win the title of “the star”. The show was released in 2003 and it was adapted from a French show of the same title. Star Academy is directed by Tony Qahwajj and produced by Roula Saad. The Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC) broadcast the show and it also aired recently on MBC1. Moreover, LBC is based in Lebanon and it was founded by the Lebanese Forces in 1985; after 8 years, Pierre El Daher founded LBCI and then he launched LBC SAT. Later, the Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal bought the shares of Salah Kamel the founder of the Lebanese Media Holding in both LBC SAT and PAC (49% of LBC SAT and Pac’s shares). PAC is the content supplier for LBCI and LBC SAT. In 2008, he purchased the majority in PAC and LBC sat and became the largest shareholder. Then, he merged LBC SAT and PAC with Rotana group (owned by Al Waleed Bin Talal). Star Academy has revealed the political economy of the global media and specially in the Arab world. Media corporation in the middle east are influenced by the western world, and owned by the same elite group who aims profit.

The show has produced a highly public debate about cultural issues, morality, values and tradition. First of all, the adaptation of western shows usually involves major adjustments in the contexts, done by local production houses to adapt it to the Muslim audience values and beliefs. On the contrary, Star Academy did not play with the context of the original French version.  Star Academy includes men and women living together in one building. Constantly, the show introduced a new intercultural feature to the Arab world’s cultural standards, that does not follow the tradition and culture of the middle east. The issue is not only intercultural difference but also different interpretation of gender relations. Sexuality in Lebanon is regulated through legal articles that reflects the religious norms, which tends to manipulate and frame the public debate on sexuality, and especially the one occurring on influential mainstream TV channels (Mandour, 2013, p.6). Also, it is the same in many other Arab countries. Islamic beliefs state that unmarried male and female can not interact without the existence of a third party. Additionally, the Ideal image of the Islamic woman differs from the image reflected in this show. For Saudi Arabia, defending the ideal Islamic woman is a bearer of the country’s identity. On the contrary, in Star Academy women touches men physically and there were loads of intimate interactions between male and female holding hands, flirting, kissing and even sexual attraction. Consequently, Politicians from Kuwait, Morocco and Iraq discussed in the parliament the necessity of new legislation to protect morality from Star Academy; additionally, in Saudi Arabia they announced a “fatwa” that calls all Muslims to stop watching Star Academy. However, star academy was not banned. Unfortunately, the reason behind not banning the show is that the program is extremely profitable. Star Academy was one of the most watched entertainment shows in the region; LBC made large profits through the SMS voting system. Profit sometimes wins over morality and values. In addition, the fact that Star Academy was making profit for the Saudi Prince Bin Talal, who owns the majority in LBC, kept it from being canceled. The Prince supported the the Saudi winner of Star Academy 2 in many way; he even sent his private jet to bring the winner from Lebanon back to Saudi. This behavior of the son-in-law of the Saudi king can help us understand more the power structure and the political economy in the Arab world.

The Arab satellites are ruled by overlapping economic, political and social forces. “In the Arab world royal families have created media empires with the sole aim of magnifying their glory and prestige” (Media oligarchs go shopping, 2016, p.20). The Kingdom Holding Group is the largest corporation in the Arab world and it is owned by Waleed Bin Talal. The Company includes businesses in gas, petroleum, media, banking and finance, production, …  “Media companies have integrated vertically by adding companies in the same supply chain or at different stages of production” (Wasko, 2014, p.262). A huge number of media companies in the Arab world were created to promote the interest of the ruling regime.

Most of the entertainment shows in the Middle East are often brought by the same media companies and through ownership of media connections, which can reveal the political economy of the global media. “Media systems provide one important example of the attempt to subordinate national economies to the powers of international and domestic capital” (Khibany, 2016, p.273). Star academy was brought to Lebanon by the Dutch company “Endemol”, which is a huge media corporation and a global network that operates in more than 30 states. The business of Endemol includes distribution, production, advertising and franchise management. “Publics and audiences have been neatly packaged into marketable commodities produced and sold by television programmers” (Artz, 2008, p.62). Marketing and advertising of commodities are owned by the same companies. Endemol have sold multiple shows other than Star academy to Arab media outlets such as the Big Brother, Deal or No Deal and the Money Drop. The audience are subjected by profit-making companies and then vended to other advertising and media corporations.

The adaptation of a western show in the Arab world is not uncommon.  The period of imperialism theoretically has ended, but for some western countries the effect of colonialism is still at hand. Dominant countries still have the power to set the principles for contribution in the political economy and political affairs of what they call “the less-developed countries”. The adaptation of western shows has been increasing since the outset of the satellite network market in the Arab world. Consequently, MBC have based half its shows on already known western shows. For example, MBC copied the famous western Animation “the Simpsons” (renaming it Al Shamshoon), even the first pure Arab production program on MBC “Al Hawa Sawa” was inspired from a western show “The Bachelorette”. Arab network associations are often dedicated to western entertainment programs. Moreover, the adaptation of western show by Arab satellites manifest the cultural imperialism of the west in the middle east. The countries holding power have tried to impose their culture and values on the less powerful countries. As a result, this cultural influence has created what we call “hybrid” culture that merge western values with the norms of the Arab culture. Furthermore, powerful communities have tried to wipe away some Middle Eastern values that do not align with their interest. The cultural imperialism is responsible for the influence in terms of language, religion, and the illusion of democracy. Consequently, Star academy despite that all his constants were Arabs, the Arab language was not the most used language. In the show, some North African and Lebanese participants communicate in French and English. The name of the show is also in English ‘‘star academy’’, and words like ‘‘nominee,’’ and ‘‘star’’ were always used instead of Arab words. In addition, countless performances were in French and English. Moreover, western reality shows have misled the Arab audience to believe that what viewers see in reality shows is spontaneous, unrehearsed and reflects the reality that we live in. The important moments in Star Academy were the instants when contestants are caught being their authentic selves. In addition, the structure of the show is based on competition between contestants. This process is taken from capitalism; competition is at the heart of capitalism. Furthermore, talent shows turn the audience into commodities, by creating the voting system to illustrate the bright and peaceful illusion of democracy. This illusion tries to hide the fact that media outlets are ruled by overlapping economic political and social forces. It holes up the concentration of media ownership and mislead the audience to think that they hold power by having the choice to vote for their favorite contestants, but in reality they actually have little choice and the power is in hand of business-political elite that controls the media.

Star Academy has produced a debate in the Arab world but it was profitable for the elite group that owns the media. Additionally, the show like many other entertainment shows, is brought to the Arab world to promote cultural imperialism and capitalism.

References:

Artz, L. (2008). Critical concepts: media relations and media product: audience commodity.

Democratic Communiqué, 22(1), 61-74. New York, United States: John Wiley & Sons.

Khiabany, G. (2016). The middle east. Global Media Giants (273-286). London, United         Kingdom: Taylor & Francis Ltd.

Mandour, S. (2013). Potential change in media discourse on sexuality in Lebanon: “Cinema   Plaza” and beyond. Reuters Institute Fellowship Paper University of Oxford. 1-28.       Retrieved from https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/our-research/potential-change-    media-discourse-sexuality-lebanon-cinema-plaza-and-beyond

Media oligarchs go shopping (2016, July 20). Reporters Without Borders, 4.               Retrieved from https://rsf.org/en/reports/media-when-oligarchs-go-shopping-rsfs-latest-      report

Wasko, J. (2014). The study of the political economy of the media in the twenty-first century.  International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics, 10(3), 259-271.                                  Doi: 10.1386/macp.10.3.259_1.