AMERICANS: MIDEAST? WHAT MIDEAST?
dubai — American citizens are apathetic to the Arab world and display a dismaying lack of knowledge about the region, according to data from an Arab News/YouGov poll.
The poll — entitled The Arab Image in the US — was carried out between March 17 and 21, surveying over 2,000 people. Researchers found that 65 per cent of respondents admitted to knowing little about the region, with almost a third (30 per cent) saying they have no interest in learning more.
Additionally, 81 per cent of respondents weren’t aware of the location of Arab nations, with another 39 per cent saying they believe the region is too dangerous to visit. Alarmingly, a fifth of respondents said they believed that Agrabah — a fictional city from Aladdin — is an actual place.
“The fact that 75 per cent of Americans (who consume international news) do not follow the news about the Arab world and 65 per cent of Americans do not know much about the Arab world, shows the indifference and apathy towards the region,” said Kailash Nagdev, managing director for YouGov in the Middle East and North Africa.
“The negative perception of the Arab world is largely driven by non-followership of the news regarding the Arab world.”
dubai — A cultural diplomacy is the need of the hour to correct the West’s misconceptions about the Arab world, said panelists at a session on the second day of the Arab Media Forum in Dubai on Tuesday.
During the session titled ‘The Arab Image in the West’ moderated by Saudi journalist Faisal Abbas, Nathan Tek, US State Department spokesman for the Middle East and the Gulf; Mark Donfried, executive director and founder of the Berlin Institute for Cultural Diplomacy; and Hadley Gamble, reporter of CNBC in the Middle East; stressed the need for innovative efforts to change the negative image of the Arab world in western media.
Nathan Tek highlighted the lack of coverage of the Arab world in the American media.
“The US has always had good relation with the Arab world. Most of the Arab countries have close political, economic and security ties with the US,” he said, adding that the US is not Isolated from Arab world.
The American diplomat pointed at the presence of a large group of branches of the American University in Arab cities as one of the means that can contribute to building a bridge between the Arab and American cultures.
“The positive developments in the Arab countries, such as the UAE Space Programme and Saudi government’s development package, can contribute to spreading a positive image of the Arab world in the West. We need to develop short and long term strategies to promote the process of cultural exchange,” he noted, adding that media should consider focusing on positive news about the Arab nations.
Hadley Gamble emphasised that the problem lies not in the way the American citizen is dealing with the Middle East, but also with the educational and cultural level in the West.
“Media has an influential role in disseminating positive messages and clarifying fallacies. Media institutions from both sides should focus on matters that generate interest in the common man, rather than concentrating on repeated topics,” she said.
Mark Donfried stressed that correcting the misconceptions needed to be known as “cultural diplomacy” instead of political diplomacy. He pointed out the successful experience of West Germany after the end of the World War II, which turned the country into an influential state after it was seen as the centre of the ‘axis of evil’.
“Cultural diplomacy can contribute to the transfer of Arab-West civilisational dialogue to wider horizons, if it is used optimally,” he stated.
All the panelists asserted that media should exert efforts to enhance the image of Arabs.
Arabs needs to have long-term partnership with the US in various fields. For example, there should be exchange of visits in the field of education. Arab governments should provide scholarships to young Americans to study and know the Arab culture and to have experience of their life, they suggested, noting that many Arab students receive scholarship in the US.