Zawaya

Maghreb channels neglect their viewers' interests

By: Jemal Mohamed Oumar

Local television channels are enduring intense competition with satellite channels that resulted from the huge media boom that the world has witnessed during the first decade of the twenty-first century. The media industry attracted many businessmen who rushed to invest in it and create satellite channels that exceeded local government channels in terms of quality, especially that the latter were unable to overcome bureaucratic methods and networks based on patronage and political allegiances, and couldn’t focus on efficiency and professionalism. As a result, the media material presented by governmental TV channels in the Maghreb is mere redundant clichés, hollow and false programs, and repugnant round tables that praise governors and glorify their ruling regimes, while giving no importance to diversified opinions. Viewers’ satisfaction has become the last priority of these TV channels.

The darkness of this situation varies depending on the openness of authoritarian regimes in Maghreb countries and on the margins of freedom that narrow and widen from time to time. Consequently, several distinctive and competent media professionals leave these channels to join private satellite channels that benefit from the mistakes made by the governmental ones, and work on delivering a quality product that relies on presenting news with a great deal of objectivity and accuracy, and in quest for scoops.

Other key success ingredients for TV channels are:
- Choosing staff based on transparency and professionalism.
- Providing an atmosphere of freedom that allows the recipient to relate to the programs offered. Viewers always seek out media that address their minds and sentiments and avoid mocking them.
- Focusing on the aesthetic dimension of images displayed to the viewer, by using modern techniques for direction, photography, montage and graphics…
- Training human resources on an ongoing basis.

With all of the above, satellite channels have imposed their presence in every house in the Maghreb, to the extent that having one’s own dish antenna – which gives access to hundreds of satellite channels – has become more necessary than providing daily food and paying the rent for poor families. Moreover, the importance of these channels increases exponentially during the holy month of Ramadan, since they offer entertainment, recreation, and even instruction. The apathy and exhaustion caused by hunger, thirst, and daily work incite fasting people to search for a way that enables them to overcome that mental and physical state. Various satellite channels have been successful in dealing with the psychological state of people by providing them with many entertainment programs, contests, and historical and social series, while others resort to providing them with religious programs presented by a group of enlightened young (and fashionable) preachers like Amr Khaled, and other new figures, who have been able to attract a large youth audience.