Abstract
Media Politics and Democracy in Palestine, by Amal Jamal, provides a thorough examination of the “interdependence between institutional and cultural developments in Palestinian society” during the post-Oslo period. Relying primarily on discourse analysis, Jamal does a superb job of both describing and critiquing the institutional power structure of the Palestinian Authority (PA) between 1994 and 2000. He then goes on to investigate the effect of this regime on the emerging public sphere, ultimately exploring the relationship between the dominant political elite of the PA and social movements within Palestinian society, including NGOs, the women’s movement, and the Islamic movement. Although Jamal uses media as a common thread to connect these examples, only one chapter of the book is devoted specifically to discussing the role of the Palestinian communications regime in shaping political developments. While he provides several other examples of how media are used by different social movements, he does not produce any real thesis or conclusions about the role of media in Palestinian politics and democracy. In addition, Jamal’s focus on the 1994-2000 period may only be of interest for historical reasons since it fails to lend insight into more recent developments—the second Intifada, the death of Yasser Arafat, and the election of Hamas. These developments have arguably altered the politico-cultural scene beyond comparison. In addition, Jamal fails to adequately discuss the influence of satellite media as a major source of news and information in the Palestinian Territories. Thus, while Media Politics and Democracy in Palestine is useful as a constructive critique of the Palestinian Authority’s relationship with the public sphere in the post-Oslo period, its narrow conceptual and historical focus limits its value as a resource for practitioners and theorists interested in media politics and Palestinian democracy today.
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