Media literacy for the Arab World per Ahmed Al-Rawi

This is a discussion of an interview 2024-11-21 with Simon Fraser University professor Ahmed Al-Rawi about his research into how to understand and counter the rise in political polarization and violence worldwide. A 29:00 mm:ss podcast excerpted from the companion video will be posted here after it is released to the fortnightly "Media & Democracy" show syndicated for the Pacifica Radio Network of over 200 community radio stations.

It is posted here to invite others to contribute other perspectives, subject to the Wikimedia rules of writing from a neutral point of view while citing credible sources and treating others with respect.

Simon Fraser University professor Ahmed Al-Rawi discusses the media literacy laboratory he co-founded at the Lebanese American University in Beiruit and his research into how to understand and counter the rise in political polarization and violence worldwide. He is interviewed by Spencer Graves.

Media literacy to counter political polarization: Interview with Simon Fraser University professor Ahmed Al-Rawi about media and conflict.

Al-Rawi is the author or co-author of a dozen books in the last dozen years plus co-editor of three others and author of dozens of articles. Most of his publications describe the increase in political polarization and violence worldwide in recent decades and what might be done to counter it. His research has focused primarily on the Arab World and on Canada. At Simon Fraser and elsewhere he has taught classes on media, communications, democracy and power.

Al-Rawi is currently an Associate Professor of News, Social Media & Public Communication in the School of Communication, Faculty of Communication, Art & Technology at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and a scientist with the International Panel on the Information Environment He has previously taught at other universities in Canada as well as in the Netherlands and in Oman. Twenty years ago he worked as a freelance radio journalist for the Pacifica Radio Network and before that as a translator for Iraq National Television, Baghdad, Iraq.

Cognitive dissonance

Al-Rawi mentioned, "cognitive dissonance, which means people tend to avoid any kind of information that would cause them headache, cause them disruption. They would tend to seek information from sources that would align with their own ways of thinking, with their own values.

That's a theory, a well-known theory and social psychology. So it makes a lot of sense that we see this kind of polarization happening in the media sphere as well."

External pluralism

He also discussed media theory called "external pluralism, where you have separate media outlets that are distinctively different from each other." The US has Breitbart, Fox News, America One Network, and other networks that are deemed to be more liberal. This is also happening in Canada, Europe and everywhere in the Middle East.

Iraq has a very pluralistic media scene situated along the political positions of political and religious parties.

Al-Rawi insists this is why "we need more religious and political literacy that could be embedded into media literacy, education, so that people will become more aware about the goals of politicians, messages: What is behind that message?" Greater public awareness of these issues could avoid escalation of tensions.

Graves asked about the role of the media in the war in Yemen. Al-Rawi noted that the different parties to that conflict including Saudi Arabia and Iran each have their own media outlets promoting their own agendas exacerbating the conflict and eliminating possible solutions.

Graves asked about the role of the media in the war on terror. Al-Rawi had earlier mentioned the role of the major media in the US in parroting what the administration was saying. Graves suggested that any responsible journalist should have known at the time that the official justification for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 was at best questionable and likely fraudulent, as it turned out to be.

Al-Rawi replied that this was one of the most "significant turning points in the lives of Muslim Americans, even Muslim Canadians" and Muslims living in Europe, with many forced to leave even though they had done nothing wrong.

Declaring war on bathtubs

Graves noted that Obama as president commented that more Americans have died in the average year [except for 2001] drowning in bathtubs, hot tubs and spas than have succumbed to terrorism.

Al-Rawi agreed: "A lot of people lost their lives, and it's not their fault." In "the war that happened after 2003, the number of people dying every month is like we have a 9-11 every 2 or 3 weeks. ... These were mostly innocent civilians. ... We have the same thing happening, for example, in Gaza and elsewhere."

The relative effectiveness of law enforcement vs. military in combatting terrorism

Graves noted that, "Jones and Libicki found 268 terrorist groups that ended between 1968 and 2,006, 43% ended with negotiations like the Good Friday agreement in Northern Ireland, 40% were taken out by law enforcement. 10% won. 3% were defeated militarily. Yet the United States is promoting the absolute, least effective approach to terrorism."

Al-Rawi agreed: "Force is not the answer to ending terrorism. Terrorism is an idea. If you want to kill the idea, you have to use another idea."

Talking politics

Al-Rawi noted that, "if you are talking to someone who is trying to enhance political polarization, it's really important to understand where their concerns come from, whether these are imagined or real, because that's where you can actually find a common ground or an alternative identity, whereby you can have a mutual discussion and probably reach some kind of consensus harmony, ... that would at least lessen this kind of polarization."

The threat

Internet company executives have knowingly increased political polarization and violence including the Rohingya genocide in Myanmar, because doing otherwise might have reduced their profits. Documentation of this is summarized in Category:Media reform to improve democracy.

Media effect theory

Al-Rawi also discussed "media effect theory", which describes how the media influence the thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors of individuals in their audience. It sets the agenda for what many people think about. This effect could be both negative, increasing political polarization and the risk of violence, but also positive by focussing on shared identities.

Discussion

[Interested readers are invite to comment here, subject to the Wikimedia rules of writing from a neutral point of view citing credible sources and treating others with respect.]

Bibliography

• Ahmed Al-Rawi (2025b), Mediated Racism and democracy in Canada: Interrogatingthe news industry, political systems, and public discourses, Routledge (published 2025), Wikidata Q131349901
• Ahmed Al-Rawi (2025a), Disruptive Information in Canada, Bloomsbury Publishing (published 2024), Wikidata Q131349920
• Ahmed Al-Rawi; Carmen Celestini; Nicole K. Stewart; Joseph M. Nicolaï; Nathan Worku (2025). The Canadian Far-Right and Conspiracy Theories (in en). Routledge. Wikidata Q131349937. ISBN 978-1-032-81569-5. 
• The Iraqi Spring: Social Media and Political Activism (in en). Amsterdam University Press. 2024. Wikidata Q131350073. ISBN 978-94-6372-515-6. 
• Ahmed Al-Rawi (2024). Online hate on social media (in en). Palgrave Macmillan. Wikidata Q131350104. ISBN 978-3-031-61818-5. 
• Ahmed Al-Rawi (2024). ISIS' propaganda machine : global mediated terrorism (in en). Routledge. Wikidata Q131350154. ISBN 978-1-032-61588-2. 
• Ahmed Al-Rawi (2023). Supernatural creatures in Arabic literary tradition (in en). Routledge. Wikidata Q131350208. ISBN 978-1-032-61224-9. 
• Ahmed Al-Rawi (2021). Cyberwars in the Middle East (in en). Routledge. Wikidata Q131350317. ISBN 978-1-9788-1010-5. 
• Ahmed Al-Rawi (2020). News 2.0: Journalists, Audiences and News on Social Media (in en). Wiley-Blackwell. Wikidata Q131350446. ISBN 978-1-119-56962-6. 
• Ahmed Al-Rawi (2020). Women's Activism and New Media in the Arab World (in en). State University of New York Press. Wikidata Q131350555. ISBN 978-1-4384-7866-1. 
• Ahmed Al-Rawi (2017). Islam on YouTube : Online Debates, Protests, and Extremism (in en). Palgrave Macmillan. Wikidata Q131350577. ISBN 978-1-137-39826-0. 
• Ahmed Al-Rawi (2012). Media Practice in Iraq (in en). Springer Nature. Wikidata Q131350656. ISBN 978-0-230-35452-4. 
• Seth Jones; Martin C. Libicki (2008). How Terrorist Groups End: Lessons for Countering al Qa'ida (in en). RAND Corporation. Wikidata Q57515305. ISBN 978-0-8330-4465-5. https://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG741-1.html.