DOHA: A recent full day workshop at Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q) titled ‘Re-imagining Regional Security in the Middle East’ brought together leading academics and experts working in the fields of mass media, international relations, and security studies. The event was co-sponsored by the Gerda Henkel Foundation, and organised and moderated by GU-Q Professor of Government, Rory Miller.
Participating experts included the head of the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) Research Center, Tarek Cherkaoui. Taking news coverage of major events on Al Jazeera English and TRT as case studies, he presented his research on the use of broadcast media to expand national influence, and as a key indicator for a nation’s public diplomacy. Dividing the region into four axes, the media studies scholar compared and contrasted national strategies aimed at improving the government’s image and gaining public support for policies through leveraging public media platforms.
The event also featured Cinzia Bianco, a researcher on Middle East politics at the University of Exeter, whose presentation “The Hybridisation of Threat Perceptions and Regional Security,” addressed how perceptions affect policy decisions. She also focused on the differences between internal and external threats and the fact that external threats may impact other countries.
She explored how these threats are often used by ruling regimes as a pretext to curb uprisings and revolutions, and gave examples of the specific security concerns and perceptions of GCC countries.
Source from: The Peninsula