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Mahjoob Zweiri and Emma C. MurphyEds. The New Arab Media: Technology, Image and Perception. Reading, UK: Ithaca Press, 2011. xxiv + 168 pages. Cloth US$69.95 ISBN 978-0-86372-347-6.

The New Arab Media: Technology, Image and Perception is a volume of nine chapters stemming from a conference held at the University of Durham in 2007. The book, completed in March 2009, provides a comprehensive analysis of Arab media that is relevant to understanding today's events in the region. Several chapters are devoted to examining the impact of television, particularly satellite channels. In the first chapter, sociologist Ahmet Uysal compares the news coverage provided by al-Jazeera's Arabic and English outlets during a four to five day period in May 2007. He finds that the Arabic outlets pay more attention to political and military issues, such as the Arabic-Israeli conflict and the Turkish presidential elections. In contrast, al-Jazeera's English-language outlets feature more coverage of economic news, cultural events and developments in Asia. Uysal concludes that the contrast between the two versions of al-Jazeera is due to multiple factors, such as the different preferences of Arab and foreign journalists and their audiences. He also argues that regardless of language, web site coverage is more expansive on a range of topics than television because it is not subject to as much limitation in terms of time and space. Nevertheless, satellite television continues to be a major source of news for many Arabs. In Chapter Eight, Fares Braizat and David Berger state that "television is still considered the primary source for local, regional and international news in Jordan" (p. 124). The authors find that more viewers in the kingdom prefer al-Jazeera as a source of Arab and international news over Jordanian Television (JTV) and al-Arabiya. The authors explain some of the media trends in Jordan by referring to "bias assimilation," which is the idea that viewers will seek out information that confirms their political perspective and reject information that challenges it (p. 136). Despite the divergent political leanings of media outlets like al-Jazeera, JTV, al-Arabiya, the BBC and CNN, they rely on similar metaphors and linguistic strategies. In Chapter Three, linguists Andreas Musolff and Abdel-mutaleb al-Zuweiri analyze the use of the metaphor of "passing a milestone" that is repeatedly evoked in news items about the war by CNN and al-Jazeera International. They contend that in the majority of cases, this metaphor is used by the media to indicate that the war is nearing an end. This usage steers "the public to assume that the more milestones are