AMERICAN MESSAGES TO THE ARABS: A STUDY OF THE ARABIC PROGRAMS OF THE USICA

"American Messages to the Arabs" is an analytic examination of official United States information programs directed towards the Arab World. In addition to examining the overall operations of the United States International Communication Agency (USICA), using Hamid Mowlana's Paradigm for Comparative Mass Media Analysis,('1) this study includes a content analysis of the Agency's Arabic coverage of the 1978 Camp David Summit conference and its two Accords. The period covered in the content analysis was from August 8, 1978 to October 8, 1978. One of the major purposes of the study was to find out whether the information the Agency relayed to the Arab World were supportive of the U.S. declared policy concerning the Summit conference and its two Accords. In his examination of the Agency's operations and purposes, the researcher observed that the USICA was going through a stage of what could be described as systemic confusion reflected in both the Agency's structure and operations. There is an obvious dichotomy between the perceived and the required purposes of the Agency. Agency officials tend to shy away from the concepts of propaganda and advocacy. They could be divided, in terms of the question of advocacy, into three principal categories: (1) Administrative-Editorial Staff, (2) Technical Staff, and (3) Foreign Languages Staff. Some members of the first category tend to think that U.S. policies are so superior they do not need to be advocated, members of the second category do not care much about the question of advocacy, while some members of the third category might not be convinced themselves of the policies they are supposed to help advocate. The Agency's effectiveness in carrying out its stated missions is governed, to a large extent, by the policies it is expected to advocate. In the Arab World, the USICA is the victim of U.S. policies. Regardless of its output, the Agency's work is not yet satisfactorily accepted by the majority of Arabs bascially because it represents a government whose policies are not accepted. With the exception of the VOA, the Agency's operations in the Arab World are focused on elite audiences, usually referred to as opinion leaders. Even VOA programs are tailored to meet the needs of the "academically educated.". The researcher observed a lack of long-term information programming in the Agency and a great need for finding means by which Arab public opinion could be scientifically assessed. Among the study's conclusions are the following: (1) All media services of the USICA relayed to their Arab audiences the official policy statements of the United States government concerning the Camp David Summit conference and its two Accords. To that extent, the content of these services was reflective of U.S. policy. (2) Of the 52.13 hours of VOA news analyses and correspondent reports reviewed, a random sample of these analyses and reports was taken. That sample had a total of 7.37.50 hours of news analyses and correspondent reports. The content analysis of the sample showed that 4.13.40 hours of the sample (or 55.41%) were supportive of the U.S. declared position concerning the issue under study while 3.24.10 hours of the sample (or 44.59%) were critical. (3) The content of all the other media services, simply by the nature of their output, was completely supportive of U.S. policy. ('1)Hamid Mowlana, "A Paradigm for Comparative Mass Media Analysis," in International & Intercultural Communication, ed. by Heinz-Dietrick Fischer and John C. Merrill (New York: Hastings House Publishers, 1976), pp. 474-484.