Unfortunately, the political economy of media shapes the entire television programming in Lebanon. Television in Lebanon is first very subjective based on the ownership of the media platform. That being said, the media is shaped by the ownership of the platform (Fuchs). The media platform of OTV Lebanon is owned by the free patriotic movement in Lebanon, resulting in a publication of news that is completely subjective to their movement. As mentioned in the video Fallen Television (Majzoub, 2015), OTV’s ownership by this political movement causes them to shape media in their way. An example would be their constant propaganda against another opposing political movement on the TV channel to be posted.
Another way the political economy shapes the media would be through the concept of a Fuchs of capitalist communications. Tv channel are programmed in a way to please the audience and attract more viewers for economical purposes. The tv channel Al Jadeed once posted a famous Lebanese singer that is provocative in the way she behaves and creates, singing about deputies in Lebanon as seen in the video by Majzoub (2015). That allows us to see that Tv programs in Lebanon are indeed shaped by what attracts viewers and a wider audience, in order to benefit on the economical side of things.
The tv program Teleliban is economically unviable, meaning it is unstable financially (Khiabany). In fact, its numerous accusations and critiquing vis-a-vis its late news reporting and unreliable sources to cause its financial instability. The government had to save the Tv channel economically multiple times. The complete neglecting of the broadcasting of their news as well as their shows, has resulted in its social and economical state.
Tv programming in Lebanon has relied on sectarian publication of news and shows, causing its audience to feel the lack of trustworthiness with its media outlets, and resulting in a subjective and corrupted type of news publishing in Lebanon.
Majzoub, M. (2015) Fallen Television. Tele Liban. Retrieved from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2ZHGeCLLqA&t=1681s
Fuchs, C. (2016). Introduction, read pp. 1-5 only. In Reading Marx In The Information Age:
A Media and Communication Studies Perspective on Capital Volume 1. New York:
Routledge. Retrieved from: http://fuchs.uti.at/wp-content/uploads/introduction.pdf
Khiabany, G. (2016). The Middle East. In: B. Birkinbine; G. Rodrigi and J. Wasko (eds.)
Global Media Giants. New York: Routledge. Retrieved from:
http://research.gold.ac.uk/18559/1/The%20Middle%20East.pdf
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