Media Cities; for What Reason They Are Really Made?

Contents

 

Introduction

Infrastructure

Foundation Path

Geographical 'Bias'

Globalized Media City

Russian Model

History

The Most Important Media Cities In The World

A. Walt Disney Studios City

B. UK Media City

C. Korean Digital Media City

The Most Important Arab Media Cities

Egyptian Media Production City

Jordanian Media Cities

Emirati Media Cities

Gaza Media City

Prospective Arab Media Cities

Ownership Patterns And Their Relationship To The State

Impact and Results of Media Cities In The Arab Environment

A. The Economic And Social Impact Of Media Cities

B. The Technical Impact Of Media Cities

C. The Political Influence Of Media Cities

Media Cities Forward-Looking

 

Conclusion

 

Introduction

Despite several Arab studies discussing the Media Cities file, the majority of the discussions are without definitions.It was sufficient to talk only about the reasons and the developments and the working conditions of these cities compared to outside.

In this regard, a study by Dr. Abbas Mustafa Sadik on free Media cities in the UAE indicates that the gaps in the Arab communication system are revealed by the challenges of the media and information revolution, and the transition of communication tools and its various applications from analogue to digital. This gap is also revealed by the launch of new communication technology and satellite broadcasting and the transition of media power from the grip of institutions to the hands of the public. All these considerations led to the emergence of free media cities in the Arab region.

 

Infrastructure

Abbas Sadik's study reveals that the financial standard is the most important challenge facing the development of media infrastructure in the Arab world. During the period close to the founding of these Arab cities, the infrastructure in most Arab countries was developing through digitization [2], which required huge funding that Arab media institutions are unable to provide because of its financial weakness.

 

The Foundation Path

Dr Sadik studies the conditions of establishing media cities.In Fact, the state intervened in this project from the beginning, whether as an owner of the city as is the case in the UAE, or as a key partner of institutions in this city as is the case in Egypt.

In addition to the state ownership, the  Arab state wanted -undemocratic - to control the centers of meaning-making and cultural symbols

Perhaps this explains the campaign launched by the Egyptian state against media institutions that broadcast from outside the Media Production City [3]. It is a path that the UAE is taking including discrimination between foreign companies on the one hand, and Emirati or Arab companies that are allowed to operate within the Emirates on the other hand. In fact, Emirati companies are subject to the state’s ability and authority to control laws [4], in addition to the subjection of Arab companies to the influence of The Emirates on its countries.

Geographical 'Bias'

The geographical “bias” approach in the Arab experience, compared to the geographical spread that characterizes media in Western countries, would enable the Arab authorities to isolate this media region from two sides, the first of which is an elitist party, where the media elite that enjoys freedom is isolated from society to control the contagion of ideas, as well as infrastructure resources. In doing so, the state can control the Arab media discourse , which explains the realization of the Arab businessman and media man Saleh Abdullah Kamel about the absence of " Absolute Freedom" in Arab media cities.

In this context, the term "media city" is currently used to describe centers (in terms of geographical concentration) specialized in cultural and media production. These centers represent an aggregated platform for providing media and cultural service by providing the necessary infrastructure to attract big companies operating in this field, and entice them to work in this dedicated environment, whose geographical bias provides a state of speed for the needs of the clients of these cities.

 

Globalized Media City

In this context, it is important to isolate the term ‘’media cities’’ from a number of concepts close to them, and among these terms are the concept of the globalized media city or “Global Media City” and the concept of acquiring companies, with their different orientations in the capitalist world and third world countries that are authoritarian.

 

The term "globalized media city" refers to a stage that preceded the idea of ​​"media cities" in the idiomatic sense that we have already referred to, and it refers to a large natural city or the capital of a big country and has turned into a center for the gathering of meaning-making companies, cultural symbols and media companies such as New York or Los Angeles or London.

The concept is related to the sociologists' view of the city phenomenon as a leader of social mobility, in which the "cultural industry" appears as a mode of production.

Sociologists view these globalized cities as witnessing the generation of large social sectors of specialists in making meanings, and they offer a treatment for this industrial sector as representing a new “industrial revolution” with the formation of a new division of labor and different labor relations characterized by flexibility and crossing borders.

The concept of "globalized media cities" is linked in the minds of sociologists with two main indicators that classified globalized capitals and cities on the basis of which into 3 vertical degrees. These two criteria are the number of media projects in each major city or capital, and the number of transnational companies operating in each city in the field of media and meanings.

The attached table shows the classification of first-class cities. Apart from the experiences of geographical concentration, experts in the Western world still focus on the money spent on media to identify cities that represent leadership centers in the world of the "culture industry", and do not pay attention in this context to the presence of specialized or focused platforms or not.

In this context, the lead for media cities in the classic concept of media cities (which represents capitals or big cities) is New York City, which in 2014 spent about $19.7 billion on media and entertainment, followed by Tokyo, which spent $19.5 billion in the same year, and then London (16.3), followed by the capital of South Korea, Seoul (11.9), then Hong Kong (9.1), Los Angeles (8.3), the Australian city of Sydney ($8 billion), to Chicago, which spent (5.7), Singapore (5.4) . Finally, Berlin comes in tenth place, spending $4.8 billion on the entertainment and media industry[6].

Russian Model

Other companies close to the state are forming a media group, by exploiting capital surpluses to obtain the soft power offered by the media that already exists, and we can talk about " Russia's Gazprom Media model, one of the companies of the "Gazprom" group specialized in the field of energy production, which established its subsidiary "Gazerum Media" to control a wide range of media, including television channels such as "2x2", "NTV" and "Match". !" TV-3, TNT, Pyatnica, and radio stations such as AvtoRadio, CITY-FM, Comedy Radio, Ekho Moskvy, Kids Radio, Relax FM, Romantica", in addition to acquiring film production centers and companies such as "Central Partnership", "Comedy Club Production", "Red Media" and "NTV-Kino", and movie theater groups such as "October Cinema" and "Crystal Palace Cinema". As well as controlling a large number of widely spread Russian newspapers, such as the "Story Caravan" group and the "Seven Days" group. The Egyptian authorities are following the Russian example of owning the media.

 

History

Is there a connection in the history of the combined media production platforms or not ? This expression "aggregate platforms for media production" is a collective name for the phenomenon of concentration of production institutions, a phenomenon that began in the United States, in the city of Los Angeles, the city of Hollywood, which is the oldest globalized media city in the world, where this city began to witness gatherings of institutions Media production, which began with the “Universal” company, which was founded in 1912. It  began with limited studios in the 1920s and 1930s, and then began to witness a boom in the formation of media corporations assembled since the forties, to start after that a series of “senior media aggregators,” which is The phenomenon known to American critics as "Media Conglomerate", which began to appear and crystallize with the entry of companies such as "Paramount" in (1912) as well, then "Walt Disney" and "Warner Brothers" in the year (1923) . One year later, the company "Columbia" appeared, known as "CBS" network, today, and then the company "20th Century Fox" that appeared in (1935)[9].

It was the propaganda style associated with the “Hollywood” phenomenon that later led to a growing sense of the importance of strengthening media production institutions, after the strong influence of these institutions, which caused the collapse of the ancient international pole known as the Soviet Union after the United States turned to support television broadcasting networks in the West Europe. This led to the replacement of the culture of hamburgers, jeans and cola, the ideas of the proletariat, the struggle of classes and the war of world imperialism. The visions of ideological invasion of the Islamic trend also contributed to stimulating interest in this area of ​​soft power tools.

Soon, the "Hollywood'' phenomenon bypassed the United States to dominate Europe after World War II, and the world started to discover "globalized media city", which is based on the role of cultural production institutions in building a network of global relations across borders and oceans . Also, the concentration of transnational companies began to classify the global cultural capitals among first-class media capitals that included New York, London, Paris, Los Angeles, Munich, Berlin and Amsterdam, a category defined by the presence of more than 17 international companies specialized in the cultural industry, followed by the cultural capitals of The second degree, which includes Copenhagen, Madrid, Hamburg, Stockholm, Milan, Oslo, Sydney, Athens, Toronto, Barcelona, ​​Frankfurt, Toronto, Barcelona, ​​Frankfurt, then Brussels, Zurich, Warsaw and Budapest, where the last two countries shined after the end of the nineties, nearly a decade after the separation from the Soviet Union. "

And the matter was not limited to Europe, but also to the Asian continent, which witnessed the crystallization of cultural and media capitals of the third degree, according to the standard of making cultural symbols, and the capitals belonging to this third category include Chicago, San Francisco, Dusseldorf, Boston, Singapore, Vienna, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Prague, Lisbon, Melbourne, Buenos Aires and Mexico City, Helsinki, Rome and Sao Paulo, Brazil[10].

It should be noted here that this aggregate statistic monitored by European research and planning centers dates back to 2003, and there have been no significant changes in it, with the exception of Tokyo's rise to the category of first-class media cities with a level of spending directly below New York, and surpassing Los Angeles, host of the Hollywood Center.

The Indian city of Mumbai soon joined the list of the third category after the Oxford Dictionary adopted the term "Bollywood" by merging the name of the ancient city of Mumbai (Bombay) in addition to the term "Hollywood"[11].

It cannot be claimed that there is a natural evolution link between this historical phenomenon and the emergence of the “media cities” phenomenon, which the Arab region is one of its pioneers, as the “media cities” phenomenon is considered a means to overcome the impact of the poverty of media institutions (Gulf media), and sometimes the poverty of the state itself ( The Egypt-Jordan model), on the process of searching for resources for soft power, with many restrictions on the use of hard power in the region, either because of the flow of Arab-Israeli peace treaties, or because of the demographic weakness of the Gulf countries, which have huge financial savings that enable them easely to acquire a pillar of cultural soft power.

However, the Arab countries do not represent the bottom of the list in the history of the spread of the phenomenon of “concentration of companies serving the cultural production process.” Rather, the phenomenon is recycling itself across the world, and in the countries of the West itself, including the United States, which owns 9 cities that are considered as centers of global cultural production [12]

 

The Most Important Media Cities In The World

Media cities are a very complicated issue due to the distance between the accurate understanding of the phenomenon and the common understanding of it, which is sometimes linked to the concept of globalized media cities such as “Hollywood” in Los Angeles” or New York, or even Mumbai in India, hosting “Bollywood”.

Also, this common understanding sometimes refers to the major aggregators, which are companies that use their surplus funds to control successful media companies, such as “Disney” or “Viacom”, but these companies and what they own do not fit the description of the media city as a scientific term. In this context, it is possible to resort to dealing with symbols that can be applied to the definition of "media cities" with its "geographical bias" and qualitative infrastructure.

a. Walt Disney Studios City: Although the "Disney group of companies" has been referred to as one of the companies interested in buying companies that make meanings and cultural symbols in the United States, this does not mean that it has not had the experience of building media cities in the idiomatic sense of the concept of the media city. In October 1923, it established a company in the city of “BurBank” in the state of “California”, and this city now includes several studios, including the Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures studios for the production of Drama films, Walt Disney Animation Studios, the animation production pillar, and Disney Music Group, Disney's music production pillar. The studio groups are operated by Walt Disney Pictures.

B. Media City of the United Kingdom: or MediaCityUK, a city built on an area of ​​200 acres that can be increased, the work in its construction led by the "BBC" network when it decided to decentralize London to relieve pressure on the city, and chose the port of Salford, which was one of the most important The river ports of Greater Manchester.

In 2013, the BBC moved to the new area as a tenant, and its move also coincided with the transfer of Salford University, and the two parties are among the most important tenants in the city, along with other tenants, most notably NEP Connect, a company specialized in satellite communications, and IBM. TV Grenada, “Antix Productions” specialized in television production, “Doc 10” specialized in studios and digital post-production services, in addition to 40 companies specializing in various services related to media production, or specialized in the field of deposit works. Digital, such as music production or graphic production, in addition to the "Holiday Inn".

c. Korean Digital Media City: or Digital media City known as DMC, this company is one of the most prominent media cities in Asia, was established in 2006 with an area of ​​570,000 square meters, which was originally the largest landfill in South Korea.

This company specializes in the cultural industries, including those related to broadcasting, film, drama production, music, e-learning and related sub-industries.

Korean and foreign studies called the residents of this city "Denizens", a term derived from the two words "Digital Citizen", in reference to the fondness of the residents working in this city for everything that affects technical progress, both physical and software.

 

The Most Important Arab Media Cities.

Egyptian Media Production City: The regional leadership in terms of media cities is represented by the Egyptian “Media Production City”. “The Egyptian Company for Media Production City” was established in 1989 through a double public/private subscription, with about 20.2 % of its shares for public subscription, while the majority of its capital was covered by a private subscription between the Radio and Television Union 43%, the National Investment Bank 17.8%, the National Bank of Egypt 4.8%, the Egyptian Company for Investment Projects 4.4%, and Banque Misr 4.3%, Misr Insurance Company 3%, and Misr Life Insurance Company 2.6%.

The city, which is built on about 3 million square meters, began construction work in 1992, opened on January 11, 1997, and a decision was issued to allocate it as a free zone on February 24, 2000, and it consists of several sectors, represented by the "Mubarak International Studios Complex." Open shooting areas, entertainment area: Magic Land, service complex, theater and cinema complex, conference center, Mövenpick Hotel, and the commercial center and "Panorama of Egyptian Art" [13].

Jordan Media Cities: It was established in 2001 as a private company after an agreement between the government of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and Dallah Media Production, with a capital of 10 million Jordanian dinars ($15 million). The channel broadcasts about 120 television channels, most of which are non-Jordanian channels[14].

In Jordan, there is also a free private media city, the "Jordanian Media City - Saudi", "JASCO", which was established in 2008. Its purpose is to invest in the field of media, through a system of programs that oversees their broadcasting or production, and it is based in Jordan .

This company owns studios for direct and recorded photography, sound studios, studios for sound processing and dubbing, units for editing and directing, units for graphic processing, units for field photography, in addition to research and preparation units.

This company, despite its limited level compared to the major media cities, undertakes the activities of satellite reservations, satellite broadcasting services, management and regulation of messaging services, and follow-up of the registration and licensing of satellite channels[15].

Emirati Media Cities: Despite the Egyptian leadership in the Arab world, the United Arab Emirates is one of the most prominent countries that dealt with the phenomenon of free media cities. The number of media cities in the United Arab Emirates alone is 4, the first of which is the "Media Zone Authority", which is based in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and was established by Law No. 12 of 2007.

The second city in the Emirates is "Free Zone for Media and Information Technology", known simply as "Tecom", and it is based in the Emirate of Dubai.

The cost of establishing the Internet city is 400 million dollars[16]. "Ras Al Khaimah Media City" is the third media city in the Emirates, which was established in 2006.

As for the fourth city, it is "Fujairah Media City", and it was established in 2005[17] with a capital, for the first phase, amounting to 50 million dollars[18]. Some studies deal with “Dubai Studio City” as a separate media city[19], but it is legally considered as one of the sub-sectors within the “Media and Information Technology Free Zone”[20].

Gaza Media City: In 2017, the authorities of the Gaza Strip inaugurated a media city in the Strip. It was established on the land of a defunct Jewish settlement (Gush Katif settlement), specifically in the Bab al-Silsila area next to the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque.It includes houses, small shops and old cafes reflecting the history of Jerusalem. [21].

Expected Arab Media Cities: Ten years ago, the Arab Advisors Group published a report stating that there are intentions in several Arab countries join the field of free media cities, and the report stated that these intentions are available to countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Lebanon and Sudan] 22] However, these countries did not witness a positive step along the way, with the exception of Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

In the last two years, Saudi Arabia decided to establish a Saudi media city[23]. At first, the establishment was planned in Qatif, but in the end, the embassy district, west of the capital, Riyadh, was chosen to be the new location of the city.

On February 4, 2020, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the "Media City" project, Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan Al Saud, signed 3 agreements and a memorandum of understanding in the cultural, media and technical fields in the "Media City" project.

The Saudi media considers this project as an entry point for managing the Saudi satellite launch project, and its mission will be to operate satellite channels locally, instead of operating abroad in Egypt, Dubai and various places[24].

As for Qatar, it has already taken a decision to start implementing this project in 2017. The Qatari step is part of an integrated plan represented in the establishment of the Free Zones Authority and the initiation of labor law reform, with a tendency to release freedom of expression within the free city[25].

Ownership Patterns And Their Relationship With The State

With regard to the characteristics of Arab media cities, there is a slight discrepancy regarding the characteristics of these cities. We discuss these features at the level of ownership and the approach of the state's relationship with these cities.

In terms of ownership, the first three countries differ in the form of ownership of the free zone associated with the media cities, while the media cities in the Emirates represent direct ownership of the state, the form of the free zone for the Media Production City in Egypt has taken the nature of a civil-governmental partnership, whereby the Egyptian and government cities offer extensive facilities in terms of land and services to media companies.

As for the free media zone in Jordan, it was established by the private sector, and it provides media services in return for a specified rent[26].

In terms of the law on free zones, these three cities are subject to the state only with regard to their space, but at the legal level they are completely isolated from the state, and are only subject to the administrative authority of the organization of work within the free cities, where they are governed by the predetermined regulations and laws under The state system and the nature of the contract between companies and the state.

One of the research conducted by the Emirates National Council indicates that investors wishing to work in the UAE media cities can apply for the registration of a free zone company, and the research indicates that companies in the free zone are not subject to the provisions of the UAE Commercial Companies Law unless they obtain Emirati citizenship. This is an indication of the impact of nationality on the degree of freedom enjoyed by the company operating in the UAE media cities[27].

 

Impact And Results Of Media Cities In The Arab Environment

• a. The economic and social impact of media cities: 

The definition that we provided in the introduction presents media cities as a social function (that is, it aims to impose a lifestyle for the purpose of cultural hegemony), in addition to its inclusion of an economic dimension to the concept, given that the media sector - according to this point of view - is an economically productive sector that has its own institutions.

However, the economic dimension of media cities can be presented by two levels . The first one is the dimension of the state's economy. In, fact, in the Gulf countries, for example, the concept of "after oil" seems to be an obsession for the Gulf countries, which are making strong efforts to diversify the structure of their economy.

The Gulf states have different views of the importance of the “culture industry” as a source of national income. While the idea of ​​media cities stumbled in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain for nearly two decades, and was delayed in Qatar as a result of the state being satisfied with leadership in the field of news media led by the Al-Jazeera network, its sponsors and institutions. A country like the UAE was inspired by the concept of globalized cultural capitals, and the Emirate of Dubai has carried this project since 2003, followed by three emirates : Fujairah, Abu Dhabi and Ras Al Khaimah.

As for Egypt, the analysis of the Egyptian Company’s discourse to the Media Production City reveals the state’s desire to find additional sources of income, especially from foreign currency, and to provide job opportunities for professionals, as the “Our Vision” axis in the company’s message confirms that The vision is "to provide productive services at moderate prices, which aims to achieve a profit for the city and prosperity for the Egyptian economy"[28]. The socio-economic vision in the UAE is not different from that of Egypt.

In order to identify the extent of the economic and social impact of this sector in the UAE, the Emirate of Dubai announced that "Dubai Internet City", which represents one of the eight sectors in "Dubai Media City", has 1600 companies, employing nearly 24 thousand specialists [29]. This is in addition to the development which is related to performance in this sector, such as training and so on.

It is related to the economic return of the concentration of soft power resources and tools economically towards cities that accumulate media power tools in the process of marketing their cultural products, which leads to the emergence of new marketing and distribution tools and patterns, most notably what we see in the Arab world competition between the “BEIN” and ‘’GoBox ‘’ groups in their competition with "OSN" and "SHOW TIME" on the one hand, and "NetFlix", "WatchiT" and "Watch" on the other hand.

This set of distributive services differ in the way they work, some of them depend on satellite broadcasting through a "receiver" and some of them work on the high-speed Internet whose infrastructure is being prepared in most countries of the Arab world.

·        On the social level, experts view the current cultural industry as a “pioneering movement” similar in impact to the social revolution that accompanied the first industrial revolution, as it establishes social and economic patterns of organization, due to the institutional processes it imposes related to the production process. It also establishes a pattern of specialization and organization of work, according to flexible working relationships, and inter-marketing operations that take place in the short term for concurrent products. All these institutional formulas will be applied in different sectors of social work in the future.

·        This leads to the formation of social segments specialized in cultural production, especially in major cities and capitals.

·        This concentration of the cultural industry in a specific number of major cities and capitals, which was previously expressed in the models of globalized cities, is one of the results of this new trend to organize this geographically concentrated industry.

·        The patterns of concentration in various branches of the cultural economy and the media industry, which have been established since the 1980s in select global cities such as Los Angeles and London, are seen as imperial models that support the theory of the tendency of this economic style to form conglomerates of specialized companies. Models such as Paris and New York provide concrete support for this vision as well.

·        The concentration of these companies has led to the provision of high geographical concentrations of social segments specialized in cultural production and its integrative processes. Actually, the expression of social segments here expresses geographical concentrations based on a different pattern of division of labor that ultimately forms specific cultural products, which leads to intense and qualitative working relations between The players belonging to these segments. These relationships, in turn, establish a pattern of transnational relations between the players specialized in this industry, which establishes a new pattern of competition in the areas witnessing this concentration. However, these interactions would support the urban development process anyway.

·        The second most important feature in this regard is the globalization of a large number of projects, which reinforces the tendency of these companies to support links between specialists in this cultural industry through their office.

·        These transnational ties between these strata were at the heart of an emerging system of globalized cities in the 1980s. The globalization of cultural products and the media industry has led to the formation of a globalized network of media cities, which leads us to a partial economic regional model, but it creates dependence relationships between regional parties and centers that witness the concentration of cultural industry tools[30].

·        B. The technical impact of the media cities: The media cities sector represents an essential source of technical development from two angles. The first is that the aforementioned links between specialized centers and global centers lead to the continuation of infrastructure development in these areas, especially with the availability of political will, financing capacity and return on financing, both of which are the direct income generated by these cities and their parent companies, or the indirect return resulting from the high rate of employment coupled with an exaggerated rate of jobs over income, which makes media cities constantly motivated to develop their infrastructure.

·        On the other hand, the tendency of some countries to collect talents and creative energies in the field of media cities, which is a widespread phenomenon in the Emirates, and in which the Gulf state boasts that it collects skills from about 160 across the planet. This matter will enhance the demand for advanced and renewable technology Due to global spending on technology, and due to the technological race prevailing in the world today between the United States and China on the one hand, and Europe and China on the other.

c. The political influence of media cities: It is important in this context to ascertain a well-established rule, which is that states possess the pillars of power and its applications in order to use them. One of the rules that complement this power is that the means of soft power are more employable and sustainable than the pillars and tools of hard power.

In this context, it is logical to find "soft power" confrontations between countries that possess these resources of power and other countries that lack these tools..

We find also confrontations that carried in their application the term “electronic committees” scientifically and “electronic flies” in the media, and in the end it is a form of employing technical force, even if it is an abnormal image, but in the end it is a qualitatively advanced continuation of the policy Defamation and the media agency that Arab countries used to practice through media agents that are not affiliated with them, by funding their newspapers and websites from behind the scenes.

On the other hand, the term culture used to define a sector of the functions of media cities is used in two related and incompatible directions. The first refers to culture as a social concept that means the system of values, societal viewpoints, consensus, rules, lifestyles and practices of groups of people, and the second concept refers to the content of a production process that is not linked with material goods as much as they are related to mental, artistic and symbolic products that represent an expression of a conception of social life.

This definition - from the point of view of sociologists and politicians - is considered "functional", because it provides an objective basis for understanding the process of launching terms such as "cultural goods", "cultural industry" and "cultural economy". However, addressing these terms in the context of dealing with the concept of “media cities” focuses on social activities related to creative work aimed at influencing the conscience, and producing communication tools based on images and symbolic meanings[31].

In this context - also - it is obvious to find the uses of power in terms of the production processes of dramas in a conflict setting, and the emergence of terms such as "drama wars" as expressed by the academic specializing in media sciences "Yasser Abdel Aziz"[32], who spoke about Serving soft power tools in promoting regional projects, biased against Turkish soft power, and using a term consistent with the tendencies of the ruling elite with military origins in Egypt, which is the term “war.” This trend regarding "drama wars" is expected to increase in the future with the continued accumulation and concentration of soft power between the two sides of the region.

However, the socio-geographical analysis of the phenomenon of the labor force associated with this new system of division of labor would produce a new reality of domination, but this time it is regional. As European experts talked about the impact of media capabilities on major Western capitals in terms of transforming them into patterns of globalized cities, with a model that imposes itself as a political role model, which practically led to the collapse of the value of Soviet influence in Eastern European societies. This model is likely to be repeated in the Arab region, where concentration of soft power resources in the Arab Gulf, and the decline of their accumulation in the countries of the heart, especially Egypt, would deepen what began to crystallize after the military coup in Egypt of a state of “agency” exercised by the Egyptian authority in favor of the Gulf countries, after Egypt was An agent for the great powers.

But what is not clear is whether the functional concentration of the new division of labor would impose an open local political reality within countries that witness a concentration and accumulation of soft power tools. political progress in the Gulf states.

Rather, what is expected is the opposite, as the influence of the media power concentrated in the Gulf states will make the Arab countries subject to the influence of the Gulf soft power, and it will not be directed to the West, which is nothing more for the Gulf countries than being an agent who benefits from what the Gulf countries provide, especially the Emirates, in terms of infrastructure and equipment that facilitate the process of producing media and cultural works

 

Media Cities Forward-Looking

As we have already mentioned, the Arab countries do not represent the bottom of the list in the history of the spread of the phenomenon of companies serving the cultural production process, especially the phenomenon of "media cities". The prevailing political concepts play on the level of international politics, such as the concepts of "soft power" and "smart power", and the concepts of the political economy of unemployment that put pressure on the right and radical left trends to enhance the employment of disabled human resources, the currents whose resentment led to major historical events, Including the arrival of the populists to the presidency of the United States, and Britain's exit from the European Union. Actually, this will not stop here.

These phenomena and concepts are pressing towards strengthening the trend towards the growing phenomenon of media cities within a package of broad pressure and employment mechanisms, trying to circumvent the economic crisis the world awaits. It also seems that the tendency of global capitals to promote their green economy will lead to strengthening their orientation towards the services sector, including the cultural economy sector.

In this context, we are witnessing the trend of the "media cities" phenomenon towards recycling itself in the countries of the West itself, including the United States, of which 9 of its cities are among the largest centers of global cultural production, with varying degrees from New York to Chicago, as explained in detail.

In Texas, for example, two media production zones have obtained approval from state authorities, the last of which was the “Fort Worth” region that obtained in October 2018 the rights to operate as a media production development zone of an economic nature, and the other region is the “Red” Productions” [33].

The state of Texas issued the "Media Production Development Zone Act" in 2009, to deepen the state's interest in this area, which leads to job creation, and enhances the soft power of the state[34]

 

Conclusion

Among the most prominent features of the coming period are those that experts called "drama wars". They target the pattern of awareness and the direction of the individual culture of the Arab citizen. With the weakening of the Arab media situation and the bias of the sources of soft power, the wars of drama in the Arab region are directed in three directions. Libya, Algeria, and to some extent Iraq.

As for the third direction, it is represented in creating a new image of the enemy of the Arab world, removing Tel Aviv and the international economic powers, and focusing on attaching this characteristic to all countries of the axis that are against the axis of the new soft power.

The effects of the cumulus of power in this regard are not foundational. What we are witnessing today is more accumulation, which will lead to more impact. The media industry is not as important as the culture industry in terms of its impact.

In this regard, it is sufficient to point out that the process of demonization that the forces of the Arab Spring, at the heart of which are Islamists, did not come from the media industry alone, but came from the culture industry through a continuous stream for a not long time ago through films, series and entertainment programs, and it was not practical Completing the demonization of the forces of the Arab Spring requires more than intensification of the cynical dose through dedicated programs and a high current of spending, which ultimately led to the removal of both national and human characteristics from the forces of the revolution in the eyes of the masses. This has made the perversion of blood, money, honor and freedom acceptable in the eyes of the public. The victim no longer enjoys the status of the victim, and the victimhood is no longer an acceptable proposition, as it is indirectly implanted in the Egyptian subconscious around this victim several characteristics that led to its moral liquidation in preparation for the efforts that took place in order to financially liquidate it, and then get rid of it so that Egypt - and the poor Arab countries - is the Gulf cake in the post-oil era, a project that was not possible with the presence of nationalist currents at the heart of the authority .

If the scale of news media production and the industry of conscience are not balanced. This is in favor of the Arab soft power centers, especially those that have done a great job for media cities infrastructure, and now they are establishing the superstructure of the production of a supportive cultural and emotional current for its existence, for its future roles, and for its "rights". Surpluses of money play a major role in winning over the pens, which mainly represent the "industry of culture and conscience". While the opposite axis is divided between who has money and who has talent. A division that has not yet found a way to heal, which is a condition for balancing to form the conscience. News work - despite its importance - does not create conscience, and does not meet entertainment needs, which makes it easy to confront it, distort it, and limit exposure to it, whether materially through confusion or blocking or morally/psychologically mechanisms through building psychological barriers and demonization.

As for the last stage, the marketing stage began early in the field of satellite warfare, receivers and penetration.

However, the axis of accumulating soft power is fighting on the land of high-speed Internet, and trying to build a marketing ground independent in this direction, from the Western marketing ground, and in a manner that does not result in confrontation with it, by specializing in broadcasting Arab drama through "Shahid/MBC" networks. And Watch It is making an effort in large markets, including the Egyptian market, to control the dramatic content, and to profit from it, which has been to fight the Watch It application for free sites to view movies, including “ EGYBEST".

Despite the fierce confrontation in the field of Internet broadcasting, it is still an open environment, and is able to represent an entry point for rebalancing the distribution of cultural products, especially with the availability of the possibilities to confront it through applications by passing the blocking, compared to the relatively closed environment provided by the satellite broadcasting industrial mechanism.