Transnational broadcasting in the Arab world raises questions on the use of the media to deliver political messages across borders. Whenever there is crossnational broadcasting in the Middle East, specifically in Arabic, there is a political message, and because Arabic is such a beautiful and somewhat vague language there's room for interpretation. So within the Middle East transnational broadcasting is always going to be politically sensitive and carry political messages, because most of the broadcasters are themselves the governments, and therefore they have their own, to use the American term, spin on things.
People call in for the first time.
So this is becoming a new phenomenon and making many Arab countries and Arab governments very nervous. I noticed that with Emad el-Deeb's show on Orbit. That was probably as much the source of its popularity as anything, the ability of people to call in and directly challenge or question the speakers. These programs are getting people's attention. But that does not mean, in my view, that people are turning away from local news.