National, regional, global TV in Algeria: University students and television audience after the 2012 Algerian media law

Abstract

This article investigates new trends in the consumption of national and transnational television channels in Algeria, following the changes introduced by the 2012 media law. Research on this topic was conducted through a small-scale audience survey among university students in Mostaganem, West Algeria, at the beginning of 2015. As with other neighbouring countries, since the 1980s, Algeria has been exposed to a rising amount of transnational television flows. After an initial French dominance, the last 10 years saw a gradual growth in the Gulf channels’ penetration, while national television became increasingly neglected. This partially changed after the 2011 uprisings as many Arab countries accelerated a process of media liberalization. In Algeria, the media law approved in 2012 opened the door to the creation of private television channels. The article explores the choices made by young Algerians in terms of national and transnational television content, both for news and for entertainment. Based on the results of our survey and on other historical and contextual data, we argue that a new national perspective on news and current affairs is emerging in the country, together with the success of non-Western productions for entertainment formats. In both these domains, students from different faculties and backgrounds showed similar preferences, going beyond the linguistic, cultural and social segmentation that has characterized the Algerian audience since the emergence of satellite television.