Regional Television and Collective Ethnic Identity: Investigating the SNS Outlets of Arab TV Shows

Abstract

This article investigates the issue of Arab collective identity manifested in the mediated type of communication taking places on social media. The study employs multiple methodologies to provide a better understanding of Arab audiences’ online engagements with four MBC TV shows that are regarded as among the most popular throughout the MENA region as contestants from almost all Arab countries have the chance to participate in them. These shows use Arabic as a bond that unites Arab viewers from different national, religious, and racial backgrounds into distinct online communities. In total, the study offers an analysis of over 839,000 comments from four Facebook pages including Arab Idol, Arabs Got Talent, The Voice, and The Voice Kids. We argue that the notion of Arab identity is an imagined concept since the mediated communication on social media shows different identity affiliations especially toward the national one.