Voice of the Arabs Radio Service Speaks: Theorizing an Occidental Interpretation

<p>As a prominent Arabic-language transnational service, theVoice of the Arabs radio station was the product of unforgiving modernityin an era that carries reverberations to the present day and it occupied aplace that had distinct implications. The mode of resistance that itfashioned for itself against the Western hegemon was employed under thebanner of Arab nationalism. In this rejection of imperialism, particularlygiven its positioning in a unique historical circumstance, broadcasts thatreached every corner of the region made of this enemy an object. Thispaper considers the context at play to argue for the occidental bent of theradio station through the prisms of agency, subjectivity and alterity andunderpinned by Kantian theories. The three areas would motivate theactions that were taken. The emerging power of Nasserism as a potentsocialist ideology, linguistic choices within programming and visualelements that extended beyond the audio medium uniting peoples acrossborders all had bearing on furthering this impression of what was a keypolitical instrument in the modern history of the Arab world.</p>