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

As a prominent Arabic-language transnational service, the Voice of the Arabs radio station was the product of unforgiving modernity in an era that carries reverberations to the present day and it occupied a place that had distinct implications. The mode of resistance that it fashioned for itself against the Western hegemon was employed under the banner of Arab nationalism. In this rejection of imperialism, particularly given its positioning in a unique historical circumstance, broadcasts that reached every corner of the region made of this enemy an object. This paper considers the context at play to argue for the occidental bent of the radio station through the prisms of agency, subjectivity and alterity and underpinned by Kantian theories. The three areas would motivate the actions that were taken. The emerging power of Nasserism as a potent socialist ideology, linguistic choices within programming and visual elements that extended beyond the audio medium uniting peoples across borders all had bearing on furthering this impression of what was a key political instrument in the modern history of the Arab world.