TRANSLATION WATCH QUARTERLY Volume 2, Issue 1, March 2006 78 of 94 The Making of Arab News Reviewed by Ali Darwish The Making of Arab News Noha Mellor Oxford: Rowan and Littlefield Publishers, 2005 ISBN 0-7425-3819-2, 163 pp, 22.8 cm x 14.8 cm, paperback. Never has a media phenomenon attracted so much attention in recent history, in both the academic and professional worlds, as that of Arabic satellite television and more specifically Aljazeera. From the moment Aljazeera aired Bin Laden’s tapes in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, there has been a flurry of academic and professional activities seeking to understand this new curious phenomenon and to place it in the context of a region long regarded with suspicion and contempt in many quarters of the West. Several books, articles and research papers have been published about Arabic satellite television, and various inquisitive studies have been undertaken in western universities, by westerners and Arabs alike— researchers in media and communication, political science and cross-cultural anthropology, in the first instance, have looked at the social, political, economic and cultural aspects and impact of Arabic media, particularly Aljazeera. Some of the books that have been published in recent years bear the hallmarks of politically motivated or propaganda-propelled campaigns by outsiders to the language and culture of the Arab region or by starry-eyed insiders, climbers and sycophants, barely scratching the surface of this important phenomenon that is set to change the region forever. One recent publication that stands out from the crowd is the present book: The Making of Arab News, by Noha Mellor. Written by an Arab living in the West, this scholarly book brings a fresh insight into the intricate nature of the Arab media. In the preface, Mellor sets out to explain her motivation for writing the book: “AS A NATIVE ARAB LIVING [emphasis in original] in Europe and working in the field of media—both as a scholar and a journalist—I have had the privilege of being able to access information and publications in both English Book Review