Beyond western-oriented communication theories : a normative Arab-islamic perspective

Ayish, Muhammad I. (author)

For many decades, communication as a theoretical field of study has been dominated by Western-oriented perspectives that arose in the context of media perceptions in Western Europe and North America. Western communication theories have been promoted around the world as possessing a strong element of universalism. In recent years, this approach has been challenged on the basis of obfuscating the cultural peculiarities of non-Western societies as significant components of communication theorization. In this article, the author presents a normative Arab-Islamic perspective as a basis for future communication theory building in the Arab-Islamic context. Drawing on the notion of "Worldview," the Arab-Islamic perspective identifies four antithetical conceptual constructs that bear on the nature of communication: individualism-conformity, transcendentalism-existentialism, intuitive-rationalprocesses, and egalitarianism-hierarchy. The author concludes that Arab-Islamic communication patterns are formalistic, indirect, hyperbolic, asymmetrical, metaphysical and orally biased.

• Language: English
• Keywords: arabske države, Arab countries
• Work type: Not categorized
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
• Year: 2003
• Number of pages: Str. 79-92
• Numbering: Vol. 10, no. 2
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-75862
• UDC: 659.3/.4
• ISSN on article: 1318-3222
• COBISS.SI-ID: 22323805
• Publication date in RUL: 21.12.2015

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Javnost
• Shortened title: Javnost
• Publisher: Taylor&Francis
• ISSN: 1318-3222
• COBISS.SI-ID: 40119808

Secondary language

• Language: Unknown
• Title: Onkraj zahodno usmerjenih komunikacijskih teorij: normativna arabsko-islamska perspektiva

Abstract

Desetletja v komunikacijskih študijah prevladujejo zahodno usmerjene perspektive, ki so se razvile v Zahodni Evropi in Severni Ameriki. Zahodne teorije komuniciranja so v svetu propagirane s poudarjanjem elementa univerzalizma. V zadnjih letih je ta pristop kritiziran zaradi zanemarjanja kulturnih specifičnosti ne-zahodnih družb kot pomembnih razsežnosti komunikacijskih teorij. V članku avtor predstavlja normativno arabsko-islamsko perspektivo kot temelj bodoče teorije komuniciranja, ki bi izhajala iz arabsko-islamskega konteksta. V navezavi na pojem "svetovni nazor" arabsko-islamska perspektiva identificira štiri antitetične pojme, ki zadevajo naravo komuniciranja: individualizem - konformnost, transcendentalizem - eksistencializem, intuitivni - racionalni procesi ter egalitarizem - hierarhičnost. Avtor zaključuje, da so arabsko-islamski vzorci komuniciranja formalizirani, posredni, hiperbolični, asimetrični, metafizični in oralno usmerjeni.