Suchergebnisse

The "Gen Zeds" of the title are female Emirati students in their early twenties at Zayed University who have one foot in the traditional Islamic culture of their families and another in a world that expects them to revolutionize economic and social life. Gen Zeds represent today's generation of Emirati students. Though they are from Zayed University, they could just as easily have been from UAE University or the Higher Colleges of Technology because their education has been the result of a big push for opportunity by the country's founding father, the late Sheikh Zayed of Abu Dhabi. These students (the Gen Zeds) are highly educated, media literate, and intense users of the internet. Upon graduation, they are expected to assume leadership positions in the United Arab Emirates despite living in a society that until recently has not permitted women roles beyond motherhood and homemaking. This paper considers whether the lessons and experiences they encounter at university will equip them for life in a society radically different from that of their mothers'.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- PREFACE -- 1 THE SOCIAL SCIENCE STUDY OF DISASTERS AND MASS COMMUNICATION -- The Development of Research -- General Observations and Findings -- Specific Studies -- Some Significant Research Themes -- Future Research Agenda -- 2 BHOPAL: THE POLITICS OF MEDIATED RISK -- Chemical Spills as Political Accidents -- The Mediated Story of Bhopal -- The Public Memory of Bhopal -- Elites as Adaptation -- The Cutural Myth of Bhopal -- The Politics of Risk -- 3 THE SOUND AND THE FURY: MASS MEDIA AND HURRICANES -- 4 COMMUNICATING THREAT INFORMATION FOR VOLCANO HAZARDS -- Current Volcanic Dangers -- Volcano Information Dissemination -- Channels for Information Receipt -- Assessments of Source Credibility -- 5 TMI: THE MEDIA STORY THAT WILL NOT DIE -- Pre-Accident Information Efforts -- Pre-Accident Media Coverage -- The Accident Itself -- Lessons Learned From the Accident -- Media Coverage From 1983-1987 -- Commentary on Later TMI Media Coverage -- Conclusions -- 6 PREVENTIVE JOURNALISM AND AIDS EDITORIALS: DILEMMAS FOR PRIVATE AND PUBLIC HEALTH -- News Coverage of the Causes of AIDS -- Editorials on Preventing AIDS -- An Update: Coverage Between February 1985 and February 1987 -- 7 THE HOSTAGE TAKER, THE TERRORIST, THE MEDIA: PARTNERS IN PUBLIC CRIME -- Incidents Reported Differently -- Criminal or Terrorist? -- Not Ordinary Crimes -- The Hostage Taking -- Effects of Reports are Critical -- Why the Fascination? -- Those Involved Know This and Use It -- Copy-Cat Hijackings -- Other Problems -- The Media Often Cooperate -- Extraordinary Measures Needed -- 8 REPORTING CHERNOBYL: CUTTING THE GOVERNMENT FOG TO COVER THE NUCLEAR CLOUD -- Introduction -- The Theoretical Frame -- The Qualitative Study of Television News -- Technological Disasters and the Media

The United Arab Emirates is a smallish Arabic/Islamic country about the size of Maine located at the tip of the Arabian Peninsula. Though currently oil dependent, the country is moving rapidly from a petrocarbon to a people-based economy. As that economy modernizes and diversifies, the country's underlying social ecology is being buffeted. The most significant of the winds of change that are blowing include a compulsory, free K-12 education system; an economy shifting from extractive to knowledge-based resources; and movement from the almost mythic Bedouin-inspired lifestyle to that of a sedentary highly urbanized society. Led by resource-rich Abu Dhabi and Dubai, the federal government has invested heavily in tourism, aviation, re-export commerce, free trade zones, and telecommunications. The Emirate of Dubai, in particular, also has invested billions of dirhams in high technology. The great dream is that educated and trained Emiratis will replace the thousands of foreign professionals now running the newly emerging technology and knowledge-driven economy.