This chapter resumes the discussion raised in Chapter 3 concerning the role of the pan-Arab media in the public sphere. As I argued in that previous chapter, language plays a significant role in the “symbolic” power of Arab journalists; likewise, I argue in this chapter that part of that symbolic power relates to what is deemed the “serious” content of the public debate. Central to the discussion in this chapter is the content of public debate as illustrated by random examples from formal pan-Arab news media versus local outlets. If the public I described in the previous chapter is torn between the language of intimacy and the language of solemnity, the public in this chapter is divided between the private and the public realms, although the majority of them navigate across both.

Nancy Fraser stresses that “what will count as a matter of common concern will be decided precisely through discursive contestation.” If this is true, then it is important to analyze the type of subjects that gain visibility in the public realm, juxtaposing them with those that are cocooned as domestic private matters and hence shielded from publicity. This is important in cross-cultural analyses of the role of the media, as “private” may indeed have different connotations across different cultural contexts.