Abstract
Despite accounting for some 60% of the population, Saudi Arabia’s under-30s spent a long time not seeing themselves on screen, except in comedy, satire and drama they made themselves and circulated on YouTube. Things have changed spectacularly under the transformational Vision 2030 project spearheaded by the kingdom’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, launched in 2016 and aimed first and foremost at youth. Drawing on insights from cultural proximity theory, this article explores how a state-sponsored emphasis on Saudi identity and national unity has shaped changes in television production structures and content aimed at engaging young audiences.
Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash
Naomi Sakr is Professor of Media Policy at the University of Westminster. She is co-author (with Jeanette Steemers) of Screen Media for Arab and European Children: Policy and Production Encounters in the Multiplatform Era (2019) and sole author of Transformations in Egyptian Journalism (2013), Arab Television Today (2007) and Satellite Realms: Transnational Television, Globalization and the Middle East (2001). She has has edited two collections, Women and Media in the Middle East: Power through Self-Expression (2004) and Arab Media and Political Renewal: Community, Legitimacy and Public Life (2007), and co-edited two others, Arab Media Moguls (2015) and Children’s TV and Digital Media in the Arab World: Childhood, Screen Culture and Education (2017).
