Book Review – Fatima el-Issawi’s ‘Arab National Media and Political Change’

‘I wish I could just go back to being a journalist’, said Lamees El Hadidi, Egypt’s top TV talk show host when she spoke to a crowd in autumn 2016. These words left me perplexed. Egypt’s top journalist, whose show draws an audience of millions, had disclaimed the core of her daily job. I was left with many questions about the blurred line between journalists’ identities and their professional roles, especially after the unprecedented shift in the media landscape following the Arab Spring. But my questions were thoroughly answered by Fatima el-Issawi’s book ‘Arab National Media and Political Change’.