The beauty and intrigue of Al Arabiya is the variety of the people who comment on said articles; these are the people that qualify Al Arabiya as a public sphere. Comments on this site, as opposed to those posted on other online public spheres like Slashdot, aren't posted immediately after the commentator presses send, but are instead subject to the review of mediators who work for the site. At first I thought this would put the cabosh on the multiplicity of the comments, so I checked out an article on Arab Israeli peace (one which I assumed would have completely varied opinions and wondered how many would be represented), and was amazed at the things I found. In no way were the comments what I would have expected knowing that they were previously being reviewed by an Arab news site before being posted. A brief overview of what I read included opinions ranging from "peace is but a dream", "Obama is a Zionist puppet", "Palestinian children need to stop being told that Jews are murderous pigs", a history of the persecution of Ashkenazi Jews, and "Hatred knows no logic". Each were posted by authors with Anglo names like Max and Andrew, Arabic names like Sherif and Esemerlda Mohamed, and symbolic names like Freedom. The range of English writing ranged from poor, conversation and native. Much of the posts were debate-like responses to previous posts, and all were generally on topic. If anything, they served as a good thermometer of international sentiment on the prospects of Arab-Israeli peace, as well as true show of how international availability and the openness of the internet has helped shape the public sphere into what it is today- something more multifaceted, heterogenous, and fascinating than what I can imagine it to have been in decades and centuries past. Here, online, men and women, from countries with and without freedom of speech or freedom of assembly can make declarations, accusations, suggestions; send messages of hope and anguish for the world to read; and no doubt understand that what they say will be read and taken seriously by other average world citizens and not-so-average politicos alike. Who knows what sort of effect these may have in the shaping of future world politics?
If you've ever read the comments on youtube videos, you can attest to the sheer lack of relevance and reverence that they represent. That is not a public sphere at its best, or even at all according to many, such as Habermas', definition. But sites like Al Arabiya are popping up everywhere, and for the first time in the history of the articulate world, may help reflect the views of peoples, ethnicities, regions the world over. If globalisation really takes its full course, then by definition these opinions should begin to homogenize. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I'd like to look at it this way- we can't really place a judgemental title on these things, but if it means that they'll begin to look more alike because we'll begin to better understand the many things that we as humans actually value in common, and stop the differentiation that comes from isolated ignorance, then it can only be positive- no matter the outcome.
