The mass uprisings that spread through the Middle East in 2011, and the succession of social movements that have followed it, sparked a burgeoning of academic interest in the politics of Middle Eastern media. Most analysts have focused on the role social media has played in these phenomena, debating, for instance, the extent to which protests should be considered ‘Twitter Revolutions’ or ‘Facebook Revolutions.’ User-generated media has displaced television in academic literature, but not in the Middle East itself, where TV drama forms the primary platform for sociopolitical commentary. As contributions to this special issue evince, multi-media convergence has in fact intensified television drama’s reach and relevance. The Internet offers a virtual, year-round simulation of Ramadan—the long-standing TV broadcast season in Arabic-language media. Digital technologies enable binge-watching, breathing new life into long-form television. Audiences watch serials through streaming services and video-sharing sites. Fan cultures abound on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Media makers use these platforms to promote their works and—sometimes from sites of diaspora—communicate with each other and their audiences. Viewers are themselves producing and posting mashups, spoofs, critiques, and homages to TV serials and their creators. Television serials and their production worlds offer a unique vantage point from which to study social and cultural life. As an art form, TV drama also merits consideration for its aesthetics qualities and formal innovations. Given its breadth and reach, television drama should occupy a place in academic analysis that reflects its significance. Sadly, scholarly attention to this key cultural form appears inversely proportional to its sociopolitical relevance. Film—particularly of the auteur variety that local audiences rarely see—retains much higher status. This may reflect lingering allegiance to Frankfurt School positions on mass cultural industries as monolithic purveyors of dominant ideologies. Decades after the British Cultural studies theorists complicated the analysis of mass cultural forms and their consumption, the musalsal is dismissed as sophisticated propaganda. This stance not only ignores the complexities of fictional

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客座编辑介绍：中东电视剧中的政治

2011年在中东蔓延的大规模起义以及随之而来的一系列社会运动，激发了人们对中东媒体政治的学术兴趣。大多数分析师都将注意力集中在社交媒体在这些现象中所扮演的角色，例如，辩论在多大程度上应将抗议视为“ Twitter革命”或“ Facebook革命”。用户生成的媒体已经取代了电视，取代了学术文学中的电视，但在中东本身却没有，电视剧是社会政治评论的主要平台。作为对这一特殊问题的证据，多媒体融合实际上增强了电视剧的影响力和相关性。互联网提供了斋月的全年虚拟模拟，这是阿拉伯语媒体长期存在的电视播出季节。数字技术使观看狂潮成为可能，为长格式电视注入了新的活力。观众通过流媒体服务和视频共享网站观看连续剧。粉丝文化在Facebook，Instagram和Twitter上比比皆是。媒体制作者使用这些平台来宣传他们的作品，并且有时（从散居国外的站点）互相交流，并与受众进行交流。观众自己在制作和发布混搭，欺骗，评论以及对电视连续剧及其创作者的敬意。电视连续剧及其制作世界为研究社会和文化生活提供了独特的优势。电视剧作为一种艺术形式，还应考虑其美学品质和形式创新。鉴于其广度和影响力，电视戏剧应在学术分析中占据一席之地，以反映其重要性。可悲的是 学术界对这一主要文化形式的关注似乎与其社会政治意义成反比。电影（尤其是本地观众很少看到的电影种类）保持较高的地位。这可能反映出人们对法兰克福学校在大众文化产业中作为主流意识形态的整体提供者的立场持之以恒的忠诚。在英国文化研究理论家们数十年来对大众文化形式及其消费的分析进行了复杂化之后，音乐被视为复杂的宣传手段。这种立场不仅忽略了虚构的复杂性 这可能反映出人们对法兰克福学校在大众文化产业中作为主流意识形态的整体提供者的立场持之以恒的忠诚。在英国文化研究理论家们数十年来对大众文化形式及其消费的分析进行了复杂化之后，音乐被视为复杂的宣传手段。这种立场不仅忽略了虚构的复杂性 这可能反映出人们对法兰克福学校在大众文化产业中作为主流意识形态的整体提供者的立场持之以恒的忠诚。在英国文化研究理论家们数十年来对大众文化形式及其消费的分析进行了复杂化之后，音乐被视为复杂的宣传手段。这种立场不仅忽略了虚构的复杂性