위성TV가 바레인 젊은 세대의 사회공간 인식에 미치는 영향 연구 - 젠더영역의 인식을 중심으로

A Study of Satellite TV"s Influence on the Perceptions of Social Space among the Bahraini Younger Generation - Focused on the Gendered Space -

&nbsp;&nbsp;After the Gulf War in the 1991, the era of information revolution started in the Gulf area. Thanks to such highly developed technologies as satellite TV, mobile phone, and Internet, people in the Gulf area are exposed more intensively to the outside of the world, especially to those of western cultures. Today, due to oil money in the Gulf region, those new mechanisms for New Media have been widely spreaded in this area including urban and rural area as well as Bedouin camps in the desert. Among many New Media mechanisms, this paper explores what impacts satellite TV has made on the perceptions of &quot;social space&quot; among the Bahraini younger generation, especially focusing on the concept of &quot;gendered space&quot;.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;By &quot;social space&quot;, I include not only the visible places where people&quot;s actions take place, but also the invisible or abstract notion of spaces, implying the social distances and the inter-relatedness established among individuals through everyday interactions with others in reality. &quot;Gendered space&quot; referred in the paper means male and female place of activities and their roles. Traditionally, gendered space in the Islamic culture has been understood on the basis of binary opposition. For instance, while maleness has bee associated with empowered formal public space, femaleness has been restricted in the powerless informal private space. However, gender attributes and their social space are constructed differently according to social and economic situations in a given society, and at the same time, it is negotiated through everyday life between genders.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;In this context, this paper examines how the perceptions of gendered space among the Bahraini younger generation has transformed by the exposure of satellite TV which delivers global messages, especially those of western values. The target of the study covers 220 Bahrain National University students. The method of study includes both quantitative study carried out by distribution of questionnaires and qualitative study through participation observation and various group interviews.