| Focus Area: |
Religion, Conflict, and Reconciliation |
| Project: |
Islamic-Western Reconciliation Reality TV |
| Commitment By: |
Common Ground Productions (Search for Common Ground) |
| Partner: |
VideoCairoSat (Egypt) |
| Required Funding: |
$300,000 |
Objective: To take Islamic-Western reconciliation beyond elite circles to broader populations through a TV series to be aired in the Arab world and the US using a popular reality format.
Commitment: Seed funding has been secured from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund to cover the costs for identifying Arab production partners. With $300,000, a pilot series of four episodes (covering one Arab-American exchange over one month) would be produced in English and Arabic and used to solidify broadcast deals in the US and the Arab world. An evaluation methodology will also be established to track viewer attitudes over the course of the broadcast.
Background: Efforts at Islamic-Western reconciliation are too limited to conferences and exchanges that engage elites and the "already converted". Media offers the means to reach broader audiences. Moreover, any media format can be used to build understanding and promote reconciliation between communities. Popular and entertaining media formats such as reality TV and soap opera programming hold the most promise for affecting broad-based attitudes. Common Ground Productions, which produces reconciliation soap operas in nine different conflict zones from Nigeria to Indonesia to the Balkans and has just aired its first reconciliation reality TV program in Nigeria, is a pioneer in the use of media for conflict transformation. The program, already under development, involves the swapping of a series of young professionals from Arab countries and the US who would do one another’s jobs, live in each other’s homes, and navigate every-day life in each other’s cultures for one month each. Cameras will document their experiences, interview their families and friends, and give voice to audience members in the US and the Arab world commenting on what each of them encounters. An interactive website will allow viewers to exchange views on the program, debate differences of opinion and culture, and vote on elements of the show.
| Point of Contact: |
John Marks, President,
Search for Common Ground |
| Geographic Scope: |
Produced in the U.S. (Chicago) and Egypt (Cairo), broadcast in the U.S. and across the Arab world via prominent Arab satellite TV. |
| Anticipated Launch Date: |
Broadcast Agreement Fall 2006; Program Aired Fall 2007 |
| Anticipated Duration: |
2 years with possible continuation |
Update:
March 2006:
Search for Common Ground is still looking for funding to create the pilot episodes and generate interests among broadcasting partners in the Arab world and the US.