The zany populism of YouTube appears to be under siege by governments and other powerful entities. Case in point? A vid by Jordan's Queen Raina.
Do all Arabs hate Americans? Can Arab women work? Are there any YouTubers in Jordan? Queen Rania of Jordan wants to know.
In a slickly produced black and white video released three weeks ago, Queen Rania asked viewers to send her e-mails and videos describing their stereotypes about the Arab world, saying "YouTube is a great platform for dialogue, and I believe we need to use these tools to get these messages out there." From now until Aug. 12 (International Youth Day) the Queen has pledged to post people's video responses to her questions on YouTube, all in an effort to dismantle Western misconceptions about the Middle East.
Much has been said about how the digital revolution created new avenues for ordinary individuals to create and communicate. But recently, governments have also taken to using these tools, and Jordan's Queen Rania is just the latest public figure who has used YouTube to communicate directly with constituents, citizens and a broader global public.
Pretty political
Yet, Queen Rania's instant, global YouTube popularity (due in no small part to her good looks) doesn't necessarily correspond with public opinion of her back home. And maybe it's because people expected her to focus on topics more in line with her role as the Middle East's UNICEF Eminent Advocate for Children. In Jordan -- a country where economic disparities between rich and poor are ever growing; freedom of assembly is restricted; women face legal discrimination in matters involving inheritance, divorce and child custody; and government pensions and social security benefits favour men -- many see the queen as doing little to reform her husband's soft dictatorship. And given that she has family members still living in the occupied Palestinian territories, Queen Rania's Palestinian people have also criticized her for failing to use her high profile position to help improve the plight of Palestinians.
Still, Queen Rania's attempts to promote cultural dialogue are making waves on the web. Her first video generated over a million views and 4,500 subscribers to her channel. And the hits for her second and third videos continue to climb. The actual impact of her social experiment remains to be seen, but the Middle East's YouTube queen is not the first (or likely the last) monarch to make an appearance on the site.