Moroccan Noir: Police, Crime, and Politics in Popular Culture (Public Cultures of the Middle East and North Africa)

Facing rising demands for human rights and the rule of law, the Moroccan state fostered new mass media and cultivated more positive images of the police, once the symbol of state repression, reinventing the relationship between citizen and state for a new era. Jonathan Smolin examines popular culture and mass media to understand the changing nature of authoritarianism in Morocco over the past two decades. Using neglected Arabic sources including crime tabloids, television movies, true-crime journalism, and police advertising, Smolin sheds new light on politics and popular culture in the Middle East and North Africa. Introduction : State, Mass Media, And The New Moroccan Authoritarianism -- Police On Trial : The Tabit Affair, Newspaper Sensationalism, And The End Of The Years Of Lead -- He Butchered His Wife Because Of Witchcraft And Adultery : Crime Tabloids, Moral Panic And The Remaking Of The Moroccan Cop -- Crime-page Fiction : Moroccan True Crime And The New Independent Press -- Prime-time Cops : Blurring Police Fact And Fiction On Moroccan Television -- The Moroccan Serial Killer And Csi : Casablanca -- From Morocco's 9/11 To Community Policing : State Advertising And The New Citizen -- Epilogue : The Police Are At The Service Of The People. Jonathan Smolin. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 261-275) And Index. Facing rising demands for human rights and the rule of law, the Moroccan state fostered mass media and cultivated more positive images of the police, once the symbol of state repression, reinventing the relationship between citizen and state for a new era. The author examines popular culture and mass media to understand the changing nature of authoritarianism in Morocco over the past two decades. Using neglected Arabic sources including crime tabloids, television movies, true-crime journalism, and police advertising, the author sheds light on politics and popular culture in the region Cover; Title; Copyright; Contents; Preface; Acknowledgments; Note on Transliteration, Translation, and Style; Introduction: State, Mass Media, and the New Moroccan Authoritarianism; 1 Police on Trial: The Tabit Affair, Newspaper Sensationalism, and the End of the Years of Lead; 2 ""He Butchered His Wife Because of Witchcraft and Adultery"": Crime Tabloids, Moral Panic, and the Remaking of the Moroccan Cop; 3 Crime-Page Fiction: Moroccan True Crime and the New Independent Press; 4 Prime-Time Cops: Blurring Police Fact and Fiction on Moroccan Television 5 The Moroccan ""Serial Killer"" and CSI: Casablanca6 From Morocco's 9/11 to Community Policing: State Advertising and the New Citizen; Epilogue: ""The Police Are at the Service of the People""; Notes; Bibliography; Index