Conceptualizing the social and political possibilities of digital mass-mediated communication in modern societies has generated a critical debate, ranging from proponents who conceive of its promising profound potential to sceptics who dismiss it as a trivial sociopolitical vacuity. For some observers in the field, social media has been mobilized to maintain hegemonic structures through a ‘weaponization’ of popular narratives on behalf of the dominant political elite. For others, social media discourse has signalled the end of grand narratives of political ideology, and has ultimately ushered in the age of subjective digital narcissism not unlike that of consumer culture in late capitalist societies. Beyond these two broader frameworks of inquiry, this article seeks to investigate the critical agency, popular sovereignty and transformative possibilities in socio-digital discourse in the modern Arab Gulf region. Recognizing the dominant and residual ideology within social media narratives, the article deploys Raymond Williams’ critical and insightful concept of ‘structures of feeling’ in order to critically assess the alternative emergent collective expressions that diverge from, yet respond to, hegemonic and dominant discourse. One of the main goals of this article, therefore, is to go beyond the conventional analysis of ‘utopian versus dystopian’ binary instrumentalization of social media in the region, to challenge the claim that media (both as technology and as technique) determine social and political consciousness. More specifically, and in contrast to McLuhan’s famed dictum that ‘the medium is the message’, this article contends that digital and social media virtues and contributions are not confined to the instrumental communication that serves practical purposes. Rather, and more fundamentally, digital and social media involve the practices and lived experiences of individuals, culture and society, especially those that constitute the formations of collective and emergent identities.
{"title":"Social media and power in the Arab world: From dominant ideology to popular agency","authors":"Mazhar al-Zo’by","doi":"10.1386/jammr_00003_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jammr_00003_1","url":null,"abstract":"Conceptualizing the social and political possibilities of digital mass-mediated communication in modern societies has generated a critical debate, ranging from proponents who conceive of its promising profound potential to sceptics who dismiss it as a trivial sociopolitical vacuity.\u0000 For some observers in the field, social media has been mobilized to maintain hegemonic structures through a ‘weaponization’ of popular narratives on behalf of the dominant political elite. For others, social media discourse has signalled the end of grand narratives of political\u0000 ideology, and has ultimately ushered in the age of subjective digital narcissism not unlike that of consumer culture in late capitalist societies. Beyond these two broader frameworks of inquiry, this article seeks to investigate the critical agency, popular sovereignty and transformative possibilities\u0000 in socio-digital discourse in the modern Arab Gulf region. Recognizing the dominant and residual ideology within social media narratives, the article deploys Raymond Williams’ critical and insightful concept of ‘structures of feeling’ in order to critically assess the alternative\u0000 emergent collective expressions that diverge from, yet respond to, hegemonic and dominant discourse. One of the main goals of this article, therefore, is to go beyond the conventional analysis of ‘utopian versus dystopian’ binary instrumentalization of social media in the region,\u0000 to challenge the claim that media (both as technology and as technique) determine social and political consciousness. More specifically, and in contrast to McLuhan’s famed dictum that ‘the medium is the message’, this article contends that digital and social media virtues\u0000 and contributions are not confined to the instrumental communication that serves practical purposes. Rather, and more fundamentally, digital and social media involve the practices and lived experiences of individuals, culture and society, especially those that constitute the formations of\u0000 collective and emergent identities.","PeriodicalId":36098,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Arab and Muslim Media Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90542786","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In many undemocratic countries where conservative law and patriarchal ideas are in place, women are considered second-class citizens particularly in domains of public life. After Iran’s Islamic revolution, Iranian women were confronted with a theocratic regime, which imposed laws and norms, which limited women’s activities and violated earned liberties. The activities of women under non-democratic states and patriarchal systems are thwarted by the repressive measures of authoritarian states as well as patriarchal society and hostile attitudes of ordinary men and women. New normative frameworks and practices imposed gender segregation in various aspects. During these years, women attempt to resist these policies, not by deliberate, organized campaigns but through daily practices in public life. Asef Bayat calls these kinds of resistance and activities ‘social non-movement’. This article focuses on a rather under-researched form of social activism and attempts to describe the way in which social media might be supportive tools for women aiming to build active networks and communicative spaces to deliberate on challenges to their lives. At the same time, these spaces function as the civic training ground where representations of political demands for social change are put forth. This article discusses ways in which social media have been used as platforms where women’s demands, among others, hold identity dimensions as well as violation of their basic and human rights.
{"title":"Beyond the ‘online’: Iranian women’s non-movement of resistance","authors":"Helia Asgari, K. Sarikakis","doi":"10.1386/jammr_00005_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jammr_00005_1","url":null,"abstract":"In many undemocratic countries where conservative law and patriarchal ideas are in place, women are considered second-class citizens particularly in domains of public life. After Iran’s Islamic revolution, Iranian women were confronted with a theocratic regime, which imposed laws and norms, which limited women’s activities and violated earned liberties. The activities of women under non-democratic states and patriarchal systems are thwarted by the repressive measures of authoritarian states as well as patriarchal society and hostile attitudes of ordinary men and women. New normative frameworks and practices imposed gender segregation in various aspects. During these years, women attempt to resist these policies, not by deliberate, organized campaigns but through daily practices in public life. Asef Bayat calls these kinds of resistance and activities ‘social non-movement’. This article focuses on a rather under-researched form of social activism and attempts to describe the way in which social media might be supportive tools for women aiming to build active networks and communicative spaces to deliberate on challenges to their lives. At the same time, these spaces function as the civic training ground where representations of political demands for social change are put forth. This article discusses ways in which social media have been used as platforms where women’s demands, among others, hold identity dimensions as well as violation of their basic and human rights.","PeriodicalId":36098,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Arab and Muslim Media Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85915630","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The article looks at Ikhwanweb, the English website of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood (MB), from its early days and through the years before the 25th January revolution. The archive is used as a theoretical concept to capture both the symbolic and material struggles that the MB faced while trying to articulate its political vision. As a nodal point where power and knowledge intersect, the concept of the archive was first theorized by Foucault and Derrida. Ikhwanweb is examined as a digital archive, a site for both knowledge and memory production. The first section deals with the main analytical concept; the second tells the troubled history of the material infrastructure required to run the website. Then two main threads are identified and examined. The need to distantiate the organization from political violence and that of reaching out ‘the West’ shaped the content of Ikhwanweb. The website also allowed the group to interact directly with policy-making circles and research institutions. Can this be said to be part of that process Bayat calls post-Islamism? The concluding section reflects on this question and suggests a more ambivalent picture.
{"title":"Ikhwanweb: A digital archive for a post-Islamist movement?","authors":"Paolo d’Urbano","doi":"10.1386/jammr_00006_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jammr_00006_1","url":null,"abstract":"The article looks at Ikhwanweb, the English website of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood (MB), from its early days and through the years before the 25th January revolution. The archive is used as a theoretical concept to capture both the symbolic and material struggles that the MB faced\u0000 while trying to articulate its political vision. As a nodal point where power and knowledge intersect, the concept of the archive was first theorized by Foucault and Derrida. Ikhwanweb is examined as a digital archive, a site for both knowledge and memory production. The first section deals\u0000 with the main analytical concept; the second tells the troubled history of the material infrastructure required to run the website. Then two main threads are identified and examined. The need to distantiate the organization from political violence and that of reaching out ‘the West’\u0000 shaped the content of Ikhwanweb. The website also allowed the group to interact directly with policy-making circles and research institutions. Can this be said to be part of that process Bayat calls post-Islamism? The concluding section reflects on this question and suggests a more ambivalent\u0000 picture.","PeriodicalId":36098,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Arab and Muslim Media Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81971811","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Hashtag Unity: Qatar’s digital nationalism in the Gulf crisis","authors":"Nurgul Oruc","doi":"10.1386/JAMMR.12.1.43_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/JAMMR.12.1.43_1","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":36098,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Arab and Muslim Media Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74939855","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Reshaping representation of race relations in the age of new media: A case study of Chapeltown in Leeds, UK","authors":"I. Raja","doi":"10.1386/JAMMR.12.1.87_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/JAMMR.12.1.87_1","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":36098,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Arab and Muslim Media Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91206156","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The democratic consequences of online media consumption in post-revolutionary Egypt","authors":"Alaa A. El-Shamy","doi":"10.1386/JAMMR.12.1.65_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/JAMMR.12.1.65_1","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":36098,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Arab and Muslim Media Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73827632","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-04-01DOI: 10.1386/JAMMR.12.1.115_1
A. Azeez
{"title":"Brides vs fighters in the media lens: Orientalism, Islamophobia and gender in media discourse on international recruits to ISIS","authors":"A. Azeez","doi":"10.1386/JAMMR.12.1.115_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/JAMMR.12.1.115_1","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":36098,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Arab and Muslim Media Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79111742","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-11-01DOI: 10.1386/JAMMR.11.2.157_1
Naser Ghobadzadeh
{"title":"Elections in the Islamic Republic of Iran: A source of democratic learning and moderation","authors":"Naser Ghobadzadeh","doi":"10.1386/JAMMR.11.2.157_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/JAMMR.11.2.157_1","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":36098,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Arab and Muslim Media Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79714366","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-11-01DOI: 10.1386/JAMMR.11.2.135_1
L. Saleh
{"title":"Civic resilience during conflict: Syria’s local councils","authors":"L. Saleh","doi":"10.1386/JAMMR.11.2.135_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/JAMMR.11.2.135_1","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":36098,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Arab and Muslim Media Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73037505","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-11-01DOI: 10.1386/JAMMR.11.2.199_1
Youcef Bouandel
{"title":"Harakat Mujtama’ al-Silm: Democratic learning in Algeria","authors":"Youcef Bouandel","doi":"10.1386/JAMMR.11.2.199_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/JAMMR.11.2.199_1","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":36098,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Arab and Muslim Media Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74853100","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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