scholarly journals Reverberations of the Arab Spring: Women’s Use of Information Technology in Morocco

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 15-25
Author(s):  
Selena Irene Neumark
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Gender Equity ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Global Networks ◽  
Civic Spaces ◽  
Innovative Capabilities ◽  
The Arab Spring

How are women utilizing the capabilities of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the service of social and political transformation in the wake of the Arab Spring Uprisings? The structure of information flows on new media platforms have enabled activist groups to gain leverage in political systems and social contexts that otherwise marginalized them and this was never more apparent in the use of ICTs during the Arab Spring. However, Morocco continues to be a largely forgotten hub of revolution as researchers grapple with the systemic shifts observed in countries like Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia. Women’s rights movements in Morocco exploded in increased action, engagement and influence during the same period, largely by virtue of increased accessibility to and innovative capabilities of ICTs. Morocco’s movement for women’s rights and democratisation (gradualist movement) is a lesser-explored context of women’s heightened engagement since the Arab Spring and hence, the focus of this research. Women’s use of alternative civic spaces to organize and enact social and political change has resulted in global networks of activism that are changing the climate of the MENA as well as perceptions of it from elsewhere. The region, while often politically turbulent, is also characterized according to a single narrative in the West. The “resistance against communal norms” and broadening use of digital media as an extension to existing women’s voices (Robinson, 2014, p. ii) has helped disseminate critical knowledge on the importance of gender equity to democratic ideals. It has also put an emphasis on women’s public praxis in Morocco over their religious affiliations or domestic labour. Keywords: new media, Morocco, activism, communication, technology, social justice

15. The Arab Spring: The ‘People’ in International Relations

2019 ◽  
pp. 339-367
Author(s):  
Larbi Sadiki
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Authoritarian Rule ◽  
External Interference ◽  
Arab Uprisings ◽  
The People ◽  
Media And Technology ◽  
The Arab Spring

This chapter looks at the Arab uprisings and their outcomes, approaching them from the perspective of the peoples of the region. The Arab uprisings are conceived of as popular uprisings against aged and mostly despotic governments, which have long silenced popular dissent. Ultimately, the Arab uprisings demonstrate the weakness of traditional international relations, with its focus on states and power, by showing how much the people matter. Even if the Arab uprisings have not yet delivered on popular expectations, and the Arab world continues to be subject to external interference and persistent authoritarian rule, they are part of a process of global protest and change, facilitated by new media and technology, which challenges the dominant international relations theories.

Role of the New Media in the Arab Spring

2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 675-679 ◽  
Author(s):  
Habibul Haque Khondker
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
The Arab Spring

Political Economy of the Media

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dal Yong Jin
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
New Media ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Culture Industry ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
Modern Capitalism ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
The Media

Political economy of the media includes several domains including journalism, broadcasting, advertising, and information and communication technology. A political economy approach analyzes the power relationships between politics, mediation, and economics. First, there is a need to identify the intellectual history of the field, focusing on the establishment and growth of the political economy of media as an academic field. Second is the discussion of the epistemology of the field by emphasizing several major characteristics that differentiate it from other approaches within media and communication research. Third, there needs an understanding of the regulations affecting information and communication technologies (ICTs) and/or the digital media-driven communication environment, especially charting the beginnings of political economy studies of media within the culture industry. In particular, what are the ways political economists develop and use political economy in digital media and the new media milieu driven by platform technologies in the three new areas of digital platforms, big data, and digital labor. These areas are crucial for analysis not only because they are intricately connected, but also because they have become massive, major parts of modern capitalism.

scholarly journals Digital use and mistrust in the aftermath of the Arab Spring: beyond narratives of liberation and disillusionment

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (8) ◽  
pp. 1125-1141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristina Moreno-Almeida ◽  
Shakuntala Banaji
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Young People ◽  
New Media ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
Nuanced Understanding ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Arab Spring

Through the prism of the uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East in 2010–2011, new media has been presented as diametrically opposed to the top-down and mistrusted. Asking the question, ‘In what ways do trust, privacy and surveillance concerns intersect and inflect the individual and collective practices of young people in networks of participation, and their sense of civic connection through old and new media?’, this article presents a nuanced understanding of the relationship between digital media and mistrust. Through the study of original case studies in Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia and the UAE, we examine attitudes towards and usage of digital media in creating and maintaining political, civic, cultural and artistic networks among communities. We analyse our abundant qualitative interviews, observations and ethnographic data collected to reveal the continuity of media mistrust as people move into the digital arena. As new tools continue to be launched many young people in the region remain alert to the ways in which these tools can serve or hinder individual and group aims. Beyond narratives of liberation, disillusionment or democratisation, ‘new’ media poses both mundane and surprising challenges in encouraging and engaging networks of participation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

Paradox of Globalization: New Arab Publics? New Social Contract?

2013 ◽  
Vol 12 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 114-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leila DeVriese
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Contentious Politics ◽  
Political Strategy ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Arab Spring

AbstractBecause social media is playing an irrefutable role in the Arab Spring uprisings the central question in this article is to what extent Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in general, and social media in specific, are contributing to the democratization of the public sphere and shifting the monopoly on agenda setting in the Arab Gulf, particularly in the case of Bahrain? How will these technologies continue to shape contentious politics in the Middle East and will their utility for democratizing and expanding the public sphere persist in the aftermath of the Arab Spring? Or will the increasing liberalization of media and freedom of expression that had preceded the Arab Spring experience a repressive backlash as authoritarian states attempt to clamp down on social and traditional media—or even harness them for their own purposes as seen by Facebook intimidation campaigns against activists in Bahrain last Spring. Finally—using the lens of social movement theory—what repertoires of contention and political opportunity structures will pro-democracy activists use to keep their campaigns alive? Activists in the Gulf have not only incorporated the ICTs into their repertoire, but have also changed substantially what counts as activism, what counts as community, collective identity, democratic space, public sphere, and political strategy. Ironically this new technology has succeeded in reviving and expanding the practice of discursive dialog that had once characterized traditional tribal politics in the Arabian Peninsula.

The Arab Spring a decade on: information and communication technologies as a mass mobilization tool

Kybernetes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jelisaveta Blagojević ◽  
Radenko Scekic
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Model ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Regime Change ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
Crisis Situations

PurposeThe purpose of this research paper is to address the main research gap related to the lack of sufficient information regarding the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in second Arab Spring wave in comparison to the first one. The authors analysed the role of ICTs via data regarding the access to ICTs and its influence on organization and spread of the anti-regime protests, i.e. regime change.Design/methodology/approachCrisis situations are unpredictable, complex and unexpected. The consequences produced by the crisis situations or events may be negative for an individual, community, organization or society as a whole. In the new millennium, ICTs have an important role in deep social crises. The new technologies enable not only the rapid spread of certain political ideas, spin information, but also the spread of misinformation. The control over ICTs in the crisis situations is crucial. The aim of this paper is to indicate effect of the use of ICTs in the crisis situations, i.e. political upheavals in 11 countries of the “Arab Spring”. The contribution of this paper is based on the development of a special theoretical model of analysis that represents the combination of the theoretical considerations in the field of ICTs, as well as the analysis in the field of transitology, i.e. democratization. The first part of the paper is focussed on the development of ICT transition theory of ICTs’ impact on the process of political change, setting the hypotheses and the explanation of methodological approach of the paper. The second part is related to the review and description of data regarding ICTs use, while the third one discusses the impact of the use of ICTs in organizing and spreading protests in the Arab world, in line with the defined theoretical framework. Finally, there are given the research results in terms of confirming or refuting the hypotheses through the analysis of Arab transition cases.FindingsThe authors confirmed the main hypothesis of the paper that the factors that determined the role of ICTs in first Spring, also, have determined the role of ICTs in second Spring wave. These factors include high access to ICT tools, weak regime's control over ICTs’ use and important cross-border networking with regional and international audience. All that formed the promotional role of ICTs in regime change in 8 of the 11 countries mentioned in the paper.Originality/valueApart from the developed special theoretical model and the analysis of new wave Arab Spring cases, the significance and originality of this paper is reflected in a comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach that connects political changes and the use of ICTs in disseminating certain policies and ideas.

Political Information, Political Power, and People Power

2015 ◽  
pp. 2233-2258
Author(s):  
Anas Alahmed
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
New Media ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Information Age ◽  
Political Information ◽  
New Politics ◽  
Arab Politics ◽  
Global Movements ◽  
The Arab Spring

This chapter explores the concept of new media in the Arab world and how politics in the information age has changed Arab politics and moved citizens to the streets. However, the evolution of new media social networks and the cause of political information in particular during the revolution is not studied alone. In fact, the evolution of the Arab Spring and the effects of new media social networks are taken into account by exploring how politics in the information age has influenced Arab citizens and allowed them to use information for the greater good and established such a new social movement. This chapter takes the Arab Spring as a case study and an empirical example to understand the transnational protests and global movements, the concept of global media and global politics in the case of the Arab Spring, new media and new politics regarding the Arab Spring, and city and street and public sphere as people power in the information age. Finally, the chapter distinguishes between the new social movements through social networks and the roles of ICTs to aim revolution and whether such a revolution will erupt without new media social networks.

scholarly journals Before the ‘Arab Spring’: How challengers pushed counter-issues in Egypt’s hybrid media system

2019 ◽  
pp. 175063521989461
Author(s):  
Hanan Badr
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
New Media ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Print Media ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Agenda Building ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Media System ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Arab Spring

Eight years after the ‘Arab Spring’, literature is still marked by techno-deterministic interpretations. This article contributes to examining the role of agenda-building processes just before the outbreak of the Egyptian uprising in 2011 within authoritarian systems. Using the ‘hybrid media system’ concept, the article not only focuses on new media effects but, by including print media, it takes into consideration the media system in its entirety. Focusing on Khaled Said’s case as a counter-issue, the qualitative content analysis investigates how challengers in Egypt successfully pushed the media salience of police torture onto the mainstream media agenda. By reconstructing the issue cycle and intermedia spill-over effects, the author investigates the agenda-building processes within hybrid media systems in Arab authoritarian contexts. The qualitative content analysis includes 415 articles and posts from 12 diverse print, online and social media outlets between June 2010 and January 2011. The central finding is that successful spill-over effects occurred from online media to private print media, even though state media tried to ignore the issue. The coverage transferred the issue’s salience from new media into mainstream media, thus reaching wider non-politicized audiences. These proven interlinkages between old and new media are often an overlooked aspect in the literature on media and the ‘Arab Spring’.

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