scholarly journals ole of New Opinion Leaders on Social Media in Political and Religious Polarization (Jordanian case study)

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-229
Author(s):  
Lana Kazkaz ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Curriculum Reform ◽  
Arab World ◽  
School Curriculum ◽  
Opinion Leaders ◽  
Communication Process ◽  
Public Issues ◽  
Transfer Of Information ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
Religious Polarization

Social media brings to the fore new opinion leaders. Due to their supposed role in public debate as well as persuasion and promotion of opinions and new behaviours among users of such networks, they are called Influences. In the last few decades, communication research has explored opinion leaders as effective influences on their environments and societies. They present and interpret information, give opinions and adopt innovation before the audience, in addition to mediating between the audience and media in the communication process. More particularly, Facebook represents a new space for discussion in the Arab World. The phenomenon spread during the Arab Spring in 2011 and even expanded later. It took different forms, like the transfer of information, interpretation of incidents, and mobilization for mass events, political and cultural polarization and new critical discourse. However, what is taking place in cyberspace is still debatable. The present study looks into the new opinion leaders’ phenomenon in the Arab public sphere and their part in political and religious polarization. The discourse of posts on three Facebook accounts of new opinion leaders (Influences) in Jordan is analysed. As these figures play disparate roles in national political and cultural events and dilemmas, lessons can be derived from such a rising phenomenon. The study aims at exploring the discourse features of the posts addressing public issues which sparked widespread controversies in the period 2017-2018, such as the civil state, theocratic state, school curriculum reform and political reform in Jordan. Study has found that the new opinion leaders’ phenomenon on social media in Jordan is on the rise, in terms of political and religious polarization. That would reveal some characteristics and roles of new opinion leaders, in addition to the features of their discourse with reference to major political and religious issues and values as well as political and religious polarization.

scholarly journals Broken Walls: Challenges to Patriarchal Authority in the Eyes of Sudanese Social Media Actors

2017 ◽  
Vol 57 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 278-302
Author(s):  
Albrecht Hofheinz
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Young People ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Private Sphere ◽  
Sociocultural Change ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
Online Sources

This article presents and discusses voices of active social media users from the urban Sudan on the social impact of internet and mobile communication, with a focus on changes in individuals’ attitudes to established patriarchal norms, in particular regarding relations between the sexes, and between young people and their parents’ generation. The picture that emerges from interviews and online sources is that of young people often impatient with the pace of change in their society, while at the same time professing that the new technologies have enabled them, in their own lives, to break established norms, to expand the realm of their private sphere, and to assert their own voice. Such sociocultural change risks going unnoticed if one focuses mainly on the political side of the Arab Spring; it may, however, be as important as regime change to the understanding of current dynamics in the Arab world.


scholarly journals The Voice of Silence: Patterns of Digital Participation Among Palestinian Women in East Jerusalem

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 309-319 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maya De Vries ◽  
Maya Majlaton
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
State Monitoring ◽  
Contested Space ◽  
Palestinian Women ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
East Jerusalem

Facebook is one of the world’s largest social networks, with more than 2,7 billion active users globally. It is also one of the most dominant platforms and one of the platforms most commonly used by Arabs. However, connecting via Facebook and sharing content cannot be taken for granted. While many studies have focused on the role played by networked platforms in empowering women in the Arab world in general and on feminist movements in the Arab Spring, few have explored Palestinian women’s use of Facebook. During and after the Arab Spring, social media was used as a tool for freedom of expression in the Arab world. However, Palestinians in East Jerusalem using social media witnessed a decrease in freedom of expression, especially after the Gaza war in 2014. This article focuses on the Facebook usage patterns and political participation of young adult Palestinian women living in the contested space of East Jerusalem. These women live under dynamic power struggles as they belong to a traditionally conservative society, live within a situation of intractable conflict, and are under state control as a minority group. Qualitative thematic analysis of 13 in-depth interviews reveals three patterns of usage, all related to monitoring: state monitoring, kinship monitoring, and self-monitoring. The article conceptualises these online behaviours as “participation avoidance,” a term describing users’ (non-)communicative practices in which the mundane choices of when, why, and how to <em>participate </em>also mirror users’ choices of when, why, and how to <em>avoid</em>.

scholarly journals The role of multimedia communication in the Arab Spring

Obraz ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (31) ◽  
pp. 69-75
Author(s):  
Hanna Verbytska
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Social Communication ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Large Population ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
The Arab Spring

Introduction. Social media in the Arab world before the Arab Spring were described as marginal, alternative, and elitist, and their impact was minimal due to low Internet access. The events of 2011 across the Arab world caused the rise of “social media”. However, their role in recent events remains unclear. Relevance and purpose. The Arab Spring caused the study not only of the driving forces of this phenomenon but also its impact on the development of social networks. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to identify the role of modern information and communication technologies in the protest movements of the Arab world. Methodology. General and specific methods based on objective laws of social communication, including logical and dialectical, method of analysis and synthesis, and abstract-logical method are used. Results. Nowadays social and political context has proven the Internet to be perhaps the most effective means of communication which can quickly reach and involve large population groups. In this case, the Internet is a unifying communication factor on three levels – personal, group, and mass. Particular attention should be paid to a new phenomenon on the Internet, which can be described as the “virtual solidarity of people”, who are online. It dramatically revealed itself during the Arab Revolutions in 2011, when large numbers of strangers united, planned, and organized joint political protests using social networks. Conclusions. The Internet is an effective tool for creating and destroying social actors. It acts both as a means of influence and as a means of obtaining information. The Internet usage by the opposing parties either in communication or confrontation between different groups enables the formation of different models of political development and political processes on vast territories. Thus, during the Arab Spring, we observed the emergence of two models – the Tunisian and the Arabian (in simple terms – revolutionary and stabilizing). In both cases, the borrowing (reception) of Western principles of political culture is present, but the main difference between them lies in the means of implementation in society. At that, both cases are characterized by focusing on national traditions and preserving the Muslim religion. Keywords: social networks; social communication; internet; Arab Spring; social actors.

Nasser's Gamble

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesse Ferris
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Decisive Role ◽  
Original Material ◽  
Egyptian Revolution ◽  
Arab Nationalism ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Arab Spring

This book draws on declassified documents from six countries and original material in Arabic, German, Hebrew, and Russian to present a new understanding of Egypt's disastrous five-year intervention in Yemen, which Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser later referred to as “my Vietnam.” The book argues that Nasser's attempt to export the Egyptian revolution to Yemen played a decisive role in destabilizing Egypt's relations with the Cold War powers, tarnishing its image in the Arab world, ruining its economy, and driving its rulers to instigate the fatal series of missteps that led to war with Israel in 1967. Viewing the Six Day War as an unintended consequence of the Saudi–Egyptian struggle over Yemen, the book demonstrates that the most important Cold War conflict in the Middle East was not the clash between Israel and its neighbors. It was the inter-Arab struggle between monarchies and republics over power and legitimacy. Egypt's defeat in the “Arab Cold War” set the stage for the rise of Saudi Arabia and political Islam. Bold and provocative, this book brings to life a critical phase in the modern history of the Middle East. Its compelling analysis of Egypt's fall from power in the 1960s offers new insights into the decline of Arab nationalism, exposing the deep historical roots of the Arab Spring of 2011.

Social Media and Medical Professionalism in the United Arab Emirates

2020 ◽  
Vol 01 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron Han
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Medical Community ◽  
Medical Professionalism ◽  
Positive Contribution ◽  
Medical Providers

: Social media is increasingly used as a platform by medical providers. The positive contribution is also balanced by risks and governed by codes of professionalism by the medical community. The values of medical professionalism include universal tenets and also those unique to the Arab world and the United Arab Emirates. We propose that institutional guidelines and self governance in the medical community is important, as well as further dialogue on this important subject.

scholarly journals Exploring narrative linearity between Twitter and the news: Echoes of the Arab Spring in Brazil

2021 ◽  
pp. 095792652110232
Author(s):  
Helton Levy ◽  
Dan Mercea
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Narrative Theory ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
News Stories ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
Representation Of Time

This article explores the use of narrative theory as an analytical framework to investigate the extent to which popular hashtags and the news can develop into intersecting stories. It juxtaposes the case of hashtag-based reports seen during the Arab Spring to understand the coverage of notorious political episodes in Brazil. Namely, the 2016 impeachment of Dilma Rousseff and the 2018 election of Jair Bolsonaro. Here, narrative linearity emerges as a tool to observe the borrowing of Twitter hashtags in several journalistic pieces. It is contended that the linearity of authorship, narration and representation of time appears as a satisfactory pathway to trace the development of hashtags into popular news stories. Results suggested that hashtags can significantly follow narratives and agendas in journalism but differing from their original social media context.

The Palestinians – lessons from the Arab Spring†

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 422-437 ◽  
Author(s):  
As'ad Ghanem
Keyword(s):  
Arab Spring ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Exceptional Case ◽  
The Arab Spring

This paper examines the implications of the Arab Spring for the Palestinians. The aim is to point out the basic lessons and implications of the transformations occurring in the Arab world for the Palestinians as an exceptional case, due to their situation under occupation and exile. Cause for optimism is discerned in the anticipated increase in broad and practical Arab support for the Palestinians. However, the contention here is that Palestinians themselves have derived too limited a lesson from the Arab revolutions by focusing only on the call for unity between the competing Palestinian factions. Their reconciliation is only about their self-preservation and that of the system which has served them hitherto. The recommendations posited here are for the Palestinians to embrace the full message of the Arab Spring and make peaceful protest en masse and across the whole Palestinian people their path to liberation.

Our Potential and Challenges of Social Media in Promoting Women’s Health

2020 ◽  
Vol 07 (01) ◽  
pp. 4-7
Author(s):  
Neelesh Pandey ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Health Communication ◽  
Women’S Health ◽  
Women's Health ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Communication Process ◽  
Traditional Media ◽  
Web Based ◽  
The Public

Women’s health is a matter of concern for very countries. The advancement in the field of internet and emergence of social media has affected communication process to a great extent. As social media has advantage over traditional media because of web based applications, it can be used to promote health communication especially women’s health which is neglected over the time. The present article attempts to find out the potential and challenges of social media for using as a tool to promote and aware the public on women’s health.

«Arab Spring»: Transformation of Political Paradigm in Context of International Relations

2012 ◽  
pp. 3-14
Author(s):  
L. Fituni
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Arab Countries ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
World Economic ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The Relationship

The author presents his own original conception of the 2011 Arab upheavals. First, he tries to find parallels between the Arab Spring and the 19th century European Spring of Peoples. Second, he dwells on the idea of three types of transition in the Arab World: economic, demographic, and ideological. Third, he reflects on the issues of democracy and autocracy in the Arab countries emphasizing the role of youth. Fourth, he puts forward some new ideas as regards the relationship between Europe and the Arab World, offering such terms as “democratic internationalism” and “young democratic safety belt” in the Mediterranean region.

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