internet

Book Review: Zayani, Mohammed, and Joe F. Khalil. 2024. The Digital Double Bind: Change and Stasis in the Middle East. New York: Oxford University Press

20 Dec 2024

Book Review: Zayani, Mohammed, and Joe F. Khalil. 2024. The Digital Double Bind: Change and Stasis in the Middle East. New York: Oxford University Press
Jon W. Anderson Book Review Summarizing the past twenty-plus years of internet media studies on the Middle East, this study pulls together thinking and findings about digital citizenship, frames, and sites of contention, “new” voices and “virtual” lives online, e-commerce and “knowledge” economies, “connected” culture and digital identities in the region. Its overall methodology is to assess how large, generic models apply to regional experience. The authors, who work and…

Book Review

American-Muslims’ E-Jihad: Trumping Islamophobia in the Trump Era

10 May 2018

American-Muslims’ E-Jihad: Trumping Islamophobia in the Trump Era
Sahar Khamis Comment Islamophobia, or the irrational, exaggerated fear of Islam and Muslims, has been on the rise lately in the United States, especially after President Trump came to office. Some of the worst Islamophobes launched their campaigns online, using the Internet as a platform to spout hatred and fuel anger and discrimination against immigrants and minorities, in general, and Muslims, in particular. In an effort to counter…

Comment

Behind the Screen: the Syrian Virtual Resistance

10 Nov 2017

Behind the Screen: the Syrian Virtual Resistance
Billie Jeanne Brownlee Article Six years have gone by since the political upheaval that swept through many Middle East and North African (MENA) countries begun. Syria was caught in the grip of this revolutionary moment, one that drove the country from a peaceful popular mobilisation to a deadly fratricide civil war with no apparent way out. This paper provides an alternative approach to the study of the root causes…

Article

When Shaming Backfires: The Doublespeak of Digitally-Manipulated Misogynistic Photographs

10 May 2016

When Shaming Backfires: The Doublespeak of Digitally-Manipulated Misogynistic Photographs
Olesya Venger Article This study examines the case of an iconic digitally-manipulated news photograph, a controversial product of political propaganda featuring Majid Tavakoli, a student leader of the Iranian opposition in 2009, human rights activist, and political prisoner. The photograph depicts Mr. Tavakoli wearing a chador, traditional women's clothing in Iran, and appears to be digitally manipulated with the help of image-editing software. Published during the "Green Movement"…

Article

Contextualizing Internet Studies: Beyond the Online/Offline Divide

10 May 2016

Contextualizing Internet Studies: Beyond the Online/Offline Divide
Jon Nordenson Comment This essay discusses the issue of contextualization in studies of online platform usage and online material. It argues that a separation between online and offline cannot be sustained, as social media users relate to many different online and offline contexts simultaneously. Why protagonists make use of online platforms, which platforms they use, how they make use of them, who they seek to reach, and so…

Comment

A Safe Refuge? Minorities and the State in Iranian Cyberspace

10 Nov 2015

A Safe Refuge? Minorities and the State in Iranian Cyberspace
James Marchant, Bronwen Robertson Editorial The Iranian state has consistently restricted spaces in open society for minorities to express their identities, especially where such identities are construed as representing a threat to the religious, political and sexual orthodoxies promulgated by the clerical establishment. As a result, many members of assorted Iranian minority groups have taken to cyberspace to build communities, articulate self- and group-identities, organise to overcome discriminatory practices, and…

Editorial

Online Social Research in Iran: A Need to Offer a Bigger Picture

10 Nov 2015

Online Social Research in Iran: A Need to Offer a Bigger Picture
Ali Honari Article Given the limits of in-country and survey research in closed societies, the World Wide Web – in particular online forums - offers an alternative field for observing and understanding these societies and their development. However, the praise given to the Internet’s role in bringing about political change in Arab uprisings and the 2009 elections post protests has resulted in a tendency in the existing literature…

Article

Arab Iranians and Their Social Media Use

10 Nov 2015

Arab Iranians and Their Social Media Use
Ahmed Al-Rawi, Jacob Groshek Article Arab Iranians have a special status in Iran and the Middle East. Due to their Arab origins, they are sometimes viewed as the “other” for being different from ethnic Persians, while many Arab countries regard them as the “other” as well perceiving them as being Iranians more than Arabs. This study investigates the media landscape and conflict that is linked to the Ahwazi Arabs with…

Article

A Page and Its Politics: Situating Kullinā Khālid SaÊżÄ«d in Egypt’s Ideological Landscape at the Time of Revolution

10 Nov 2015

A Page and Its Politics: Situating Kullinā Khālid SaÊżÄ«d in Egypt’s Ideological Landscape at the Time of Revolution
Rasha Abdulla, Thomas Poell, Bernhard Rieder, Robbert Woltering, Liesbeth Zack Article In discussions concerning the importance of social media in the 25January revolution, a central role is given to the “Kullinā Khālid SaÊżÄ«d“ [We’re all Khaled Said] Facebook page. Using an advanced data collection and extraction application called Netvizz, a research team consisting of Arabists and Media studies specialists has collected and analysed all of the posts and comments exchanged through the page. This data set…

Article

Global Story

10 Nov 2013

Global Story
Mark LeVine Comment Hiphop has long been described as a quintessentially globalized music. Similarly, it has been understood as a unique window into the lives', fears and dreams of young people across the Arab and larger Muslim worlds for most of the post-September 11 era. Since young Tunisians revolted against long time dictator Zine El Abidin Ben Ali to the music of El General (or so the story…

Comment

Online and Offline Continuities, Community and Agency on the Internet

10 May 2013

Online and Offline Continuities, Community and Agency on the Internet
Jon W. Anderson Article How the Internet spawns community and gets its features into offline life is a recurring problem met in searches for “impacts” of its successive iterations in the Middle East and arises particularly in assessing equivocal findings most recently about social media in the Arab Spring uprisings. But the problem is more methodological than ontological: it lies in viewing the Internet through a media lens on…

Article

Telling the Truth about Islam? Apostasy Narratives and Representations of Islam on WikiIslam.net

10 May 2013

Telling the Truth about Islam? Apostasy Narratives and Representations of Islam on WikiIslam.net
Daniel Enstedt, Göran Larsson Article This article analyses six apostasy narratives published on WikiIslam.net and examines how Islam is represented and understood in them. The narratives contain self-referential and autobiographical components, and the truth-claims made in them are often based on the narrator’s own experiences as a former Muslim. From the six testimonies it is clear that Islam is presented in a negative and biased way, as summed up in…

Article

Digital Images and Visions of Jihad: Virtual Orientalism and the Distorted Lens of Technology

10 May 2013

Digital Images and Visions of Jihad: Virtual Orientalism and the Distorted Lens of Technology
Raymond Pun Comment Since the aftermath of September 11, Western media have repeatedly lampooned and echoed the term "jihad" as a principle of the Islamic faith, arguing that this term inspires Muslims to wage wars against the west and modernity. The studies of jihad as a core belief of radical Islamic groups are numerous; the term is not a new phenomenon; it is mentioned in the Quran at…

Comment

Review: Arabités numériques. Le printemps du Web arabe

10 May 2013

Review: Arabités numériques. Le printemps du Web arabe
LuboĆĄ Kropáček Book Review The book under review examines the phenomenon of the Arab Spring in greater depth, which step by step takes into consideration all relevant political, social, cultural and technical aspects of the complex nature of the Arab e-revolutions. They were revolutions (the term is favoured by the Arabs) without leaders, their role being played by modern media. The ideas of anti-establishment protest were conceived and discussed…

Book Review

Review: Media, Power, and Politics in the Digital Age. The 2009 Presidential Election Uprising in Iran

10 May 2013

Review: Media, Power, and Politics in the Digital Age. The 2009 Presidential Election Uprising in Iran
Zuzana Krihova Book Review In the light of the recent presidential elections in Iran, a collection of academic essays - Media, Power, and Politics in the Digital Age - edited by Professor Yahya Kamalipour provides us with a unique retrospection. It allows us to follow the dramatic and controversial 2009 elections in Iran, while exploring some more universal topics such as the interplay of media, power and politics, or…

Book Review

Review: iMuslims: Rewiring the House of Islam. Islamic Civilization and Muslim Networks

10 May 2013

Review: iMuslims: Rewiring the House of Islam. Islamic Civilization and Muslim Networks
Vit Sisler Book Review The book has an overwhelming scope, ranging from methodological and theoretical issues related to the research of Islam in cyberspace to detailed analysis of particular and diverse segments of the cyber Islamic environments such as the Islamic blogosphere or the use of the Internet by jihadi movements. The author clearly demonstrates his command of the subject by the vast number of examples, mainly websites, blogs…

Book Review

Mythical Roots, Phantasmic Realities and Transnational Migrants: Yemenis Across the Gulf of Aden

10 Nov 2012

Mythical Roots, Phantasmic Realities and Transnational Migrants: Yemenis Across the Gulf of Aden
Samson A. Bezabeh Article This article analyzes the relationship between transnational migration, state-based religious cosmologies and new electronic media. It illustrates the way mythical realities and a Christian cosmology have structured the existence of the Yemeni diaspora. In analyzing the way mythical realities have been deployed, I seek to understand how old ways of creating boundaries have been redeployed in electronic landscapes. Much has been written regarding the interface…

Article

The Time of Concluding the Contract in E-Commerce from Islamic Legal Perspective

10 Nov 2012

The Time of Concluding the Contract in E-Commerce from Islamic Legal Perspective
Abdulrahman Alzaagy Article The issue of when a contract between face-to-face parties is deemed to be concluded presents no legal difficulty to deal with in conventional dealings. However, the borderless nature of the Internet presents questions as to when a contract is deemed to be irrevocably formed and therefore raises questions regarding contract validity. As a general rule, a contract is formed when there is an exchange of…

Article

Review: Von Chatraum bis Cyberjihad: Muslimische Internetnutzung in lokaler und globaler Perspektive

10 Nov 2012

Review: Von Chatraum bis Cyberjihad: Muslimische Internetnutzung in lokaler und globaler Perspektive
Göran Larsson Book Review The book titled Von Chatraum bis Cyberjihad: Muslimische Internetnutzung in lokaler und globaler Perspektive, edited by Matthias BrĂŒckner and Johanna Pink, focuses on different aspects of the Islamic and Muslim presence on the Internet. It is divided into three subsections. The first focuses on Internet use in the Islamic world, the second on trans-locality and the Internet, and the third on global Islam.

Book Review

Al Jazeera’s Framing of Social Media During the Arab Spring

10 May 2012

Al Jazeera’s Framing of Social Media During the Arab Spring
Heidi A. Campbell, Diana Hawk Article This study investigates how Al Jazeera framed social media in relation to the revolutions and protests of the “Arab Spring” within its broadcast media coverage. A content analysis of Arabic language broadcasts appearing from January 25th through February 18th 2011, covering the protests in Tahrir Square, was conducted using the Broadcast Monitoring System (BMS) and Arab Spring Archive. Through this analysis we see a number…

Article

Remixing the Spring!: Connective leadership and read-write practices in the 2011 Arab uprisings

10 May 2012

Remixing the Spring!: Connective leadership and read-write practices in the 2011 Arab uprisings
Donatella Della Ratta, Augusto Valeriani Article This article discusses the connections between the unfolding of the 2011 Arab uprisings and the “culture of the net”. Being far from overestimating the role that Internet has played in the uprisings, we propose to look at it not as an ensemble of tools, applications and technologies; but as a specific set of values, behaviors, skills and strategies that define the cultural dimension of the…

Article

Review: The Digital Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Information Technology and Political Islam

10 May 2012

Review: The Digital Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Information Technology and Political Islam
Jon W. Anderson Book Review Howard's book The Digital Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy focuses on the relation between ITCs and civil society and democracy in the Muslim world. It assembled a database of indicators (for Internet availability, access, policy, ownership, structures and uses) cross-referenced to common standard measures of democratization and development for 75 countries with substantial Muslim populations.

Book Review