This edited volume examines the current challenges to media freedom and democratisation in the Middle East. The book revisits the relationship between media consumption and activism in the region, providing thorough analyses on the appropriation of social media for political engagement. Since the outburst and spread of what was known as the ‘Arab Uprisings’ in 2010, the political and media landscapes in the Middle East region have dramatically changed. The initial hope for democratic change and governance quality improvements has faded, as several regimes in the Middle East have strengthened their repressive tactics toward voices deemed critical of governments’ practices, including journalists, bloggers, and activists. The crumbling Arab media scene has also reached an abysmal low, with little to no independence, and public perception of basic freedoms in the region has significantly dropped, as has trust in media and government institutions. This book examines current challenges to media freedom, political participation, and democratisation in the region while reassessing the dynamic relationship between media use and political engagement, amidst a complex political environment accompanied by a rapidly changing digital media landscape. This book’s relevance will appeal to varied audiences, such as scholars and students of journalism, communication, political science, and Middle Eastern studies. It will also prove to be an invaluable resource for organisations dedicated to the research of political communication, media freedom, and use patterns of nontraditional, or new, media.

In the post-Cold War, post-Gulf War political environment of the Middle East, a debate about democracy and pluralism has begun. In this work, Heather Deegan challenges the view that political reform is unsustainable in the region, and examines the moves towards democratization which have recently taken place. She discusses individual countries on the basis of their political structures: monarchical, authoritarian, theocratic, confessional and multiparty. She considers factors in the democratizing process such as the institution of political parties, the re-introduction of elections, citizenship with associated rights and responsibilities and the role of Islam. Democracy is not confined solely to a liberal democratic model although political change and greater levels of participation may be viewed as steps paving the way for a fuller democratization in a liberal democratic sense. The author identifies certain constraints which tended to undermine political advances in the past: population mobility, communal division and the impact of the Cold War. She places the possibilities for political reform in the wider context of the Third World in order to assess the degree to which prospects for democracy in the Middle East correspond with general conclusions about democratization in the developing world.

By using an analytical and comparative approach, this book explicitly shows how the censorial culture grew as the media developed in this region. This book also shows the possibility for emerging models of media in the Middle East that highlight a direction toward democracy and the application of laws and regulations.

In order to better understand how the world viewed the US 2016 presidential election, the issues that mattered around the world, and how nations made sense of how their media systems constructed presentations of the presidential election, Robert S. Hinck, Skye C. Cooley, and Randolph Kluver examine global news narratives during the campaign and immediately afterwards. Analyzing 1,578 news stories from 62 sources within three regional media ecologies in China, Russia, and the Middle East, Hinck, Cooley, and Kluver demonstrate how the US election was incorporated into narrative constructions of the global order. They establish that the narratives told about the US election through national and regional media provide insights into how foreign nations construct US democracy, and reflect local understandings regarding the issues, and impacts, of US policy towards those nations. Avoiding jargon-laden prose, Global Media and Strategic Narratives of Contested Democracy is as accessible as it is wide-ranging. Its empirical detail will expand readers’ understanding of soft power as narrative articulations of foreign nation’s policies, values, and beliefs within localized media systems. Communication/media studies students, as well as political scientists whose studies includes media and global politics, will welcome its publication.

In 2011, the international community watched as citizens mobilized through the Internet and digital media to topple three of the world's most entrenched dictators: Ben Ali in Tunisia, Mubarak in Egypt, and Qaddafi in Libya. This book examines not only the unexpected evolution of events during the Arab Spring, but the longer history of desperate-and creative-digital activism through the Arab world.

As Egypt retreats from its newly elected government and Syria moves from one crisis to another, this book's reflection on the Arab Spring could not be more timely. Monshipouri's account of the role of emotion, solidarity, and online activism is informed by several trips to the region that continue to this day. Modern technologies and social media, organization on the ground, and challenges to shaping a country's political future after conflict are all essential subjects discussed in this important book, told in an engaging and accessible narrative.

This book examines the evolution of national Arab media and its interplay with political change, particularly in emerging democracies in the context of the Arab uprisings. Investigated from a journalistic perspective, this research addresses the role played by traditional national media in consolidating emerging democracies or in exacerbating their fragility within new political contexts. Also analyzed are the ways journalists report about politics and transformations of these media industries, drawing on the international experiences of media in transitional societies. This study builds on a field investigation led by the author and conducted within the project “Arab Revolutions: Media Revolutions,” covering Libya, Tunisia, and Egypt.