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- Volume 1, Issue 2, 2008
Journal of Arab & Muslim Media Research - Volume 1, Issue 2, 2008
Volume 1, Issue 2, 2008
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Everyday resistance on the internet: the Palestinian context
More LessA political assessment related to the internet portrays how Palestinian political agency transcends into virtual reality. This article offers an insight into the increasing role of the internet for Palestinians in the diaspora and studies the effects of these practices within the context of occupation and exile. Online political activism fills an important gap for what is absent offline. Through multi-sited fieldwork (Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan) this research demonstrates how the internet gave birth to a Palestine in cyberspace and has altered the traditional tactics of activists. Online communication has strengthened social and political agency. It clearly evoked a new type of media activism an giving the permission to narrate: an important development considering the stereotyped portrayals of Palestinians trapped in either terrorists or victims. Fieldwork research conducted between 2001 and 2005 uncovered the dialectic impact of internet access/usage on the politics of resistance, specifically related to local/global political mobilization. The contradiction between online and offline political participation is tackled in this article with regards to a new amalgam of media activism which I term cyber intifada. Much attention is paid on the everyday manifestations of this agency, whether organizing a street candle vigil or lighting a virtual candle online; with these recollections this article therefore illustrates a view from within.
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A study of Egyptian and American young adult parasocial relationships with music video personae
Authors: Philip J Auter, Erica Ashton and Mohamed R SolimanApproximately 360 undergraduate students in the U.S. and Egypt were surveyed regarding their consumption of music videos, affinity for them, and perception of them as reality. Respondent's parasocial interaction with their favorite music video performers was also assessed. Results showed that Egyptian young adults consume significantly greater amounts of music videos than their American counterparts. A similar effect was noted with Muslims versus Christians. Furthermore, Egyptian students scored significantly higher on all other measures than their U.S. counterparts. Affinity was positively correlated with perceptions of reality, and consumption. PSI showed positive correlations with consumption on overall PSI, and subsets of identification with the favorite persona and interest in favorite persona. Limited correlations were also evident between PSI and affinity on overall PSI, and subsets of problem solving abilities, group identification and interaction, and identification with favorite persona. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.
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Winds of change in the Arab world: a comparative look at a political gratification and effects study of the Al-Jazeera satellite channel and Kuwaiti government television
Authors: Masoud A Abdulrahim, Ali Jamal al-Kandari and S. M. Mazharul HaqueA telephone survey was conducted of Kuwaiti citizens' preferences for two types of national news programmes. Of the 490 Kuwaiti respondents, about 82 viewed the Al-Jazeera satellite channel (JSC), a liberal television model that provides news and political programming, while 98 watched the news and political programmes on Kuwaiti Television (KTV), a government television model. Two factor analyses comparing gratifications sought and obtained from the two television models revealed that Kuwaitis were similarly gratified by both, but ranked importance and magnitude differently. While regression tests and partial correlations revealed that trust in the Kuwaiti government correlated with all gratifications obtained by watching KTV, they did not correlate with any of the gratifications obtained by viewing JSC. Political apathy was negatively predicted by the quality of the JSC's news coverage and by programme gratification, while it was positively predicted by the KTV's free provision of information. Endorsement of the establishment of political parties in Kuwait was predicted by the JSC's information gratification. The study concluded that the programming made available through the JSC might seriously provide the impetus for change in the Arab world.
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Media influence on the attitudes and knowledge of York adolescents towards Islam, Muslims, the Middle East and Arabs
Authors: A. A Brockett and P. D BairdThat the media is negative towards Islam, Muslims, the Middle East and Arabs was the view of the vast majority of 1,515 adolescents surveyed in York in 2004. When measured against the Attitudes towards Muslim Proximity Index (AMPI) the data showed a significant association between the media as their primary source of information and negative attitudes towards Muslims. But when measured against their level of knowledge of Islam, Muslims, the Middle East and Arabs the media had only a very slight association, and none when measured against their responses to specific questions on their attitudes in this area. Indeed, when measured against their attitudes towards the British National Party (BNP), an organization known for its anti-Muslim stance, the data showed a relationship between watching the news on television and strong disagreement with BNP views. The conclusion is that what negative attitudes the adolescents had were not a direct result of media influence.
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Book Reviews
Authors: Makram Khoury-Machool and Bader S. M al-SaudModern Arab Journalism: Problems and Perspectives, Noha Mellor, (2007) Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 242 pp., ISBN 9780748634118 (pbk), Price: 17.99
The Internet in the Arab World: Egypt and Beyond, Rasha A. Abdulla, (2007) New York: Peter Lang, 175 pp., ISBNs 1526-3169, 978-0-8204-8673-4 (hardcover) 33.
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