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101. A Mediatised Conflict: The Mediatisation of Palestinian Split in Pan-Arab Transnational Satellite TV Journalism

Author:
Hussein Alahmad
Publication Date:
12-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Turkish Journal of Middle Eastern Studies
Institution:
Sakarya University (SAU)
Abstract:
This paper explores the behind the scenes interplay between regional and Palestinian political actors through pan-Arab transnational satellite TV (PASTV) news media, during the Palestinian internal conflict sparked in 2007 between Fatah and Hamas. Primary focus is on the influential role played by PASTV journalism in shaping Palestinian political decision-making process during this interplay. The interplay between politics and news media forms the core discussion in the theory of ‘mediatisation’, which -informs the theoretical framework in this paper, also refers to such interplay as a struggle between ‘political logic’ and ‘news media logic’. Such a struggle reflects the difference between "neutral" and "participant" journalism, and how that might influence political processes and political culture. The paper examines, from an informant’s perspective, how such transnational political communication took place, also the aims each political player attempted to achieve through the mediated reality shaped in PASTV journalism. The paper demonstrates with evidence how the role played by PASTV journalism was not an accidental occurrence, but an extension of their regional financers’ interests in the conflict. While trying to reinforce the political clout of their Palestinian ally and maximize public sympathy towards his position, the exacerbation and perpetuation of the split become consequences.
Topic:
Media, News Analysis, Conflict, Journalism, and Palestinians
Political Geography:
Middle East and Palestine

102. Digital Activism and Authoritarian Adaptation in the Middle East

Author:
Larry Diamond, Eileen Donahoe, Ahmed Shaheed, Benjamin Greenacre, James Shires, Alexei Abrahams, Joshua Tucker, Xiao Qiang, Marwa Fatafta, Andrew Leber, Alexei Abrahams, Marc Owen Jones, Afef Abroughi, Mohamed Najem, Mahsa Alimardani, Mona Elswah, Alexandra A. Siegel, H. Akin Unver, Ahmet Kurnaz, Anita Gohdes, and Zachary Steinert-Threlkeld
Publication Date:
08-2021
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS)
Abstract:
The Project on Middle East Political Science partnered with Stanford University’s Center for Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law and its Global Digital Policy Incubator for an innovative two week online seminar to explore the issues surrounding digital activism and authoritarianism. This workshop was built upon more than a decade of our collaboration on issues related to the internet and politics in the Middle East, beginning in 2011 with a series of workshops in the “Blogs and Bullets” project supported by the United States Institute for Peace and the PeaceTech Lab. This new collaboration brought together more than a dozen scholars and practitioners with deep experience in digital policy and activism, some focused on the Middle East and others offering a global and comparative perspective. POMEPS STUDIES 43 collects essays from that workshop, shaped by two weeks of public and private discussion.
Topic:
Security, Civil War, Government, Human Rights, Science and Technology, Infrastructure, Authoritarianism, Political Activism, Democracy, Media, Inequality, Social Media, Surveillance, Borders, Digital Culture, and Cyberspace
Political Geography:
Russia, China, Middle East, and North Africa

103. Scope of Media Advocacy During COVID-19: A Selected Case Study in Kolkata

Author:
Rajesh Das and Ipsita Banerjee
Publication Date:
09-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Liberty and International Affairs
Institution:
Institute for Research and European Studies (IRES)
Abstract:
The spread of the Covid-19 has presented an unparalleled challenge for media management as well as for the media content. The pattern of daily life changed due to the excessive use of media. India, as a nation has been in the third position worldwide, many deaths during a pandemic are concerned. Kolkata being one of the metro cities of the country has not been exempted. The regional media content perceived a knowledge gap with the highest circulated national daily of the country. The changed media content, and audience perception towards the change, and the need for media advocacy during any health crisis in general and Covid-19 in particular, is studied in this paper using a mixed approach of both quantitative and qualitative. The discourse analysis of the newspapers in a constructed week format, representing a six months study during the pandemic, and the primary data from the audience suggested the behavior change and attitude formation through media, in this unique study.
Topic:
Media, Public Health, Pandemic, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
India and Asia

104. The Role of Media in Peacebuilding in Iraq after ISIS

Author:
Araz Ramazan Ahmad
Publication Date:
09-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Liberty and International Affairs
Institution:
Institute for Research and European Studies (IRES)
Abstract:
The victory over the territorial rule of the so-called Islamic State provides an opportunity for the government of Iraq to restore its state institutions and reassert its authority. Can the Iraqi leadership step beyond cycles of failure in this transition to tackle the systemic issues that sustain state weakness and promote the emergence of groups like ISIS? This paper aims to enlighten the challenges faced by Iraq after ISIS for the restoration of peace between minorities and religious groups, and coexistence after the myth, so that conflicts are going on between minorities and religious groups, particularly in Mosul and other cities under the control of ISIS, the state could not reconcile the displaced people. Correspondingly, this paper intends the focus and role of local, regional, and international media in the process of peacebuilding and coexistence in Iraq after ISIS.
Topic:
Terrorism, Peacekeeping, Counter-terrorism, Media, ISIS, and State Building
Political Geography:
Iraq and Middle East

105. New Media, Same Libya?

Author:
Biancamaria Vallortigara
Publication Date:
04-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies
Abstract:
In this issue of Beehive, Biancamaria Vallortigara investigates the impact of social media on Libyan society and the role of disinformation in the current crisis. Just a little over 10 years ago, when a wave of mass protests started to spread through the Middle East, the world observed intrigued the role played by the modern information and communication technologies (ICT): the “Arab Spring” has shown how social media networks facilitated the development of popular protests within a region, and the spread of revolutionary ideas from one country to another.
Topic:
Media, Internet, Social Media, and Disinformation
Political Geography:
Libya and North Africa

106. Framing what's breaking: Empirical analysis of Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya Twitter coverage of the Gaza-Israel conflict

Author:
Tala Majzoub
Publication Date:
12-2021
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Arab Reform Initiative (ARI)
Abstract:
The role of social media’s fast coverage is ever more important in shaping grander narrative and exposing state bias. Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya, both state-sponsored media, are emblematic of how these narratives are formed in the MENA region. This paper analyzes and compares the content of tweets from the official Twitter breaking news accounts of Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya in order to observe the narratives and better identify the bias. Doing so, it aims to expose the tight link between the framing of breaking news and the changing political dynamics in the region.
Topic:
Mass Media, Territorial Disputes, Media, Social Media, and Conflict
Political Geography:
Middle East, Israel, Palestine, and Gaza

107. Zimbabwe media policy briefing

Author:
Sikhululekile Mashingaidze and Stephen Buchanan-Clarke
Publication Date:
10-2021
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Good Governance Africa (GGA)
Abstract:
The 2013 Zimbabwean Constitution’s well-articulated provisions for media freedom are in stark contrast to the fragility of the country’s current media landscape, 41 years after the attainment of independence. The Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) is a constitutional body mandated with functions that include the duty to uphold, promote and develop media freedom, enforce good practices and ethics, as well as fair competition and diversity. However, that the ZMC chairperson and its eight other members are presidential appointees poses a challenge for ZMC’s operational independence. The 2013 Constitution’s Part 5. Section 248. Part 1a) notes that a chairperson is ‘…appointed by the President after consultation with the Committee on Standing rules and orders;’ and Part b cites eight other members appointed by the President from a list of 12 nominees submitted by the same committee. This is a structural problem within the Constitution itself, as it enables disproportionate executive influence and curtails the commission’s independence in its primary mandate to uphold, promote and develop freedom of the media. Sections 61 and 62 of the Constitution, however, outline ordinary citizens’ and journalists’ rights to freedom of expression, freedom of the media and the right of access to information. Although subject to restrictions in contexts of defence, public security, or professional confidentiality, these freedoms include citizens’ right of access to information for public accountability and stipulate journalists’ right to protection of the confidentiality of their sources of information. The Constitution further specifies the freedom of all state-owned media to independently determine the editorial content of its broadcasts, be impartial and afford fair opportunity for the representation of divergent views and dissenting opinions.
Topic:
Governance, Media, Constitution, and Journalism
Political Geography:
Zimbabwe and Africa

108. Framing Violence: US and Chinese State-Funded News Outlets during the Hong Kong Protests

Author:
Hanmin Kim
Publication Date:
06-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Pacific Forum
Abstract:
State-funded news media outlets and the ways in which they convey the messages of government and government-affiliated officials represent an essential but under-emphasized area of study in the realm of international diplomacy. Through a case study of the Hong Kong protests of 2019, this paper draws on theories from journalism and public diplomacy to analyze articles by state-funded media covering the unrest. This paper argues that the state-funded news outlets of the US and China used the same frame—violence and conflict—but approached the Hong Kong protests differently. Using this frame, state media outlets made themselves channels for government officials during the US-China rivalry, but made different arguments regarding the violence that occurred there. While US government-funded media focused on the violence of the Hong Kong Police Force as a danger to the territory’s democracy, Chinese state media emphasized the violence of the Hong Kong protestors as a danger to national security.
Topic:
Government, Communications, Media, Protests, and Journalism
Political Geography:
United States, China, and Hong Kong

109. The Lie Detector and the Stories about It: Narrative of the Fight against Organised Crime in the Function of Capturing the State

Author:
Marija Pavlovic, Bojan Elek, and Milos Jovanovic
Publication Date:
03-2021
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP)
Abstract:
How the narrative of the fight against organised crime is used to capture the state? Find out in the latest BCSP analysis. The objective of this report is to analyze the narrative of the fight against organised crime, i.e., the story the authorities are offering the public concerning this topic, for the purpose of establishing how it is used to capture the state. More precisely, the analysis attempts to explain how the polygraph was abused during the declared war on mafia to suspend judicial institutions, ‘cleanse’ some in the eyes of the public or criminalise others outside the statutory criminal procedure, and to identify the consequences of this approach to fighting organised crime. The so-called war on mafia officially began on 19 October 2020, when the President of Serbia used his Instagram profile to announce the final showdown between the state and organised crime. Set forth after a series of unsolved murders that had taken place on the streets of Serbian cities – characterised by experts mostly as mafia-style terminations – it initially looked like a marketing move that preceded the constitution of a new Government. Such understanding was supported by the fact that this was not the first time that government officials declared war on organised criminal groups. Former Minister of the Interior [MoI] declared a similar war almost four years earlier, under similar circumstances. One hero particularly stood out in this war. It was the lie detector, the omnipotent polygraph, used extensively in the previous months as the supreme arbiter of truth. Instead of lengthy court proceedings, complex investigations and obtaining evidence acceptable to the court, the polygraph was used by the highest state officials as a simple tool to directly prove to the citizens whether someone was telling the truth or lying, and to unmistakably determine guilt or innocence. Trials were replaced by media performances involving debates on who passed the lie detector test and who refused to take it, while politicians kept offering to be subjected to it or calling each other out for not doing the same thing, all in the name of the alleged fight against organised crime.
Topic:
Media, Rule of Law, Police, Judiciary, and Organized Crime
Political Geography:
Europe and Serbia

110. Don’t Talk to Me about Democracy while I’m Guarding Kosovo – analysis of narratives used to capture the state

Author:
Maja Bjelos and Bojan Elek
Publication Date:
05-2021
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP)
Abstract:
Based on an analysis of top officials’ speeches, this text will show how officially promoted narratives about Kosovo serve to capture the state. This analysis has shown the mechanism by which the Serbian authorities, by controlling and strategically using narratives on resolving the Kosovo dispute, manage to increase their own discretionary powers while simultaneously abolishing control mechanisms. In other words, under the pretext of resolving the Kosovo issue, the separation of powers and democratic decision-making are being abolished, leading to an even greater level of state capture. The analysis is divided into five thematic units. The first chapter shows how the executive power instrumentalises Kosovo and, using the media, creates a false impression in the public that, when it comes to Serbia’s membership in the European Union, Kosovo is more important than the rule of law, thus putting a false premise before the citizens: that their choices are either Kosovo or a future governed by the rule of law. The second part of the analysis shows how the government in Belgrade traded stability for democracy and ensured the tacit consent of the West in preserving political stability in Serbia for the purpose of reaching a final agreement with Pristina. The third and fourth parts point to the absence of real social dialogue on Kosovo, and reveal how the President of Serbia and a narrow circle of his associates strive to increase their discretionary power to decide on Kosovo beyond the Constitution and democratic institutions, all under the pretext of protecting national interests. Finally, in the last part, the authors will provide additional evidence for understanding why citizens of Serbia cannot come to terms with the loss of state control over Kosovo, that is, why the opinion of the majority of Serbian citizens – that Kosovo should not be recognised – is still relevant.
Topic:
Security, Media, Leadership, State Building, and State Capture
Political Geography:
Europe and Serbia