Reporting in the MENA Region: Cyber Engagement and Pan-Arab Social Media

Mohammad Ayish; Noha Mellor

doi:10.5771/9781442237636

Summary

In this consideration of media practice in the Arab region, Mohammad Ayish and Noha Mellor explore the changing status and function of journalists and journalism given the new realities of reporting in the digital age.

The authors draw on focus group discussions, interviews, and social media traffic surveys to examine how social and new media have been integrated into Arab and pan-Arab newsroom operations and harnessed to enhance engagement with an empowered audience. Efforts to engage with audiences in social space, Ayish and Mellor argue, are part of a broad and long-waged information war aimed at winning hearts and minds in the MENA region. Social platforms present excellent opportunities to engage with audiences, but the extent to which such opportunities can be realized are hamstrung by limits on free expression and online access—and vary significantly from country to country and from media channel to media channel. Overall, Reporting in the MENA Region paints a comprehensive and contemporary picture of how today’s Arab journalists perceive and use digital media.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2015
ISBN-Print: 978-1-4422-3762-9
ISBN-Online: 978-1-4422-3763-6
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 182
Product type: Book Titles

1. Contents No access
Introduction No access Pages 1 - 8
Ch01. Arab Journalism No access Pages 9 - 30
Ch02. Information and Communications Transitions in the MENA Region No access Pages 31 - 50
Ch03. Digital Transitions No access Pages 51 - 66
Ch04. Social Media Traffic Trends No access Pages 67 - 84
Ch05. How Journalists Use Social Media No access Pages 85 - 102
Ch06. Audience Engagement No access Pages 103 - 120
Ch07. Social Media in Newsrooms No access Pages 121 - 138
Ch08. Citizen Journalists versus Traditional Gatekeepers No access Pages 139 - 156
Conclusions No access Pages 157 - 166
References No access Pages 167 - 178
Index No access Pages 179 - 182