Overview

This book sheds light on the growing phenomenon of cyberactivism in the Arab world, with a special focus on the Egyptian political blogosphere and its role in paving the way to democratization and socio-political change in Egypt, which culminated in Egypt's historical popular revolution.

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9781137543561

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Reviews

[The authors] bring to bear both a deep theoretical understanding and compelling qualitative research to reveal how Egyptian bloggers helped sow the seeds for Egypt's January 25 Revolution. They provide a fascinating analysis of how online media venues shifted from being an authoritarian regime's 'safety valve' to becoming sites of resistance, empowerment and mobilization for the Egyptian people. Attending carefully to the subtle interplay of online activism and 'offline' social and political conditions, the authors shed genuine light on the meaning of, and prospects for, both cyberactivism and civic engagement more generally. Their book is all the more exciting because the five influential bloggers on whom they focus - four men and one woman - while united in heroic criticism of the Egyptian government, nonetheless differ considerably in background, style, and ideology. This book thus exposes a variety and vibrancy in the Egyptian public sphere with which many Western readers will simply be unfamiliar. - Peter M. Shane, co-author of Connecting Democracy: Online Consultation and the Flow of Political Communication [This book] advances our understanding of how modern political communication really works, especially in media systems where the first openings for debating public policy options are happening over digital media. - Philip N. Howard, Professor, University of Washington This important book shatters the simplistic characterizations of social media in the Arab Spring, providing a nuanced look at the vital role at the Egyptian bloggers - hybrid cyber-activists/journalists - who paved the way for the revolt. - Lawrence Pintak, author, The New Arab Journalist

[The authors] bring to bear both a deep theoretical understanding and compelling qualitative research to reveal how Egyptian bloggers helped sow the seeds for Egypt's January 25 Revolution. They provide a fascinating analysis of how online media venues shifted from being an authoritarian regime's 'safety valve' to becoming sites of resistance, empowerment and mobilization for the Egyptian people. Attending carefully to the subtle interplay of online activism and 'offline' social and political conditions, the authors shed genuine light on the meaning of, and prospects for, both cyberactivism and civic engagement more generally. Their book is all the more exciting because the five influential bloggers on whom they focus four men and one woman while united in heroic criticism of the Egyptian government, nonetheless differ considerably in background, style, and ideology. This book thus exposes a variety and vibrancy in the Egyptian public sphere with which many Western readers will simply be unfamiliar. - Peter M. Shane, co-author of Connecting Democracy: Online Consultation and the Flow of Political Communication [This book] advances our understanding of how modern political communication really works, especially in media systems where the first openings for debating public policy options are happening over digital media. - Philip N. Howard, Professor, University of Washington This important book shatters the simplistic characterizations of social media in the Arab Spring, providing a nuanced look at the vital role at the Egyptian bloggers hybrid cyber-activists/journalists who paved the way for the revolt. - Lawrence Pintak, author, The New Arab Journalist

Author Information

Mohammed el-Nawawy is professor of International Communication and Middle Eastern Studies in the Department of Political Science and Sociology at Queens University of Charlotte, USA. He is the author or coauthor of a number of books, including Islam dot Com: Contemporary Islamic Discourses in Cyberspace and Al-Jazeera: The story of the network that is rattling governments and redefining modern journalism. He is the founding and senior editor of the Journal of Middle East Media and serves on the editorial boards of several related journals. He is also a board member on the Arab-U.S. Association for Communication Educators. Sahar Khamis is associate professor in the Department of Communication in the Department of Maryland, College Park, USA. She is the former Head of the Mass Communication and Information Science Department in Qatar University. She is the co-author of Islam Dot Com: Contemporary Islamic Discourses in Cyberspace and has contributed chapters to several books including Women and Media in the Middle East: Power Through Self-Expression and New Media and the New Middle East. She is the recipient of a number of prestigious academic and professional awards and serves on several editorial boards for journals relating to Middle East media studies. />

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