Abstract The article deciphers the symbolic deconstruction of the Israeli Indignant Protest (2011–2012) on behalf of the local cultural simulacrum—based on Zionist narratives of Judaism. It presents, through the subjective eye of a participant observer, the symbolic paradigm by which the protest opened its way through street poetry’s contemporary representation, …
Read More »Creative Insurgency and the Celebrity President: Politics and Popular Culture from the Arab Spring to the White House
Read an excerpt of Marwan Kraidy's latest book The Naked Blogger of Cairo here. On Tuesday, December 6, 2016, a strange sight appeared on Rabin Square in Tel Aviv. Close to city hall, passersby saw a four-meter high gilded statue of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a suit, legs firmly planted …
Read More »The Birth and Death of 25TV: Innovation in Post-Revolution Egyptian TV News Formats
Abstract This case study highlights an experiment that aimed to disrupt traditional television news production and presentation models in post-revolution Egypt. It is a snapshot of a brief moment in Egyptian television history when an attempt was made at innovating news production and content, but much like the Egyptian revolution, …
Read More »Stickers Against Libya’s Grand Mufti Provoke Social Media Ire
August 15, 2016—Activists expressed anger on social media today in response to stickers spread throughout Tripoli slandering Libya's Grand Mufti, Sheikh Sadiq al-Gharyani. The stickers appeared under the cover of dark late last night. Posts defending the Mufti flooded Facebook with the hashtag "Sheikh Sadiq Al-Gharyani represents me."
Read More »Syrian Children Hold Up Pokémon Pleading for People to Find Them
August 9, 2016—The Revolutionary Forces of Syria Media Office released an emotional photo series on social media today. The photo series aims to garner the attention of fans of the newest gaming craze, Pokémon Go.
Read More »Libya’s Ministry of Education Tries to Ban Social Media After Exams Leaked
July 18, 2016—Amidst a leaked exams crisis, Libya's Ministry of Education is seeking to block social media sites for the duration of the secondary school exams.
Read More »Coup Bid in Turkey Reported Live on Social Media Despite Blockages
July 16, 2016—Despite restricted access to social media sites, Turkey’s attempted military coup exploded across Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube late last night.
Read More »BOOK REVIEW | Visual Propaganda and Extremism in the Online Environment
Ronnie Close, an academic and assistant professor at the American University in Cairo, welcomes the volume into the discourse on visual content. He contextualizes the scholarly work by providing information on related fields, and he assesses the compilation's overall cohesion.
Read More »Social Media Users Protest Detention of Members of a Young Egyptian Satirical Group
May 12, 2016—A social media campaign of selfies went viral yesterday in response to the recent prosecutorial decision to detain members of the group Street Children for 15 days. These activists and social media users called for the Street Children’s freedom by posting personal selfies with the Arabic hashtag, “Does the phone camera shake/scare you?”
Read More »PODCAST | We are all…NETWORKED.
Dr. Rasha Abdulla, associate professor in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at the American University in Cairo speaks with us about her work on big data, social media and the Egyptian Revolution. Together with a group of scholars from the University of Amsterdam, Dr. Abdulla conducted big data research using the contents of the “We Are All Khaled Said” Facebook page. Dr. Abdulla was lead on an article investigating the role of the page as a venue for lessons in democratic participation.
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