Reframing Political Communication and Media Practices in the Middle East and North Africa

by Dina Matar (Editor)

Overview

A decade on from the Arab uprisings, debates continue to reiterate exceptionalist discourses about the region and its peoples which tend to deny individual agency. They also neglect long collective histories of mediated political cultures that have emerged within colonial and post-colonial structures and outside peripheries of formal power and politics. This book problematizes the relationship between politics and communication in the Middle East and North Africa region, paying attention to the diversity of communicative forms and political practices outside formal institutions and structures while remaining conscious of the power dynamics within institutional practices. Examining political communication in Palestine, Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco, Iraq, Syria, Turkey,Tunisa and Iran, the book's chapters challenge Western-centric theories and methodologies that dominate the broad field of political communication by reframing the discussions to include the politics of the marginal or the peripheral, the informal, and the grassroots.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780755653836
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	06/26/2025
Series:	Political Communication and Media Practices in the Middle East and North Africa
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	248
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Dina Matar is a Professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, UK. She is the Chair of the SOAS Centre of Palestine Studies and the Centre for Global Media and Communication. She is Series Editor of the series Political Communication and Media Practices in the Middle East and North Africa, and SOAS Palestine Studies.
Dina Matar is a Professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, UK. She is the Chair of the SOAS Centre of Palestine Studies. She is Series Editor of the series Political Communication and Media Practices in the Middle East and North Africa, and SOAS Palestine Studies.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Problematizing political communication theory and praxis in the Middle East and North Africa: Towards de-colonizing the field , Dina Matar: 1-12
Chapter One: Complexity of Political Communication in Iran, Gholam Khiabany
Chapter Two: Reframing Political Communication: Palestinian storytelling, witnessing and remembering as politics in the margin, Dina Matar
Chapter Three: Cultural self-orientalism and its impact on Turkey's political communication: From Kemalism to Islamism – A theoretical discussion of the country's two '-isms, Dogan Taner
Chapter Four: Political Communication in the Arabian Gulf States in Transition- a GCC-Centered Continuity and Change Perspective, Mohamad Ayish
Chapter Five: Journalism and State Feminism in Morocco, Dounia Mahlouly
Chapter Six: Hate Speech as Political Communication in Lebanon, Zahera Harb
Chapter Seven: Rethinking journalism practices beyond Western-centrism, Jummar, an independent Iraqi media initiative, Aida Kaisy
Chapter Eight: The Dynamics of Gendered Socio-Political Activism in Pre- and Post-Revolutionary Egypt, Sahar Khamis and Amal Bakry
Chapter Nine: The New Tunisian Public Sphere: Navigating the Battlefield of Passions
Conclusion: Towards a Third Space/Voice
Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

Dina Matar has assembled an outstanding array of scholars whose chapters in this volume reflect and respect the diversity of political communication in the greater MENA region. The authors thoughtfully examine the region's distinctively non-Western media environments, making the book a valuable addition to the literature of evolving media practices.” —Philip Seib, Professor Emeritus of Journalism and Public Diplomacy, University of Southern California, author of The Al Jazeera Effect.

“There could hardly be a more important time for this collection to be published and its relevance will be felt for many years to come. This book not only reframes but also recasts what political communication means through the lens of the Middle East and North Africa region. With a clear emancipatory purpose, authors deftly take to task the field of political communication's for its "hierarchical, classist, capitalist, heteropatriarchal, elitist, imperialist, and westernized status quo". Stressing the importance of social and cultural history, the imperative of understanding war as political communications, and the necessity for scholarship to upend colonialism and its legacies, the book challenges and confronts complacency and complicity in our field and shows how it can be done otherwise. Crucial reading for everyone in the field of political communications and beyond.” —Natalie Fenton, Professor of Media and Communications, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK

“This collection is an essential guide to complex media landscapes across the Middle East and North Africa. The book contains deeply critical and historically contextualized accounts of diverse forms of political communications written by leading scholars. Its nine chapters focus on everything from precarious storytelling in Palestine to hate speech in Lebanon, and from new forms of activist journalism in Iraq to conflicting public spheres in Tunisia. It is required reading for anyone who sees media and culture both as instruments of state control and potential sites of resistance to imperialism and colonialism.” —Des Freedman, Professor of Media and Communications, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK

“In this extraordinarily urgent collection from Dina Matar, we finally have media and communication scholarship on the MENA region that has courageously moved from de-Westernisation to decolonisation in principles and praxes. With these incisive contributions, we have arrived at the confluence of critiques of both imperialism and capitalism.” —Adel Iskandar, Professor, Simon Fraser University, Canada

From the Publisher