Beyond Mainstream Media and Communication Perspectives on the Arab Uprisings

Hanan Badr,Lena-Maria Möller

doi:10.17645/mac.v9i4.5151

Abstract

This editorial argues for more research connecting media and communication as a discipline and the Arab Uprisings that goes beyond the mainstream techno-deterministic perceptions. The contributions in this thematic issue can be summarized around three central arguments: First, mainstream media, like TV and journalism, are central and relevant actors in the post-Arab Uprisings phase which have often been overlooked in previous literature. Second, marginalized actors are still engaged in asymmetric power struggles due to their vulnerable status, the precarious political economy, or a marginalized geographic location outside centralized polities. Finally, the third strand of argument is the innovative transnational geographic and chronological synapses that studying media and Arab Uprisings can bring. The editorial calls for more critical and interdisciplinary approaches that follow a region marked by inherent instability and uncertainty.

Highlights

Initial research on media and communication and the Arab Uprisings, a wave that quickly subdued in our discipline, highlighted the connection between media and mobilization, attributing digital media a cen‐ tral role in the public’s empowerment
We investigate what happened after the initial moment of mobilization
As we are writing this introductory editorial to our the‐ matic issue 10 years after the Arab Uprisings, the Arab region is still experiencing ripples of effect since the first uprising moment in 2010/2011: upcoming elections in Libya, upheavals in Sudan, and an ongoing civil war in Syria

Summary

Introduction

Initial research on media and communication and the Arab Uprisings, a wave that quickly subdued in our discipline, highlighted the connection between (social) media and mobilization, attributing digital media a cen‐ tral role in the public’s empowerment. Media have been crucial during the disruptive and self‐reflective processes in this turbulent decade of polit‐ ical, social, and cultural upheaval In this thematic issue, we investigate what happened after the initial moment of mobilization. The selected articles uncover several terrains of media interaction with politics, societies, and histories in the Arab coun‐ tries ranging from Tunisia, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, and Palestine They investigate regional, transnational consequences in neighboring non‐Arab countries such as Turkey. A critical perspective on the political econ‐ omy questions the precarity and complex interactions between political and professional agency in terms of voice (actors, issues, discourses) and modalities of voice (organizational models, values, and production value) Another contribution advances our understanding of how progressive media has engaged with, reconsidered, and re‐articulated voices amid a turbulent transforma‐ tion beyond the mobilization moment. Connecting the Syrians’ exposure to legacy media, social media, and interper‐ sonal communication and their feelings of uncertainty and anxiety shows the primacy of TV during the crisis (and establishes a relationship between exposure to this dominant legacy medium and the tendency of audiences who gain a sense of certainty from TV content and post more on social media.) This finding is tightly related to legacy media consumption, further signaling the role tra‐ ditional television still plays in people’s lives during uncer‐ tain times

Marginalized Struggles in Asymmetric Power Dynamics

Transnational Chronologic and Geographical Synapses

Conclusion

Conflict of Interests