Research Abstracts (English)

Samples of Research Abstracts in English

Social Networking Platforms as a virtual Public Sphere in the Arab World

Saddek Rabah. Associate Professor,

College of Communication, University of Sharjah, UAE

Abstract

Social networking platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, NaqaTube, MySpace, hi5, Friendster, LinkedIn, etc. have witnessed an exponential growth rate. Their proliferation has a potential to transform the way people come together and interact with each other. They appeal to millions of enthusiastic users and enable genuine ideas and new forms of information and knowledge to flow into the public sphere, and thus could contribute to the reorganization and revitalization of social practices.

Traditional public sphere in the Arab world has historically been subjected to strict governmental scrutiny and control, and citizens have almost been deprived of their autonomy and freedom of expression. Many reasons make social networking platforms an attractive virtual public sphere, including, but not limited to, reasonable cost, easiness and speed of access, participatory and interactivity features, and in particular the possibility for citizens to debate crucial questions of all kinds, and generally interact with each other in ways not previously possible. This study explores the potential of social networking platforms in the Arab world to constitute a viable virtual public sphere that could empower citizens to transcend the different kind of paternalism they have been experiencing since many decades. It draws on examples from some Arab countries where social networking platforms are intelligently used to revitalize the political and social life in significant ways.

Key words: social networking, platforms, virtual public sphere, Arab world, Facebook, Twitter.

Blogs and Institutional Media: an exploratory Study of Differences and Similarities

Saddek Rabah, Ph. D.

College of Communication

University of Sharjah, UAE

Abstract

Based on media perspective, blogs can be considered as a new category of news. Despite the fact that most blogs do not claim to be journalistic in the sense shared by traditional media, when bloggers invest in the media arena, some of their achievements can constitute a challenge to the conventional professional standards, i.e. interaction with the blogospphere, prevalence of transparency in the reporting process, and participatory news production and dissemination. By stimulating to reconsider the traditional understanding of what Media is, blogs have empowered the marginalized voices that have been expecting a paradigm shift in Media in the Internet era. With the purpose of contributing to the debates on the implications of blogs on media and render it more productive and systematic, we propose a categorization of journalistic blogs, ranging from the least to the most institutionalized in terms of their relationship to the established media. On one the hand, we find blogs created and supervised by the public outside media institutions, and at the other end, there are those that form a part of media contents and produced by professional journalists. We argue that, given the actual overwhelming global changes, blogs are to be considered as the most prominent symbol of the ongoing reshape of the relationship between citizens, media and journalists; a change that questions the basic pretentiousness of the conventional functions of institutional media.

Keywords: blogging, bloggers, citizen media, traditional media, professional journalists, active audience.

Online Newspapers in the Age of the Web 2.0

Abstract

If we go beyond the technical aspects of the Web 2.0, and we focus specifically on its interactive characteristics, we may say it represents not only a fundamental shift in the structure of the press institutions and its practices, but also a shift in the relationships that existed, previously, between the press and the audience. The Web 2.0 has enabled the newspapers to renovate their representations and practices of the profession, and opens to them new horizons either in terms of readership or advertising revenues. Parallel to that it also has empowered the user to transcend the passivity he has always been confined in, and has become a more active participant in the creation and generation of media contents even though this practice is somewhat different from one newspaper to another.

This paper investigates the actual trend and attitude of the online newspapers towards the Web 2.0, and focuses on identifying to what extent these newspapers have successfully adopted the features and mechanisms governing this web. It seeks to accomplish this endeavor through an investigative approach, coupled with some critical and interpretive views emanating from a bulk of research related to this question. The paper assumes that the online newspapers have not adopted the same position regarding the web 2.0. This position differs from one cultural space to another. Some actors prefer keeping on a tradition vision of the craft, while others, considered as the pioneers and the most innovative, accept to implement the considerable potentialities offered to them by Web 2.0.

Key words: Online Newspapers, Web 2.0, Press Institutions, Newspapers practices, interaction, cultural environment.

"Citizen Media": reverence vs. refutation attitudes

Abstract

Since the beginning of the 21^st century, the traditional media realm has undoubtedly witnessed deep transformations, resulting in the emergence of many alternative ways of telling the world, based on a model characterized by its interaction, sharing and collaboration where all participants enjoy "equal" positions rather than a one-way model favoring the unidirectedness of the communication. It is namely what we term "citizen media".

Drawing upon what precedes, this paper investigates, through an archeological/epistemological endeavor, the "concept" of "citizen media" and assesses its validity in light of the diverse discourses emanating from various social and cultural agents. It focuses on how this "concept" is revealed through the practices of its different proponents, its strengths and weaknesses, as well as the main criticisms it has to deal with. It goes on to explore to what extent "citizen /participatory media" are different from traditional media, to find out where they converge and where they diverge, as well as to determine whether they are complementary or antagonist in their mutual relations. And, finally, what will be the futuristic model of the media: predominance of the "citizen/participatory" model accompanied by the marginalization of the former model, or a more complementary or "hybrid" configuration wherein ancient and new practices may be combined to give birth to a new form of media realm.

Key words: "citizen media", traditional media, Internet, interaction, reverential discourses, critical insights.

The blogosphere: Emergence of a New Medium or New Collective Illusions?

Abstract

This working paper focuses precisely on the news-based blogs, e.g. the blogs adopting an approach similar to that of the traditional media. The blog, as a new medium, reveals the emergence of a new model of information dissemination, called participative, collaborative, or citizen journalism. Thus, the blogosphere is deemed to be, as expressed in many discourses, a redeeming outlet for the hegemony of the traditional media. The former often tends to ignore the citizen's really needed contents. Further more, it often misleads the citizens through the practicing of disinformation. Theses mediums may well create new independent spaces for interactive exchange, therefore offering the individuals the ability to dispose of many constraints, and to interact actively.

This paper aims to question the previous mentioned axiom which is shared by many internet users and even discourse producers. The main question is how this freedom of expression which is an integral part of the collective representation (e.g. the collective discourse spread out through the blogs themselves) will rely on collective criteria that contradict it to reinforce the individual freedom. We will be concentrating on the issue that these collective representations shouldn't be viewed (considered) as an external risk threatening the collective democratic space, but rather as internal strains caused by space its self, wherein a lot of democracy representations are competing.

Key words: blog, blogosphere, collective representations, citizen journalism, freedom of expression.

Childhood, Media & Networked Society: Interaction vs. adversity

Abstract

The Apprehensive discourses often tend to overemphasize the negative effects the media might have on children, in particular TV. In doing so, they overlook the underlying reasons of this relationship, and by the same token, exclude rational insights with respect to this question.

In order to shed light on this kind of vision, first we have to bring into question the assumptions being featured to supplement this kind of discourse, and then we should proceed to closely scrutinize it, and therefore, be able to differentiate the rationality and fantasy part of the issue. More concretely, our focal point is to answer the following questions: Are the anxious writings on this theme an incentive to the institutional actors to intervene with the purpose of restricting the so-called effects on children? What are the chances of these top-down strategies to be successful? Are the traditional institutional acts, aiming at the protection of this social category, in harmony with the new stakes taking place in contexts characterized by the unprecedented growth of immateriality and expansion of the media, especially the new ones?

This paper investigates this problematic throughout the identification of boundaries, the articulation and interaction of various components. Although we don't pretend to capture all the aspects of this problematic, we will be focusing, at least, on three complementary dimensions: investigating the relationships between childhood and media; assessing the deployment of the networked society in the childhood's realm; clarifying the worthiness of media literacy in brining about a constructive and harmonized relation between the two entities. Even thought we are convinced of the unevenness of the resources available to both of them (media and childhood), we are also firmly persuaded that children are not a "puppet" that media can utilize at will, thus contradicting those discourses which celebrate the overwhelming effects paradigm.

Key words: childhood, Technical Media, Networked Society, interaction, Social networks.

The Integration of ICT in the Press Institutions

Abstract

The recent introduction of the new technologies of Information and communication has deeply impacted on the press corporations. Since the beginning of the 1980's, an important endeavor of modernization has been initiated. It consists in the systematic use of Computing and specifically the software of design and images digitization. In a second phase, starting in the middle of 1990's, the advent of the Internet not only has accelerated the technological modernization, but has particularly modified the press landscape with the emergence of the online editions.

The fundamental mutation taking place in the press corporations constitute a very interesting field of study which is favorable to a cross-analysis of different disciplines. Thus, these important changes represent a very fertile experimentation field either for the specialists of mass media studies or the economists and media managers. Even though the two approaches employ a radically different methodological tools, they yield many convergent and complementary results regarding the comprehension of the processes of change.

We focus the problematic of our analysis, notwithstanding very complex and rich by its potential ramifications, on two central questions: what are the consequences of the introduction and diffusion of the Internet on the press corporations? Do the digital networks change the nature of journalistic profession profoundly? In other words, taking into consideration that an increasing number of agents is involved actually in the new function of informational expertise without having been formed and trained in accordance with the academic and entrepreneurial model of traditional journalism, what kind of identity alteration will result from this mutation?

The architecture of our cross-reflection is organized, firstly, around the results provided by the mass media studies, and secondly by those produced in the field of economic sciences and management.