Arab Digital Journalism (Disruptions)

By: Noha Mellor

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Synopsis: Responding to urgent calls to de-westernise Media and Journalism Studies and shed light on local agency, this book examines digital journalistic practices in the Arab region, exploring how Arab journalists understand their roles and how digital technologies in Arab newsrooms are used to influence public opinion. Drawing on tens of articles penned by Arab media professionals and scholars, supplemented with informal conversations with journalists, this book reviews the historical development of digital journalism in the region and individual journalists’ perceptions of this development. While technology has provided a new platform for citizens and powerful agents to exchange views, this text examines how it has simultaneously allowed Arab states and authorities to conduct surveillance on journalists, curtail the rise of citizen journalism, and maintain offline hierarchal forms of political, economic, and cultural powers. Mellor also explores how digital technology serves to cement Western hegemony of the information world order, with Arab media organisations and audiences judged to be mere recipients, rather than producers, of such information. Arab Digital Journalism offers an important contribution to the emerging field of digital journalism in the Global South and is a valuable resource for students and researchers interested in media, journalism, communication, and development studies.