Six years before the Egyptian revolution of January 2011, many young Egyptians had resorted to blogging as a means of self-expression and literary creativity. This resulted in the emergence of a new literary genre: the autofictional blog. Such blogs are explored here as forms of digital literature, combining literary analysis and interviews with the authors. The blogs analysed give readers a glimpse into the daily lives, feelings and aspirations of the Egyptian youth who have pushed the country towards a cultural and political revolution. The narratives are also indicative of significant aesthetic and political developments taking place in Arabic literature and culture.
Six years before the Egyptian revolution of January 2011, many young Egyptians had resorted to blogging as a means of self-expression and literary creativity. Such blogs are explored here as forms of digital literature, combining literary analysis and interviews with the authors.
Unlike previous media-analytic research, Sarah Jurkiewicz's anthropological study understands blogging as a social field and a domain of practice. This approach underlines the significance of blogging in practitioners' daily lives and for their self-understanding. In this context, the notion of publicness enables a consideration of publics not as static 'spheres' that actors merely enter, but as produced and constituted by social practices. The vibrant media landscape of Beirut serves as a selection of samples for an ethnographic exploration of blogging.
The Ark of the Covenant in Its Egyptian Context: An Illustrated Journey invites readers on a journey of discovery that will change the way they view the Ark of the Covenant forever! Although much has been written about the Ark of the Covenant, few authors engage the wealth of information available that pertains to Egyptian material culture. The Ark of the Covenant in Its Egyptian Context: An Illustrated Journey is the first book to explore the complex history of sacred ritual furniture in Egypt that predated the ark by hundreds of years. Within Egyptian culture, over four hundred examples of ritual furniture exist that shed light on the design and appearance of the ark. These examples form patterns that provide context for the Israelites' understanding of the ark at the time of its construction. That understanding would have been obvious to the Israelites of the time, but has since become obscured over the millennia. This groundbreaking book is the first to connect the Ark of the Covenant with the archaeology and chronology of ancient Egypt, and it does so in an accessible way with straightforward text and dozens of full-color photographs and graphics. Key points and features: A groundbreaking work of scholarship--the first of its kind to connect the Ark of the Covenant with its ancient Egyptian context.High-level scholarship is paired with straightforward text, making it an accessible volume for students and curious laypeople, as well as experts in the field.Includes dozens of full-color photographs and graphics depicting ancient Egyptian artifacts and art.Durable hardcover is built to withstand heavy use in classrooms and libraries.
This compelling book explores how Egyptian bloggers used citizen journalism and cyberactivism to chip away at the state’s monopoly on information and recalibrate the power dynamics between an authoritarian regime and its citizens. When the Arab uprisings broke out in early 2011 and ousted entrenched leaders across the region, social media and the Internet were widely credited with playing a role, particularly when the Egyptian government shut down the Internet and mobile phone networks in an attempt to stave off the unrest there. But what these reports missed were the years of grassroots organizing, digital activism, and political awareness-raising that laid the groundwork for this revolutionary change. Radsch argues that Egyptian bloggers created new social movements using blogging and social media, often at significant personal risk, so that less than a decade after the information revolution came to Egypt they successfully mobilized the overthrow of the state and its president.
The book presents high-quality research papers presented at the 1st AUE International research conference, AUEIRC 2017, organized by the American University in the Emirates, held on November 15th-16th, 2017 in Dubai. The book is broadly divided into three sections: Media and Smart Cities, Creative Technologies and Innovation, and Security Risks and Strategic Challenges. The areas covered under these sections are cyber-psychology and digital forensics, cloud RAN architecture, networking functions virtualization, e-Governance and IoT semantic interoperability, ERP security, web-based application and problem-solving skills, smart technologies and advertising, smart technologies for smart cities, smart adaptable navigation systems, turbo codes for security key generation, technology advanced student learning and mobile devices, big data security and privacy, multi-channel buffer enabled technique, physiological signal acquisition in electro-oculography, blockchain and donation-based crowdfunding, smart city and framework development approach, news channel and media education, UAE foreign policy, China-GCC relations, diplomacy in the Internet age, intelligent cyber-security strategies, industry securities and strategic challenges, hybrid alliances and corporate security, security and privacy in smart cities, human computer interaction and e-learning solution, complexity of smart cities governance. The papers included in this book present insightful information on the most recent and relevant research, theories and practices in the field, which aim for a sustainable future.
Bloggers around the world produce material for local, national and international audiences, yet they are developing in ways that are distinct from the U.S. model. Through case studies of blogs written in English, Chinese, Arab, French, Russian, and Hebrew, this book explores the way blogging is being conceptualized in different cultural contexts. The authors move beyond the most highly trafficked sites to shed light on larger developments taking place online, calling into question assumptions that form the foundation of much of what we read on blogging and, by extension, on global amateur or do-it-yourself media. This book suggests a more nuanced approach to understanding how blogospheres serve communication needs, how they exist in relation to one another, where they exist apart as well as where they overlap, and how they interact with other forms of communication in the larger media landscape.
Very little is known about how African journalists are forging "new" ways to practise their profession on the web. Against this backdrop, this volume provides contextually rooted discussions of trends, practices, and emerging cultures of web-based journalism(s) across the continent, offering a comprehensive research tool that can both stand the test of time as well as offer researchers (particularly those in the economically developed Global North) models for cross-cultural comparative research. The essays here deploy either a wide range of evidence or adopt a case-study approach to engage with contemporary developments in African online journalism. This book thus makes up for the gap in cross-cultural studies that seek to understand online journalism in all its complexities.
The Handbook of Media and Culture in the Middle East The Handbook of Media and Culture in the Middle East is an invaluable resource for anyone seeking to understand the profound and complex changes shaping the 21st century. With trans-regional contributions from established and emerging scholars, this ground-breaking volume offers conceptual essays and in-depth chapters that present rich analyses grounded in historical and geopolitical contexts, as well as key theory and empirical research. Rather than viewing the Middle East as a monolithic culture, this Handbook examines the diverse and multi-local characteristics of the region’s knowledge production, dynamic media, and rich cultures. It addresses a wide range of topics, including the evolving mainstream and alternative media, competing histories in the region, and pressing socio-economic and media debates. Additionally, the Handbook explores the impact of regional and international politics on Middle Eastern cultures and media. Designed to serve as a foundation for the next era of research in the field, The Handbook of Media and Culture in the Middle East is essential reading for all academics, scholars, and media practitioners. Its comprehensive scope makes it an excellent primary or supplementary textbook for undergraduate or graduate courses in global studies, media and communication, journalism, anthropology, sociology, economics, political science, and history.
In this innovative history of reading and writing, Hoda Yousef explores how the idea of literacy and its practices fundamentally altered the social fabric of Egypt at the turn of the twentieth century. She traces how nationalists, Islamic modernists, bureaucrats, journalists, and early feminists sought to reform reading habits, writing styles, and the Arabic language itself in their hopes that the right kind of literacy practices would create the right kind of Egyptians. The impact of new reading and writing practices went well beyond the elites and the newly literate of Egyptian society, and this book reveals the increasingly ubiquitous reading and writing practices of literate, illiterate, and semi-literate Egyptians alike. Students who wrote petitions, women who frequented scribes, and communities who gathered to hear a newspaper read aloud all used various literacies to participate in social exchanges and civic negotiations regarding the most important issues of their day. Composing Egypt illustrates how reading and writing practices became not only an object of social reform, but also a central medium for public exchange. Wide segments of society could engage with new ideas about nationalism, education, gender, and, ultimately, what it meant to be part of "modern Egypt."
