Media and Politics in the Southern Mediterranean: Communicating Power in Transition After 2011

Description

This edited volume presents ground-breaking empirical research on the media in political transition in Tunisia, Turkey and Morocco. Focusing on developments in the wake of the region’s upheavals in 2011, it offers a new theoretical framework for understanding mediascapes in the confessional and hybrid-authoritarian systems of the Middle East. In this book, media scholars focus on three themes: the media’s structure as an expression of governance, the media’s function as a reflection of the market, and the media’s agency in communicating between power and the public. The result is a unique addition to the literature on two counts. Firstly, analysis of similar players, issues and processes in each country produces a thematically consistent comparative assessment of the media’s role across the southern Mediterranean region. The first cross-country comparison of specific media practices in the Middle East, it covers issues such as women in talk shows, media’s relationship with surveillance, and comparative practices of media regulation. Secondly, actualising the idea that media reflects the society that produces it, the studies here draw on field data to lay the foundations for a new theory of media, Values and Status Negotiation (VSN), which evolved from the region’s unique characteristics and practices, and offers an alternative to prevailing Western-centric approaches to media analysis. Media and Politics in the Southern Mediterranean will appeal to students and scholars of politics, sociology, Media Studies, Cultural Studies and Middle Eastern Studies. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of Illustrations Notes on Contributors Introduction Structure: Introduction Part I and II Part I: Structural Status of Media in Governance and Law 1 Turkish Media Structure in Judicial and Political Context: an Illustration of Values and Status Negotiation 2 Government-Media Relations in Tunisia: A Paradigm Shift in the Culture of Governance? 3 The Authoritarian Trap in State/Media Structures in Morocco’S Political Transition Part II: Structures of Media and Surveillance 4 The Scissors and the Magnifying Glass: Internet Governance in the Transitional Tunisian Context 5 Social Media in Turkey As A Space For Political Battles: Aktrolls and Other Politically Motivated Trolling 6 Under Watchful Eyes: Internet Surveillance and Citizen Media in Morocco, The Case of Mamfakinch Function: Introduction Part III Part III: The Function of Media Values in The Politics of Sector Transition 7 All Is Flux: A Hybrid Approach To Macro-Analysis of The Turkish Media 8 What is Private, What is Public, and Who Exercises Media Power in Tunisia?: A Hybrid-Functional Perspective on Tunisia’S Media Sector 9 Media in Morocco: A Highly Political Economy 10 Local Media in Turkey: the Growth of Islamic Networks in Konya’S Radio Landscape Agency: Introduction Part IV, V, and VI Part IV: Women on the Small Screen 11 Negotiating Identity: Gender and Tunisian Talk Shows 12 The Representation of Women in Moroccan Television Talk Shows 13 Understanding ‘New Turkey’ Through Women’s Eyes: Gender Politics in Turkish Daytime Talk Shows Part V: Contestation and Positionality Between Power and Public 14 Negotiating Values in Turkey’s Islamist Press After 2013 15 Reinforcing Citizenship Through Civil Society and Media Partnerships: The Case of Community Radios in Tunisia 16 Radio and Political Change: Listening in Contemporary Morocco Part VI: Media Status and The Implications of Covering Terror 17 Representation of Terror and Ethnic Conflict in The Turkish Press: an Analysis of The Kurdish Peace Process in Turkey 18 Islamist Cyber-Activism in Tunisia: Contesting The Message, Redefining The Public Index