December 9th, 2014: Dr. Mohamed Ben Moussa, Assistant Professor of Communications at Canadian University Dubai (CUD), has presented his recent research findings on the transformation of Arab journalism at an international conference dedicated to the evolving landscape of the global media industry.
Addressing a gathering of media professionals, academics, planners, and policy makers, Dr. Ben Moussa presented a paper entitled, ‘The Emerging “Alternative” Journalism Paradigm: Arab Journalists and Online News’, at the academic conference that opened this year’s Salford International Media Festival.
The Festival, which takes place at the leading international media hub, MediaCityUK, is an annual event that brings together media stakeholders from across the globe to take part in lectures, master-classes, seminars and workshops addressing the foremost issues facing the industry.
This year’s Festival witnessed the inaugural academic conference, which brought together scholars from across Europe, the USA and Australia to tackle the challenges of the modern media landscape and launch a five-day program of events.
The first academic conference went right to the heart of the issue, focusing on the theme ‘Media Choice and Freedom’. Dr. Ben Moussa was the sole academic representing the Middle East, and the only presenter considering the landscape of this region, where media activity is proliferating at an incredible rate.
Dr. Ben Moussa said, “The shifting political landscape in the Middle East and North Africa has captured the world’s attention and drawn media scholars’ scrutiny to the ‘Arab Internet’ at large. Despite this attention, research on the ‘Arab Internet’ has not received its due, and it is even more limited when it comes to exploring online news and journalism.”
The conference presentation was the result of a larger research project being conducted in collaboration with Dr. Aziz Douai from the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. This ongoing project is examining the shift in Arab journalism brought about by the Internet and the future practices of journalists in the Arab world.
Dr. Ben Moussa continued, “Our analysis has revealed a new tendency among online Arab journalists to use the Internet to preserve their journalistic independence and circumvent state censorship. Using the web’s open infrastructure, these online journalists are establishing ‘alternative’ forms of journalistic practice. These ‘alternative’ Arab journalists constitute an important part of an emerging ‘civil society’.”
Dr. Ben Moussa concluded that, while the term itself may be contentious, the criteria for ‘alternative’ journalism in this context is media that is ‘oppositional’ and ‘critical’ in content, and it is these qualities that are increasingly characterizing the new generation of online journalistic output in the Arab world.
Gallery
