1st Edition

Media and Politics in the Southern Mediterranean Communicating Power in Transition after 2011

Edited By Roxane Farmanfarmaian Copyright 2021
    442 Pages 13 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    442 Pages 13 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    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.

    Introduction, Roxane Farmanfarmaian

    Part 1: Structure: Media Status in Governance and Society 

    1.  The Structure of Turkish Media in judicial and political contexts: An illustration of values and status negotiation Roxane Farmanfarmaian, Ali Sonay & Murat Akser

    2. Government-Media Relations in Tunisia: A paradigm shift in the culture of governance? George Joffé

    3. The Authoritarian Trap in State/Media Structures in Morocco’s Political Transition, Bouziane Zaid 

    4. The Scissors and the Magnifying glass: Internet governance in the transitional Tunisian context, Alexis Artaud de la Ferrière & Narseo Vallina-Rodrigues 

    5. Social Media as a Space for Political Battles: AK Trolls and other politically motivated trolling, Erkan Saka 

    6. Under Watchful Eyes: Internet surveillance and citizen media in Morocco, the case of Mamfakinch, Samia Errazzouki 

    Part 2: Function: Media Values and the Politics of Sector Transition

    7. All is Flux: A hybrid approach to macro-analysis of the Turkish media, Aslı Tunç 

    8. What is Private, What is Public, and Who Exercises Media Power in Tunisia? A hybrid-functional perspective on Tunisia’s media sector, Roxane Farmanfarmaian 

    9. Media in Morocco: A highly political economy, the case of press and online publications since the 1990s, Abdelfettah Benchenna, Driss Ksikes and Dominique Marchetti

    10. Local Media in Turkey: The growth of Islamic networks in Konya's radio landscape, Ali Sonay  

    Part 3: Agency: Negotiating the Balance between Power and Public 

    11. Negotiating Identity: Gender and Tunisian talk shows, Zoë Petkanas 

    12. The Representation of Women in Moroccan Television Talk Shows, Kenza Oumlil 

    13. Understanding ‘New Turkey’ through Women’s Eyes: Gender politics in Turkish daytime talk shows, Yeşim Burul and Hande Eslen-Ziya 

    14. Negotiating Values in the Islamist Press after 2013, Michelangelo Guida 

    15. Reinforcing Citizenship through Civil Society and Media Partnerships: The case of community radios in Tunisia, Samar Samir Mezghanni 

    16. Radio and Political change : Listening in contemporary Morocco, Ali Sonay

    17. Representation of Terror and Ethnic Conflict in the Turkish Press: An analysis of the Kurdish peace process, Ayse Seda Yuksel  

    18. Islamist Cyber-activism in Tunisia: Contesting the message, redefining the public, Kayla Branson

    Biography

    Roxane Farmanfarmaian is Director of International Relations and Global Studies at the Institute of Continuing Education at the University of Cambridge, UK and a lecturer on modern Middle East politics at Cambridge University’s Department of Politics and International Studies.