@article {1008, title = {Al Jazeera{\textquoteright}s Framing of Social Media During the Arab Spring. }, journal = {CyberOrient}, volume = {6}, year = {2012}, abstract = {This study investigates how Al Jazeera framed social media in relation to the revolutions and protests of the {\textquotedblleft}Arab Spring{\textquotedblright} within its broadcast media coverage. A content analysis of Arabic language broadcasts appearing from January 25th through February 18th 2011, covering the protests in Tahrir Square, was conducted using the Broadcast Monitoring System (BMS) and Arab Spring Archive. Through this analysis we see a number of common narratives being used by Al Jazeera to frame social media and make claims about the influence they had on the protests and related social movements. By noting the frequency of social communications technologies referenced, ways in which these technologies were characterized and interpreting supporting themes with which they were identified helps illuminate the assumptions promoted by Al Jazeera regarding the role and impact of social communications technology on these events.}, keywords = {activism, Arab Spring, democracy, Egypt, information and communication technology, internet, public sphere, satellite TV, social media}, url = {http://www.cyberorient.net/article.do?articleId=7758}, author = {Heidi Campbell and Diana Hawk} } @article {1297, title = {Mediated Martyrs of the Arab Spring: New Media, Civil Religion, and Narrative in Tunisia and Egypt}, journal = {Journal of Communication}, volume = {63}, year = {2013}, chapter = {312}, abstract = {This article analyzes the emergence of nationalist martyr narratives and their dissemination via new media as forces for social mobilization and political change. Situating them in the religio-historical contexts of North Africa, we trace martyr narratives in Tunisia and Egypt back to pre-Islamic periods and compare them to the contemporary stories of Mohamed Bouazizi and Khaled Saeed. This reveals the impact of new media on the region, evident in {\textquotedblleft}virtual reliquaries,{\textquotedblright} and the role that martyr narratives play as catalysts in social mobilization. The trajectory of the martyr narrative from the traditional religious context to the state-driven concept of civil religion allows for the political dimension of narratives resident within the religious context to surface in the contemporary discursive moment.}, keywords = {Civil Religion, Egypt, martyr narratives, Narrative, New Media, political change, Tunisia, virtual reliquaries}, url = {http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jcom.12017/abstract;jsessionid=E24465C217B6F163E3838A3BAC3882B9.f01t01?deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=\&userIsAuthenticated=false}, author = {Jeffry R. Halverson and Scott W. Ruston and Angela Trethewey} } @book {1283, title = {Deus in Machina:Religion, Technology, and the Things in Betwee}, year = {2013}, publisher = {Fordham University Press}, organization = {Fordham University Press}, address = {New York}, abstract = {The essays in this volume explore how two domains of human experience and action--religion and technology--are implicated in each other. Contrary to commonsense understandings of both religion (as an "otherworldly" orientation) and technology (as the name for tools, techniques, and expert knowledges oriented to "this" world), the contributors to this volume challenge the grounds on which this division has been erected in the first place. What sorts of things come to light when one allows religion and technology to mingle freely? In an effort to answer that question, Deus in Machina embarks upon an interdisciplinary voyage across diverse traditions and contexts where religion and technology meet: from the design of clocks in medieval Christian Europe, to the healing power of prayer in premodern Buddhist Japan, to 19th-century Spiritualist devices for communicating with the dead, to Islamic debates about kidney dialysis in contemporary Egypt, to the work of disability activists using documentary film to reimagine Jewish kinship, to the representation of Haitian Vodou on the Internet, among other case studies. Combining rich historical and ethnographic detail with extended theoretical reflection, Deus in Machina outlines new directions for the study of religion and/as technology that will resonate across the human sciences, including religious studies, science and technology studies, communication studies, history, anthropology, and philosophy.}, keywords = {Buddhist, Christian, Egypt, Haitian, Islamic, Japan, medieval, religion and technology, religious studies, Spiritualist movement, Vodou}, url = {http://muse.jhu.edu/books/9780823250240}, author = {Jeremy Stolow} } @book {1279, title = {Islamic Activism: A Social Movement Theory Approach }, series = {Indiana Series in Middle East Studies}, publisher = {Indiana University Press}, organization = {Indiana University Press}, abstract = {This volume represents the first comprehensive attempt to incorporate the study of Islamic activism into social movement theory. It argues that the dynamics, processes, and organization of Islamic activism can be understood as important elements of contention that transcend the specificity of "Islam" as a system of meaning and identity and a basis for collective action. Drawing on extensive fieldwork, the contributors show how social movement theory can be utilized to address a wide range of questions about the mobilization of contention in support of Muslim causes. The book covers myriad examples of Islamic activism (Sunni and Shi{\textquoteleft}a) in eight countries (Arab and non-Arab), including case studies of violence and contention, networks and alliances, and culture and framing.}, keywords = {activism, Egypt, Iran, Islam, Islamic, Muslims, Shi{\textquoteleft}a, social movement, Sunni, Yeman}, url = {http://books.google.com/books/about/Islamic_Activism.html?id=UoONJqsjYjcC}, author = {Quintan Wiktorowicz} } @article {1225, title = {Connecting the Actual with the Virtual: The Internet and Social Movement Theory in the Muslim World{\textemdash}The Cases of Iran and Egypt}, journal = {Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs}, volume = {30}, year = {2010}, chapter = {555}, abstract = {The rapid expansion of Internet use in the Muslim world has called into question what role{\textemdash}if any{\textemdash}this medium can play in political action in these countries. This paper seeks to analyze the extent to which the Internet offers space for an expansion of social movement theory in the Muslim world. It relies on a number of case studies from two Muslim countries, the One Million Signatures Campaign and {\textquotedblleft}Weblogistan{\textquotedblright} in Iran, and the Kefaya Movement and Muslim Brotherhood blogging in Egypt. When placing Internet use in the context of political scientist and historian Charles Tilly{\textquoteright}s {\textquotedblleft}repertoire{\textquotedblright} of social movement characteristics (worthiness, unity, numbers, and commitment) and political scientist Robert Putnam{\textquoteright}s theory that the Internet can isolate individual users, it appears that the key to the successful collaboration of the web and social movements is an adaptive dynamic, through which groups function in both the cyber-world and the real world. This paper presents a potential vision for the future of the Internet and Islamic activism based on the assumption that an online element will help generate some of the elements of Tilly{\textquoteright}s social movement repertoire, particularly if the Internet is used to inspire sympathetic individuals to real world political action.}, keywords = {Blogging, Egypt, Internet use, Iran, Islam, Kefaya Movement, Muslim Brotherhood, Muslim minorities, New Media, Weblogistan}, url = {http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/13602004.2010.533453}, author = {Lernerת Melissa Y} }