ABSTRACT
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.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part |130 pages
Structure
part I|63 pages
Structural status of media in governance and law
chapter 1|16 pages
Turkish media structure in judicial and political context
chapter 2|24 pages
Government-media relations in Tunisia
part II|60 pages
Structures of media and surveillance
chapter 4|19 pages
The scissors and the magnifying glass
chapter 5|20 pages
Social media in Turkey as a space for political battles
chapter 6|19 pages
Under watchful eyes
part |94 pages
Function
part III|88 pages
The function of media values in the politics of sector transition
chapter 8|27 pages
What is private, what is public, and who exercises media power in Tunisia?
part |159 pages
Agency
part IV|57 pages
Women on the small screen
chapter 13|14 pages
Understanding ‘New Turkey’ through women’s eyes
part V|58 pages
Contestation and positionality between power and public
chapter 15|18 pages
Reinforcing citizenship through civil society and media partnerships
part VI|37 pages
Media status and the implications of covering terror