commbox North Africa, Maghreb

Learning along the Digital Silk Road? Technology transfer, power, and Chinese ICT corporations in North Africa

Tin Hinane El Kadi

Information Society, volume 40, issue 2 (2024), pp. 136-153

"While much attention has been paid to how China’s rise as a digital superpower could threaten US hegemony over cyberspace, much less has been written on what the Digital Silk Road, or the presence of Chinese tech firms in developing countries more broadly, means for technological upgrading and de ... more

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Constructing the Establishment – Foreign Enemy Conspiracies: A Comparative Analysis of the Media Framing in the USA and Egypt

Tamer Farag

Global Media Journal - German Edition, volume 14, issue 1 (2024), 19 pp.

"Conspiracy theories present a relevant phenomenon in society and are studied within dif-ferent disciplines. One of the aspects of analyzing conspiracy theories is understanding the pattern whereby social movements utilize the media to construct and spread those narratives. In that regard, social mo ... more

Egyptian Journalists’ Perceptions of Digital Journalism Training Effectiveness

Nagwa Fahmy, Maha Abdulmajeed Attia

Sage Open, issue January-March (2024), 20 pp.

"This study examines the perceptions of Egyptian journalists of the effectiveness of professional training in digital journalism and determines the training-needs of journalists to adapt to innovative journalism practices. The study applies mixed descriptive methods based on The Motivation–Hygiene ... more

Recommendations for strengthening communication and community engagement in the Libya floods response

London: CDAC Network (2024), 7 pp.

"This bulletin summarises the key findings and recommendations for strengthening collective efforts on communication and community engagement in the Libya floods response. The findings are drawn from a qualitative consultation with more than 30 representatives from the humanitarian community conduct ... more

How Pharaohs Became Media Stars: Ancient Egypt and Popular Culture

Abraham Ignacio Fernández Pichel (ed.)

Oxford: Archaeopress Publishing (2024), vi, 250 pp.

"The appearance of new media and its enormous diffusion in the last decades of the 20th century and up to the present has greatly increased and diversified the reception of Egyptian themes and motifs and Egyptian influence in various cultural spheres. So-called popular or pop culture (cinema, genre ... more

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From Emancipation to Confusing the Nation: Social Media and Figurations of Disinformation a Decade After the Arab Uprisings

Nermin Elsherif, Tasniem Anwar

International Journal of Communication, volume 18 (2024), pp. 1473-1493

"This study examines how digital disinformation occurs through the creation and sustenance of figures or cultural tropes. It focuses primarily on the figure of the ecommittees, a phenomenon that refers to online fake accounts mobilized by various political actors to tarnish their opponents and propa ... more

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Revisiting the Hierarchy of Influences on Journalism in a Transitional Context: When the Social System Level Prevails

Dalia Elsheikh, Daniel Jackson, Nael Jebril

International Journal of Communication, volume 18 (2024), pp. 3347-3365

"In this article, we use Shoemaker and Reese’s hierarchy of influences (HOI) model as a framework to investigate the ways in which Egyptian journalists perceive the influences exerted on them in the context of the post-Arab Spring transition. Our findings show that perceptions of limitations to jo ... more

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Tunisia Media Landscape Assessment

USAID;Internews (2024), 74 pp.

Leveraging digital methods in the quest for peaceful futures: The interplay of sincere and subjunctive technology affordances in peace mediation

Andreas T. Hirblinger, Ville Brummer, Felix Kufus

Information, Communication & Society, volume 27, issue 11 (2024), pp. 2039-2058

"Efforts to support the resolution of armed conflicts through the facilitation of peace negotiations and dialogues increasingly involve digital technologies. While traditionally perceived as a human-centered activity, peace mediation now commonly entails information- and data-driven methods to enhan ... more

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Gaming in Africa

GeoPoll (2024), 30 slides

"GeoPoll’s latest report, “Gaming in Africa,” provides a detailed exploration of the burgeoning gaming scene across Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. Drawing from the perspectives of more than 2,500 gamers, this report shines a light on the habits, preferences, and challenges of the Afr ... ican gaming community. Highlights from the survey include the following: The Prevalence of Mobile Gaming: The survey reveals a significant tilt towards mobile gaming, with an astounding 92% of respondents playing games on their mobile phones. This preference is driven by increasing smartphone penetration and the Android platform’s dominance, with 92% of respondents having downloaded games from the Google Play Store. Engagement: Gaming serves as a primary source of entertainment, relaxation, and a remedy for boredom for the majority of gamers, with 73% playing for fun and 64% for stress relief. Expenditure: Financial investment in gaming is noteworthy, with 63% of gamers having made a purchase related to gaming. The amount spent varies, with 29% spending between $2 to $5 monthly, illustrating a willing but cost-conscious gamer base. Navigating the Barriers: The report also identifies barriers to gaming purchases, with 47% preferring free games and 44% citing a lack of funds. The cost-related challenges extend beyond purchases, as gamers list the cost of data bundles (42%) and expensive gaming hardware (31%) among their top challenges. A Call for Cultural Representation: Over half of the respondents value cultural relevance in games, and a substantial 44% feel there are not enough games with characters that look like them or environments similar to their life, signaling an untapped market for local content creation. In-Game Advertising Insights: Despite mixed feelings about ads in games, a surprising 63% have made a purchase after seeing an ad in a game. This suggests that while ads may be met with some resistance, they remain a potent tool for engagement and monetization within the gaming ecosystem. The Local Gaming Scene: A striking 56% of respondents are unaware of any games made in Africa, highlighting a significant gap in visibility and market penetration for local developers. However, there is a growing interest in supporting local talent, with varied sentiments across countries regarding the importance of local games." (Key findings summary) more

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Media Loves Tech: Impact Stories

Asma Habidi, Benoit Faedo, Leah Winnett, Louisa Wright

Bonn: Deutsche Welle DW Akademie (2023), 24 pp.

"MEDIA LOVES TECH is the name and the idea behind this project that got underway in 2018. The goal is to bring together two worlds that are often too far apart: journalism and the startup community. Together with Al Khatt, a local project partner and non-governmental media organization, we wanted to ... scout, promote, develop and test innovations for the media sector. That same year, a legal support framework for startups in Tunisia came into effect, structured around a label of merit and benefits for entrepreneurs, investors and startups. Just like MEDIA LOVES TECH, it aims to support development through bold entrepreneurial spirit and innovative ideas. Since its launch, the annual MEDIA LOVES TECH incubation program, financed by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), supports eight to twelve startups. Implemented almost entirely online, and originally as a three-day mentor-supported hackathon, it has grown to become an incubation cycle that lasts three months. It promotes all phases of a startup — from the original idea to market entry. It has been five years since the program was started and it is still going strong. This publication is an initial assessment. Does the belief that progress comes from promoting innovation hold true? Can promoting new media projects with viable business models succeed in an unstable economic or political environment? One needs to look at various aspects to find answers. It is often said that over 90 percent of startups go under in the first two years. Still, startups are often seen as a forerunner to economic development and as having a stimulating effect on the overall economy. Even if initiatives do flop, their traces can still be found in the ecosystem. When assessing the MEDIA LOVES TECH program, it is worth reflecting on what has been achieved and gaining insights for the future. Five projects are presented here. Our team has taken an in-depth look at the projects’ stories and progress and includes key performance indicators. Measuring impact in an unsteady startup environment can be a challenge, and our success stories address this. But as we at DW Akademie believe, “big changes start small,” and so do the startups presented here." (Foreword) more

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Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024
Top Insights

Nic Newman, Richard Fletcher, Craig T. Robertson, Amy Ross Arguedas, Rasmus Kleis Nielsen (eds.)

Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (2023), 167 pp.

"In many countries, especially outside Europe and the United States, we find a significant further decline in the use of Facebook for news and a growing reliance on a range of alternatives including private messaging apps and video networks. Facebook news consumption is down 4 percentage points, acr ... oss all countries, in the last year. • News use across online platforms is fragmenting, with six networks now reaching at least 10% of our respondents, compared with just two a decade ago. YouTube is used for news by almost a third (31%) of our global sample each week, WhatsApp by around a fifth (21%), while TikTok (13%) has overtaken Twitter (10%), now rebranded X, for the first time. • Linked to these shifts, video is becoming a more important source of online news, especially with younger groups. Short news videos are accessed by two-thirds (66%) of our sample each week, with longer formats attracting around half (51%). The main locus of news video consumption is online platforms (72%) rather than publisher websites (22%), increasing the challenges around monetisation and connection. • Although the platform mix is shifting, the majority continue to identify platforms including social media, search, or aggregators as their main gateway to online news. Across markets, only around a fifth of respondents (22%) identify news websites or apps as their main source of online news – that’s down 10 percentage points on 2018. Publishers in a few Northern European markets have managed to buck this trend, but younger groups everywhere are showing a weaker connection with news brands than they did in the past. • Turning to the sources that people pay most attention to when it comes to news on various platforms, we find an increasing focus on partisan commentators, influencers, and young news creators, especially on YouTube and TikTok. But in social networks such as Facebook and X, traditional news brands and journalists still tend to play a prominent role. • Concern about what is real and what is fake on the internet when it comes to online news has risen by 3 percentage points in the last year with around six in ten (59%) saying they are concerned. The figure is considerably higher in South Africa (81%) and the United States (72%), both countries that have been holding elections this year. • Worries about how to distinguish between trustworthy and untrustworthy content in online platforms is highest for TikTok and X when compared with other online networks. Both platforms have hosted misinformation or conspiracies around stories such as the war in Gaza, and the Princess of Wales’s health, as well as so-called ‘deep fake’ pictures and videos." (Executive summary, page 10) more

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Journalism in the Grey Zone: Pluralism and Media Capture in Lebanon and Tunisia

Kjetil Selvik, Jacob Høigilt

Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press (2023), ix, 228 pp.

"Lebanon and Tunisia are two of the freest countries in the Middle East and North Africa, but elites in both countries seek to manipulate media organisations and individual journalists to shore up support for themselves and attack opponents. This book explores the political role of journalism in the ... more

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Évaluation de la couverture médiatique des enjeux économiques et sociaux en Tunisie

Michel Leroy, Sofien Ammar (eds.)

CFI (2023), 82 pp.

"L'information economique et sociale occupe la 3eme position des rubriques favorites, derriere le sport et la sante (la 5e pour les femmes). 65% des sondes declarent la suivre mais seulement 5% des 18-24 ans la suivent « regulierement ». 34 % des 18-24 ans n'ont recours a aucun des medias traditio ... more

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Enslaved. Trapped and Trafficked in Digital Black Holes: Human Trafficking Trajectories to Libya

Mirjam van Reisen, Munyaradzi Mawere, Klara Smits, Morgane Wirtz (eds.)

Bamenda: Langaa (2023), xxix, 791 pp.

"Eritrean refugees are being trafficked and enslaved in Libya, where they are tortured to force relatives to pay a ransom for their release. Labelled with a digital code, they are moved along in the possession of the traffickers through a series of ‘black holes’, in which their access to digital ... more

Provocative images in contemporary Islam

David Kloos, Leonie Schmidt, Mark R. Westmoreland, Bart Barendregt (eds.)

Leiden: Leiden University Press (2023), 233 pp.

"Moving beyond a common visual concern within Religious Studies with art, aesthetic value, and perceptions of beauty or coherence, this volume shows how, when, and why images dare, shock, terrorize, confront, challenge, mock, shame, taunt, or offend, either intentionally or unintentionally, and as s ... more

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Egypt’s #MeToo Moment: Using Social Media to Help Address Violence Against Women in Egypt

Rasha El-Ibiary

In: Violence Against Women in the Global South: Reporting in the #MeToo Era

Andrea Jean Baker; Celeste González de Bustamante; Jeannine E. Relly (eds.)

Cham: Palgrave Macmillan (2023), pp. 173-199

"Adjusting the focus to the time and research of the present, this chapter analyzes two case studies that occurred before and after the revitalization of the global #MeToo movement in 2017. The selected cases investigate how women have used social media platforms to combat VAW. The first case is Daf ... more

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Mixed Methods Perspectives on Communication and Social Media Research

Reynaldo Gacho Segumpan, Joanna Soraya Abu Zahari (eds.)

London; New York: Routledge (2023), xxviii, 280 pp.

"Mixed Methods Perspectives on Communication and Social Media Research addresses the need for a discipline-cum-methodology-tailored book that navigates the current research spectrum of communication and social media ("CommSocMed"). It examines contemporary and relevant issues that intertwine the exp ... more