Journalism and the Global South: Shaping Journalistic Practices and Identity Post “Arab Spring”

Abstract

It has since been eleven years since the rise of the “Arab Spring”: a series of anti-government uprisings that spread across the Arab world, ultimately leading to regime changes in several countries including Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. Using social media and other digital platforms to communicate and strategize, pro-democracy activists demanded increased transparency and freedom from their long-serving leaders. This special issue has sought to probe ways through which journalism is evolving in non-Western societies over a decade since the protests began. Articles accepted in this issue adopted several methodological and theoretical approaches to appraise the current state of journalism in the “developing” world questioning what influences, if any, the protests had. We sought to contribute to knowledge on ways through which the “Arab Spring” was impacting journalism practices in the Arab world and beyond. It’s our hope that findings presented in this issue will enlighten new insights and inspire new research endeavors on the transformation of journalism in the Arab World and indeed other “Southern” nations particularly as it relates to digital realms.