3rd Global Conference
Friday 16th November - Sunday 18th November 2007
Salzburg, Austria
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Conference Programme, Abstracts and Papers
Session 6: Media and Citizenship
Chair: Gabriele M. Mras
Media and the Rise of Shia Islam in Iran
Kevin W. Gray
Marist College, Laval University, USA
In Imagined Communities, Benedict Anderson outlined the role of the vernacular press in the construction of national identities in Indonesia (Anderson, 1991). With the introduction of the printed word, the dissemination of propaganda became substantially easier, allowing nationalist leaders to create widespread political consciousness unknown to previous generations.
The so-called Shia Revival has lately received significant, if perhaps overdue, coverage in the Western media (Nasr, 2006); Shia Islam has been resurgent since at least the Iranian Revolution of 1979. Taking the form of a grassroots struggle against traditional sources of feudal authority, which had served to deprive Shia peasants of opportunities for political participation, a newly emergent, and observant, Shia urban class began to agitate for greater economic and political freedoms. In Iran, this lead to the Iranian Revolution. In Lebanon, this lead to the founding of two separate Shia Parties, Amal and Hezbollah, the latter achieving prominence in its fight against Israel in the 1980s.
The role of the media, e.g. the television station Al-Manar, in constructing Shia identity in Lebanon has been well-discussed in the literature (Saas-Ghorayeb, 2002). In this paper, I look at the role of the underground media in creating revolutionary consciousness during the Iranian Revolution, and how this media served to create a sense of Shia nationalism. I argue that while Anderson provides a useful model, not only in his discussion of the role of media in creating a nationalist consciousness but also in the role it can play in solidifying anti-colonialist consciousness, there are nonetheless both practical and theoretical problems. First, Iranian nationalism has a well-established history – the use of media then by Ayatollah Khomeini did not have the effect of creating a national consciousness. Rather, the use of cassettes and photocopies circulated in Iran by pilgrims returning from Shia holy sites in Iraq, particularly following the liberalization of relations with Iraq in 1975, had the effect of creating a nationalist consciousness that equated Iranian nationalism with a particular interpretation of Shia Islam (Keddie, 1981; Keddie, 2003; I concentrate on this use of the media by religious opposition groups, rather than on the circulation of open letters by leftist intellectuals, which seems to have had little lasting effect on Iranian identity). Finally, I argue, contrary to some scholars (Sreberny-Mohammadi & Mohammadi, 1994) that the use of these modern forms of media did not allow for the creation of an alternative public sphere (at least as developed in Habermas, 1991), but rather served as a means of social coordination. In particular, I contend that in times of revolution, the coordinating function of media (at least in this context) does not serve to create new possibilities of discourse or modes of communication in the public sphere.
New Media Citizens? Dual Systems of Membership and Patterns of Affiliation in Two Citizenship Initiatives
Zoetanya Sujon
Department of Media and Communications, London School of Economics, London, United Kingdom
The digital divide and the prospect of new kinds of technologically based social exclusion is one of the most important reasons for challenging how new media might reconfigure, transform or even create new kinds of citizenship. Many have optimistically and even normatively argued for the emergence of internet mediated transnational and even post-statist forms of citizenship, reconfigured and powerful connections between disparate communities and the emergence of a stronger, more engaged citizenry. My research does not necessarily address issues of exclusion, but instead asks if there are ‘new’ kinds of citizens, who are they and what role might new media have in reconfiguring the ways in which they can be citizens? With these issues in mind and drawing from Etienne Wenger’s work on communities of practice, Michael Walzer’s theoretical insights on membership and Barry Wellman’s work on ‘networked individualism,’ I empirically challenge the ways in which new media participants discursively construct patterns of membership and affiliation. I focus on two case studies of citizenship initiatives that aim to use new media to develop, implement and create such deepened kinds of citizenship and engaged citizens. These cases, the BBC’s Action Network and Proboscis’ Urban Tapestries, respectively use the internet and mobile applications to enrich citizenship. I do not attempt to analyse membership in terms of subjectivity or essential forms of consciousness, but instead, investigate the kinds of identifications respondents make, patterns of affiliation and argue that each project recreates a dual system of membership, loosely described as formal and informal, and those who are most closely affiliated to the productive core within both membership systems, also most closely resemble ‘new media citizens’. In this sense, those who are most strongly connected to the technology in patterns of use and its normative potential are most able to capitalize on that potential.
Digital Citizenship among Ethnic Minorities in Brussels: Presentation of a Multimethodical Research Approach
Stefan Mertens
Catholic University of Brussels, Brussles, Belgium
The development of an “information society” has generated much debate and has become an important policy goal across Europe. Nevertheless, large segments of European societies are not “inside” the so-called “knowledge society”. Research reveals that ethnic minorities are one of the high-risk groups for being left out of the information society. The continuation of a digital deprivation among ethnic minorities is at right angles to the information society rhetoric, not only because this rhetoric implies equal access for everyone, but also because enabling cultural diversity is another goal of the information society rhetoric. New ICTs should, according to the Bucharest Declaration (2002), stimulate multiculturalism and plurilinguism and enhance the capacity of governments to develop active policies to that end. Access and contribution to knowledge and information should broaden the contents of the public domain and foster mutual understanding and respect for diversity. In the research project “Digital citizenship among ethnic minorities in Brussels” we are investigating how the interplay between the policy ideals of the information society and the empirical reality of ethnic minorities works in Brussels. To reach this goal we combine policy analysis (content analysis of policy documents and interviews with policy makers in Brussels) with various types of qualitative and quantitative interviewing with both autochtonous and allochtonous citizens in Brussels. Thereby we want to assess if the normative ideal of “active citizenship” can be reached and to examine which role “digital citizenship” and “multicultural citizenship” play actually and could play potentially in advancing this ideal. In this paper we will present the theories and methodologies involved in this research project illustrated by empirical examples to obtain a critical dialogue between citizenship theory, new media research and the everyday reality of a multicultural city.