Courtney C. Radsch (born 1979) is an American journalist, author and advocate for freedom of expression. She is the author of Cyberactivism and Citizen Journalism in Egypt: Digital Dissidence and Political Change and worked as the advocacy director for the Committee to Protect Journalists until 2021. She has written and been interviewed extensively about digital activism and social media in the Middle East since 2006.
Dr. Radsch is an internationally recognized expert on social media, [1] citizen journalism, [2] and activism and is frequently invited to comment about new media and the Middle East. She has appeared on CNN, Al Jazeera, [3] MSNBC [4] among other international outlets. Radsch also appeared in the PBS Frontline documentary Revolution in Egypt. [5] She is the author of Cyberactivism and Citizen Journalism in Egypt: Digital Dissidence and Political Change (Palgrave Macmillan 2016).
Radsch's work on cyberactivism in the Egypt and the Middle East has been widely published and she is frequently asked to speak on the subject. [6] Radsch is one of the earliest proponents of the political impact of cyberactivism in the Middle East and analysts of Arab media. As early as 2006 Radsch was writing about the revolutionary impact of blogging and social media in Egypt; in 2006 she presented a paper entitled "The Revolution Will be Blogged: New Media Cultural Configurations" at a conference in Cairo. [7] Radsch's Arab Media blog, started in 2006, is one of the longest-running blogs on the topic. [8] Radsch is the author of several book chapters about cyberactivism, social media and the Middle East. [9]
In Core the Commonplace she traced the development of cyberactivism in Egypt, arguing that there were three distinct phases in the development of blogging: experimentation, activism and diversification and that blogging was having a significant political impact. [10] Her extensive ethnographic research on Egyptian cyberactivism provides a unique insight into the antecedents of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. In her chapter on the blogosphere and social media in a study by the Stimson Center, Seismic Shift: Understanding Change in the Middle East she argues that between 2005 and 2010 Middle Eastern blogs and social media showed rising dissatisfaction with the status quo, declining levels of fear and visible capability to mobilize large political protests.
Radsch began working as a professional journalist in 2003 when she worked as a news editor at The Daily Star (Lebanon). She then worked for The New York Times in the Washington Bureau where she covered the 2004 elections, Abu Ghraib, politics and culture. [11] [12] [13]
In 2005, Radsch left the Times to pursue a Ph.D. in international relations at American University, where her research focused on cyberactivism in Egypt. Her dissertation, Digital Dissidence and Political Change: Cyberactivism and Citizen Journalism in Egypt, provides the first scholarly examination of the development of the youth movement in Egypt and the role that technology played in reconfiguring what she calls "the potentiality for expression and participation" and thus contributes to understanding how ICTs are implicated in processes of political change.
In 2008, Radsch was hired by the Saudi-owned, Dubai-based Arabic satellite channel Al Arabiya as the English website managing editor. As a journalist and editor at Al Arabiya she oversaw the expansion of the English website and its integration into the broader newsroom. In October 2009 she published an article about safety problems on Emirates Airlines, whose president Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum is also the head of the Civil Regulatory Authority and the uncle of Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum. [14] According to Reporters Without Borders, she lost her job at Al Arabiya as a result of the article. [15] The Australian newspaper, which originally broke the story about the safety problems, covered her dismissal. [16] The article quoted an Emirates Airlines official denying that it had pressured the station and its PR firm claimed inaccuracies in the article, but did not specify what they were. Radsch worked for Al Arabiya from 2008 to 2009.
Dr. Radsch also ran the Freedom of Expression Campaign at Freedom House from 2010 to 2012 and was interim managing editor at the Development Executive Group in 2008. She received her PhD from American University.
Al Arabiya is a Saudi state-owned international Arabic news television channel. It is based in Riyadh and is a subsidiary of MBC Group.
Citizen journalism, also known as collaborative media, participatory journalism, democratic journalism, guerrilla journalism, grassroots journalism, or street journalism, is based upon members of the community playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing, and disseminating news and information. Courtney C. Radsch defines citizen journalism "as an alternative and activist form of news gathering and reporting that functions outside mainstream media institutions, often as a response to shortcomings in the professional journalistic field, that uses similar journalistic practices but is driven by different objectives and ideals and relies on alternative sources of legitimacy than traditional or mainstream journalism". Jay Rosen offers a simpler definition: "When the people formerly known as the audience employ the press tools they have in their possession to inform one another." The underlying principle of citizen journalism is that ordinary people, not professional journalists, can be the main creators and distributors of news. Citizen journalism should not be confused with community journalism or civic journalism, both of which are practiced by professional journalists; collaborative journalism, which is the practice of professional and non-professional journalists working together; and social journalism, which denotes a digital publication with a hybrid of professional and non-professional journalism. Seungahn Nah and Deborah S. Chung say in their book "Understanding Citizen Journalism as Civic Participation" that citizen journalism is "highly embedded in local communities where community residents engage in day-to-day routines of community storytelling about local politics, public affairs, community events, neighborhood issues, schools, public transportation, land uses and environments, and much more."
Al-Ahram, founded on 5 August 1876, is the most widely circulating Egyptian daily newspaper, and the second oldest after Al-Waqa'i' al-Misriyya. It is majority owned by the Egyptian government, and is considered a newspaper of record for Egypt.
Mohamed Hassanein Heikal was an Egyptian journalist. For 17 years (1957–1974), he was editor-in-chief of the Cairo newspaper Al-Ahram and was a commentator on Arab affairs for more than 50 years.
Mona Eltahawy is a freelance Egyptian-American journalist and social commentator based in New York City. She has written essays and op-eds for publications worldwide on Egypt and the Islamic world, on topics including women's rights, patriarchy, and Muslim political and social affairs. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, and the Miami Herald among others. Headscarves and Hymens, Eltahawy's first book, was published in May 2015. Eltahawy has been a guest analyst on U.S. radio and television news shows. She is among people who spearheaded the Mosque Me Too movement by using the hashtag #MosqueMeToo.
Adel Iskandar is a British-born Middle East media scholar, postcolonial theorist, analyst, and academic. He is currently an Associate Professor of Global Communication at Simon Fraser University in Canada. The author and co-author of several works on Arabic language media, Iskandar's work has contributed both to the political economy of communication and the cultural impact of media. His most prominent works deal with analyses of the Arabic satellite station Al Jazeera, digital dissidence, global communication theory, and decolonization.
Arab culture is the culture of the Arabs, from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the east, in a region of the Middle East and North Africa known as the Arab world. The various religions the Arabs have adopted throughout their history and the various empires and kingdoms that have ruled and took lead of the civilization have contributed to the ethnogenesis and formation of modern Arab culture. Language, literature, gastronomy, art, architecture, music, spirituality, philosophy and mysticism are all part of the cultural heritage of the Arabs.
Hamdi Qandil was a prominent Egyptian journalist, news anchor, talk show host and activist. Qandil started his journalism career in the 1950s when he wrote for the Akher Sa'a magazine at the invitation of veteran journalist Mustafa Amin. In 1961 he began broadcasting a news show called Aqwal al-Suhuf until 1969 when he was appointed director of the Arab Broadcasting Studios Union. In 1971 he left his post in protest at a government inspection of his technical staff. He later worked with UNESCO from 1974 to 1986, specializing in the field of international media. In 1987 he co-founded a satellite broadcasting company that later became known as MBC, where he worked for three months before leaving because of political differences with its management. Qandil briefly presented the show Ma'a Hamdi Qandil for ART, but left amid disagreements between him and his managers regarding Qandil's planned interviews with Muammar Gaddafi and Tariq Aziz.
Arab cinema or Arabic cinema refers to the film industry of the Arab world. Most productions come from Egyptian cinema.
Yasser Talaat Hafez Thabet is an acclaimed Egyptian journalist and liberal writer.
Mass media in Egypt are highly influential in Egypt and in the Arab World, attributed to its large audience and its historical TV and film industry supplies to the Arab-speaking world.
Lamis Elhadidy, is an Egyptian TV presenter. She also worked for Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper.
Khouloud ElGamal is an Egyptian journalist/TV producer based in London since 2001. She started as reporter for French speaking outlets like Al-Ahram Hebdo and Radio Cairo and also for Youm7 She received few awards on her reporting on citizen journalism, current affairs, Foreign Policy, sufism, bedouins, Islamic extremism and her Grand reportages and travel writings. She is consultant and guest speaker on citizen journalism, social medias and filmmaking.
Bassem Raafat Mohamed Youssef is an Egyptian-American comedian, television host, and surgeon. Beginning his career with The B+ Show (2011), which was inspired by his experience during the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, he later rose to prominence as the host of El Bernameg (2011–2014), a satirical comedy show focused on Egyptian politics. In 2015, Youssef hosted the 43rd International Emmy Awards in New York City.
Blogging is increasingly used in many countries around the globe, including those with oppressive and authoritarian regimes. In many Arab countries with oppressive and authoritarian regimes, where the government conventionally has controlled print and broadcast media, blogs and other forms of new media provide a new public sphere where citizens can obtain information they are interested in and exchange their personal opinion concerning several topics, including politics, economics, culture, love, life and religion.
Women played a variety of roles in the Arab Spring, but its impact on women and their rights is unclear. The Arab Spring was a series of demonstrations, protests, and civil wars against authoritarian regimes that started in Tunisia and spread to much of the Arab world. The leaders of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen were overthrown; Bahrain has experienced sustained civil disorder, and the protests in Syria have become a civil war. Other Arab countries experienced protests as well.
Lina Attalah is an Egyptian media figure and journalist. Attalah is co-founder and chief editor of Mada Masr, an independent online Egyptian newspaper and was previously managing editor of the Egypt Independent prior to its print edition closure in 2013. She is active in the fight against the restriction of honest journalism. Time recognized her as a "New Generation Leader", calling her the "Muckraker of the Arab World" in 2018, and including her in Time's 100 Most Influential People of 2020.
Hafez Al Mirazi is an Egyptian journalist who has appeared on many television shows in both the Middle East and the United States.
Rawya Rageh is an Egyptian journalist and Senior Crisis Adviser for Amnesty International based in New York City. She was previously a broadcast journalist known for her in-depth coverage of notable stories across the Middle East and Africa, including the Iraq War, the Darfur crisis in Sudan, the Saddam Hussein trial, the Arab Spring, and the Boko Haram conflict in Northern Nigeria. Working as a correspondent for the Al Jazeera English network her contribution to the Peabody Award-winning coverage the network provided of the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 and the Arab Spring was documented in the books 18 Days: Al Jazeera English and the Egyptian Revolution and Liberation Square: Inside the Egyptian Revolution and the Rebirth of a Nation. The news story she broadcast on 25 January, the first day of the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, was selected by Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism as one of the "50 Great Stories" produced by its alumni in the past 100 years. In addition to her broadcast reporting, Rageh is an active social media journalist, recognized by the Washington Post as one of "The 23 Accounts You Must Follow to Understand Egypt" and by Forbes Middle East Magazine as one of the "100 Arab personalities with the most presence on Twitter."
Al Arabiya English is an English language service of the Saudi state-owned Al-Arabiya News Channel.
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