PhD Studentship News, the Internet and Political Protest: Al-Jazeera, BBC and Reuters Reporting of the Arab Spring and its Aftermath

Bournemouth University

First call for applications - closing date 31 July 2011

At the heart of BU's research are our people. Challenging, influencing, and often surprising, our researchers make a real impact.

Our interdisciplinary environment supports collaboration that enables outputs contributing to local, national and international agendas.

Successful candidates will be engaged on projects that will enhance our thriving research culture and offer potential for societal & cultural impact and commercial exploitation.

News, the Internet and Political Protest: Al-Jazeera, BBC and Reuters Reporting of the Arab Spring and its Aftermath

This project revolves around a comparative study into internet use by three global news organisations in the reporting of the 2011 popular protests against authoritarian regimes across Northern Africa and the Middle-East. More than 13 countries have been affected by widespread civil unrest, some of which has lead to regime change (e.g. Tunisia and Egypt) or intervention by foreign forces (e.g. Libya and Bahrain).

Common for most of these conflicts is the respective governments' use of force (including intimidation, arrest and torture) to suppress protesters, opposition politicians, and even some journalists. Various forms of internet communication (websites, blogs, social networking, and anonymous relays) have been an integral part of how ordinary citizens have organised and publicised protests. Journalists working for global news organisations have also been making use of this technology to source and disseminate news from ordinary citizens about these crises, as a necessary response to the near-impossibility of gaining first-hand access to report from the ground.

The focus of this thesis will be to examine the extent to which internet communication during the Arab Spring and its aftermath has helped transform crisis reporting and fostered a rethinking of journalism's responsibilities to its audiences.

In taking a comparative approach to the study of three global news organisations, this project sets out to identify how emergent forms of internet use are reinflected in different global journalistic contexts. Specifically it will seek to answer the following research questions:

• What were the prevailing features, trends or patterns characteristic of Al-Jazeera, BBC and Reuters' reporting of the Arab Spring?
• How did journalists from Al-Jazeera, BBC and Reuters make use of the internet in their reporting, news gathering and audience engagement?
• What role did Al-Jazeera, BBC and Reuters play in facilitating information flow during the Arab Spring?
• To what extent has the internet fostered different forms, practices and epistemologies of crisis reporting?

It may be necessary to focus on a specific national context, for example the Libyan conflict, in order to manage the scope of the project. The aims, objectives and comparative dimension between the three global news organisations will remain the same.

Further details and how to apply are available at: www.bournemouth.ac.uk/studentships.