Reporting Truth: Online Journalism, Censorship, and the Creation of Knowledge in Jordan
[Thesis]
Samuel Z. Spies
Stankiewicz, Damien
Temple University
2017
218
Committee members: Darling-Wolf, Fabienne; Jhala, Jayasinhji; Yom, Sean
Place of publication: United States, Ann Arbor; ISBN=978-0-355-58856-9
Ph.D.
Anthropology
Temple University
2017
Through research grounded in participant observation among online journalists in Jordan, this project contributes to the investigation of longstanding problems in social theory by asking how the relationship between mass communication and politics is changing in the post-internet age. Or perhaps more skeptically, it asks: Is this relationship changing, or do we merely assume that it must be? Focusing on the concept of censorship, where media and politics meet most forcefully, I investigate the intersections of new technologies, journalistic practices, and state control. My dissertation examines how journalists in Jordan negotiate state censorship and understand their own processes of self-censorship as they mediate modernity and political change in a country where political truths are to a great degree contrived and manipulated. My research explores the effects of censorship on digital news transmission-and the effects of digital transmission on censorship-as journalists create knowledge in an evolving media environment.
Journalism; Near Eastern Studies; Mass communications
Communication and the arts;Social sciences;Censorship;Jordan;Journalism;News