The Center for Security Studies at ETH Zurich has released an in-depth report about blogs and forums in Bahrain and how they affected the political discourse in this country:
Bahrain in transition, from blog to street
The large and rapidly diversifying Bahraini blogosphere is opening up fields of discussion and debate that could never have occurred in Bahrain’s traditional media. While traditional media in Bahrain are controlled through a royal monopoly, the now-registered blogs remain relatively free. As a consequence of the historic roots of Bahraini blogging, vociferous opinion journalism has developed, taking the lead in confronting issues critically in a way that the timid printed media cannot. Because of this, Internet users have access to a much greater diversity of issues than those who rely on traditional media.
You can read the full report here.
Thanks for the heads-up HT!
Comments
And how!
But why their insistence on calling your blog a Shia hub?! Isn’t the whole point of it to be a just-Bahraini hub :blink:
What’s so Shia about your blog Mahmood?
Author
“Researchers” like to pigeon-hole everything; otherwise, their pay-masters or readers seem to think that they didn’t do their job “in depth”!
But if you disregard that, and the various little factual or out-dated mistakes (we don’t meet at Cinnabon’s any more and it’s not in the Crown Plaza, etc.) and you concentrate on the meat of the report which suggests the increasing influence of blogs and forums, the direct effect of Ali Abdulimam and his colleague’s incarceration which provided the media impetus and concentrated the spot-light on us “new media” writers as well as the various faux pas by the government, the report is actually not bad.
As anything, you have to read between the lines to get the gist of what is being discussed.
wow..you’re pretty prominently featured Mahmoud. And yes, shia mia..who cares? As Lulu mentioned, the point is that you are Bahraini first and foremost..
good for you though.. you’re too well known to be ‘touched’.. at least that’s what I think… 😉
btw… haven’t gotten my digital camera up and running to show you my lasagna garden. It’s awesome with the squash plants being so big the leaves are like (small) elephant ears! School stuff is just piling up with the kids being in for a few more weeks so it’s been and will be hectic. I’ll let you know when the pics are up..btw.. since you appreciate good photography.. I found this very hilarious commercial that features some flies, bees and what not in close up..
Ingrid
Never realised I was Shi’a. Oh well, another label to stick on my forehead
Is there anyway I can become a Muslim without having to decide whether I want to be shia or sunni? or do you have pick your side of the fence right from the start?