Digital Media and the Politics of Transformation in the Arab World and Asia

This book takes a deeper look at how digital media relate to social and political transformations and emphasizes that they can only be understood while analyzing interlocking political and technological developments. These developments happen on different scales ranging from the global to the local, including nation states’ regulatory efforts, global corporate policies and regional or local actors’ strategies in coping with, adapting to or resisting such policies. The contributions in this volume all emphasize the dialectical relations of digital media and transformation because new opportunities come with new constraints (see also Cammaerts, 2015; Radloff, 2013; Youmans & York, 2012; Deibert, 2008). Each author uses an actor-centered perspective to shed light on the current cases of political and social transformation in the Arab world and Asian countries. By choosing a country-based approach this book seeks to inquire into the ways digital media are employed in the context of restricted media systems and state-dominated public spheres.