New communication spaces in the Arab world: A multi-method study of emerging media organisations in Tunisia, Egypt and Syria

The proposed study aims to investigate the new communication spaces opening up in the Arab World, by looking at emerging media organisations as a specific category of media producers in Tunisia, Egypt and Syria. The study aims at examining the phenomenon of emerging media organisations beyond the dichotomy of mass and alternative media. Moreover, it intends to outline the structural conditions (state relations and regulation, ownership structures and financing models) that condition the operations of emerging media organisations in Tunisia, Egypt and Syria. It also aims to analyse the processes of resistance, negotiation and mediation that take place at the level of the organisation and the journalistic values it produces. The study adopts a mixed-method approach that allows for a more in-depth understanding of the target organisations. It will include extensive research stays at the different countries (Turkey, in the case of Syrian media) with several weeks of participant observations at each organisation.