Afghanistan unity deal brings overdue glimmer of hope
Dr Massoumeh Torfeh, Research Associate at the Centre, explores the new power-sharing agreement in Afghanistan in a new TRTWorld article linked here.
2005, 2020
2703, 2020
Covid-19: Is the medium the message?
The medium is the message? Dina Matar, CGMC The Covid-19 outbreak on an unprecedented global level has further embedded media – as news institutions, as information providers, as spaces for socialisation and as technologies of power – in people’s lives in ways never witnessed before. With information vying with misinformation in the virtual “war against the virus”, news media corporations have reported a monumental rise in traffic as people concerned
2703, 2020
Mark Hobart reflects on Media and Metaphors during COVID-19
Mark Hobart, Professor Emeritus, Centre for Global Media and Communication The Covid-19 pandemic has had politicians, the mass and social media reaching for their metaphors. ‘We are at war’, French President Emmanuel Macron declared in a television interview. US President Donald Trump declared himself a ‘wartime president’. Not to be outdone, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson invoked Churchill’s Second World War speeches to declaim the virus a deadly enemy. The
2402, 2020
CNN theory and the humanitarian crisis in Syria? unanswered questions
Dina Matar, Centre for Global Media and Communication, School of Interdisciplinary Studies The war in Syria that has now been going on for nine years has produced ‘the biggest humanitarian horror story of the 21st Century’ according to the UN’s Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Mark Lowcock. However, it is not a horror story, but a terrifying actuality, the latest chapter played out since December 2019 in Idlib, the last stronghold
2002, 2020
A dip in popularity forces Iranian leaders to readjust rhetoric
Dr Massoumeh Torfeh explores the upcoming parliametary elections in Iran on TRT: Link Dr Massoumeh Torfeh, Research Associate LSE and SOAS focusing on Iran & AFG. Ex-UN Director of Communication AFG, BBC journalist. Book: BBC & Iran-UK relations. PhD Pol Science LSE. Image credit: “Iran reportage MO*” by MO* is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0
1202, 2020
Media and the Coronavirus—business as usual
Dina Matar Centre for Global Media and Communication, SOAS Media reporting of the spread coronavirus in China and elsewhere has underlined their role in normalizing a familiar Western narrative of a dreadful threat from outside. Much of the coverage particularly in Western news media, has framed the issue in the language of concern, anxiety and plain fear. Inevitably it is accompanied by imagery of lockdowns, seclusion, isolation and containment –
0401, 2020
Donald Trump miscalculated the fallout of Soleimani’s assassination
Dr Massoumeh Torfeh discusses the aftermath of Ghasem Suleimani’s assassination. Dr Torfeh is a Research Associate at Centre for Global Media and Communications, SOAS. Link to article Image credit
1111, 2019
Dr. Zahera Harb discusses fake news and the Lebanese protests
Lebanon Protests and ‘fake news’ By Zahera Harb On October 17 a wave of protests erupted in Lebanon against corruption. Almost half of the Lebanese population took to the streets demanding an end to corruption, transparent economic policies, social justice and protection of the environment. Slogans, such as ‘down with the sectarian confessional regime,’ mingled with calls for the resignation of all state officials whose practices were regarded as corrupt
1410, 2019
Centre for Global Media and Communications scholar on Al Jazeera
The Listening Post on Al Jazeera English is a weekly programme that examines and dissects the world’s media, how they operate and the stories they cover. This week it takes a look at the recent protests in Iraq which resulted in the loss of over 150 lives, a shutdown by the government of the internet and attacks on media outlets by unknown forces. Aida Al-Kaisy joins this weeks programme to
1609, 2019
The promise of Chinese investment brings Iran in from the cold
Dr Massoumeh Torfeh, Research Associate at Centre for Global Media and Communications, explores a major new development in Iran-China relationship in a new article. She writes, “A Chinese investment pledge to the tune of a whopping $400 billion puts a wrench in American plans to isolate Iran – but what will it cost Iran? While the United States Administration wrestles with exerting “maximum pressure” on Iran, and the European signatories