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Title:
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BLOGGING, POLITICAL PARTICIPATION AND MOBILIZATION IN THE ISLAMIC MIDDLE EAST: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE IRANIAN BLOGOSPHERE |
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Author(s):
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Farid Shirazi |
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ISBN:
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978-989-8533-01-2 |
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Editors:
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Bebo White, Pedro Isaías and Flávia Maria Santoro |
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Year:
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2011 |
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Edition:
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Single |
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Keywords:
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Blogging, Blogosphere, communication discourse, participation, democracy, Internet filtering |
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Type:
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Full Paper |
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First Page:
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109 |
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Last Page:
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120 |
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Language:
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English |
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Cover:
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Full Contents:
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click to dowload 
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Paper Abstract:
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Citizen participation in political and social discourse in Islamic Middle Eastern countries has grown in the past few years primarily as a result of an increase in Internet access and use. This participation has largely been expressed through affiliation with emancipatory political movements. Despite Islamic government attempts to restrict participation through filtering and censoring actions, the Internet has shown itself to be an effective and relatively unencumbered communication channel for acquiring information across the globe and disseminating ideas, opinions and information about socio-cultural, political, environmental and economic matters. This paper uses Irans democratic Green Movement to illustrate this circumstance. The study employs a critical content analysis and applies the theory of democratic participation to analyze 512 of the most popular Iranian blogs. The analysis shows that blogging in Iran has not only created a new wave of grassroots journalists but has also played an important role in citizens mobilization and participation in communication discourse. |
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