Bloggers and the Blogosphere in Lebanon & Syria Meanings and Activities Maha Taki A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements by the University of Westminster for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, August 2010 I would like to dedicate this thesis to my mum and dad, Nada Taki and Toufic Taki. 2 DECLARATION I certify that this thesis I have presented for examination for the PhD degree at the University of Westminster is my own work. 3 ACKNOWLDGEMENTS Firstly, I would like to thank my research committee, Naomi Sakr and Colin Sparks, and the research office for believing in the project and granting me a scholarship without which this PhD would not have been possible. I would like to express my undying gratitude to my director of studies, Naomi Sakr, whose continuous support, insightful comments and broad vision have been invaluable for the completion of this thesis. I would also like to thank friends who have helped me refine my thoughts for my PhD by listening to my ideas and reading drafts of chapters: Layal Ftouni, Adrian Burgess and Bechir Saade. I would like to express my gratitude to friends who have been extremely supportive throughout the past four years, and especially during the last four months of completion, namely Rasha Kahil, Kate Noble, Nora Razian, Nick Raistrick, Simon Le Gouais, Saim Demircan, Lina Daouk-Oyri, my brother and sister Ali and Norma Taki. I am also very grateful towards the project team at the BBC World Service Trust for granting me numerous opportunities to travel to Lebanon and Syria. And a special thanks to project managers Michael Randall and Kate Noble with whom I travelled with on the scoping trips. They have been a pleasure to work with and I especially thank them for their understanding towards my prioritizing the PhD. Finally, I would like to show appreciation to all my interviewees for their generous information and time, and to all those who answered the survey. 4 ABSTRACT The use of blogging and its potential effects on society and politics have been widely debated but the meanings and understandings that bloggers themselves hold about the activity have not been sufficiently explored; indeed in Lebanon and Syria they have barely been investigated at all. Through interviews with bloggers, ISPs, Internet café owners and others, as well as informal online participant observation and an online questionnaire, this thesis explores the structural and cultural variables that have allowed Lebanese and Syrian bloggers to understand and use blogs in their own specific ways. The study not only recounts what bloggers say about themselves but investigates the structural variables that surround them, including government and institutional policy, censorship, impediments to Internet access, historical conditions under which blogging emerged, attitudes to the Internet, changing events and new entrants to blogging. By its comparative nature, the project reveals how the meanings that bloggers attach to their blogging activities and to their socialization with other bloggers are situated in the social and historical conditions under which blogging is practiced. The changing meanings blogging acquired for bloggers during the course of this research illustrated its shifting and relational attributes. Thus an unexpectedly complex array of interrelated factors is shown to contribute to the tool acquiring certain meanings and being used in specific ways. The research uncovers differing reasons between Lebanese and Syrian bloggers as to why they blog, what socialisation with other bloggers means to them, and what marks of differentiation such as anonymity and choice of language they use to distinguish the activity of one blogger from another. Both the Lebanese and Syrian bloggers at this point belong to a collective effort of other bloggers in their own countries, but the thesis also shows the meanings of socialisation online and how it is regarded change over time. 5 TABLE OF CONTENT Chapter II: Conceptual Framework ............................................................................. 9 1.1 Background ........................................................................................................................... 9 1.2 Methodological Orientation ......................................................................................... 11 1.3 Theoretical Orientation ................................................................................................. 15 Chapter II: Conceptual Framework .......................................................................... 18 2.1 Lebanon and Syria ........................................................................................................... 19 2. 1. 1 Lebanon: Meanings and Perceptions ............................................................................ 19 2.1.2 Syria: Meanings and Perceptions ..................................................................................... 25 2.1.3 Lebanon and Syria: Meshes and Clashes ....................................................................... 29 2.2 Understanding Online Access and Inequalities ..................................................... 35 2.3 “Identity” & “Community” - Online and Offline ..................................................... 39 2.3.1 The concepts of identity & community .......................................................................... 39 2.3.2 The concept of Community in the social sciences and Arab world .................... 44 2.3.3 The concepts of Habitus & Field ....................................................................................... 45 2.3.4 Literature on Identity online .............................................................................................. 48 2.3.5 Literature on community online ...................................................................................... 53 Chapter III. The Methodology .................................................................................... 56 3.1 Virtual ethnography debates ....................................................................................... 56 3.2 An overview of methods used ...................................................................................... 61 3.2.1 Fieldwork ................................................................................................................................... 61 3.2.2 Access to bloggers .................................................................................................................. 63 3.2.3 Interview methods ................................................................................................................. 65 3.3 Qualitative/Quantitative debates: Using questionnaires in ethnography .. 67 3.3.1 Template analysis ................................................................................................................... 69 3.3.2 Questionnaire construction ................................................................................................ 70 3.3.3 Questionnaire adaptation .................................................................................................... 71 3.4 Ethical Considerations ................................................................................................... 74 3.4.1 Using interview data .............................................................................................................. 74 3.4.2 Using public content on the Internet .............................................................................. 77 3.5 Reflexivity and the auto- ethnographer ................................................................... 78 Chapter IV. Online Access & Inequalities .............................................................. 81 4.1 Access Issues ...................................................................................................................... 83 4.1.1 Evidence of under-counting ............................................................................................... 83 4.1.2 Market distortions affecting cost and speed ............................................................... 84 4.2 Internet cafes as alternative access points ............................................................. 89 4.2.1 The process of opening up an Internet café ................................................................. 89 4.2.2 Café research – Users & Owners ....................................................................................... 90 4.2.2.1 Description of Cafes researched in Beirut ............................................................................. 91 4.2.2.2 Research summary of Beirut’s Cafes ....................................................................................... 92 4.2.2.3 Description of Cafes researched in Damascus ..................................................................... 93 4.2.2.4 Research summary for Damascus’s Cafes ............................................................................. 94 4.3 Inequalities relating to gender .................................................................................... 96 4.4 Language, education and values ................................................................................. 97 4.5 Censorship ........................................................................................................................100 4.5.1 Random blocking in Syria ................................................................................................