A Virtual Ethnographic Study of Online Communication and Democratic Behavior in the Sudan's Diaspora A dissertation presented to the faculty of the Scripps College of Communication of Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy Abuobeida A. Mudawi December 2015 © 2015 Abuobeida A. Mudawi. All Rights Reserved. This dissertation titled A Virtual Ethnographic Study of Online Communication and Democratic Behavior in the Sudan's Diaspora by ABUOBEIDA A. MUDAWI has been approved for the School of Media Arts and Studies and the Scripps College of Communication by Steve Howard Professor of Media Arts and Studies Scott Titsworth Dean, Scripps College of Communication ii ABSTRACT MUDAWI, ABUOBEIDA A., Ph.D., December 2015, Mass Communication A Virtual Ethnographic Study of Online Communication and Democratic Behavior in the Sudan's Diaspora Director of Dissertation: Steve Howard This virtual ethnographic study was about online communication and the democratic behavior in the Sudan’s diaspora. It investigated the possibility of expanding the diasporic political public sphere among Sudanese diaspora by using the six requirements formulated by Licoln Dahlberg (2001a) for a rational-critical discourse of online deliberation of political public issues. The Sudanese diasporic online communities was a product of migration of large number of Sudanese to the Gulf States, the United States, and other regions due to the repressive political environment and bad economic conditions in Sudan and their connection to the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in host societies. I used three methods of data gathering: online survey, online semi-structured in-depth interviews, and online participant observation. The findings of this study have shown that online communication provided diasporic communities with current political information. Sudanese online diasporic members used this political information in holding online political deliberations that enabled them to have freedom of expression and to establish civil society associations. The study found that although some scholars claimed that the provision of political information was not enough to realize political change, the political information that Sudanese diasporic online users got from the website ‘sudaneseonline.com’ was crucial for depriving the current Sudanese Government from claiming democracy, for revealing iii corruption, for recognizing the manipulation of the Constitution and civil service. Undemocratic governments were keen to control the amount and the type of information their populations can get. The obtaining of political information was a significant factor in undermining undemocratic governments, which employ the resources of the state, including manipulated constitutions and judiciaries, to deprive their populations from acquiring political information, which is a human right according to international, regional, and local laws. Political online deliberations among Sudanese diasporic users have shown some negative behaviors such as the usage of abusive language and defamation. ‘Sudaneseonline.com’ website was characterized by the sole proprietary ownership structure, which may affect the efficiency of the website in terms of freedom of expression, enforcement of laws and regulations of the Discussions Board, continuity, and technical advancement. iv DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to the true democrat, Ustadh Saa’eed A. Sheib, to my loving father, Abdelgadir A. Mudawi, to my great mother, Algamria M. Ahmed, and to my dearest sister, Salwa A. Mudawi, who passed away before I was born. Last but not least, I dedicate it to my gorgeous wife, Enayat A. Elhassan, and our beautiful children, Mahmoud, Abdelgadir, Amna, Ahmed, and Mr. Fixed Wrist, Ali. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my deep gratitude and appreciation to my supervisor and committee chair, Dr. Steve Howard, for his continuous encouragement and tireless effort to get this work done. I have known Steve, as he modestly likes all people to call him, for almost thirty years. When I began with my undergraduate education at the University of Gezira in Sudan on 1988, Steve was a visiting professor at the Department of Rural Development. I used to visit him in his home in the rural university campus, Nishaishiba. It was familiar in the campus to see Steve putting on his Sudanese traditional clothes, A’raqi wa Sirwal, and conversing with people in Sudanese Arabic Dialect with his charming Khawaja’s accent and a cheerful face. After 12 years, when Steve returned to Sudan and visited his old department, I was hired by the same department as a faculty and became the head-department, with a master degree in Development Planning and humble opportunities to pursue my higher education. Steve inspired me to come to the United States and pursue a PhD degree. My sincere appreciation goes to my mentor Steve for his academic guidance, inspiration, and dedication to accomplish this dissertation. My deep gratitude and appreciation also go to members of the Academic Advisory Committee: Dr. Benjamin Bates, School of Communication Studies, Dr. Ghirmai Negash, Department of English, and Dr Jenny Nelson, School of Media Arts and Studies. I deeply thank them for their valuable discussions, comments, suggestions, corrections and reading several draft papers. Without their help and guidance through the academic course, this project could not have been completed. My deep thanks go to the ex-members of the Academic Advisory Committee, Dr. Francis Godwill, who moved to another institution and Dr. vi Duncan Brown, who left his footprint on this dissertation. My deep thanks go to the professors I took classes with. I really would like to mention the name of each one of them, but they are too many to fit in these concise pages. A sincere appreciation goes to the administrative staff of School of Media Arts and Studies. They were always ready to help, particularly Ms. Paula Carpenter. My deep thanks go to Mr. Bakri Abubakr, the founder and administrator of the website ‘suaneseonline.com’, who provided me with all the information I needed to carry out this study. My deep thanks go to the research participants, the interviewees, members of the Discussion Board, and survey respondents, whose contributions were the backbone of this study. My deep gratitude goes to Dr. Krista MacCallum Beatty, the Director of International Student and Faculty Services, who helped me in many immigration and administrative issues and her husband Dr. Patrick Beatty, the University Associate Registrar, and their small family, for being great friends. My deep gratitude is due to my parents and siblings, who sacrificed several things to let me finish my degree, particularly my elder brother and friend Mr. Atif A. Mudawi, who financed my first master degree, during his 25 years period working in the United Arab of Emirates, supporting his extended family. My deep gratitude goes to all my sweet friends in Athens Campus, from all nationalities and walks of life, which made my campus’s life full of joy and richness. Special thanks to the doctoral candidate in Education Administration, Ms. Tegwa Idriss, whom I knew when we were freshmen in the path of academia at the University of Khartoum, for the interesting discussions we had and the wonderful memories we recalled. Special thanks are due to our family friends Ustadh Omer Hawari, Dr. Esameldin Al-Hadi, Ustadh Fayiz A. Abdelmageed, Dr. Salah Musa, Ms. Nada Ja’far, vii Mr. Mohamed Babikr, Ms. Samia Hamoudi, and Dr. Abbas Hussein for their continuous encouragement. Last not least, my heart goes to my gorgeous wife, Enayat Elhassan, who has been working long hours, to provide me with some time to study. Thanks from the bottom of my heart go to our beautiful children, who filled our life with laughter and exciting moments. Many times, I struggled to turn my back to their fuss and get back to work. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iii Dedication ............................................................................................................................v Acknowledgments.............................................................................................................. vi List of Tables .....................................................................................................................xv List of Figures .................................................................................................................. xvi Chapter 1: Introduction ........................................................................................................1 The Emergence of Sudanese Online Communities ..........................................................1 Context: The Militarization of Sudanese Polity..............................................................2 Context: Freedom of Expression ....................................................................................3 Context: Civil Society Associations ...............................................................................5 Armed Conflicts in Sudan .................................................................................................6 Failure of Democratization in Sudan ................................................................................7 The Split of Sudan ............................................................................................................8