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Politics and Digital Literature in the Middle East pp 113–137Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Challenges of Online Distribution

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Abstract

Authors turn to online publishing for many reasons. One of them is the possibility to distribute their works with a relatively low barrier for publication—this means that texts do not need to be approved by either editors, publishers, or governmental institutions. This chapter will identify challenges to online literature, such as the impact of digital media on political conditions, as well as the influence of authoritarian regimes on literary texts. These texts are strongly influenced by internet censorship as well as global and local influence on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) use. This chapter begins by detailing the peculiarities and politics of censorship in various countries before concluding. The second part of the chapter deals with the challenges that occur through publishing in digital media. These challenges include issues of redistribution of literary works as well as crediting the original source.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Helen V. Milner , “The Digital Divide: The Role of Political Institutions in Technology Diffusion”, in Comparative Political Studies 39, no. 2, 2006, pp. 176–199, p. 184.

  2. 2.

    Yochai Benkler , The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom, New Haven 2006.

  3. 3.

    Ibid., p. 92.

  4. 4.

    Marshall McLuhan , Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, New York 1964. And The Medium is the Message, New York 1967.

  5. 5.

    https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-net/2015/united-arab-emirates, https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-press/2015/oman, https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-press/2015/kuwait, https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2016/bahrain, https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2016/saudi-arabia, last accessed December 29, 2017.

  6. 6.

    Freedom House Report 2015, https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-press/2016/egypt, last accessed December 29, 2017.

  7. 7.

    Freedom House Report 2015, https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-press/2015/lebanon, last accessed December 29, 2017.

  8. 8.

    This is also true for other countries that had uprisings in 2011.

  9. 9.

    Veva Leye , “UNESCO, ICT corporations and the passion of ICT for development: modernization resurrected”, in Media Culture Society, 29, no. 6, 2007, pp. 972–993, p. 983f.

  10. 10.

    Gert Lovink , Zero Comments: Blogging and Critical Internet Culture, London 2007.

  11. 11.

    Ethan Bronner and Michael Slackman , “Saudi Troops Enter Bahrain to Help Put Down Unrest”, in New York Times, March 14, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/15/world/middleeast/15bahrain.html?pagewanted=all, last accessed January 16, 2012.

  12. 12.

    Omar Al-Shehabi . “Political Movements in Bahrain Across the Long Twentieth Century (1900–2015).” Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Middle-Eastern and North African History. Amal Ghazal and Jens Hanssen (eds). April 2017. http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199672530.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199672530-e-27?mediaType=Article.

  13. 13.

    Jon Nordenson , We Want Five!: Kuwait, the internet, and the public sphere, Saarbrücken 2010.

  14. 14.

    Sarah Hoffmann , “Give Us Back Our Bahrain”, on pen.org, June 9, 2011, http://www.pen.org/blog/?p=71, last accessed January 16, 2012.

  15. 15.

    See also Nele Lenze, “Protest Poetry On- and offline: trans-regional interactions in the Arabian Gulf: An example from Bahrain” In N. Lenze, C. Schriwer & Z. Abdul-Jalil (Eds.), Media in the Middle East Activism, Politics, and Culture. Palgrave, New York. pp. 203–222.

  16. 16.

    Award winning blogger, best Middle East blog in 2006, BOB best English Blog in 2011 http://www.sandmonkey.org/.

  17. 17.

    Freedom House Report 2015, https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-press/2015/lebanon, last accessed December 29, 2017.

  18. 18.

    For example, in Egypt, censorship and surveillance were further constrained following the uprisings. In 2015, it ranked as the world’s second worse gaoler of journalists. Freedom House Report 2015, https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-press/2016/egypt, last accessed December 29, 2017.

  19. 19.

    For the Gulf countries, the following framework of censorship has to be taken into account:

    KSA: Saudi Arabia filters sites related to opposition political groups, human rights issues and religious content deemed offensive to Muslims. Pornographic and gay sites are pervasively filtered, as are circumvention tools and online privacy tools. Bloggers have been arrested, and blogs and sites run by online activists have been blocked. http://opennet.net/research/profiles/saudi-arabia, last accessed January 25, 2012.

    OMAN: The Sultanate of Oman engages in extensive filtering of pornographic websites, gay and lesbian content, and anonymizer sites used to circumvent blocking. The censors have added to the blacklist content that is critical of Islam and websites on illegal drugs. Although there is no evidence of technical filtering of political content, laws and regulations restrict free expression online and encourage self-censorship. http://opennet.net/research/profiles/oman, last accessed January 25, 2012.

    QATAR: The censors in Qatar admit to filtering pornography, political criticism of Gulf countries and material deemed hostile to Islam. The authorities also pervasively filter gay and lesbian content, sexual health resources and privacy and circumvention tools. Political filtering is highly selective, but journalists self-censor on sensitive issues such as government policies, Islam and the ruling family. http://opennet.net/research/profiles/qatar, last accessed January 25, 2012.

    KUWAIT: Though the media in Kuwait are among the most outspoken in the Gulf states, journalists self-censor on issues related to the royal family. The primary target of Internet filtering is pornography and, to a lesser extent, gay and lesbian content. Secular content and websites that are critical of Islam are also censored. Some websites that are related to religions other than Islam are blocked even if they are not critical of Islam. http://opennet.net/research/profiles/kuwait, last accessed January 25, 2012.

    BAHRAIN: Bahrain is a regional ICT leader and is one of the most Internet-connected countries in the Middle East. The country’s Internet filtering regime focuses on political websites that are critical of the Bahraini government and ruling family, but also targets pornography, content related to gays and lesbians and content that is critical of Islam. http://opennet.net/research/profiles/bahrain, last accessed January 25, 2012.

  20. 20.

    William A. Rugh , Arab Mass Media: Newspapers, Radio, and Television in Arab Politics, Westport 2004, p. 71.

  21. 21.

    Survey data 2010.

  22. 22.

    Ola Erstad and James V. Wertsch , “Tales of mediation: Narrative and digital media as cultural tools”, in Knut Lundby (ed.), Digital Storytelling, Mediatized Stories. Self-representation in New Media, New York 2008, pp. 21–40, p. 35.

  23. 23.

    Cf. Robin ‘Roblimo’ Miller: “Meet Saudi Arabia’s most famous computer expert”, 2004, http://www.linux.com/articles/33695, accessed September 7, 2009.

  24. 24.

    Ibid.

  25. 25.

    Raid Qusti, “Court Rejects Case Against Rajaa Al-Sanea”, in Arab News, October 9, 2006, http://arabnews.com/?page=1&section=0&article=87886&d=9&m=10&y=2006&pix=kingdom.jpg&category=Kingdom, accessed January 4, 2012.

  26. 26.

    Ibid.

  27. 27.

    Mark Lynch , “The Structural Transformation of the Arab Public Sphere”, in: Voices of the New Arab Public: Iraq, Al-Jazeera, and Middle East Politics Today, New York 2006, p. 86.

  28. 28.

    Event: Meet the Winners of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction 2011, Venue: KITAB Sofa, Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, ADNEC, March 14, 2011, Participants: Mohammed Achaari and Raja Alem.

  29. 29.

    Joumana Haddad , I Killed Scheherazade: Confessions of an Angry Arab Woman, London 2011, p. 69.

  30. 30.

    Ibid., p. 86.

  31. 31.

    Paul Starkey , Modern Arabic literature, Edinburgh 2006, p. 144.

  32. 32.

    Eric Louw , The Media and Cultural Production, London; Thousand Oaks/New Dehli 2005, p. 46.

  33. 33.

    More information about the award can be found on http://www.sheikhmajidawards.com/about-sheikh-majid-media-award.aspx, last accessed January 4, 2012.

  34. 34.

    More on this on Hayat Alyaqut’s personal website http://www.hayatt.net/, last accessed January 2, 2012.

  35. 35.

    Global Voice online offers an overview on activities in Bahrain in the post “Bahrain Protests 2011”, December 19, 2011, http://globalvoicesonline.org/specialcoverage/bahrain-protests-2011/, last accessed December 29, 2011.

  36. 36.

    “Saudi Arabia bans protest rallies”, March 5, 2011, http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2011/03/201135143046557642.html, last accessed December 29, 2011.

  37. 37.

    “Protesters storm Kuwaiti parliament”, November 16, 2011, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15768027, last accessed December 29, 2011.

  38. 38.

    Reporters without Boarders published their last Annual Report on Saudi Arabia in 2007. http://arabia.reporters-sans-frontieres.org/article.php3?id_article=20775, last accessed May 28, 2009.

  39. 39.

    http://opennet.net/, last accessed December 29, 2011.

  40. 40.

    “Bahrain”, http://opennet.net/research/profiles/bahrain, last accessed December 29, 2011.

  41. 41.

    “Kuwait”, http://opennet.net/research/profiles/kuwait, last accessed December 29, 2011.

  42. 42.

    “Oman”, http://opennet.net/research/profiles/oman, last accessed December 29, 2011.

  43. 43.

    “Qatar”, http://opennet.net/research/profiles/qatar, last accessed December 29, 2011.

  44. 44.

    VPNs help to guarantee access to the net through an often encrypted network that prevents disclosure of private information. More on how a VPN works can be found in the video Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), posted April 6, 2010, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJdW0_yB9vo&feature=related, last accessed December 29, 2011.

  45. 45.

    Acting online through a proxy server enables users to access data that would be inaccessible due to restrictions through geofiltering or other forms of restrictions by ISPs. More on how proxy servers work can be found in a brief summary on the website of Indiana University in What is a proxy server?, May 3, 2011, http://kb.iu.edu/data/ahoo.html, last accessed December 29, 2011.

  46. 46.

    A geofilter limits access to data online according to the physical location of the user. More on geofiltering can be read in: Geofiltering: Jillian C. York, How to Alienate Business Customers Without Really Trying, March 3rd 2009 on OpenNet Initiative, http://opennet.net/blog/2009/03/geofiltering-how-alienate-business-customers-without-really-trying, last accessed December 29, 2011.

  47. 47.

    “Saudi Arabia”, http://opennet.net/research/profiles/saudi-arabia, last accessed December 29, 2011.

  48. 48.

    “United Arab Emirates”, http://opennet.net/research/profiles/uae, last accessed December 29, 2011.

  49. 49.

    Henner Kirchner , “Internet in the Arab World: A Step Towards ‘Information Society?’”, in Kai Hafez (ed.), Mass media, politics, and society in the Middle East, Cresskill 2001, p. 150.

  50. 50.

    Cf. OpenNet Initiative, entry: Saudi Arabia, http://opennet.net/research/profiles/saudi-arabia, accessed September 7, 2009.

  51. 51.

    Etisalat is 60 percent government-owned and 40 percent public-traded. DU is 40 percent government-owned, 20 percent belongs to Mubadala, which is completely owned by the Abu Dhabi Government, and 20 percent is owned by TECOM, which is a subsidiary of Dubai Holding. The rest, 20 percent, is publicly owned.

  52. 52.

    Hofheinz, Albrecht , “Arab Internet Use: Popular Trends and Public Impact”, in Naomi Sakr (ed.), Arab Media and Political Renewal: Community, Legitimacy and Public Life, London 2008, pp. 56–79, p. 57.

  53. 53.

    Henner Kirchner , “Internet in the Arab World: A Step Towards ‘Information Society?’”, in Kai Hafez (ed.), Mass media, politics, and society in the Middle East, Cresskill 2001, p. 151.

  54. 54.

    Marina Stagh , The Limits of Freedom of Speech: Prose Literature and Prose Writers in Egypt under Nasser and Sadat, Stockholm 1993, pp. 127–132.

  55. 55.

    Ibid.

  56. 56.

    Ibid., p. 132.

  57. 57.

    Blog post “Back and Blocked” from June 2nd 2006, http://eveksa.blogspot.com/2006/06/back-and-blocked.html, last accessed December 29, 2011.

  58. 58.

    This term is explained in the chapter on participatory culture.

  59. 59.

    Benkler points out that anyone can publish online “alongside the traditional mass-media environment.” Yochai Benkler , The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom, New Haven 2006, p. 214.

  60. 60.

    Axel Bruns , Blogs, Wikipedia. Second Life. and Beyond: from production to produsage, New York 2008.

  61. 61.

    Deborah Wheeler , “Blessings and Curses: Women and the Internet Revolution in the Arab World”, in Naomi Sakr (ed.), in Women and media in the Middle East: power through self-expression, London 2004, pp. 138–161, p. 160.

  62. 62.

    Deborah Wheleer . “You’ve Come A Long Way Baby: Women’s New Media Practices, Empowerment, and Everyday Life in Kuwait and the Middle East” In N. Lenze, C. Schriwer & Z. Abdul-Jalil (Eds.), Media in the Middle East Activism, Politics, and Culture. Palgrave, New York, pp. 45–67.

  63. 63.

    Survey data, 2010.

  64. 64.

    Survey data, 2010.

  65. 65.

    Rosalind Gill , Gender and the Media, Cambridge 2007, p. 17.

  66. 66.

    Cf. Sonia Farid: “No more online publishing, religious police demand Saudi poet busted for ‘sorcery’ poems”, 2008, http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2008/11/09/59794.html, last accessed September 7, 2009.

  67. 67.

    This does not mean the state agency cannot trace the IP of the user and thus identify the user.

  68. 68.

    However, by the time of publication of this book there are algorithms that can automatically filter out censored content.

  69. 69.

    Mark Poster , What’s the Matter with the Internet?, Minneapolis 2001, p. 3.

  70. 70.

    Survey data, 2010.

  71. 71.

    Cory Doctorow on The War on Kids, Boing Boing, & His Next Novel, Reason TV July 15, 2010, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLf3nldagXc, accessed November 11, 2011.

  72. 72.

    Marshall McLuhan and Quentin Fiore , The Medium is the Message. An Inventory of Effects, Corte Madre 1996, p. 122.

  73. 73.

    http://www.markosweb.com and http://www.websitelooker.com are commercial websites that measure details of users of websites and offer data analysis.

  74. 74.

    There are many reasons why this result merely serve as a benchmark as user statistics are easily manipulated by a huge variety of factors. However, this is a simple way of at least trying to place forums regionally. More on that can be read here: Loren Baker , “Alexa: Worthless & Easy to Manipulate?” September 30, 2006, http://www.searchenginejournal.com/alexa-worthless-easy-to-manipulate/3847/, last accessed December 29, 2011, and here: http://www.searchenginehistory.com/, last accessed December 29, 2011.

  75. 75.

    Survey data, 2010.

  76. 76.

    A distribution on Twitter is called a “Tweet”, a re-distribution on Twitter is called a “Retweet”.

  77. 77.

    Larry Friedlander , “Narrative strategies in a digital age. Authorship and authority”, in Knut Lundby (ed.), Digital Storytelling, Mediatized Stories. Self-representation in New Media, New York 2008, pp. 177–196, p. 180.

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    Nele Lenze

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Lenze, N. (2019). Challenges of Online Distribution. In: Politics and Digital Literature in the Middle East. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76816-8_6

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