Assistant Professorial Research Fellow
Dr Fatima el-Issawi is a Assistant Professorial Research Fellow at the LSE Middle East Centre, currently leading on a collaboration project with the American University of Dubai entitled 'Arab National Media and Politics: Democracy Revisited', looking at changes in media practices in traditional media industries in Morocco and Algeria. This project builds on previous research led between 2012 and 2014, based at POLIS in the Department of Media and Communications LSE. The project looked at the transformations brought by the transitional political landscape to Arab traditional media in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. The in-depth field data was instrumental in mapping trends in traditional media under transitions providing sustained and updated data on the intricate link between media and democratisation in Arab countries under transition. This study was made possible thanks to a grant from Open Society Foundation.
Fatima has over 15 years of experience in covering the Middle East for international media such as Agence France Presse (AFP) and the BBC Arabic Service, with a specific expertise in Iraq and Lebanon. She is also media consultant for several media development and international agencies including the European Commission, the Council of Europe and the Doha Centre for media Freedom.
Contact Details
Email: f.el-issawi@lse.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)20 7955 6554
Mob: +44 (0)78 1806 0462
Twitter: @ElIssawi
Research Interests
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Media policy in the MENA region;
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Media practices in transitional contexts;
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Arab journalism: Human rights, ethics and democracy;
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Media and politics;
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Gender in Arab newsrooms;
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Reporting conflicts.
Selected Publications
Books
Articles in Refereed Journals
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“Towards an “alternative” public space? A Moroccan case study,” Journalism, 2017 (forthcoming).
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with Bart Cammaerts, “Shifting journalistic roles in democratic transitions: lessons from Egypt,” Journalism 17/5 (2016), pp. 549-566.
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“Women and media: Libyan female journalists from Gaddafi media to post-revolution: case study.” CyberOrient 8/1 (2014).
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“The Arab Spring and the challenge of minority rights: will the Arab revolutions overcome the legacy of the past?” European View 10/2 (2011), pp. 249–258.
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with Gerd Baumann, “The BBC Arabic Service: Changing Political Mediascapes”, Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication 3/2 (2010), pp. 137–151.
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with Myria Georgiou, “Media Use at the Crossroads: Nicosia”, Journalism 11/6 (2010), pp. 758–763.
Book Chapters
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“Arab transitional media: A comparative analysis of Tunisian, Libyan and Egyptian traditional media industries”, in Mohamed Zayani and Suzi Mirghani (eds), Bullets and Bulletins: Media and Politics in the Wake of the Arab Uprisings (London: Hurst, 2016).
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“Tunisian media and political polarization: glorifying the self, rejecting the other", in Pietro Longo and Azzura Meringolo (eds), The Tunisian Media: Between Polarization and Compromise: Arab media report (Rome: Reset - Dialogues on Civilizations, 2015), pp. 33–48.
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“The role of Egyptian media in the coup”, IEMed Mediterranean Yearbook 2014 (Barcelona: The European Institute of the Mediterranean, 2014), pp. 299–304.
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“The Tunisian transition: the evolving face of the second republic,” in Nicholas Kitchen(ed), After the Arab Spring: Power Shift in the Middle East? IDEAS reports - special reports (London: IDEAS, London School of Economics and Political Science, 2012), pp. 18–22.
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“A female journalist or a woman who happens to be a member of the press?” in Anisah al-Amin et al. (eds), Information and Communication in our Society (Beirut: Lebanese Association of Women Researchers (Bahithat), Vol.VI, 1999-2000), pp. 450–464.
Policy Publications
Selected Press Articles/Blog Posts