Senior Award Winners 2022
Best E-portfolio
Hana Elshehaby (GU-Q)
Expression in Repression: Independent Filmmaking in Post Revolution Egypt
This portfolio engages with independent filmmaking as a central outlet for expression following the 2011 revolution. It engages with three main facets which are exploring the importance of independent filmmaking, assessing the barriers facing filmmakers on the technical/industrial side, and providing an overview of several salient narrative functions of independent film post revolution. In this portfolio, I find that independent filmmaking is critical to understanding the public’s, through filmmaker’s, perception of the revolution and its impact on society. I also find that the industry is significantly difficult to navigate as financial, political, and industrial barriers restrict filmmakers’ ability to exercise their full agency. Overall, this portfolio sheds light on one of the, rare, channels through which Egyptians are able to practice a certain degree of free expression.
Faculty mentor: Prof. Scott Curtis (NU-Q)
CMAP E-portfolio: https://sites.google.com/u.northwestern.edu/hana-elshehaby-cmap/home?authuser=0
Best Thesis
Aisha Al-Kuwari (GU-Q)
How Media and Culture Affect Pandemic Responses: Masks and Ehteraz in Qatar
During the pandemic in Qatar, the media, specifically social media, became a battleground where people were very vocal about their thoughts on the government’s way of dealing with COVID-19. Through the pandemic, Twitter proved to be the leading site of the battle where prevention measures, the government’s vaccine campaign, the citizen’s rights to delete Ehteraz, and the rights of the unvaccinated were heavily contested. This continued altercation between the Qatari citizens and the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Public Health better showed the media’s significance, especially regarding a battle of perception between the media and the state. Using the case study of Qatar and focusing on two particular aspects of the state’s public health response, the instance on mask-wearing and the Ehteraz application, this paper argues that in Qatar, media and culture meditated how state and society responded to the pandemic. Specifically, this paper looks at mediatized and cultural dimensions of resistance for those who did not wear masks and download the application under the threat of prosecution.
Faculty mentor: Prof. Uday Chandra
Best Reflective Essay
Ena Palaska (NU-Q)
Nationalism on Social Media: The Role of Conflict and Resilience Narratives in Building Identity
My presentation is about nationalism and its role in inducing identity through narratives of resilience and conflict in social media. I look at the cases of Kosovo and Serbia on social media as explored through the experiences of Dua Lipa and Novak Djokovic portrayed through narratives of conflict and resilience and how such experiences play a role in modern-day nationalism.
Faculty mentor: Prof. Banu Akdenizli
Best Translation of Research
Noora Al-Mana (NU-Q)
Brexit as a Media Crisis
A key theme that I came to realize while studying for the Media and Politics minor is that political expediency often motivates the policy choices of governments, which are then supported and justified by the mainstream media. What I am going to be arguing in this presentation is an idea that is related to this theme. I will argue that the impact of the media on citizens is substantial, complicated, and has a long-term effect on them, especially because of the misperceptions that the media can circulate. The politics surrounding Britain’s exit from the European Union will be used as my case study. The argument will counter the widely held view inside and outside of academia that the media does not change people’s opinions and instead, simply reinforces people’s existing ones and thus, has a relatively inconsequential political impact.
Faculty mentor: Prof. Scott Curtis
AND
Talila Almohannadi (GU-Q)
Media Censorship of the Palestinian Conflict during Sheikh Jarrah Clashes on Instagram
Social media platforms are not only used for day-to-day communication but have grown to become important news outlets- a quick way of spreading and engaging in important discourse- and most importantly key catalysts of social movements. Preventing certain groups from using or sharing content related to battles they go through every single day, or censoring this content, is a form of repression by platforms that claim to be unbiased and by ones that promote freedom of expression. Furthermore, restricting the area under which this content could be viewed will certainly slow down people’s reactions towards the issues at hand. Lastly, opening up these platforms for one end rather than both ends, and allowing only certain content to be uploaded and without the other, certainly does affect the public opinion since that is the only content they receive. In this presentation I will be reviewing the case of censorship of the Palestinian conflict by Instagram, specifically during the Sheikh Jarrah clashes. This will demonstrate the importance of these platforms, ways in which the content concerning the issue is being targeted, and finally the effects of social movements and reactions towards them.
Faculty mentor: Professor Yehia A. Mohamed
CMAP E-portfolio: https://sites.google.com/georgetown.edu/talila-almohannadi-portfolio/home
