Section Head Election 2016 - Candidate statements

Islam and Media Working Group

The IAMCR Islam and Media Working Group will hold elections during the group business meeting at the upcoming IAMCR conference in Leicester. Both the chair and the two vice-chairs positions are open. The terms run for four years.

Basyouni Hamada will step down after two terms as a Chair. The current vice-Chair Dr. Mahmoud Galander will run for reelection as a Chair. He spent 4 years only in his current position. Dr. Bushra Rahman, the second vice-chair, will also run for reelection. This means that all positions are open for new candidates.

Responsibilities include all phases of conference programming for the section as well as participation in association-wide decision-making, both during face to face meetings before and sometimes after the annual conference and, between conferences, online.  Within that remit, there is room for a great deal of creativity in conceptualizing, organizing, and populating group; engaging in substantive and programmatic collaborations with other groups and sections; stimulating collaborative research; working with emerging scholars; and so on.

Nominations and self-nominations for any of the three positions are welcome. Interested candidates should send their name, institutional position and a statement (maximum 500 words) to the current chair, Basyouni Hamada <basyouni.hamada[at]gmail.com>, with a copy to IAMCR General Secretary Maria Michalis <M.Michalis[at]westminster.ac.uk> and to the IAMCR secretariat <membership[at]iamc.org>. The deadline for submitting candidacies is July 13.

Candidates and statements

For Chair:

For Vice-chair:

Statements

Mahmoud M. Galander, Qatar University, Qatar 

Being a scholar who has been fully engaged in teaching, researching and writing on issues of Media from an Islamic perspective, I find myself suitably fit to contribute to the group and to the organization. I have dedicated most of my work for issues of media and Islam, most of my main articles and books deal with such a perspective. I have been involved with an international project of islamization of communication, and have worked on achieving the goals by blending modern approaches in research and theory in mass communication with the values and tenets of Muslims.  As a communication educator since the mid-1990s, I have gained the experience of working in various Arab and Muslim communities which possess different Islamic and Arabic socio cultural dimensions. Extending from Sub-Saharan Africa to the Maghreb, to southeast Asia and the Gulf.

My intent as the chair of the group is to bring about broad understanding between Muslim and other members of the IAMCR, to strengthen the relations among all groups of the organization and to dispel misconceptions and misunderstanding.

Thank you

Mohamed Kirat, Qatar University, Qatar

In today troubled world, Non-Muslims and Muslims alike more than ever before became victims of terror and violence by people pretending to act "in the name of Islam". Misunderstanding and prejudice seem to grow on both sides even though information systems and means of communication are highly sophisticated and easily accessed by millions. In the era of communication, wars begin, continue and end with media. The news media coverage, interpretation and analysis of what’s going on in the globe is what shapes and forms public opinion ant attitudes and perceptions of others. Unfortunately, manipulation, disinformation, misinformation, framing and propaganda are the main characteristics of the coverage and depiction of Islam and Islamic related issues. IAMCR Islam and media group will work diligently to promote, encourage and develop scholarship that investigates and study the multiple aspects of media and Islam throughout nations, countries and cultures of the world. As a faculty member and researcher in the field of Mass Communication for the past 30 years, and having attended conferences and conducted research on the topic I’ll be working on having Islam and Media group as a scientific forum to exchange panels, research, seminars and round tables about the issue for the sole purpose of understanding truly, objectively and systematically the whereabouts of the polemics and misunderstandings of one another. A scientific dialogue should be established by mass communication researchers from around the globe interested in investigating the issue which is getting more and more complex and complicated. The objective is to close the gap and clarify thing for both parties for a better understanding and communication between nations, countries and civilizations of the world.

To achieve this goal we have to increase research worldwide in terms of quantity and quantity and to get mass communication scholars from both East and West to look at the issue of islamophobia, terrorism, violence, racism and hatred in a more scientific, systematic and objective manner. The world will be much better with media systems and news organizations engaged more in dialogue and understanding rather than manipulation, propaganda, hatred and the exclusion of the other. Through research countries and nations of the world will understand each other much better for a better communication and cooperation and global peace and harmony. The whole world nowadays is suffering from terrorism, Muslims and non Muslims alike.

Bushra Raman, University of the Punjab, Pakistan

I have been an active member of IAMCR for the past six years and have been serving as Vice president of Islam and Media group for the last four years. I am an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Communication Studies at the University of the Punjab. My research areas of interest include feminism and Muslim feminism, Muslim women portrayals in the western media, Muslim women in religious discourses, religious discourses in Pakistan, peace journalism, critical discourse analysis, media and public opinion and ethical values in journalism education and practice.

I am running for a second term for the position of Vice President. I believe a second term will allow me to better to serve the Islam and Media Working Group by extending  the strength of the Group. I would like to work to make the Group more inclusive and bring in more diversity for more in-depth scholarship on issues relating to communication and the Muslim world. I feel that the group can play a key role in coordinating and disseminating the research in the Muslim world, opening new possibilities for change.

In the age of global and transnational media, an urgent need has developed to consider new parameters of global ethics in journalism education and practice. In this context I would like to see the Group working more for transnational codes of ethics going beyond the established codes framed for nation states and in the context of localized professionalism. I feel that the Group can play an important role to work for the values and traditions of diverse cultures and seek common universal principles that can be accepted cross culturally. I would like to work specifically from the stand point of Islam and other religions on the issue of freedom of expression and universal ethics.

I envision the Group to work for theory building in communication studies from an Islamic perspective; with both inductive and deductive methods of theory building embedded in empirical research useful for society, like in the context of environment, gender, ethics, conflict, politics etc.

In consultation with other group members, would like to initiate activities and creative ways to mobilize more scholarship in Islam and media. For example, to reinvigorate the Group, scholars of international standing on different issues relating to media and Islam can be invited. Since, I have an experience as an editor of a research journal, Journal of Media Studies, with other group members we can get the articles published and improve the academic standing of research on Islam and Media. We can work further by strengthening the Group’s links with other organizations working for Muslim scholarship. My vision for Islam and Media group is to make it an internationally renowned and highly reliable source of media research.

Sections and Working Groups