Digital Marketing, Advertising, Communication

This article analyses the dynamics and transformations of Moroccan telecommunications within the context of globalisation and technological advancement in the late 1990s. The Moroccan government developed an electronic strategy, known as the E-Morocco, to bring the country into an information-based society. This article examines recent innovative policies on issues of liberal institutional environment, telecommunications infrastructure, IT education and training, e-commerce applications and electronic governance, in order to explore the national telecommunications strategy and to track Moroccan entrance into an era of the network society.

This chapter presents a synoptic analysis of the interplay between video games and their innovative applications by state and non-state actors in the USA and the Middle East. There is a relationship between video games and power that reflects opposing cultural systems, values and identities. The starting assumption of this chapter is that video games are increasingly gaining power as a political communication instrument in various civilizational and cultural contexts. It argues that video games and the spread of violent normative discourses are closely related in a glocalized world. Like Helga Tawil-Souri in her article ‘The Political Battlefield of Pro-Arab Videogames on Palestinian Streets’, I conceive video games as a serious research topic. My chapter is about the various uses of video games by actors such as US army instructors and Islamist jihadists to recruit gamers as followers in the fight for power and hegemony. The focus will be on the use of video games for different objectives such as recruiting, training, mobilizing, (mis)informing and constructing identities and counter-identities. I suggest that video games appear to be a new site of global power configuration in civilizational and cultural ‘fault line’ conflicts.

A three-variant typology of video games is used to analyze neo imperialist, Islamist and Islamic video games. The interpretations and conclusions will be supported by selected empirical references and contextual details from different countries such as Lebanon, Syria and the USA. I first provide a theoretical framework based on Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of social action. I then categorize three types of video games and explore how state and non-state actors adapt them to real conflict situations within a contemporary international framework. Finally, I discuss why and how these actors use video games as a new instrument of political communication.

The Moroccan case provides a poignant lens through which one can examine the relationships between democratisation and the mass media in the Arab world. With the trend towards political liberalization of the 1990s, the Moroccan information system has witnessed some dramatic changes. Of primary significance to this study is the emergence of the independent press and its role in the promotion and consolidation of democracy; changes following the socialists rise to power in 1997 mainly affecting print media more than the audio visual media. The growing power of the independent press has led to a conflict-filled relationship with the socialist-led government.

This entry focuses on the media systems in the Maghreb countries. The Maghreb (Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia) as a political entity is characterized by authoritarian structures. The regimes are omnipresent in almost every aspect of daily life, including the media sector. The countries in question share strong similarities in terms of their early historical development, their French colonial past, the nature of their media systems, the journalism practiced, their media laws, and their common struggle to increase press freedom, access to information, and protection of journalists. Tunisia has the most authoritarian regime and thus the most restrictive media policies. Morocco is the most liberal of the countries and thus has the least restricted media. Algeria exists in the middle of the spectrum. In recent times, the media landscapes in the three North African countries have changed under the combined impact of the globalization process and information and communication technologies. In Algeria there are about 40 daily → newspapers and → magazines in circulation. The daily newspaper with the widest circulation is Al Khabar (500,000). The circulation of daily newspapers is about 3 million, which is 9 percent of the population. Since 1990, the Algerian press has been governed by the “Information Code.” Politics is viewed as combat rather than contest, and journalists are hampered...

Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world. It is especially popular among young people who are connected to the social media platforms. This entry explores the different uses of social media by many religious individuals and organizations. The focus will be on the role that social media plays in disseminating Islamic faith among social media adopters worldwide. It will, thereby, focus on how social digital platforms have markedly impacted the social life of many Muslims, including their religious practices, their religiosity, their preaching, their issuing fatwas, their building virtual communities in the Muslim majority countries or in Diasporas.

The importance of nation branding in contemporary glocalised market is arguably undeniable. In recent times, nation branding has emerged as one of the key strategies for positioning nations in the global map. As nation branding and sports diplomacy continue to gain significance in terms of branding countries and cultures, the diplomacy associated with sports and sport media coverage will likely be the center of the world diplomatic stages.  John Nauright pointed that governments use large-scale sports events to attract global media coverage that in turn attract tourists and investments (Nauright, 2004). Many Gulf national governments have been racing to host and associate their countries’ names with globally prestigious sports events. They have been using marketing strategies to brand their countries. Hosting prestigious sporting events of global reach will undoubtedly be a decisive factor in branding Gulf countries and make them visible on the world map. In a world saturated with brands, small nations have embraced sport events as excellent opportunities to facilitate engaging experiences and emotions with people. In recent times, the three small Gulf countries have adopted sport sponsorship for a number of reasons. The objectives of the sports sponsorships are designed to create awareness through exposure and to generate goodwill vis-à-vis the nation. According to the research findings, the three countries have a positive and favorable image on global map. These global sports sponsorships can offer small states a truly global presence that is envied by others. This paper aims to provide an understanding of nation branding in the Gulf region.