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Public Space and Civic Journalism in Tunisia
Abstract
This paper will analyze the new stakes faced by Tunisia through the case study of the journalistic practices in the post-revolutionary time. I will first analyze the new journalistic practices in Tunisia where civic/citizen journalism plays a growing role, with activists writing on unusual topics and using the web. A transition has taken place wherein militants, such as cyber activists, cyber dissidents, and bloggers have evolved into professional journalists. However, their freedom of expression is limited by censorship. At the same time, using new technologies, they are promoting new practices such as networked journalism and online journalism, which involve the public. The new professional journalists are very important because they did not really exist during Ben Ali’s presidency when journalism was quasi-inexistent. Most professional journalists then suffered from the lack of formation. Nowadays there is in Tunisia a lack of professional journalists. Due to the media boom, several TV channels have opened but professional journalists are very rare. As a result, these new media outlets have begun recruiting bloggers who are becoming professional journalists. New demands from the population for the right to information and transparency are putting pressure on Post-revolutionary journalism in Tunisia to introduce reforms.
Discipline
History
Geographic Area
Tunisia
Sub Area
Mediterranean Studies