Courtney C. Radsch
Encyclopedia
Courtney Radsch is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 journalist, author and free expression advocate. She is currently the Freedom of Expression Officer at Freedom House
Freedom House
Freedom House is an international non-governmental organization based in Washington, D.C. that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom and human rights...

. She has written and been interviewed extensively about digital activism and social media in the Middle East since 2006.

Work

Radsch is an internationally recognized expert on social media, citizen journalism, and activism and is frequently invited to comment about new media and the Middle East. She has appeared on Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera is an independent broadcaster owned by the state of Qatar through the Qatar Media Corporation and headquartered in Doha, Qatar...

, Al Hurra, CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...

 among other international outlets. Radsch was also interviewed for the PBS Frontline documentary Revolution in Egypt.

Radsch’s work on cyberactivism in the Egypt and the Middle East has been widely published and she is frequently asked to speak on the subject. Radsch is one of the earliest proponents of the political impact of cyberactivism in the Middle East and analysts of Arab media. As early as 2006 Radsch was writing about the revolutionary impact of blogging and social media in Egypt; in 2006 she presented a paper entitled “The Revolution Will be Blogged: New Media Cultural Configurations” at a conference in Cairo. Radsch’s Arab Media blog, started in 2006, is one of the longest-running blogs on the topic. Radsch is the author of several book chapters about cyberactivism, social media and the Middle East.

In Core the Commonplace she traced the development of cyberactivism in Egypt, arguing that there were three distinct phases in the development of blogging: experimentation, activism and diversification and that blogging was having a significant political impact. Her extensive ethnographic research on Egyptian cyberactivism provides a unique insight into the antecedents of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution
Egyptian Revolution
Egyptian revolution may refer to:* Egyptian revolution of 2011, a series of mass popular protests leading to the resignation of Hosni Mubarak* Egyptian revolution of 1952, led by Muhammad Naguib, Gamal Abdel Nasser, and the Free Officers Movement...

. In her chapter on the blogosphere and social media in a study by the Stimson Center, Seismic Shift: Understanding Change in the Middle East she argues that between 2005 and 2010 Middle Eastern blogs and social media showed rising dissatisfaction with the status quo, declining levels of fear and visible capability to mobilize large political protests.

Career

Radsch began working as a professional journalist in 2003 when she worked as a news editor at The Daily Star (Lebanon). She then worked for the New York Times in the Washington Bureau where she covered the 2004 elections, Abu Ghraib
Abu Ghraib
The city of Abu Ghraib in the Baghdad Governorate of Iraq is located just west of Baghdad's city center, or northwest of Baghdad International Airport. It has a population of 189,000. The old road to Jordan passes through Abu Ghraib...

, politics and culture

In 2005, Radsch left the Times to pursue a Ph.D. in international relations at American University
American University
American University is a private, Methodist, liberal arts, and research university in Washington, D.C. The university was chartered by an Act of Congress on December 5, 1892 as "The American University", which was approved by President Benjamin Harrison on February 24, 1893...

, where her research focused on cyberactivism in Egypt. She was also interim managing editor at the Development Executive Group in 2008.

In 2008, Radsch was hired by the Saudi-owned, Dubai-based Arabic satellite channel Al Arabiya
Al Arabiya
Al Arabiya is a Pan-Arabist Saudi-owned Arabic-language television news channel. Launched on March 3, 2003, the channel is based in Dubai Media City, United Arab Emirates, and is majority-owned by the Saudi broadcaster Middle East Broadcasting Center ....

 as the English website managing editor. As a journalist and editor at Al Arabiya she oversaw the expansion of the English website, www.AlArabiya.net/English, and its integration into the broader newsroom. In October 2009 she published an article about safety problems on Emirates Airlines, whose president Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum. is also the head of the Civil Regulatory Authority and the uncle of Dubai’s ruler, H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum. According to Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders is a France-based international non-governmental organization that advocates freedom of the press. It was founded in 1985, by Robert Ménard, Rony Brauman and the journalist Jean-Claude Guillebaud. Jean-François Julliard has served as Secretary General since 2008...

, she lost her job at Al Arabiya as a result of the article. The Australian newspaper, which originally broke the story about the safety problems, covered her dismissal. The article quoted an Emirates Airlines official denying that it had pressured the station and its PR firm claimed inaccuracies in the article, but did not specify what they were. Radsch worked for Al Arabiya from 2008 to 2009.
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