Research

Sahar Khamis discusses the complex and evolving role of digital and social media, particularly within the Arab and Muslim world with host John Pinna. They explore the concept of social media as a “double-edged sword,” discussing its initial promise as a tool for liberation during events like the Arab Spring and its subsequent co-opting by authoritarian regimes for repression and control. 

Listen to Sahar Khamis on “Crossing Faiths”

Studies on strategic visual political communication on social media have taken various cultural turns globally. This chapter uses a visual rhetorical approach to analyze 277 photographs of the President of Ghana’s Facebook page (H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo) after he was sworn into office in 2021. Considering the thematic, conceptual, and thought-provoking implications of visual rhetoric, the findings indicated that the President of Ghana constructed national images of Ghana’s rich cultural heritage, its decorous political sphere, Ghana’s security preparedness, as well as its commitment to ethics, legal, and moral uprightness. The chapter discusses the finding’s broader implications for strategic communication and argues that visual rhetoric contributes to the praxis of strategic political communication. 

This book chronicles the transformative impact of CMOS sensor technology on the global DIY filmmaking community. Through the lens of an ethnographer and outsider filmmaker, the author explores how digital cameras have democratized the art of filmmaking, allowing amateurs to create professional-quality films on a shoestring budget. The journey begins with the author's own experience creating Aspirin for the Masses, a feature film shot for just $500, and extends into the broader world of no-budget filmmaking. Key concepts include the rise of the "Am-Auteur," the role of film festivals in identity creation, and the cultural capital of low-cost cinema. The book examines how digital technology has redefined notions of media dissolution and creation, offering new pathways for identity formation. It also delves into the performative aspects of film festivals, where outsider artists gain socio-cultural status. This book is essential for scholars, filmmakers, and anyone interested in the intersection of technology and art. It offers a unique perspective on how digital cameras have reshaped the filmmaking landscape, empowering a new generation of creators to challenge traditional norms and redefine what it means to be an auteur in the digital age.

The present study examines the factors influencing international students’ intentions to use generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). Our results showed that attitude toward GenAI use, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, enjoyment, subjective norms, novelty, trust in technology, perceived value, and AI literacy were positively associated with intention to use GenAI. Fear of plagiarism had a negative relationship with intention to use GenAI. Our mediation analysis suggested that trust in technology, perceived ease of use, fear of plagiarism, perceived usefulness, and AI literacy indirectly influenced GenAI usage intention via attitude and perceived value, underscoring both the appeal and concerns of GenAI in learning. This study contributed to the TPB, VAM, and TAM frameworks by incorporating fear of plagiarism, trust in technology, and AI literacy to demonstrate how cognitive, affective, and value-based factors collectively influence the adoption of GenAI technologies among international students.

The study examines local newspaper coverage of Afghan resettlement in the U.S. after the end of America’s ‘longest war’ in 2021. The papers are prominent news outlets of the counties where the military bases housing evacuees are located. We use a mixed-methods approach to examine news articles collected over an eighteen-month period. The study will analyze prominent sources, characteristics of evacuees, and themes in coverage. Themes were derived using both inductive and deductive methods. ‘America as land of opportunity’ and ‘moral obligation’ were dominant themes. Study results will provide a temporal marker that allows researchers to measure future changes in community attitudes towards evacuees. Thematic analysis demonstrates linkages between discourses such as moral obligation, migrants as threats, and process and how they help maintain U.S. power and hegemony. Rendering a critique of news coverage by analyzing how articles deployed and resisted these dominant themes, the study hopes to contribute towards a more nuanced approach towards media coverage of forced migration.

Instagram has become an essential platform for youth engagement and political campaign discourse. This study builds on this strand of knowledge by analyzing how the U.S. Vice President and the Democratic party’s presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, employed the platform during the 2024 campaigns over 5months by assessing the narratives as well as user fantasies. Findings indicated that the narratives emphasized her administration’s political achievements and positions, her commitment to amplifying every voice, her personal and social identity, as well as global voice and initiatives. These narratives generate two fantasy themes around her personalized leadership style, impact, and ideological positioning. Harris’s campaign discourse on Instagram conformed to the identity expectations of the American electorates and the youth-dominated platform dynamics, positioning her as an advocate for equity.

Intercultural Public Relations: Insights from the Middle East is co-authored by UMD COMM Associate Professor Dr. Ganga Dhanesh along with Dr. Ruth Avidar, Senior Lecturer at Yezreel Valley College. This book explores how culture shapes public relations in the Middle East, focusing on Israel and the UAE. Using the Global Public Relations Framework (GPRF), it examines how political, economic, social, and organizational cultures influence key PR practices such as identity, reputation, listening, and engagement. Through an interpretive, inductive approach, the book highlights the interplay between local and global cultural forces, offering fresh insights into PR in non-Western contexts. It’s a valuable resource for scholars, practitioners, and students of global PR, intercultural communication, and Middle Eastern studies.  

This paper offers a rhetorical analysis to read the San Francisco “Comfort Women” Column of Strength memorial within the context of the United States’ historical violence against Asian women with white sexual imperialism as a theoretical lens. Utilizing in situ rhetorical field methods and critical rhetorical criticism, I contend that the San Francisco “Comfort Women” Column of Strength memorial illuminates how the medium of a public memorial faces certain constraints and difficulties in being able to name and critique U.S. imperialism as a historical narrative to be publicly remembered in dominant national memory. I offer transnational global memoryscape, extending Phillips and Reyes’ global memoryscape, as a concept that necessarily draws our attention specifically towards unequal forces of power across borders, such as Western imperialist forces in Asia. Ultimately, a critical, transnational lens on public memory is imperative to situate national public memories within a global context as memories flow across borders.

In "Why Diplomacy Demands More Than Intelligence," Lamia Zia and Andrew Rolander grapple with important issues relating to diplomacy. Situating their arguments in historical context, the researchers describe how diplomacy and intelligence share a symbiotic relationship, where one informs the other and neither can operate alone. Zia and Rolander ultimately argue that, "Diplomacy’s true power lies not just in what you know, but in how you use it to connect, persuade, and lead." 

Mpox (formerly monkeypox) is a zoonotic disease caused by an orthopoxvirus closely related to variola and remains a significant global public health concern. During outbreaks, social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter) can both inform and misinform the public, complicating efforts to convey accurate health information. To support local response efforts, we developed a researcher-focused dashboard for use by public health stakeholders and the public that enables searching and visualizing mpox-related tweets through an interactive interface. Following the CDC's designation of mpox as an emerging virus in August 2024, our dashboard recorded a marked increase in tweet volume compared to 2023, illustrating the rapid spread of health discourse across digital platforms. These findings underscore the continued need for real-time social media monitoring tools to support public health communication and track evolving sentiment and misinformation trends at the local level.