Publications

Publication details [#67408]

Al Zidjaly, Najma. 2012. What has happened to Arabs? : Identity and face management online . Multilingua 31 (4) : 413–439.
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English

Annotation

The article examines how Arabs manage or save Arab Islamic collective face in digital contexts. It does so through analyzing posts Muslim Arabs from various nationalities and backgrounds left on the website of Al Jazeera in 2010 in response to articles that attack their identity as Muslims. The author identifies three main responses to restore damaged collective face (from least to most popular): self-praise, West-attack, and self-attack. The author argues that the strategy of self-attack is best understood as a form of acceptable and democratic behavior in the digital Arabic context because it saves collective face in a culturally and contextually appropriate way. The paper contributes toward conceptualizing digital facework as identity work.