New modes of communication: Web representations and Blogs: Jordan

This entry visits key issues in relation to new modes of communication in Jordan. Situating the country within its Middle Eastern context, and accounting for local state–media relations, it is divided into five main sections. The first section contextualizes ICTs (information and communications technologies) in
Jordan, charting the most prominent milestones in the development of the Jordanian ICT sector and giving a frequently neglected variable – gender – center stage. In the second section, the entry visits the state’s media policy in light of the previous discussion, exploring the Jordanian state’s double-sided role
in nurturing the ICT sector whilst simultaneously restricting media freedoms and particularly internet freedoms through regulation and censorship. The final sections focus on the Jordanian blogosphere as an alternative public sphere, on the use of new media by female political activists (and the Jordanian state),
and on the utility of new media to feminist Jordanian activists as tools for organizing and community building.