Research at QU dept in line with Qatar’s growth
The research conducted at the Department of Mass Communication at Qatar University (QU), substantially contributes to the development of the country, head Dr Kamal Hamidou said yesterday.
The research topics addressed by the faculty members in the department are important, as they “respond to the demand for understanding the changes that the media have imposed on the social and cultural systems all over the world.”
“Our research not only goes in line with QU’s priorities but also with the national research agenda,” the academic explained while pointing out that the world has realised the importance of media and communication research in the process of social control in its normative and functional dimensions.
The research activities of the department’s professors, constitute a pillar that supports Qatar’s vision for the transition to a knowledge-based economy in all fields, including the media.
Since the beginning of the 20th century, Dr Hamidou says, media and communication research continues to discover and formulate the scientific foundations on which the efficiency of the communication and media process is based, especially in the processes of influence, persuasion and communication.
Moreover, as this research reached its peak during the decades that followed the Second World War, it is witnessing other developments that are accelerating in their content and trends, due to the overwhelming technological dimension, which is imposing media and communication media at the expense of others.
On the increasing importance of such research, Dr Hamidou says, “It stems from the fact that the media and communication work has become a central link in all societies, whose roles intersect with political and economic action on the one hand, and with cultural action, social action, and then scientific action on the other.”
From this standpoint, according to Dr Hamidou, professors of the Department of Mass Communication, like their fellow researchers and academics in various universities around the world, are interested in keeping abreast of developments in the methodological approaches adopted in media and communication.
The faculty are always keen to address research topics that touch on current issues. The most recent one was on the how media was dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic.
Dr Hamidou observed that many of the department’s professors are interested in issues that are a priority for Qatar, including issues of media and identity, media and cultural and social change, new media, whether from the perspective of their effects or from the perspective of the so-called digital generation.
“The interest of the department researchers in studying development of media practices, along with the ethical and legal problems they impose, were discussed at an international conference organised at Qatar University in February 2020,” the academic recalled.
In addition to the aforementioned topics, Dr Hamidou said: “Some of the Department’s professors are also interested in how the media addressed the issue of the blockade against Qatar. Others are also interested in the role of the media in popular diplomacy and soft influence at the international level. The Department of Mass Communication is proud that many of its professors have obtained research grants from the Qatar National Research Fund or other bodies for research proposals that addressed some of these central concerns.”
Among the most prominent researches that dealt with a recent case that touched on the reality is a study by associate professor Dr Mohamed al-Amin al-Mousa, who highlighted the “determinants of news satellite coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic in the digital era.” The study was completed during the first months of the beginnings of the pandemic. He focused on how the media deals with global crises in a digital age in which knowledge flows at an unprecedented pace.
Dr Al-Sadiq Rabeh, a professor at the Department of Mass Communication, published a paper titled “Rationalising the Ethical Practices of Youth in Digital Spaces”. His study investigated the problems of ethical practices presented by digital spaces and their relationship with youth. The vision is that the key concepts and issues in these interactive spaces lie in identity, privacy, credibility and participation. It aims to clarify the methods and mechanisms that youth adopt in redefining these concepts and issues, and in formulating their contents through practice.
In a group book entitled Press outside the Internet and Corruption, professor Dr Basyouni Hamada, a professor in the Department, wrote about the problem of journalism and its relationship to the phenomenon of reducing corruption in societies. The book discusses a variety of journalism and corruption experiences that provide huge findings and analysis. The cases that the book investigates extend from Cuba to Algeria, India, and Saudi Arabia, sub-Saharan Africa, the GCC Countries, the Arab world and Japan.
In another academic study, assistant professor Dr Mohamed al-Fateh Hamdi, published a paper that focused on ways to rationalise ethical practices of youth in digital spaces. The aim was to diagnose the nature of the relationship between academic education in the field of media and communication and media practice. Dr Hamidou, published a study entitled “Controls of Journalism between Deontology and Teleology: A Study of the Determinants of Ethical Standards and their Impact on Journalists’ Professional Behaviours.”