Dr Wesam Amer

  • Researcher and Cara/SRF Fellow
Dr Wesam Amer

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About

Dr Wesam Amer is a visiting researcher and Cara/SRF fellow at Cambridge.

Since 2020, Dr Amer has been the dean of the Faculty of Communication and Languages at Gaza University in Palestine.  Dr. Amer was a Fulbright scholar and researcher at Harvard University's Centre for Middle Eastern Studies throughout the 2022 academic year. Prior to this, he was a Marie Curie fellow and post-doctoral researcher at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom from 2017 to 2020.

Dr. Amer obtained his Ph.D. from Hamburg University in Germany, completing his doctoral studies between 2011 and 2015. Dr. Amer is the founder and first chair of the Middle East Chapter of the Marie Curie Association.

Research

His primary professional interests in teaching and research center around topics such as political communication, violent language, conflicts, warfare, and contemporary geopolitics, with a specific focus on terrorism, security, and radicalization, particularly in the context of the Middle East and beyond. He has published several papers on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Islamist movements in the Middle East and Islamophobia.

 

Research Projects

Communication in the Times of Wars

Project 1) Hamas’s Communication Strategies during the Gaza War (2023-2024)

This is an empirical and exploratory research that aims to deconstruct digital dynamics and online discourses of Hamas amid the ongoing Gaza War 2023-2024. Specifically, this project aims: 1) to present an overall description of Hamas’s communication outlets and accounts on social media. 2) to examine Hamas’s discourses on the current ongoing war, and how they are overlapped or developed over time since Hamas won the Palestinian legislative elections in 2006. 3) to explore the recontextualization and perception of Hamas by its targets on social media. 4) to demonstrate the causes, multiple trajectories and effects of Hamas’s discourses on local constituencies in Palestine, the neighboring countries, e.g., Egypt and Jourdan and possibly worldwide, e.g., the USA and Germany. 5) to contribute to theoretical and methodological concerns related to critical discourse studies on Palestinian studies specifically and in the Middle East studies.

To achieve the above-mentioned objectives, selective tools intersect together and form an innovative framework that responds to the various ‘new’ types of data produced and distributed on social media. The project proposes a combined analysis to identify, quantify, interpret and explain digital discursive processes, digital discourses and social media communication patterns. This framework combines and gathers tools from: a. Traditions of (critical) discourse studies, b. Online Ethnography and c. Social Networks Analysis.

This project examines the rapid transformation occurring in Hamas's media landscape, moving away from traditional journalism that emphasizes fact-checking towards a more self-contained, inward-looking model that prioritizes ideological coherence over meticulous factual accuracy. This change is evident in Hamas's approach to social media communication.

 

Project 2) Edited book: Analysis of Traditional Media Representation and Discourse on the 2023-2024 Gaza War Across Countries

This edited volume aims to provide a comprehensive and critical examination of traditional media representation and discourse surrounding the 2023-2024 Gaza War, focusing on how the conflict is portrayed across different countries and languages, including Palestine, Israel, and nations from both the Global South and Global North. By collaborating with scholars affiliated with the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) and other relevant academic bodies, this project will compile a collection of chapters, each offering a detailed analysis of the media coverage of the Gaza War within specific national and linguistic contexts. The book seeks to present a comparative perspective on the ways in which traditional media around the world have shaped public perceptions of this significant and ongoing conflict.

 

Research Groups & Affiliations

  • Fulbright Alumni Association
  • European Communication Research and Education Association
  • Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis across Disciplines (CADAAD)
  • Marie Curie Alumni Association
  • DAAD Alumni Association

 

Grants and Projects

  • 2022, Fulbright: research at Harvard University, (USA)
  • 2017-2019, EU-Marie Curie Fellowship: Post doctorate Fellowship, Newcastle University (U.K.)
  • 2011-2015, DAAD scholarship, PhD Study, University of Hamburg
  • 2012, Right Livelihood Campus, grant through DAAD, University of Bonn, Centre for Development Research (ZEF)
  • 2008-2009, MA Grant, MA Study in Linguistics Anglia Ruskin University-Cambridge

 

Publications

Books

Book Chapters

  • Amer, Mohammedwesam and Hammad, Nahed (2022) "Media Freedom and the Corona Crisis: Applied Study on the Admins of Social Media Platforms, Facebook as a Model." In Amer, Mohammedwesam (Ed.) The Palestinian Issue in the New Media and the Structure of Media Discourse. 1st Edition. 345 Pages. Berlin: Arab Democratic Centre. The original research is in Arabic under the title: عامر، محمد وسام، أبو حماد، ناهض. (٢٠٢٢). حرية الإعلام والتعبير وأزمة كورونا: دراسة تطبيقية على مدراء صفحات التواصل الاجتماعي: فيس بوك نموذجا. في عامر، محمد وسام. (٢٠٢٢). القضية الفلسطينية في الإعلام الجديد وبنية الخطاب الإعلامي. الطبعة الأولى. ٣٤٥ صفحة. المركز العربي الديموقراطي. برلين. ألمانيا
    https://democraticac.de/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/القضية-الفلسطينية-في-الإعلام-الجديد-وبنية-الخطاب-الإعلامي.pdf
  • Amer, Mohammedwesam (2019) "Terrorism and Social Media Discourse Studies: Issues, Challenges and Opportunities", in Liberal Arts Perspectives on Globalism and Transnationalism, eds. Hyun Wu Lee and Mark Van de Logt (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2019).
  • Amer, Mohammedwesam (2018) "Critical Discourse Analysis of Journalistic Practices in the US and UK Press: The Case of the Gaza War of 2008-2009" in ‘Reporting from the Wars 1850 – 201’. The origins and evolution of the war correspondent, Turner, Barry; Ibáñez, Daniel Barredo and Grattan, Steven James, VernonPress. Available at https://vernonpress.com/book/137
  • Amer, Mohammedwesam and Khalaf, Mai (2017) ‘Hashtag of Palestine 2016’, 7amla, the Arab Centre for the Advancement of social media, published on May 4, 2017. In Arabic. Available at https://issuu.com/7amleh/docs/hashtag-eng or https://issuu.com/7amleh/docs/hashtag2016arabic

Journal Articles

  • Amer, Mohammedwesam (2023) "Discourse of the Official Digital Palestinian Diplomacy in Reinforcing the Palestinian Narrative on Social Media Platforms- Facebook as a Model", Gaza University Journal for Humanities and Social Sciences. Available at https://repo.gu.edu.ps/en/details/66
    The original research is in Arabic under the title: خطاب الدبلوماسية الفلسطينية الرقمية الرسمية في تعزيز الرواية الفلسطينية على مواقع التواصل الاجتماعي - فيس بوك نموذجا، مجلة جامعة غزة للأبحاث والدراسات.
  • Hashmi, Shehmeen, Hassan Khan, Mohsin & Amer , Mohammedwesam (2023) "Islamophobic Discourses in India During COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case of Tablighi Jamaat", Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, 52:4, 419-439, DOI: 10.1080/17475759.2023.2198537
  • Amer, Mohammedwesam; Atbiqa, bdullah; Alsini, Ahmed (2023) "The future of employing artificial intelligence techniques in developing the work of Arab media institutions, a field study of a sample of communicators and academic elites in Libya and Palestine", Al-Aqsa University Journal - Humanities Series, (27:3), 200-225.
    The original research is in Arabic: عامر، محمدوسام، أطبيقة، عبد الله، النسي، أحمد (2023). مستقبل توظيف آليات وتقنيات الذكاء الاصطناعي في تطوير عمل المؤسسات الإعلامية العربية " دراسة ميدانية لعينة من القائمين بالاتصال والنخب الاكاديمية في ليبيا وفلسطين ". مجلة العلوم الإنسانية, 27(3), 200 225
    https://journals.alaqsa.edu.ps/index.php/humanity/article/view/1152
  • Majid KhosraviNik & Mohammedwesam Amer (2022) "Social media and terrorism discourse: the Islamic State’s (IS) social media discursive content and practices", Critical Discourse Studies, 19:2, 124-143, DOI: 10.1080/17405904.2020.1835684
  • Amer, Mohammedwesam (2017a) "Critical discourse analysis of war reporting in the international press: the case of the Gaza war of 2008–2009," Palgrave Communications, 3 (13). Available at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-017-0015-2
  • Amer, Mohammedwesam (2017b) ‘Palestinian refugees in Iraq: Unsteady Situations’, Journal of Palestinian Refugee Studies, 2(7), p.9-15. Available online at https://prc.org.uk/upload/jprs/files/JPRS72.pdf

Academic

Teaching and supervision

He has taught several courses in the past years:

1. Media Outlets and Society
2. Mass Communication Research Methods
3. Digital Media Discourse (practices and multi-modal practices)
4. Visual Production in Digital Media
5. Digital Narrative in Social Medial
6. Public Relations
7. Oral Communication (Speaking)
8. Media Topics in English: Communication Theories (in English)
9. Specialized English Language for Media and Journalism (in English)
10. TV and Broadcasting Skills in English