Towards Citizen Spectatorship: Visual Culture and Shifting Perceptions of Documentary Media since the Arab Uprisings

抗议活动从未像2011年中东和北非起义期间那样激烈地被记录下来。这场政治斗争引发了公民新闻无与伦比的兴起，极大地改变了纪录片媒体的看法。在所谓的阿拉伯之春发生近十年后，鉴于整个地区(伊拉克、黎巴嫩和埃及)抗议活动的死灰复燃，我们必须进行一项研究，考察我们是如何发展对“公民新闻”的理解的，以及我们如何构建一个“公民旁听”的概念。虽然公民新闻最初定义了一种图像生产模式，但媒体市场的需求往往将其框定为一种“糟糕图像”的美学，最终会助长反复出现的新殖民主义对该地区的理解。为了质疑这种轻易的挪用，公民记者转向视觉文化及其传播网络中的正式做法，通过纪录片手段阐明他们的主张。通过将旁观作为一种公民技能来考察，我的研究将利用许多相互关联的方法--包括对视觉艺术家、媒体和文化活动家以及记者的第一手采访，以及对数字档案的调查--来追踪图像生产者和消费者之间的关联，以及他们如何重新调整了我们对抗议和冲突图像的理解。这个博士项目极大地扩展了我的硕士学位论文(荣誉)以及在国际学术会议上发表的几篇论文，主题是叙利亚内战中公民身份的主张和争议。我在贝鲁特的非营利性艺术组织Ashkal Alwan的专业工作期间，以及在柏林的电影和视频艺术学院阿森纳的演讲中，获得了重要的见解，这让我在不断扩大的研究网络上有了很大的发展。我对数码影像制作和接收的理解，也得益于我的新闻训练，以及我在HKW、Gropius-Bau和歌德学院的策展研究和专业生涯。在跨学科的范围内，我的论文进一步建立在图像和数据分析的基础上，并以新闻报道和艺术历史话语的评估为基础。为了绘制可见的数字地图，唐尼教授对网络图像的批判性调查将被证明对他的领导监督至关重要，并得到迪马·萨比尔与公民记者行动主义的实际接触的补充。这一监督团队之所以脱颖而出，是因为它致力于促进视觉素养，并在该地区建立了强大的研究网络。

Never has protest been documented more vigorously than during the uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa in 2011. This political struggle sparked an unrivalled rise of citizen journalism that shifted the perception of documentary media substantially. Almost a decade after the so-called Arab Spring and in light of resurging protests across the region (in Iraq, Lebanon, and Egypt), it is critical that a body of research is produced that examines how our understanding of 'citizen journalism' has developed and how we can configure a notion of 'citizen spectatorship'.While citizen journalism initially defined a mode of image production, media market demands tend to frame it as an aesthetic of 'poor images' that ultimately feeds into recurring neo-colonial tropes for understanding the region. To question such easy appropriations, citizen journalists have turned to formal practices within visual culture and its networks of dissemination to articulate their claims through documentary means. By examining spectatorship as a civic skill, my research will utilise a number of interrelated methodologies-including first-hand interviews with visual artists, media and cultural activists, and journalists, alongside investigation into digital archives-to trace the correlations between image producers and consumers and how they have realigned our understanding of images of protest and conflict.This PhD project significantly extends my Masters dissertation (distinction) as well as several papers delivered at international academic conferences on the subject of how citizenship is claimed and contested visually in the Syrian civil war. I have acquired significant insights during my professional work at the non-profit art organisation Ashkal Alwan in Beirut and through lecturing at Arsenal-the Institute for Film and Video Art in Berlin-which allowed me to substantially build on my expanding research network. My understanding of digital image production and reception has been also substantively informed by my journalistic training and through my curatorial research and professional career at HKW, Gropius-Bau, and the Goethe-Institut.Interdisciplinary in scope, my dissertation is further founded on image and data analyses underpinned by an evaluation of news coverage and art historical discourses. In order to map a digital cartography of the visible, Professor Downey's critical investigation into the networked image will prove essential for his lead supervision and is complemented by Dima Saber's practical engagement with citizen journalist activism. This supervisory team stands out due to its dedication to promote visual literacy and its strong research networks within the region.