© Media Watch 10 (3) 586-596, 2019
ISSN 0976-0911 E-ISSN 2249-8818
DOI: 10.15655/mw/2019/v10i3/49697
Towards a “Transformative” Image of
Arab Women in
Anti-Violence Adverts:
Semiotics Analysis of Arab Social
Media Adverts
Layla AlSaqer
University of Bahrain, Bahrain
This
paper aims to provide an in-depth investigation of the role of social media images
in conveying the meaning of “power” and “empowerment” in public anti-violence campaigns
that aim to empower women in the Middle East. The research raises three
qualitative questions of the way anti-violence
adverts have represented Arab women in the social
media; the way Arab societal culture affects
the image of women represented in the adverts; and the extent to which these
social adverts have empowered women to transfer their realities against
domestic violence. The researcher uses a purposeful sample of six social
campaigns that addressed women violence organized by six non-profit and
governmental entities in different Arab countries in the period between 2013
and 2018. The paper used the theoretical framework
offered by Cohen-Eliya and Hammer (2004) to
analyze the extent to which these social media adverts have “empowered” women
against domestic violence. The input of this framework is that it studies how
visual adverts have constructed relationships of power regarding the
stereotypes of women in the Middle East. The paper finds that although
these social media adverts aim to fight domestic violence, they enhance
traditional stereotype of weak women and fall short of addressing the concept
of “empowerment” through focusing on stereotypical images of powerless women.
The paper highlights the need for new social media communication that would
utilize the opportunities provided by social media to establish a new
“transformative” image of the Arab woman about her cultural context. Moreover, the paper suggests that the concept of
“empowerment” should be addressed at both individual and cultural levels
through cooperating with governmental and non-profit organizations using social
media communication to provide women with access to resources.
Keywords: Social media, violence against
women, public communication, empowerment, stereotypical, transformative images
World Health Organization [WHO] (2013) reported “partner
violence against women” to be one of the most significant health problems all
over the world. Many women all over the world suffer from partner violence,
which results in major problems in society (Ali & Naylor, 2013; Wong,
Tiwari, Fong, & Bullock, 2016). However, there is little statistics that have
registered accurate numbers of domestic violence in Arab countries as the topic
is still considered sensitive and private for many families.
Donovan, Jalleh, Fielder, and Ouschan (2009) emphasized that “The economic
costs of violence against women—including medical and counseling costs, lost productivity,
women’s refuges, and justice system costs, run into the billions of dollars (WHO,
2002), while the emotional, psychological and quality of life costs for women
and children exposed to such violence are immeasurable” (p. 5). Dutton, James,
Langhorne, and Kelley (2015) stressed that partner violence “affects women’s
physical and mental health through direct pathways, such as injury, and
indirect pathways, such as a prolonged stress response that leads to chronic
health problems” (p. 30). Therefore,
this paper aims to offer an in-depth analysis of the use of the concept
of “empowerment” in social campaigns that aim to empower women against domestic
violence in the Middle East.
Literature Review
The Use of Social Media in Public Campaigns
In the
past literature, several campaigns used traditional media to target women
victims to break the silence and to speak up, while other campaigns aim to
target judicial systems (Donovan & Vlais, 2005). Nowadays, non-profit and governmental entities used social
media to approach women and help them to break the silence. Lariscy,
Avery, Sweetser, and Howes (2009) defined social media as “online practices
that utilize technology and enable people to share content, opinions,
experiences, insights, and media themselves” (p.314). Waters,
Burnett, Lamm, and Lucas (2009) similarly stressed, “Relationships are
the foundation for social networking sites” (p. 102). Kennedy and Sommerfeldt (2015)
argued that “scholarship has assumed social media can be used to foster and maintain
“relationships,” when in actuality such relationships have been articulated in
terms of information acquisition and dissemination” (p. 32). This argument
stressed the role of social media in establishing a mutual relationship with
the target audience. However, it is questionable the extent to which women were
empowered through the use of anti-violence advertising social media.
Limited “Stereotyping” of Arab Women
Before
analyzing the images displayed in social media adverts, it is important to
understand the stereotypical images of Arab women in the past literature. Gomaa
and Raymond (2014) explained that US college students usually associated Arab
women with references to “oppression”, “abuse”, and “discrimination” where they
“treat the veil as a central symbol of this oppression, a convenient trope that
invokes mystery, eroticism, and a need for rescue by American—rather than
Arab—men” (p. 37). Akbarzadeh and Smith (2005) explained that “women are
depicted in various ways which may demonize Islam or generate sympathy for
Muslims depending on the context of the story.” This might be because most of gender
studies in public communication studies were limited to the Western context and
to Western organizational culture (AlSaqer, 2018, p. 302). Gomaa and Raymond
(2014, p. 38) argued that recent developments in the Middle East demonstrate
that “women wearing the veil, contrary to pedestrian, trivial stereotypes, can
play prominent, effective roles in public life.”
Koblitz
(2016) argued that “Images of Middle Eastern women in the Western media often
tend toward the exotic, erotic, or abject”
(p. 107). She explained that “women are often styled as the victims of
patriarchal institutions and depicted as in need of being saved by their
supposedly more enlightened Western sisters”(Koblitz, 2016, p.107). Mishra (2007) argued
that American media “imposed its interpretation of the veil as a symbol of
oppression ignoring the fact that the veil has different meanings in different
cultural and social contexts” (p. 2).
Read (2002) claimed that “Cultural influences on Arab women's social positions are dynamic
and multifaceted, and future research would benefit by focusing on the cultural
processes that influence women's attitudes and behaviors” (p. 31).
Therefore, this research aims to study the extent to which public adverts
succeed to introduce a new image of Arab “empowered” women through utilizing
the public sphere offered by social media.
Methodology
and Theoretical Framework
Based
on the past literature, the researcher raises three qualitative questions as
follow:
RQ1: How do anti-violence adverts represent Arab women in social media?
RQ2: How does Arab societal culture affect the
image of women represented in the adverts?
RQ3: To what extent have social media adverts
empowered women to transfer their realities against domestic violence?
To answer these questions, the
researcher used a purposeful sample of six public adverts organized by Arab
non-profit and governmental entities in the period between 2013 and 2018 that
aim to stop domestic violence against women through encouraging women to break
the silence and speak up. The paper used semiotics analysis approach to analyze
these adverts by using the theoretical framework
offered by Cohen-Eliya and Hammer (2004) to
analyze the extent to which these social media adverts have “empowered” women
against domestic violence. Cohen-Eliya and Hammer (2004, p. 168) claimed,
“Under the semiotic theory, visual imagery
is a picture that represents and suggests a particular meaning, idea, or
conception.” Cohen-Eliya and Hammer (2004) distinguished two types of images
shown in advertisements: “transformative images” and “stereotypical images.”
They argued that “transformative images” aim to “reshape viewers’ value systems
and personalities,” while “stereotypical images” aim to reflect “accepted
social meanings of belonging to gender or racial groups” (Cohen-Eliya &
Hammer, 2004, p. 169). They argued that the stereotype images “are not aimed at
altering viewers’ attitudes or redefining their values” (Cohen-Eliya &
Hammer, 2004, p. 170). The problem with “stereotypical images” in this context
is the extent to which these images of beaten women would enhance the image of
woman as powerless, fragile creature. This is stressed by Cohen-Eliya and Hammer
(2004, p. 170) who claimed that conservative stereotypical images are
“problematic in terms of the role they play in forming prejudices.” They
suggested that “the use of transformative images represents an attempt
on the part of the advertiser to change the attitudes and values of those
exposed to the advertisements” (p. 170).
Therefore, this paper
raises the argument that is showing the stereotypical image of powerless weak
women is no longer the best way to encourage them to break the silence. There
is a need for a transfer from a “stereotypical image” toward a “transformative
image” of an empowered woman who can fight violence and has the resources to
change. The shift towards a transformative image of woman goes along with
postmodernism that stresses the significance of understanding power conflicts
to analyze social phenomena. Kennedy and Sommerfeldt (2015) explained that
postmodernists raised the question of power through looking for “underlying
processes of power and discourse that shape social reality and lead us to form
consensuses about what we consider “knowledge” while marginalizing voices that
disagree with the dominant consensus” (p. 35). To
achieve a better understanding of power relationships constructed through
social media adverts, the researcher related Cohen-Eliya and Hammer’s (2004)
concept of transformative and stereotypical images to the semiotics analysis of
visual images.
Semiotics Analysis of Visual Images of Women in Social Media
Advert1: “Because
I am a human being” campaign (Social Marketing, 2018)
The first advert shows two scenarios of
the story of the same woman. The first scenario starts in the darkness where
the advert uses close up shot of beaten, swollen face of a sad, powerless
woman, where negative phrases appear in
the background “You have to be patient, he is your husband”, “You have to keep
quiet”, “Hide your face”, “You’re weak”. These negative phrases represent the
stereotypical image of a woman presented by society’s cultural
expectations. Then the screen’s colour
transfers to a lighter colour where it is written: “Because I’m a human, I
stand up again”, where the face of the woman becomes smiling with new phrases
appearing on the screen: “Giving”, “New life of hope”, “Because I’m a human
being, I’ll break the humility”. This advert is one of the few adverts that
combine both stereotypical and transformative images. However, it does not
provide any tips on how such a transfer can be achieved. The use of frontal
close-up shots makes the audience interact and be involved as part of a woman’s
stories.
Advert 2:
“Your Silence wouldn’t stop the violence” (Sceen TV, 2013)
The advert starts with a stereotypical
image of a woman as a housewife who irons her husband traditional clothes. The
close-up shot focused on the woman’s burned hand while ironing the clothes with
a voice-over of the woman who tells us her story without showing her face: “I
got this burn when I baked a cake for the first time.” The camera moves to a
flashback memory scene showing us a ten-year-old girl who looked happy while
backing cake and suddenly burnt her hand. The close-up camera shows us another
wound in the woman’s hand, while she is narrating her story: “I had this wound
since the first time I rode a bike and fell!” Then the camera shows a very
close-up shot on the woman’s swollen beaten face with her voice saying, “I got
these wounds recently when I forgot to iron my husband’s clothes!” The sad
music becomes louder, and the viewer can see the silent tears very closely in
the woman’s eyes with a slogan on the screen “Your silence wouldn’t stop the violence”
accompanied with an aid telephone number for women who suffer from domestic
violence. The advert uses strong emotional appeal through narrating the story
by the woman herself and triggering childhood memories to involve the target
audience. However, the advert was limited to the use of the stereotypical image
of a woman without providing the target women with resources to transfer their
status. Although the advert offered women with aid telephone number, it fell
short of addressing the cultural barrier that would prevent women from seeking
help.
Advert 3:
“The household’s accidents” (Eithar, 2018)
The advert starts with a young woman
narrating the story of household’s accidents, saying: “The household’s
accidents never end!” Then the camera moves to another scene where the woman
fell on the house’s carpet saying ironically: “Goash, I love this carpet. But it
always trips me up!” Then the advert shows us a story of a second woman cooking
with a swollen face and burned hand saying, “Oh no, the oil burned me!
Honestly, I’m not a good cook, and I hate the kitchen”. Then, the advert shows
another story of a third woman who fell down the stairs and her arms were red
and swollen, and she said: “You know, they always say I’m so beat up!” The
second woman appears in another scene and said, “They always say the way to
your man’s heart is through his stomach.” But by the end of the advert, the
viewer would realize the real causes of women’s injuries. One of the women
said, "I'm not beat up as they said.” The second woman said sadly,
“Everything I love turns against me. Lord, what the solution?” The third woman
raised the question, “Do all women have this problem or are it just me?” Then,
a male narrator commented: “Do you fall for it? Just because you hear
something, it doesn’t mean it’s true! Violence is everywhere, protect the ones
you love.”
The advert used a creative scenario that
raises curiosity about the fake stories of three women who do not speak up
about domestic violence in an ironic way. However, the use of a male narrator
implies that women cannot solve their problems themselves. Interestingly, the
advert shows indirectly that Arab culture might be the reason that causes women
to keep silent and pretend that they suffered from the house’s accidents rather
than confessing that they have undergone domestic violence. The advert was
limited to the use of stereotypical images of silent, helpless women without
empowering women to change their situations.
Advert 4:
“Your silence is a sign of satisfaction!” (Alwaleed Philanthropies, 2018)
The advert starts with a close-up focus
on the face of a conservative woman who wears black clothes and head veil with a
black background. Suddenly, the viewer can hear the sound of the door closing
loudly and can see the fear in the woman’s eyes. Then, the viewer can hear a
slap and can see the woman moving her face with red fingers on her cheek. In
the background, the viewer can hear the woman’s husband shouting at her,
saying, “You’re an idiot; you don’t know anything; you’re an ugly creature!”
The viewer keeps hearing the voice of beating with new wounds appearing on the
woman’s face in a symbolic way that shows the continuity of domestic violence.
The use of very close-up shot of woman’s face without showing the man aims to
make the viewer focus on a woman’s feelings and tragedy. However, the advert
was again limited to stereotypical images of the powerless conservative woman.
The use of a veiled woman was used to represent a stereotypical image of the Saudi
woman. The advert ends with the slogan, “Your silence is a sign of satisfaction!”
This advert raises an important ethical issue as it implies clear blame of
women who do not speak up, while it does not address cultural and financial
circumstances that drive women to keep silent.
Advert 5: “Hide your wounds with makeup!” (Mawdoo3, 2017)
The advert starts with a display of a
routine day in a couple’s house. We can see a stereotypical image of a woman
who cleans and tidy up her house with a voice-over of her friends telling her,
“You are lucky; your house is very nice.” Then, we can hear her mother’s voice
advising her, “Don’t talk loudly with your husband, always say “yes” like me!”
Then the viewer can see the woman cleaning the dishes with her mother’s voice
over telling her, “Are you mad! You want to go to court and bring shame to the
family. Keep silent!” Then she heard her friend’s voice saying, “How come
you’re still silent? You have to speak up!” These two inner conversations show
the inner conflict woman goes through when she suffers from domestic violence
in conservative societies. It is interesting at the beginning of the advert that
the viewer can see the wounds in the woman’s body without seeing her face to
show that this story can be the story of any woman who suffers from domestic
violence. By the end of the advert, we can see the wounded face of the woman
full of fear, tears, and blood. In the end, we can hear her mother’s voice in
the background, telling her to wear makeup to be attractive to her husband. The
advert ends in an ironic scene where the woman’s makeup is mixed with tears and
blood on her wounded face. This scene was symbolic to show that many women in
conservative societies cover their wounds by makeup and prefer to keep silent.
The advert addresses the culture of silence in some societies where many
families encourage woman to keep silence as talking about domestic violence is
considered as a taboo. The advert ends with the statistics that “one woman
among every three women in the world has encountered domestic violence; while
in the Middle East the statistics are inaccurate as many women prefer to keep
silent.” The advert addresses the cultural restrictions that face women in the
Middle East, but again, it does not offer solutions and still limited to
conservative images of powerless woman.
Advert 6: “No
for violence against women” (National
Women Council, 2013)
The advert starts with a close-up focus
on a beaten woman with swollen face addressing other women with direct eye
contact. The woman says, “Today I want to talk to other women who are beaten by
their husbands and teach them how to hide the bruises caused by their husbands’
violence, you can use cream powder, and no one can notice! If you want to hide
the wounds on your neck, just put on a scarf as it is fashionable! And if you
have a swollen eye, you can easily wear a black sunglass”. The advert uses an
ironic way to show the pain and the conflict of women who undergo domestic
violence. The advert ended with the woman’s fear when she heard her husband
knocking; she extends her hand to seek the help of the audience. The advert
shows the woman as powerless and submissive to cultural values of silence. At
the end of the advert, we can hear the voice of a male narrator who says,
“Woman is a human being that shouldn’t be humiliated. Don’t be afraid and don’t
be silent. No for violence”. Again, the advert was limited to stereotypical
images and did not provide any transformative scenarios or solutions. The fact
that the advice comes from a male narrator stresses the stereotypical image of a
masculine society where a woman is guided by man’s rules.
Discussions
After discussing the semiotic analysis
of the adverts, this section aims to relate the findings to the research
questions to bring new theoretical understanding.
RQ1: How
do anti-violence adverts represent Arab women in social media?
Social
identification of women in the adverts: Based
on post-modernism, social media adverts were designed to imply key concepts of
power and empowerment of women. Thus, it is significant to analyze how women
are “identified” through the visuals. Potter, Moynihan, and Stapleton (2011)
defined the term “social self-identification” as “an individual’s ability to
see himself or herself and a familiar context in the social marketer’s message”
(p. 975). In the adverts, women represent the real women who suffer from
violence as they wear traditional Arabic clothes and transfer the real pain and
sufferings of these women. Kress and Leeuween (1996) divided this
identification to be either “offer” visuals where women images are offered to
target audience or “demand” visuals where women in the adverts interact with
the target audience. In several images “offer” visuals were used to stress the
stereotypical image of a weak, powerless woman where the target audience find
it difficult to infer any change in her status. The offer of conservative self-identification
of women is based on the argument that “When we see ourselves in an
advertising image, and as the reflection of our social self and surroundings in
the portrayed context, we are likely to pay greater attention to the advertised
image” (Potter, Moynihan, & Stapleton, 2011, p. 975). However, the limitation of stereotypical
images of Arab women makes it difficult to
empower them to change their realities.
In some adverts, “demand” visuals were used heavily where the beaten women looked to the viewers in a visual “you” in
close-up shots and “demanded” their interaction to help them. Most of the
visuals use stereotypical identification of women who lack power and demand the
viewer’s help. The adverts show that the represented women cannot fight for
their rights and need outside help. This representation fails to empower women
to stop the violence themselves, as they are shown in these adverts powerless
and helpless.
Although some adverts use empowering phrases such as “stop the
violence” or “your silence wouldn’t stop the violence,” the visuals imprisoned
women in powerless state by using “stereotypical images.” Interestingly, the
target audience of these adverts is women themselves who are expected to stop
violence using their power. Ironically, these adverts promote the stereotypical
image of women as powerless victims of domestic violence, while there is an implied
blaming of a woman because of their silence. However, although women were
blamed, no tips were provided to help them to stop violence, which might risk
victim blaming.
All the adverts have displayed sad stories that end with the
weakness of women, torture their husbands, and their failure to stop the violence.
By the end of each story or advert, women are shown sad and helpless with
swollen faces. The use of “stereotypical image” of powerless women to convey
the stories of domestic violence aims to make many target women assign
themselves to their situations. However, the use of sad endings in these
adverts shows the failure of most of these adverts to empower women to transfer
their realities.
In one of the adverts, the advertiser showed the target audience
two different stories of the same woman: the first image is of a happy,
successful woman, and the second image is of a beaten powerless woman. Both
“stereotypical” and “transformative” images are displayed to the target
audience. The advert conveys the message that strong woman who says “no” to
violence ends in a happy life, while a powerless woman who keeps silent will
have a sad ending. This advert aims to provide the target women with two
choices for their lives on the same screen and asks them to take their decision,
which would empower them. However, the advert falls short of offering women
with solutions or access to help.
Moreover,
some“Stop violence” adverts use high fear appeals where the target audiences
are exposed to shocking violence scenes without providing resources to
encourage women to stop violence, which raises the issue of ethics (Backer, Rogers andSopory, 1992). Although the
adverts encourage women to speak up to overcome their fear, they ignore the
cultural restrictions and do not afford access to community empowerment. The
adverts are restricted to criticizing violence without “empowering” women to
take action, which might end up blaming the victims. For instance, women who
suffered from domestic violence might blame themselves for not acquiring
“power” and “resources” that would enable them to transfer their realities. Besides, another ethical issue raised by the use of violent
images is the risk of adverse effects (Henley and Donovan, 1999, p.176) through
enhancing the stereotype of weak, helpless women who might be more afraid to
change their status after watching these adverts.
RQ2: How does Arab societal culture affect
the image of women represented in the adverts?
The influence of societal culture on the
image of women in anti-violence adverts: The adverts represent the cultural conflict women go
through in Arab society when they suffer from domestic violence. Issue of domestic
violence is still considered a taboo in the Middle East as women are always
concerned about their social and cultural image. The stereotypical Arab culture
encourages women to keep silent when they go through domestic violence; thus,
many women prefer to suffer from violence rather than smarting under social
rejection when they go to court or get divorced. This inner conflict is
represented in the adverts where women hear two voices inside themselves:
“stereotypical” voice – that encourages them to keep silent- and
“transformative” voice- that urges them to speak up. This can be attributed to
the nature of the Arab “collective” culture where women care about their
societal image and adhere to their cultural values and traditions. Hofstede
(1994) explained that “Collectivism pertains to societies in which people from
birth onwards are integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups, which throughout
people’s lifetime continue to protect them in exchange for unquestioning
loyalty” (p.51). However, the adverts do not utilize the open nature of social
media to introduce women to different scenarios and provide beneficial
interaction with the target women of different cultures. This raises the next
question of the extent to which “power” and “empowerment” are established by
social media adverts, which will be discussed in the next section.
RQ3: To what
extent these social adverts have empowered women to transfer their realities
against domestic violence?
The concept of “power” established by
social media adverts: The focus on “stereotypical
images” rather than “transformative images” in anti-violence adverts raises the
question of the extent to which these adverts utilize the free, interactive
space offered by social media to facilitate change. Kennedy and
Sommerfeldt (2015) explained that “Postmodernists have theorized power as both
dominations—controlling, regulatory, and disciplinary—and as
resistance—constructive, empowering, revolutionary, and subversive” (p.35).
Although the use of social media suggests providing an open space
for involvement and interaction with the target audience, authoritative phrases
were used, such as “stop the violence” and “It’s time to speak up.” Thus, the
target women are preserved as patients who should follow the instructions of the
adverts; which shows the limitation of these adverts in empowering women to
speak up. The male narrator of the slogans acts as a powerful figure that
constructs what women should do and blames them for not speaking up. The
adverts fall short of using interactive language and scenarios to involve the
audience through social media. The failure of social media adverts to empower
the target audiences and provide them with access to resources raises
significant ethical issues. First, these adverts should move from
“victim-blaming” towards empowering women with access to resources through cooperating
with specialized non-profit and governmental bodies. Second, the scenarios of
these adverts should move from the traditional “stereotype” of the week,
powerless crying women –enhanced by these adverts- to transformative images of
strong, powerful women. Dutton, James, Langhorne, and Kelley (2015)
argued, ”Successfully addressing the complex issue of IPV[Intimate partner
violence]requires multiple prevention efforts that target specific risk and
protective factors across individual, interpersonal, institutional, community,
and societal levels” (p. 80).
Conclusion
The need to move towards a transformative image of the
Arab woman in social adverts
The research
highlights the limitation of the stereotypical image of the Arab woman in
social media adverts. It goes along with the past literature that has stressed
the danger of associating Arab woman with the stereotypical image of “oppression,” “abuse,” and “discrimination” (Gomaa &
Raymond, 2014; Akbarzadeh & Smith, 2005; Koblitz, 2016; Read, 2015). The
findings of this paper have stressed the need for the shift from a
stereotypical image towards a transformative image of the Arab woman in social
media anti-violence adverts. Cohen-Eliya and Hammer (2004) explained that “Stereotypes
in advertisements are problematic in two respects: first, in terms of the role
they play in forming prejudices among those exposed to them; second, in terms
of the damage that is caused by the existence of prejudices of this type” (p.
170). Thus, the research argues that the shift towards a new image of “strong,”
“empowered” woman who can decide in difficult situations would “empower” Arab
woman, especially when it is accompanied with offering solutions and
alternatives at the societal level.
Establishing a supportive societal culture against domestic violence
The past literature has highlighted the significance
of cooperation with non-profit and governmental entities to fight domestic
violence. It is even more crucial to establish such cooperation in “collective
societies,” where the individuals show high loyalty to their societal culture
and traditional values (Hofstede, 1994). The research highlights the cultural conflict women
go through in Arab society when they suffer from domestic violence. The nature
of the Arab “collective” culture where women adhere to their cultural values
results in an inner conflict, which makes various women prefer to keep silence.
Therefore, “individual empowerment” of women should start from “collective
empowerment” through providing support from society. Thus, empowering women
through social adverts should start at the societal level. Social media adverts
should establish partnerships with specialized bodies that would support women
at the community level.
Opportunities to build relationships with the target women through social
media
The paper argues
that the interactive nature of social media can open a wide space for the re-defining the image of the Arab woman in
anti-violence adverts. The open sphere of social media can represent the new
transformative image of Arab women and offer interactive scenarios that would
facilitate change. The contribution of this paper is that it applies
Cohen-Eliya and Hammer’s (2004) framework on social media adverts that are used
in public communication campaigns. Moreover, it relates this framework to a new
cultural context of the Middle East. The findings go along with Cohen-Eliya and
Hammer’s argument that “restricting stereotypical messages in advertisements
inappropriately violate the freedom of expression of advertisers, and
particularly that of the viewers” (2004, p. 167).
Social
media allows the communicators to be more courageous to challenge the
conservative image of Arab woman to promote the new image of a strong, powerful
woman who can alter her reality. Kennedy and Sommerfeldt (2015) explained that
“social media present a popular set of tools that allow public relations
practitioners additional opportunities to establish and cultivate relationships
[emphasis added] and engage their publics” (p. 33). Besides, social media could
provide interactive tools to empower women to participate in social change.
Thus, social media plays a critical role in building interactive relationships
with the target women, where specialized entities could interact directly with
women and provide them with appropriate consultation. This goes along with past
literature that has stressed the role of social media in building an interactive
relationship with the target audience (Waters,
Burnett, Lamm, & Lucas, 2009; Kennedy & Sommerfeldt, 2015).
Building interactive relationships through social media would help the target
women to interact more freely to solve their problems.
To sum up,
the paper highlights the need for innovative
social media communication that would utilize the opportunities provided by this platform to establish a new “transformative”
image of the Arab woman about her cultural context. Moreover, the paper
suggests that the concept of “empowerment” should be addressed at both
individual and cultural levels through cooperation with
governmental and non-profit organizations using
social media communication to provide a woman with access to resources.
Future research should take these findings further to analyze the role of new
social media in empowering women and establishing a “transformative” image of
women in the Arab culture through building interactive relationships with them.
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Layla
AlSaqer (Ph.D., University of Stirling, UK,
2007) is an Assistant Professor in the Department
of Mass Communication, Tourism & Arts at the College of Arts, University of
Bahrain. Her research interests include public relations education and
practice, social marketing and cultural studies.
Correspondence to: Layla AlSaqer,
Department of Mass Communication, Tourism & Arts, College of Arts,
University of Bahrain, P. O. Box 32038, Sakhir, Kingdom of Bahrain.