Dr Omar Al-Ghazzi’s research investigates how dominant Western media discourse, particularly in relation to distant conflict, marginalises local subjects and narratives. His focus falls on scrutinising the global asymmetries of power embedded in the presuppositions and meta-narratives of western media, whether about the democratising role of new media technologies, the universal values of journalism, or the developmental logic in political speech. He draws on theories in global communications and politics, journalism studies, and history and collective memory studies. His scholarship is comparative in relation to geography (MENA-global North), temporality (past and present), and media technology (mass and social media).
Dr Al-Ghazzi has so far published ten peer-reviewed articles in the field of communication’s top journals, as well as four book chapters. He is currently completing a book manuscript about how history is narrated and represented via Arab media. He is also principal investigator of an LSE Middle East Centre-funded project, “Arab News Futures,” about the future of Arabic news making. He was lead researcher for UNESCO’s flagship report World Trends in Freedom of Expression and Media Development: Regional Overview of the Arab Region (2019).
He is editor of the Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication and serves on the editorial boards of Journalism, Journalism Practice, the International Journal of Communication, Arab Media & Society among others.
He is regularly interviewed about his research expertise including by BBC News, BBC Arabic, Al-Jazeera English, Euronews and Middle East Eye.