Digital Citizen Science and the Co-construction of Omani National and Cultural Identity: A Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis

Contenu

Titre

Digital Citizen Science and the Co-construction of Omani National and Cultural Identity: A Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis

Créateur

Zidjaly, Najma al-

Sujet

Vie culturelle -- Oman

Résumé

Dr. Najma Al Zidjaly Sultan Qaboos University, Oman
This presentation forms part of a larger longitudinal, ethnographic project spanning over two decades that examines the evolving relationship between human agency and emerging forms of creative media in the Arab world, with a particular focus on Oman. Positioned within the growing field of digital citizen science, the study conceptualizes Omani social media users as active contributors to collective knowledge production and cultural meaning-making. By tracing Omani digital practices from early online forums to contemporary platforms such as WhatsApp, X (Twitter), and Instagram, it explores how citizens collaboratively use new media platforms as cultural tools to construct, negotiate, and archive Omani national and cultural identity in the digital sphere. In contrast to much of the scholarship on Arab digital participation—which often centers on political activism—this study foregrounds the cultural and epistemic dimensions of digital participation in Oman, a society balancing rapid modernization with deeply rooted traditions. Drawing on the concepts of entextualization and reflexivity, and employing Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (MCDA), the research demonstrates how ordinary users function as “citizen scientists” who document, analyze, and reinterpret social life through multimodal texts. Humor, affect, and irony—particularly as expressed in memes, stickers, reels, and commentaries—emerge as collaborative tools of inquiry and reflection, enabling users to perform subtle acts of critique, cultural renewal, and belonging. In other words, they emerge as central sites of cultural (re)production, allowing users to recontextualize shared narratives, articulate communal values through irony and play, and contest entrenched cultural stereotypes. Ultimately, the study contributes to digital ethnography and Arab media studies by i) revealing that Omani digital practices are layered and dynamic, shaped by the intersection of transnational (Arab), national (state-ascribed), and cultural (self-ascribed) identities, and ii) reframing everyday online practices as participatory forms of citizen science that both generate and disseminate local knowledge. It, therefore, argues that in Oman, identity negotiation is not merely a reactive or resistant act but a collective, reflexive process of reculturalization, through which citizens co-construct evolving understandings of what it means to be Omani in the digital age.

Type

Lecture

Date

2025-11-11

présenté lors de

Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient

Couverture spatiale

Berlin

uri

https://www.zmo.de/en/events/digital-citizen-science-and-the-co-construction-of-omani-national-and-cultural-identity-a-multimodal-critical-discourse-analysis

Titre abrégé

Digital Citizen Science and the Co-construction of Omani National and Cultural Identity

Langue

eng