Harvard University’s Berkman Centre (where I gave a presentation last year on my book, The Blogging Revolution) have released a new report mapping the Arabic blogosphere. Some key findings that suggest Barack Obama will need to match his pretty words with far more than rhetoric:
The one political issue that clearly concerns bloggers across the Arab world is Palestine, and in particular the situation in Gaza (Israel’s December 2008/January 2009 military action occurred during the study). Other popular topics include religion (more in personal than political terms) and human rights (more common than criticism of western culture and values). Terrorism and the US are not major topics. When discussing terrorism, Arab bloggers are overwhelmingly critical of terrorists. When the US is discussed, it is nearly always critically.