Dr. Mohamed Hossam Ismail

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This is an interdisciplinary study that explores the impact of listening to the Qur'an on the physiological and psychological statuses of an average Egyptian Muslim. It is a transcendental phenomenological study that intersects with theories and concepts from different disciplines including reception studies, media, and popular culture analysis. The study uses two tools that are common in transcendental phenomenological studies: journals, memoirs, and in-depth interviews. Such tools help investigating the experience of listening to the Qur’an as an ongoing stream of consciousness. The study aims at exploring the phenomenon of listening to the Qur’an from the points of view of six participants who are heavy listeners of the Qur’an and are in the habit of writing memoirs and diaries, as a multi-case study purposive sample. The study reveals that the ritual practice of listening to the Qur'an differs from one person to another depending on several factors mainly gender and educational background. Analysis of the replies of the study respondents sheds light on the positive influence of listening to the Qur’an, and the characteristics of a good reciter from Muslims’ point of view. Future studies on a bigger sample are highly recommended so as to gain deeper insights into the influence of this Islamic ritual, leading to possible generalization. © 2023, The Author(s).

This interdisciplinary study explores representations of journalists linking literary criticism with media cultural studies. The researcher examines works from the sixties by Nobel laureate writer and novelist Naguib Mahfouz. While the article concentrates on Mahfouz’s works dealing with journalism, it presents a qualitative analysis of three novellas of his from the sixties: The Thief and the Dogs, The Beggar and A Drift on the Nile. In these works, Mahfouz presents cogent and well-founded arguments on the image of the Egyptian journalists, which manifest itself until now. The article argues that the psychological and social aspects of journalism that Mahfouz delineates are recalled nowadays in the vast, ubiquitous mediascape Egypt inhabits as evidence of the self-perpetuated nature of the master-ful Egyptian culture. In this work Norman Fairclough’s model of discourse analysis is employed to survey the roles and characteristics of journalists in a context of power and ideology during President Nasser’s regime and shows not only how they are similar to those of journalists nowadays but also the evolution of journalists under el-Sisi neo-authoritarianism. It also draws on the thoughts of theorists like Lucien Goldmann, mainly the concept of ‘world vision’ to inspect the problem of the identity of Egyptian journalism. The study concludes that these three novels show journalists’ negative image as traitors, subservient to political power, sell-ers of trivia or full of nihilism. Mahfouz’s representations reflect the outputs of Egyptian media milieu under authoritarian Nasser’s era. The article reflects upon contemporary authoritarian regime in Egypt, discussing the types of media prac-titioners currently exist who almost repeat the almost-closed cultural circle, only with a complete control of intelligence apparatus. © 2023 Intellect Ltd Article. English language.