Draft:Noha Atef

Noha Atef
نهى عاطف
Born
Egypt
Education
Occupations
  • Media scholar
  • Journalist
  • Author
EmployerUniversity of Galway
Websiteresearch.universityofgalway.ie/en/persons/noha-atef/

Noha Atef (Arabic: نهى عاطف) is an Egyptian media scholar, journalist, and author. She is a lecturer in journalism (Global Media) at the University of Galway in Ireland.[1]

Atef received a PhD in Media from Birmingham City University in 2017.[2] Before joining the University of Galway, she held research and academic positions at Simon Fraser University,[3] the Centre for Information Resilience, the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), Cairo University, and Birmingham City University.[2]

Her research covers digital media, health communication, citizen journalism, and qualitative research methods, with particular attention to Egypt and the wider Arab region. She is the author of The Media of People: Between the State-Owned Media and Citizen Media (2017),[2] which continued to receive independent critical attention nearly a decade after its publication.[4] and contributed the chapter "Confused, Rebellious and Depressed: Liberated Women in Egyptian Cinema" to the Routledge Handbook on Arab Cinema.[5]

Early life and education

Atef was born in Egypt. She received a bachelor's degree in Spanish Language, Culture and Literature from Ain Shams University in 2004. She completed a master's degree in Social Media at Birmingham City University in 2012. Her master's project examined the teaching of social media to Arab cartoonists and comics artists and included the development of a bilingual guide for instructors and a media literacy website.[2]

In 2010, Atef was awarded a Chevening Scholarship by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office.[6]

She completed a PhD in Media at Birmingham City University in 2017. Her doctoral thesis, The Interaction Between Citizen Media and the Mainstream Media: Media Organisation in Egypt during 2011, 2012 and 2013, examined the relationship between citizen journalism and mainstream media during the political changes that followed the 2011 Egyptian revolution.[2]

Career

Journalism and digital activism (2006–2011)

In 2006, Atef founded tortureinegypt.net, a blog documenting allegations of torture and police brutality in Egypt. The blog grew to include a wiki called Torturepedia, cataloguing alleged perpetrators and incidents, and a companion photo collection, Piggipedia. Writing in openDemocracy in 2010, journalist Daniela Gschweng described the blog as "one of the leading independent sources on human rights abuse in Egypt" and reported that Atef's work had contributed to the release of at least one detainee whose case she had publicised.[7] Narco News described her in 2011 as having "shattered the silence on police torture" in Egypt, noting that the blog attracted some 210,000 monthly visits and was cited in Egyptian mainstream media.[8]

In 2010, Atef presented alongside Narco News publisher Al Giordano at the Fletcher Summer Institute on Nonviolent Conflict at Tufts University, where she spoke on citizen media strategies for social movements.[9] In April 2011, she spoke at re:publica in Berlin on Egyptian social media use before and during the 2011 Egyptian revolution. Digital rights researcher Jillian York, writing about the conference, described Atef as "the Egyptian blogger behind tortureinegypt.net" and documented her presentation on how Egyptians used online platforms in the lead-up to the uprising.[10]

Her reporting on police accountability, digital activism, and freedom of expression was also cited by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)[11] and Netzpolitik.[12]

Academic career

She worked at Birmingham City University as a research assistant and postdoctoral research assistant.[3]

After returning to Egypt, Atef taught at the British University in Egypt, the Arab Open University, the Canadian International College, and Cairo University.[2] She also worked on media research projects for international organisations. These included a UNESCO-funded project on hate speech in Syrian media, research on disinformation in the Arab world for Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ), and media monitoring and migration research for the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD).[2]

From 2021 to 2022, Atef was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Scholarly Communications Lab at Simon Fraser University.[3] There she led Doctors Who Vlog, a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)-funded project on Egyptian physicians' use of social media for health communication.[13]

In 2023, she joined the Centre for Information Resilience as a Media and Research Expert.[2] In 2024, she joined the University of Galway as Lecturer in Journalism (Global Media), where she teaches and conducts research in journalism, digital media, health communication, qualitative research methods, platform studies, and Arab media.[2]

Research

Atef's research covers journalism, digital media, health communication, qualitative research methods, and Arab media and culture. Much of her work focuses on Egypt and the wider Middle East and examines the relationship between digital platforms, media practices, and everyday life.[2]

Her early research examined citizen journalism, digital activism, and alternative media. Her doctoral research at Birmingham City University explored the relationship between citizen media and mainstream media in Egypt during the political changes of 2011–2013. She has also published on qualitative approaches to researching media activism.[14]

Since 2021, Atef has researched digital health communication through the Doctors Who Vlog project. The project examines how Egyptian physicians use social media to communicate medical information, present professional identities, and establish credibility online. Publications from the project have addressed physician influencers, health communication, and online medical content.[15][16]

She has also published research on Arab media, Egyptian cinema, and popular culture, including work on representations of women in Egyptian cinema.[17]

Public engagement

Atef has written on media, digital culture, health communication, and higher education for Arabic- and English-language publications. Her work has appeared in Scientific American Arabic,[18] The Recipes Project,[19] Global Souths Hub,[20] Revista de la Universidad de México,[21] and the International Committee of the Red Cross.[22]

Earlier in her career, Atef wrote a weekly opinion column for the Egyptian newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm, covering media, politics, and digital culture.[23] She has written for the International Journalists' Network (IJNet), where she was also profiled as one of the early practitioners of citizen journalism in the Arab world.[24] IJNet also covered her research on disinformation in the Arab world, conducted for Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ).[25] Atef has provided expert commentary on digital media, health communication, and journalism in the Arab world to international media outlets. In 2026, The Guardian quoted her in a report on digital medical discourse in Egypt, examining the phenomenon of physician influencers on social media.[26] She has also been quoted as an expert source in Asharq Al-Awsat on multiple occasions on topics including the relationship between traditional and digital media, algorithmic news filtering, and the future of journalism in the Arab world.[27][28][29]

Atef has delivered invited lectures, keynote presentations, and professional training for universities, research organisations, government institutions, and civil society organisations in Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia, and North America.[2]

Her article "If It's Not in English, It's Not There", on language inequality in academic publishing, received an Outstanding Contribution Recognition in the Global Souths Hub Best Contribution Prize 2025–2026.[30][31]

References

  1. ^ "Noha Atef – Staff Profile". University of Galway. Retrieved 24 July 2026.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Noha Atef – Staff Profile". University of Galway. Retrieved 24 July 2026.
  3. ^ a b c "Noha Atef". Scholarly Communications Lab, Simon Fraser University. Retrieved 24 July 2026.
  4. ^ "مراجعة كتاب: الإعلام الشعبي بين إعلام الدولة ودولة الإعلام" (in Arabic). Zhoor Al-Adab. 20 July 2026. Retrieved 19 August 2026.
  5. ^ Atef, Noha (2024). "Confused, Rebellious and Depressed: Liberated Women in Egyptian Cinema". In Mellor, Noha (ed.). Routledge Handbook on Arab Cinema. London and New York: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781003302025-16.
  6. ^ "Chevening Scholarships Award". University of Galway Research Portal. Retrieved 24 July 2026.
  7. ^ Gschweng, Daniela (26 November 2010). "Egyptian blogs: reporting the news unfit to print". openDemocracy. Retrieved 24 July 2026.
  8. ^ "Egyptian Noha Atef Shatters Silence on Police Torture". Narco News. 29 January 2011. Retrieved 24 July 2026.
  9. ^ "Fletcher Summer Institute 2010". International Center on Nonviolent Conflict. Retrieved 24 July 2026.
  10. ^ York, Jillian C. (14 April 2011). "re:publica 11: Noha Atef on Egyptian social media stories". jilliancyork.com. Retrieved 24 July 2026.
  11. ^ Atef, Noha (May 2011). "Blogging in Egypt: Virtual Network, Virtual Oppression". Committee to Protect Journalists. Retrieved 24 July 2026.
  12. ^ "Internetzensur International" (in German). Netzpolitik. 2009. Retrieved 24 July 2026.
  13. ^ "Behind the scenes: New research on doctors who vlog". Scholarly Communications Lab, Simon Fraser University. 28 March 2023. Retrieved 24 July 2026.
  14. ^ Atef, Noha (2019). "Why Qualitative Research about Media Activism Could be Hard?". Communication & Methods. 1 (2): 221–232. doi:10.35951/v1i2.41.
  15. ^ Atef, Noha; Fleerackers, Alice; Alperin, Juan Pablo (2023). "Why Do Health Professionals Create Content on Social Media? Uses and Gratifications of Egyptian Physician Vloggers on YouTube". The Journal of Social Media in Society. 12 (2): 188–210.
  16. ^ Atef, Noha; Fleerackers, Alice; Alperin, Juan Pablo (2023). "'Influencers' or 'Doctors'? Physicians' Presentation of Self in YouTube and Facebook Videos". International Journal of Communication. 17: 2665–2688.
  17. ^ Atef, Noha (2024). "Confused, Rebellious and Depressed: Liberated Women in Egyptian Cinema". In Mellor, Noha (ed.). Routledge Handbook on Arab Cinema. London and New York: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781003302025-16.
  18. ^ "Noha Atef – Author Page". Scientific American Arabic. Retrieved 24 July 2026.
  19. ^ Atef, Noha (4 May 2025). "Gaza War Recipes: Cooking as Survival and Resistance in Displacement". The Recipes Project, Hypotheses. doi:10.58079/13v0h. Retrieved 24 July 2026.
  20. ^ Atef, Noha (November 2024). "Health Communication Insights from Egypt". Global Souths Hub. Retrieved 24 July 2026.
  21. ^ Atef, Noha (2024). "Los palestinos que cruzan hacia Ráfah no encuentran el "sueño egipcio"". Revista de la Universidad de México. Retrieved 24 July 2026.
  22. ^ Atef, Noha (21 January 2019). "Media Coverage in Conflict Zones: Ethical Dilemmas and Responsibilities". International Committee of the Red Cross. Retrieved 24 July 2026.
  23. ^ "Noha Atef – Author Page". Al-Masry Al-Youm. Retrieved 24 July 2026.
  24. ^ "نهى عاطف: العالم العربي يمتلك مشهداً قوياً في الصحافة الشعبية" (in Arabic). International Journalists' Network (IJNet). 30 October 2018. Retrieved 19 August 2026.
  25. ^ "دراسة لـ"أريج" حول مكافحة المعلومات المضللة في العالم العربي" (in Arabic). International Journalists' Network (IJNet). Retrieved 19 August 2026.
  26. ^ "The dead doctor and a dicey diet: how a ban made a hero of Egypt's rogue medic". The Guardian. 31 July 2026. Retrieved 24 July 2026.
  27. ^ "الإعلام التقليدي والمنصات الرقمية: إشكاليات تثير تساؤلات". Asharq Al-Awsat. 23 May 2022. Retrieved 24 July 2026.
  28. ^ "تفضيلات الشباب للأخبار تثير تساؤلات بشأن المحتوى". Asharq Al-Awsat. Retrieved 24 July 2026.
  29. ^ "Asharq Al-Awsat, 30 March 2018". Asharq Al-Awsat. 30 March 2018. Retrieved 24 July 2026.
  30. ^ "This Year's Global Souths Hub Best Contribution Prize Goes to…". Global Souths Hub. 14 May 2026. Retrieved 24 July 2026.
  31. ^ "Outstanding Contribution Recognition, Global Souths Hub Best Contribution Prize 2026". University of Galway Research Portal. Retrieved 24 July 2026.


Category:Living people Category:Egyptian bloggers Category:Egyptian journalists Category:Egyptian women journalists Category:Egyptian academics Category:Academics of Birmingham City University Category:Academics of the University of Galway Category:Ain Shams University alumni Category:Birmingham City University alumni Category:Human rights activists Category:Citizen journalists Category:Women bloggers

Content Disclaimer

Informasi ini disarikan dari Wikipedia dan disajikan kembali untuk tujuan edukasi. Konten tersedia di bawah lisensi CC BY-SA 3.0. Kami tidak bertanggung jawab atas ketidakakuratan data yang bersumber dari kontribusi publik tersebut.

  1. The information displayed on this website is sourced in part or in whole from Wikipedia and has been adapted for the purpose of restating it. We strive to provide accurate and relevant information, however:
  2. There is no guarantee of absolute accuracy. Wikipedia is an open, collaborative project that can be edited by anyone, so information is subject to change.
  3. It is not intended to constitute professional advice. The content displayed is for informational and educational purposes only. For important decisions (e.g., medical, legal, or financial), please consult a professional.
  4. Content copyright. Wikipedia is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License (CC BY-SA). This means that content may be reused with appropriate attribution and shared under a similar license.
  5. Responsible use. Any risk arising from the use of information from this website is entirely the responsibility of the user.