Eck and Stomski 1

Melissa Eck and Jacqueline Stomski

Anna Szczepaniec-Bialas
ENGL297 - 0101
12 December 2016
Ethnographic Report
Introduction
Today, the impact of social media on the world is evolving. The millennial generation is
extremely active on Facebook, Twitter, and other media platforms, so a world without lightning
fast connections to others seems impossible. Mass media is the forefront of everyday
communication, making it a collective part of our history. While the media has played an
important role over the past century, its acceptance and use by society is debatable. This topic
sparked our desire to research the use of the media outside the Western world. Specifically, we
decided to focus on the influences social media has in Arabic and Islamic countries. Our
research led us to Dr. Sahar Mohamed Khamis, an associate professor of Communications at the
University of Maryland. Dr. Khamiss work is driven by her ethnographic and qualitative
research of the Arab Spring and its effect on the participation of Arab women in social media.
Through our interactions with Dr. Khamis, we discovered that she uses ethnography as a way to
provide a platform for unspoken voices of the Middle East.
Our research hopes to uncover the intricate processes of ethnographic writing. Over the course
of this semester, we interviewed and observed Dr. Khamis at the University of Maryland. In
addition, we analyzed some of her published works in order to gain a better understanding of the
writing Dr. Khamis does as panelist, professor, and ethnographer. For our ethnographic lens, we
decided to use Blakeslee and Savages six part heuristic that helps ethnographic researchers
understand how to trace and analyze her writing process (366):
1. the amount and quality of writing entailed and expected,
2. the nature of writing,
3. specific genres and rhetorical strategies,
4. various approaches to and processes for writing,
5. the knowledge and skills used in a profession, and the subjects
personal traits and qualities.
As we use this lens to guide our research, we hope to answer this question: How can ethnography
be used to show the correlation between media and the changing nature of a society?
Research Location and Subject
When we discussed our interests at the beginning of the semester, we found that we shared an
admiration in understanding the power of social media to evoke change. This connection led us
to search for experts who researched social media as a means of data. Jacqueline noted that Dr.
Sahar Mohamed Khamis spoke at her Arabic Summer Cohort last year, and her published works
matched our interest. Dr. Sahar Khamis has done extensive research on the role of social media
in the Arab Spring of 2011, concentrating particularly on its use among Egyptian women. She
received a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communications e American University in 1986 and her

Eck and Stomski 2

Master of Arts in the same field in 1989. Dr. Khamis went on to achieve a PhD in Mass Media
and Cultural Studies from the University of Manchester in the UK in 2000.
Her office is in the Skinner building, home of the Communications department. Students cycle
in and out of the building. The walls are adorned with photos of loved ones and thank you cards
from grateful students and coworkers. Four wooden bookshelves surround a meeting table
adjacent to a large professional desk, and each bookshelf is stuffed with books and binders. Dr.
Khamis never hesitates to get up and hug a visitor, and her warm personality fills the room. This
makes students feel at ease when talking to her. Dr. Khamis experiences and ethnographic work
are intriguing to any student looking to pursue a degree in communications, journalism, or
professional writing.
Data Collection and Procedures
During the fall months of 2016, we have collected data on Dr. Khamis by analyzing her written
articles and books, conducting interviews, and observing her classroom and panel discussions.
To begin our project, we spoke with Dr. Khamis over email on October 20, 2016 to set up a
meeting for interviews. Between October 20, 2016 and October 26, 2016, Melissa communicated
with Dr. Khamis over email to schedule a phone call to discuss our project. Specifically, on
October 28, 2016 at 9 p.m., Melissa spoke with Dr. Khamis for thirty minutes to explain to her
that our project would involve us observing her classes and interviewing her.
On October 29, 2016, Dr. Khamis sent Melissa and Jacqueline the syllabi for her two courses,
COMM498W and COMM468A. In addition, she invited Melissa and Jacqueline to an
Islamophobia Panel on November 3, 2016.
Observations of Dr. Khamis at the Islamophobia Panel (November 3, 2016)
I (Melissa) was able to attend this panel, which consisted of the film Beyond Burkas and
Bombers: Anti-Muslim Sentiment in America, and three speakers who spoke after the film. Dr.
Khamis was placed on the left side of the panel, UMD Criminal Justice major Sarah Wagan sat in
the middle, and Tarif Sharim, a Muslim Chaplain at UMD, sat on the right. Dr. Khamis was the
most expressive of the three individuals when speaking about this topic, noting that the media
unfortunately plays an important role in spreading these distorted images [of Muslims].
During the hour and 15-minute-long panel, Dr. Khamis established her role as a Muslim educator
focused on the impact of social media in ethnography. She stated that everyone thinks Muslims
are either bombers, belly dancers, billionaires, or burkas. Prior to meeting Dr. Khamis, the
only knowledge I had of Muslims was through the news, which depicted Muslims in the same
light that Dr. Khamis emphasized. One of the most important messages I took from Dr. Khamis
was at the end of the panel, when she said:
Everything with positivity is knowledge; anything with negativity is ignorance.
-Dr. Sahar Mohamed Khamis, Islamophobia Panel (Nov. 3, 2016)

Eck and Stomski 3

Our Initial Knowledge
Prior to our initial meeting, we reviewed some of Dr. Khamiss published work in order to
understand the diversity within her ethnographic writing. One of her most notable articles, Five
Questions About Arab Womens Activism Five Years After the Arab Spring and her book,
slam dot com: Contemporary Islamic Discourses in Cyberspace, are used in her COMM498W
course (Seminar on Islamic Courses in the Digital Age). We will be analyzing these texts later in
our report using Blakeslee and Savages six-part heuristic.
Meeting Dr. Khamis in person (November 3, 2016)
I (Melissa) ran from the Art-Sociology Building to Skinner to meet Jacqueline for Dr. Khamiss
office hours. Our first interaction with Dr. Khamis was when she walked out of the elevator and
said, Thank you for attending the panel! We assumed she already knew who we were, so we
proceeded to follow her to our office down the hall.
When we went to sit down, it appeared as though Dr. Khamis did not expect us to come. She
said, Wait are you Melissa and Jacqueline? I had no idea. We already knew what Dr. Khamis
looked like because of her professor profile on the Department of Communications webpage.
Dr. Khamis, however, did not have any prior knowledge of our appearance.
I (Melissa) noticed that Dr. Khamis had about 50 thank you cards situated from top to bottom on
her bookshelf, which was to the left of the wooden roundtable desk where students can sit in for
office hours. As I moved my eyes towards her long, rectangular desk, I saw her doctor of
philosophy certificate, as well as a pixelated painting of her on the wall to her right. In the
painting, she was seen sporting red lipstick and black eyeliner, wearing a green and white hijab.
Similarly, Dr. Khamis was wearing the same makeup look emulated in the picture. She wore a
white hijab, with a long-sleeve black and white shirt, business pants, and black flats.
Jacqueline started to ask Dr. Khamis about Arabic tongue twisters she was learning in her
Egyptian Arabic course. This allowed the conversation to start off on a happy note, as we
wanted to maintain respect and gain ethos with our informant.
We first asked Dr. Khamis about how she started out her research as an ethnographer. She noted
that her academic research at American University focused on positivistic approaches that
stemmed from statistics and numbers. It was when she was working on her PhD in Mass Media
and Cultural Studies from the University of Manchester that she fell in love with qualitative
research and ethnography. She was studying Egyptian rural women in Tanta, Egypt after
learning that Kafr Masoud, her uncles wife, knew people in the local village. One of her most
memorable experiences was when a woman from the village came up to her and thought she was
a medical doctor. She said, Im an American doctor, Im not a medical doctor. Im a doctor
who studies the media, (Khamis).
She indicated in our meeting that her work is a journey of self-exploration as a scholar, as a
writer, and as a woman, (Khamis). She noted that the number one sign of stature for women in

Eck and Stomski 4

Egypt is the number of kids a woman has, stating that this becomes an identity marker for
women, (Khamis).
Observations of Dr. Khamiss COMM498W Seminar (November 3, 2016)
Fortunately, I (Melissa) was able to sit in on Dr. Khamiss COMM498W Seminar (Islamic
Courses in the Digital Age) at 3:30 p.m after our initial meeting. It was here that I was able to
see how Dr. Khamis incorporates her writing into the classes she teaches. Prior to the class, Dr.
Khamis had asked me to read one of her articles that the class would be discussing. The article,
Five Questions About Arab Womens Activism Five Years After the Arab Spring, focuses on
the efforts of cyberfeminism with regard to the Arab Spring movement of 2011. I assumed that
Dr. Khamis would be doing most of the lecturing for the class, since it was structured around the
article she wrote. What I gathered, however, was something completely different.
Dr. Khamis asked her students to post discussion board questions related to the article. Only 8
students are in her COMM498W course, making their experience with Dr. Khamis very handson. She would scroll down the list of comments, ask the student to ask his/her question, and then
Dr. Khamis would respond to them. In many of my discussion based courses, it is the professor
asking the questions and the students who are responding. Dr. Khamis truly respects the insight
that her students bring to her course, and asks them to challenge themselves to think about
Islamic perceptions within social media.
One of the topics she discussed was media agenda setting theory. She described this theory as
the media tells you what to think about. I have heard people discuss this theory, but was
unfamiliar of the complexities within it. Dr. Khamis did not go into much detail describing the
theory, so I went on to do some outside research. Agenda-setting is the creation of public
awareness and concern of salient issues by the news media. Two basis assumptions underlie most
research on agenda-setting: (1) the press and the media do not reflect reality; they filter and shape
it; (2) media concentration on a few issues and subjects leads the public to perceive those issues
as more important than other issues, (The University of Twente). This type of research dates
back to 1922, when newspaper columnist Walter Lippman was concerned that the media had the
ability to present powerful images to the public (The University of Twente). However, the theory
itself was not developed until 1972 by Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw, two associate
professors of journalism at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. They argued that in
choosing and displaying news, editors, newsroom staff, and broadcasters play an important role
in shaping political reality (176). These two professors used political campaigns in 1968, 1972,
and 1976 to investigate and discover that the media in fact exerted a major influence on the
issues U.S. citizens found important during a political campaign (The University of Twente).
After coming to an understanding of this theory, I wanted to be able to apply it Dr. Khamiss
article, which she was discussing in class. Five Questions About Arab Womens Activism Five
Years After the Arab Spring focuses on the lasting influences of social media after the political
uproar of the Arab Spring in 2011. The Arab Spring started a demand for reform by the people
of the Middle East and North Africa. It started in Tunisia and eventually spread to Egypt,
Yemen, Bahrain, Libya, and Syria (Amnesty International). Dr. Khamiss article, however,
examined the political barriers that forced Middle Eastern women to resort to online platforms.

Eck and Stomski 5

While McCombs and Shaw looked at the media to explain how it influenced political thought,
Dr. Khamis uses the media as an ethnographic tool for political change among women.
One of her students brought up YouTuber Amenakin and how she could draw from news within
her culture in order to draw attention to an issue. Dr. Khamis responded with saying that ideas
from these vloggers...YouTubers...whatever you want to call them, are not coming from a
vacuum. Most proudly as [students name redacted] said, they get these inspirations from real life
stories...There are also discussions about domestic violence in society and gender equity. While
Amenakin focused her video presence on YouTube as a beauty vlogger, Dr. Khamis advocated
that Amenakins presence on social media could impact discussions surrounding Islamic culture.
Thus, Amenakin could act as an advocate for Islamic women because of her interaction with the
online media. It was here that I understood what Dr. Khamis tries to answer with her research taking the stories of an informants media usage and then transforming it into feasible data for
her audiences.
Jacquelines background reading
My interest in Dr. Khamis stems from the research I do on Arab cultures and modern writing. As
an Arabic major, I tend to study Arab writers who write in English, and have seen a disjointed
approach their research. In order to understand the writing Dr. Khamis does, I began looking at
her available published works in the University of Marylands library system. The first article
that grabbed my attention was the The Arab Feminist Spring, published in 2011. My
academic coursework focuses heavily on the Arab Spring, so reading this piece five years later
was intriguing. Using this document, I examined Dr. Khamiss hesitant predictions at height of
the Arab Spring. The Arab Feminist Spring? focused on the women she profiled in the
Middle East. While Dr. Khamis is an ethnographer, she understands that she must adapt her
writing to different audiences. In her book, Islam dot com: Contemporary Islamic Discourses in
Cyberspace (coauthored with Mohammed el-Nawawy), Dr. Khamis and Mohammed el-Naway
use statistics and citable facts in order to make sense of Islamic media. After reading sections of
this book, I felt her ethnographic style was much more compelling and persuasive than any piece
of statistical information. Dr. Khamis distinctions between qualitative and quantitative genres
became evident in our interviews. Her discovery of ethnography was freeing, as it allowed her to
have an I presence in her work.
Melissas background reading
One of the first pieces of Dr. Khamiss work I was exposed to was during her COMM498W
Seminar course. Prior to attending her class, Dr. Khamis asked me to read her published article,
Five Questions About Arab Womens Activism Five Years After the Arab Spring. I did not
know much about the Arab Spring prior to reading this, so I definitely came away with
confusion. It was not until I sat in on Dr. Khamis seminar that I firmly understood the questions
she presented to her class. She first identified the main issues that cause Arabs and Muslims to
be stereotyped, stating that they are depicted as hostile, aggressive others with a capital O
(Khamis). This simply made sense, as many of the stories I had heard in the media associated
Muslims from U.S. society with the same connotations.

Eck and Stomski 6

The journal article, published in 2016 in CyberOrient: Online Journal of the Virtual Middle East
and on Digital Islam, focuses on the cyberactivism and cyberfeminism that resulted from the
Arab Spring, which was a wave of pro-democracy protests and uprisings that took place in the
Middle East and North Africa beginning in 2010 and 2011, challenging some of the regions
entrenched authoritarian regimes, (Encyclopedia Britannica). Due to this movement, women of
the Middle East were participating in online arena unfamiliar to many. Her article exposes the
overreaching effects of womens activity in social media, where they must be maintain one
presence online and show another person to the world.
Meeting with Dr. Khamis for a follow-up interview (November 8, 2016)
As someone who focuses on using oral history to draw attention to minorities and the stories that
they tell but are often unheard, I (Melissa) wanted to learn more about Dr. Khamiss
ethnographic research. Dr. Khamis had told me that today would be very busy for her, as it was
the United States presidential election. I had sat patiently in her office, waiting for her to finish
her phone calls and send out emails. Once she finished, she came over to hug me and said, You
should come to my office every day, you bring me good luck. She told me that she had just
been asked to be interviewed by France 24, an International 24 hour, seven days a week news
company situated in Paris. The company broadcasts on three different channels in French,
English and Arabic (France 24).
It was here that I was able to learn about Dr. Khamiss desire to work as an ethnographer. She
had elaborated on our previous meeting with Jacqueline, noting that the reason she writes all of
her academic writing in English is because she was Western educated. During her
undergraduate studies at American University in Cairo, Egypt, Dr. Khamis stated that the
university focused on quantitative research.
Now, Dr. Khamis focuses on qualitative research in order to understand and interpret her data.
She uses a hybrid of interviews to mirror the experiences of those people.
Writing became a process of self-understanding and self-exploration. I refuse to call it
self-discovery,
- Dr. Sahar Mohamed Khamis, 2nd in-person interview (November 8, 2016)
Results
The Genre of Ethnography
Dr. Khamis warm and bubbly personality allows her to actively engage with her informants for
ethnographic research. We observed this when we first walked into her office and noticed that her
walls were adorned with Thank You cards and notes from her students, colleagues, and other
community members. Dr. Khamis started off our interview by sharing her personal stories with
us, but she was often interrupted by many visitors. First, a student came in seeking guidance.
Respectful of our time as interviewers, Dr. Khamis gave the student with a hug and asked if it
could wait until later. Then her teaching assistant came in to discuss upcoming material. Dr.

Eck and Stomski 7

Khamis gave her an umbrella to use while walking to her next class because it was raining,
indicating how important each interaction is for Dr. Khamis. Her collegiate background began in
Egypt, where she had to use quantitative writing to guide her research. She shared with us that as
an undergraduate this type of academic writing dissuaded her. She felt that using the works of
other authors prevented her from establishing ethos with her audience. When she began her
doctoral study in the United Kingdom, she discovered qualitative writing. This style encouraged
the use of I statements, which allowed Dr. Khamis to use her personal ethos in her writing. Dr.
Khamis claims that ethnographic research helps her to incorporate the stories of others. Her
qualitative research has become key to the work she does as an ethnographer.
Much of Dr. Khamis work is on topics regarding the Middle East and Islam, however, she tends
to present her research to Western audiences. She argues that her research helps expose
audiences to the stories of her informants and connect them to unfamiliar political issues. Dr.
Khamis uses ethnography as a tool to combat Western stereotypes of Muslims and the Middle
East. I (Jacqueline), asked her how she was able to create the article The Arab Feminist
Spring, in the same year that the movement had begun. Dr. Khamis responded by saying that
she drew upon her vast ethnographic research to create her predictions. Dr. Khamis understands
the complex politics of using informants as research, and she hopes to encourage her audiences
to participate in similar discoveries.
As an ethnographer, Dr. Khamis states that her previous connections with an informant is are
essential. When she was working on her PhD at the University of Manchester, she conducted her
research in rural Egypt. Her uncles wife knew a few members of a local village in Tanta Egypt,
which allowed her (an outsider) to engage with the community. She continually credits her
doctoral research as being a a journey of self-exploration through the eyes of informants.
Although her family wanted her to stay in Egypt, she continues to strive for objectivity in her her
field work. Her family assumed that she would become medical doctor, and so many of the
women in the village came to her with questions regarding everything from stomach aches to
pregnancies. This experience made her question her role as academic doctor. Yet, through her
persistent research, she has realized that her writing can help to change stereotypes and educate
audiences about other cultures.
Dr. Khamis noted in our interview that she hopes to enhance her subjectivity on topics close to
home. Specifically, she hopes to help to shatter stereotypes on being an Arab Muslim woman
who wears the hijab.
Conclusion
Throughout this ethnographic report, we have discovered how an ethnographer must adapt
qualitative research to different audiences. Dr. Khamis must write as an ethnographer, an
academic professor, and even as a panelist. Dr. Khamis shows ethnographers the importance in
being flexible and open to new and diverse sources of information. She understands the
relationship between an informant and his/her story to be very precious, and wants to ensure that
in her writing. She uses I statements in order bolster her ethos as a writer and draw her
audience into the compelling stories she shares. Our interactions with Dr. Khamis have exposed
us to the importance identifying ones subjectivity while trying to maintain objectivity. She uses

Eck and Stomski 8

couples the stories of others with the evolving lens of the media in order to inform Western
audiences. We have found that her approach to ethnography in understanding social media helps
audiences understand how stereotypes create a cyclical marginalization of others in a society.

Eck and Stomski 9

Works Cited
Amnesty International. The Arab Spring: Five Years On. Amnesty International. Amnesty
International. 2016. Web. 03 Nov. 2016.
<https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2016/01/arab-spring-five-years-on/>
El-Nawawy, Mohammed, and Sahar Khamis. Islam Dot Com: Contemporary Islamic Discourses
in Cyberspace. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. Print.
Khamis, Sahar Et Al. Terps Rise Above: Islamophobia Panel. Art-Sociology Auditorium at the
University of Maryland, College Park. 03 Nov. 2016. Panel
Khamis, Sahar Mohamed. "First Interview with Dr. Khamis." Personal interview. 03 Nov. 2016.
Khamis, Sahar Mohamed. "Five Questions About Arab Womens Activism Five Years After the
Arab Spring." CyberOrient: Online Journal of the Virtual Middle East. CyberOrient,
2016. Web. 03 Nov. 2016. <http://www.cyberorient.net/article.do?articleId=9772>.
Khamis, Sahar Mohamed. "Second Interview with Dr. Khamis." Personal interview. 08 Nov.
2016.
McCombs, Maxwell E., and Donald L. Shaw. "The Agenda-Setting Function of the Mass
Media." The Public Opinion Quarterly 36.2 (1972): 176-87. The University of North
Carolina. The University of North Carolina, 2006. Web. 03 Nov. 2016.
<https://www.unc.edu/~fbaum/teaching/PLSC541_Fall06/McCombs%20and%20Shaw
%20POQ%201972.pdf>.
Sahar, Khamis. "The Arab "Feminist" Spring?" Feminist Studies 37.3 (2011): 692-95. Print.
University of Twente. Agenda Setting Theory. University of Twente. University of Twente.
2016. 03 November 2016.

Eck and Stomski 10

<https://www.utwente.nl/cw/theorieenoverzicht/Theory%20Clusters/Mass
%20Media/Agenda-Setting_Theory/>
Encyclopedia Britannica. Arab Spring: Prodemocracy Protests. Encyclopedia
Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica. 14 Jan. 2015. 03 Nov. 2016.
< https://www.britannica.com/event/Arab-Spring>