Mohamed Zayani Wins 2019 ICOMM Best Book Award

CIRS Research Fellow Mohamed Zayani has been awarded the 2019 “International Communication Best Book Award” from the International Studies Association (ISA) for his book Networked Publics and Digital Contention: The Politics of Everyday Life in Tunisia (Oxford University Press, 2015). 

The award will be presented at the 60th ISA Annual Convention, which will be held this year in Toronto. It is conferred by the ISA’s International Communication (ICOMM) section and honors “the book that is deemed to have made the most substantial impact in the area of international communications in the context of international studies.” The ISA ICOMM book award is the latest accolade Networked Publics and Digital Contention received. The book has garnered many favorable reviews and has been recognized by a cluster of prestigious awards from leading academic and professional associations. 

Previously, it won “The Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology Best Book Award” from the American Sociological Association (ASA); “The Global Communication and Social Change Best Book Award” from the International Communication Association (ICA); “The Sue DeWine Distinguished Award for a Scholarly Book” from the US National Communication Association (NCA); and “The Toyin Falola Best Book Award” from the Association of Global South Studies (AGSS). 

“That Mohamed Zayani’s book has won multiple awards, from different associations, attests not just to the impact of his work, but also to its breadth. It’s a great achievement,” said Oxford University Press editor Angela Chnapko.

Zayani’s Networked Publics and Digital Contention is part of the Oxford Studies in Digital Politics Series, which is edited by Andrew Chadwick. His latest book Digital Middle East: State and Society in the Information Age was also published by Oxford University Press.