Atef Alshaer

Towards a Theory of Culture of Communication: The Fixed and the Dynamics in Hamas’ Communicated Discourse

This paper proposes to use the phrase ‘culture of communication’ to unravel the relationship between language and culture that cannot be understood as merely unexplained mental signposts without constitutive enmeshed ideas. It engages with relevant core ideas and combines theoretical and empirical evidence to put forward the proposition that a culture of communication exists in every culture. The key constituents of a culture of communication, as an analysis of online images used by the Palestinian Islamic movement Hamas will show, are diverse verbal, written and visual forms of communication, which relate to each other in intricate ways and which require orderly discursive interpretation. To make my argument, I highlight the concept of culture of communication and the discourses and issues that follow from it. Then, I address the landmark literature on language and culture before considering the case study. My objective is to attempt to discern the relational aspects that underpin socio-political understanding and practices in terms of communication.