Professor Donatella Della Ratta Publishes Article on Fighting ISIS with TV

JCU Assistant Professor of Communications Donatella Della Ratta recently published an article in Al Jazeera entitled “Fighting ISIL through TV drama: The case of Black Crows.”

In her article, Professor Della Ratta analyzes “Gharabeeb Soud” (Black Crows), a TV series that is the main course of the Ramadan media diet consumed daily by millions of Muslims after sunset, when they break their fast and hundreds of free-to-air TV channels provide them brand new primetime entertainment. According to Prof. Della Ratta, the program’s attempts to deter people from ISIL gets mired in stereotypes instead.

Prof. Della Ratta has a background in Media Studies with a specialization in Arabic-speaking media. From 2007 until 2011 she lived in Damascus and carried out an extensive media ethnography of Syrian TV series which became the topic of her Ph.D. research, obtained from the University of Copenhagen in 2013. She has authored three monographs on Arab media, and curated chapters on Syrian media and politics in several collective books. She is a contributor to Italian and international media outlets such as Al Jazeera English, Hyperallergic, Internazionale, and Il Manifesto.