Marc Owen Jones is an Associate Professor of Middle East Studies at Hamad bin Khalifa University, where he lectures and researches on political repression and informational control strategies.
His recent work has focused on the way social media has been used to spread disinformation and fake news in the Middle East.
In March 2019, he published ‘The Gulf Information War| Propaganda, Fake News, and Fake Trends: The Weaponization of Twitter Bots in the Gulf Crisis’, in the ‘International Journal of Communication’.
His upcoming book on ‘Disinformation and Deception in the Middle East’ will be published by Hurst Books and Oxford University Press in 2021.
His previous work has focused on political repression. His recent monograph, ‘Political Repression in Bahrain’, was published in July 2020 by Cambridge University, Press.
Jones has won multiple awards for his work. Jones’ PhD thesis in Government and International Affairs from Durham University won the ‘2016 Best Thesis’ award from the Association for Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Studies. In 2021 he won the ‘UK alumni professional achievement’ award from the British Council in Qatar. Through the course of his career he has won several awards for teaching both at Exeter University and HBKU. He is the editor of numerous books on Bahrain and the Gulf, including Gulfization of the Arab World, published in 2018 by Gerlach Press.
Jones also specializes in providing timely analysis on disinformation campaigns, and has taken an active role in numerous high profile investigations.
In addition to his academic publications, Jones has written for numerous international media outlets, including the Washington Post, CNN, the Independent and the New Statesman. His work features frequently in publications such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Guardian. He also makes regular appearances on BBC, Al Jazeera, LBC, CBC News, and many others. Jones grew up in Bahrain and Saudi, and has worked and studied in Sudan, Syria, Germany and the United Kingdom.
Hamad bin Khalifa University, Doha, Qatar
2022 - presentHamad bin Khalifa University, Doha, Qatar
2018 - 2022Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter
2017 - 2018Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter
2016 - 2017the University of Tubingen, Germany
2016Department of Politics and Geography, Newcastle University
2015 - 2016School of Government and International Affairs, Durham University
2013 - 2015Durham University, England
2011 - 2015Durham University (Damascus and Edinburgh Universities too), England, Syria, Scotland
2008 - 2010Cardiff University, Wales
2003 - 2006Tracking Adversaries and First Responding to Disinfo Ops: The Evolution of Deception and Manipulation Tactics on Gulf Twitter, Project on Middle East Democracy, https://pomeps.org/tracking-adversaries-and-first-responding-to-disinfo-...
2021How the Saudi Regime Silences Those Who Discuss the Khashoggi Affair Online. Jadaliyya and JadMag (2019), https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/38185/Here%E2%80%99s-How-Saudi-Silence...
2018Automated Sectarianism and Pro-Saudi Propaganda on Twitter. Tactical Tech, 2016,https://exposingtheinvisible.org/resources/automated-sectarianism
2016The IISS: The Myth and Ethics of Think-Tank Independence. Jadaliyya - جدلية. https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/33838/The-IISS-The-Myth-and-Ethics-of-...
2016UK News Media Review 2012, Department of Media and Communications, http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/media/documents/UK-News-Media-Review-20... (accessed 22 February 2015).
2015‘Qatar say their official news agency website was hacked Twitter Bots suggest they may have a point’, AmanaTech, May 2017, https://bahrainwatch.org/amanatech/en/investigations/qatar-say-their-off...
2015‘Uncovering a Twitter Bot Army Mobilised Against Al Jazeera’. AmanaTech, August 2017, https://bahrainwatch.org/amanatech/en/investigations/we-demand-the-closi... the-channel-of-pigs
2015Media Assisted Authoritarianism Bahrain, Open Book Publishers, Spring 2021, https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0238.09
2021Mapping Sectarian Slurs in the Middle East Twittersphere, 第3章 中東のツイッター界にみる宗派的中傷の分布 Chuto no Tsuitta Kai ni Miru Shuhateki Chusho no Bunpu, Book Series: Politics in Transition, Koyo Shobo Publishers [Japan
2019Introduction, in Jones M, Porter R, Valeri M (eds) Gulfization of the Arab World. Gerlach Press.
2018Contesting the Iranian Revolution as a turning-point discourse in Bahraini contentious politics. In valeri M, porter R, Jones MO (Eds.) Gulfization of the Arab World: Exeter Critical Gulf Series, Gerlach Press. 2017.
2017‘Social media in the Bahrain Uprising: From hope to despair’, in Atanasova D, Reilly P, Veneti A (eds) Politics, Protest, Emotion: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, PressBooks, 2017
2017'Political History of Bahrain', The Middle East and North Africa 2017, Oxford, Routledge, 2016.
2016'Social media and unethical P2P diplomacy in the Bahrain Uprising ', in Gunter, B., Al-Areshi, M. and Al-Jaber, K., (eds), Social Media and the Arab Uprisings, London, I.B. Tauris, 2016.
2016) 'Social media, surveillance, and Cyberpolitics in the Bahrain Uprising', in M.O. Jones and A. Shehabi (eds), The Bahrain Uprising, London, Zed Books, 2015.
2015'Rotten apples and rotten orchards: police deviance, brutality, and unaccountability in Bahrain', in Jones, M.O. and A. Shehabi (eds), The Bahrain Uprising, London, Zed Books, 2015.
2015