Miriam Berg

About

Miriam Berg is an assistant professor in the Journalism and Strategic Communication Program at Northwestern University Qatar. Her research focuses on understanding the media consumption patterns of Arab, refugee, migrant, and diasporic audiences. Equally, she is interested in the transnational appeal of Turkish cultural products and their growing role as a source of Turkish soft power.

At Northwestern Qatar, she also serves as the faculty adviser for the Qatari Culture Club. In addition to her doctorate obtained from the School of Media and Communication at the University of Westminster, she also holds a bachelor's degree in communication and audio-visual production studies and a master's degree in communication management.

Berg has previously worked at Al Jazeera English in Doha, Qatar, and for Bloomberg News in London.

Berg is the author of the book Turkish Drama Serials: The Importance and Influence of a Globally Popular Television Phenomenon published by the University of Exeter Press.

Teaching

JOUR 324 Video Journalism – Video Producing: Broadcast/Web

JOUR 326 Documentary for Journalists

JOUR 303 Audience Insight

MIT 355 Audience Analysis

MIT 190 Media Construction

Research

Miriam Berg's research focuses on the following areas: 

• Investigating the cultural and societal factors that influence the popularity of Turkish dramas among different audiences in Türkiye and abroad.
• Examining Turkish dramas' role in shaping perceptions and attitudes towards Turkish culture and society among domestic and transnational audiences.
• Exploring how Turkish dramas are used as a "soft power" tool to promote Turkish culture and influence international perceptions of Türkiye.
• Investigating how parents influence and shape children's use of digital technology and the internet.
• Exploring the role of parental mediation in children's development of digital literacy and online safety.
• Investigating the ways in which race and ethnicity influence access to, and use of, information and communication technologies (ICT) and digital media in Europe.
• Examining the impact of racialization on the digital divide and digital inclusion.

Publications

Book

Berg, M. (2023). Turkish Drama Serials: The Importance and Influence of a Globally Popular Television Phenomenon. University of Exeter Press.

Selected Articles and Book Chapters

Berg, M. (2017). The importance of cultural proximity in the success of Turkish dramas in Qatar. International Journal of Communication, 11, 16.

Berg, M. (2017). Turkish drama serials as a tool for Soft Power. Participations: Journal of Audience & Reception Studies, 14(2), 32-52.

Berg, M. (2020). Cultural Proximity or Cultural Distance? Selecting Media Content among Turkish Diasporic Audiences in Germany. Diaspora, 20(3), 354-371.

Berg, M. (2020). Turkish drama serials and Arab audiences: Why Turkish serials are successful in the Arab world. In Television in Turkey (pp. 223-244). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Berg, M. (2022). Women Refugees’ Media Usage: Overcoming Information Precarity in Germany. Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies, 20(1), 125-139.

Berg, M. (2022). The interplay between authenticity, realism and cultural proximity in the reception of Turkish drama serials among Qatari audiences. The Journal of Popular Television, 10(1), 21-40.

Berg, M. (2022). Information-precarity for refugee women in Hamburg, Germany, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Information, Communication & Society, 1-17.

Berg, M. (2023). Turkish Television Serials’ Reception among Women Viewers in Rural Türkiye: Gendered and Generational Readings between Younger and Older Women. International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics, 19(1)

Berg, M (2023). Negotiating Authenticity and Social Identity: Rural Women's Engagement with Müge Anlı ile Tatlı Sert. Journal of Communication Inquire.

Awards & Grants

‘Best Paper’ award for ‘The selection of television programs by Qatari audiences: An interplay between cultural capital, cultural proximity, and the Gulf Crisis’.  UTAS International Conference at the University of Technology and Applied Sciences, Salalah, Oman, 2021.