Lebaneasy an analysis of depictions of language on social media: the case study of Lebanon

Abstract

This thesis, which is positioned at the intersection of communication studies, cultural studies and technology-mediated communication, investigated the use of “lebaneasy’, a new form of graphic depictions of language on social media by a specific group of generation Z users in Lebanon, and across an extensive archive of photographic images collected by the author from 2015 till 2025. The observed phenomenon was initiated since the early days of MSN messenger due to the lack of the appropriate Arabic keyboard,which prompted users to creatively write Arabic using the English keyboard as Romanised Arabic. The phenomenon persisted and was further elaborated on with the advent of new technology-communication tools, mainly smartphones and social media applications.

The research adopted a Constructivist Grounded Theory point of view and employed a mixed method research with emphasis on qualitative data gathering and interpretation. It adopted a subjectivism ontological approach and a phenomenological epistemological stance point. The data gathering was based on a cross-sectional approach with a thematical data analysis stance.
The data gathering was generated through the design of three different experiments and a customisable smartphone keyboard testing.

The thesis introduced the problem statement, reviewed the literature pertaining to the work at hand, discussed the methodology adopted, presented the findings, and discussed them before introducing the Social Media Model of Communication (SMMC), and the thesis contribution to knowledge and opportunities for future studies.

The thesis main contributions were related to two main areas. Firstly, it allowed the undertaking of a critical analysis of this phenomenon, which had to date eluded such an analysis. Furthermore, it introduced the SMMC model which was built on existing models and introduced the use of a code book as an essential component and ‘cultural artifact’ of the model. Lastly, it introduced a new term to coin this form of language: ‘Lebaneasy’.applications.

Thesis is embargoed until 31st August 2027

Date of Award	Aug 2025
Original language	English
Supervisor	Mark Donnelly (Supervisor) & Ian Montgomery (Supervisor)