Augusto Valeriani, PhD, is a postdoctoral research fellow at Università di Bologna where he lectures in Media and International Politics. He is also Fellow of the Center for Global Communication Studies at Annenberg (Upenn) and of the Arab Media Centre at University of Westminster. Augusto has published many articles on mass media and international politics, new media and society, with a focus on the Arab context. He is the author of three monographs: Il giornalismo arabo (The Arab Journalism, 2005), Effetto Al Jazeera (The Al Jazeera Effect 2010) and Twitter Factor (2011). In 2009 he co-edited a volume on Arab opinions during 2008 US Presidential Campaing. His last research work on leadership, new media and social movements in the "Arab Spring" has been recently published on Sociologica Journal (Il Mulino, Bologna).