1 “Cyberactivism” and Ongoing Political Transformation: The Case of Bahrain 1 By Sahar Khamis (Ph.D.) Associate Professor, Department of Communication University of Maryland College Park, U.S.A skhamis@umd.edu And Nada Alwadi (MA) Independent Bahraini Journalist and Researcher Founding member - Bahrain Press Association Alwadi.nada@gmail.com Sahar Khamis is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Maryland, College Park. She is an expert on Arab and Muslim media and the former Head of the Mass Communication and Information Science Department in Qatar University. She is the co-author of the books: “Islam Dot Com: Contemporary Islamic Discourses in Cyberspace” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009) and “Egyptian Revolution 2.0: Political Blogging, Civic Engagement and Citizen Journalism” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013). Nada Alwadi is a Bahraini journalist, writer and researcher. She has been working in print media since 2003 covering politics and human rights issues in Bahrain and the Middle East. She holds a Master’s degree in Mass Communication with an emphasis on women's political empowerment in the media. Alwadi covered the recent crackdown in Bahrain for several international media outlets including USA Today. 1 This paper is a chapter in the book “The whole world is texting… Youth Protest in the Information Age” published by “Sense publishers” in 2015.