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ABSTRACT
This article is based on the hypothesis that the Egyptian institutional media played an active role in the Egyptian ‘Arab Spring’ revolution in 2011 and analyzes how Egypt's official newspapers constructed and presented a moderate and positive image of the Muslim Brotherhood (hereinafter the Brotherhood) despite the fact that they had labeled the Brotherhood ‘the outlawed movement’ a year earlier. In order to examine whether their attitudes changed after the downfall of the Mubarak regime, a critical discourse analysis of newspaper texts has been made of the news columns written throughout 2011 of two of the most popular Egyptian newspapers – al-Ahram (n = 115) and al-Gumhuriyya (n = 94) both of which identify with the Egyptian government's official policy. In addition, an analysis made of three of the Brotherhood's publications (n = 72) (N = 281) revealed that the Brotherhood exploited the printed media not only to replace the regime but also to gain control of its narrative. Ultimately, by controlling the shaping of public opinion, the media contributed to the drawing of a parallel between the motivation that formed the basis of the mass protest and the Brotherhood's agenda.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the Zefat Academic College for its support throughout this study.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. L. Porat, ‘The Muslim Brothers and the Arab Rulers: Changing Foci in Political Strategies’, in Meir Hatina and Uri M. Kupferschmidt (eds), The Muslim Brothers: A Religious Vision in a Changing Reality (Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 2012), p.119.
2. M. al-Tawil, Al-Ikwan al-Muslimun fi al-Barlaman (Cairo: Dar al-Tawziʿ wa al-Nashr al-Islamiyya, 1994).
3. Y. Meital, ‘The Muslim Brothers at the End of the Mubarak Era’, in The Muslim Brothers: A Religious Vision in a Changing Reality (Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 2012), p.152.
4. N. Fahmi, ‘The Performance of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Egyptian Syndicates: An Alternative Formula for Reform?’, The Middle East Journal Vol.52 (1998), pp.551–62.
5. Porat, Brothers, p.120.
6. M. Hatina and U. Kupferschmidt, The Muslim Brothers: A Religious Vision in a Changing Reality (Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 2012), p.38.
7. Meital, Muslim, p.164.
8. Meital, Muslim, p.164.
9. A. M. Said Aly, ‘The Paradox of the Egyptian Revolution’, Middle East Brief No.55 (2011), p.3.
10. For more details, see: N. Habibi, ‘The Economic Agendas and Expected Economic Policies of Islamists in Egypt and Tunisia’, Middle East Brief No.67 (October 2012), pp.2–3; A. Shokr, ‘Sisi's Egypt: Building Political Legitimacy amidst Economic Crises’, Middle East Brief No.106 (February 2017), pp.3–5.
11. Porat, Brothers, pp.120–1.
12. E. Bellin, ‘Lessons from the Jasmine and Nile Revolutions: Possibilities of Political Transformation in the Middle East?’, Middle East Brief No.50 (2011), pp.4–5; S. Bhuiyan, ‘The Social Media and its Effectiveness in the Political Reform Movement in Egypt’, Middle East Media Educator Vol.1, No.1 (2011), pp.14–20; N. Eltantawy and J. B. Wiest, ‘Social Media in the Egyptian Revolution: Reconsidering Resource Mobilization Theory’, International Journal of Communication Vol.5, No.18 (2011); M. Lim, ‘Clicks, Cabs, and Coffee Houses: Social Media and Oppositional Movements in Egypt, 2004–2011’, Journal of Communication Vol.62, Issue 2 (2012), pp.231–48; N. Hassanpour, ‘Media Disruption and Revolutionary Unrest: Evidence from Mubarak's Quasi-Experiment’, Political Communication Vol.31 (2014), pp.1–24; M. Lynch, ‘The Rise and Fall of the New Arab Public Sphere’, Current History Vol.114, No.776 (2015), pp.331–6.
13. The media have also shaped opinion on topics as varied and controversial as racial politics, the war on terror, European integration, the global justice movement and marginalized political actors. For more on this see D. R. Kinder and L. M. Sanders, Divided by Color: Racial Politics and Democratic Ideals (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1996), pp.261–290; S. D. Reese and S. C. Lewis, ‘Framing the War on Terror: The Internalization of Policy in the US Press’, Journalism Vol.10, No.6 (2009), pp.777–97; H. Helbling, D. Hoeglinger and B Wüest, ‘How Political Parties Frame European Integration’, European Journal of Political Research Vol.49 (2010), pp.496–521; A. Berenson, ‘The Anti-Globalization Movement in the “Eyes” of Journalism: “Global Justice” or “Mind Framing?”’, Journalism and Mass Communication Vol.19, Nos.3–4 (2013), pp.240–53; I. Sascha Sheehan, ‘Challenging a Terrorist Tag in the Media: Framing the Politics of Resistance and an Iranian Opposition Group’, Digest of Middle East Studies Vol.22 No.2 (2013), pp.229–61.
14. L. Leung, ‘Mediated Violence as “Global News”: Co-Opted “Performance” in the Framing of the WTO’, Media, Culture & Society Vol.31, No.2 (2009), p.251.
15. C. J. Hamelink, Media and Conflict: Escalating Evil (New York: Routledge, 2011), p.32.
16. The first is Hisad al-Usbuʿ (meaning crop of the week) (n = 56), an online weekly that had become popular at the end of the previous decade, under the leadership of Muhammad Mahdi ʿAkif (who was replaced by Badiʿ) and appeared on the website of the county of al-Sharkiyya (http://www.sharkiaonline.com). The weekly reflects the official position of the movement's leadership, especially that of the ‘general guide’. Accordingly, the first page of every edition is dedicated to Badiʿ’s weekly message. Two other publications are Min Maʿin al-Tarbiya al-Ikhwaniyya (meaning the Brotherhood's spring water of education) and Safhatuna Baida Nakiya wa-Abiya (meaning our page is white, pure and proud) (n = 16).
17. W. A. Gamson and A. Modigliani, ‘Media Discourse and Public Opinion on Nuclear Power: A Constructionist Approach’, American Journal of Sociology Vol.95 (1989), p.2; D. McQuail, Mass Communication Theory: An Introduction (3rd ed, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1994), pp.331–5.
18. R. M. Entman, ‘Framing Bias: Media in the Distribution of Power’, Journal of Communication Vol.57 (2007), pp.165–6.
19. R. J. Dalton, P. A. Beck and R. Huckfeldt, ‘Partisan Cues and the Media: The Flow of Information in the 1992 Presidential Election’, American Political Science Review Vol.92, No.1 (1998), pp.111–26; S. H. Kim, D. A. Scheufele and J. Shanahan, ‘Think About it this Way: Attributing Agenda-Setting, the Function of the Press and the Public's Evaluation of a Local Issue’, J&MC Quarterly Vol.79, No.1 (2002), p.7; A. Berenson, ‘Painting with Words: “Social Justice” Protest's Narrative in the Israeli's News’, Journalism and Mass Communication Vol.5, No.8 (2015), pp.373–87.
20. A. Richter, ‘The Russian Press after Perestroika’, Canadian Journal of Communication Vol.20, No.1 (1995), pp.7–8.
21. J. Rodgers, ‘From Perestroika to Putin: Journalism in Russia’, in Media Independence: Working with Freedom or Working for Free? (New York and London: Routledge Research in Cultural and Media Studies, 2014), pp.223–4.
22. Richter, Perestroika, pp.7–8.
23. For more details see: N. Sakr, Satellite Realms: Transnational Technologies, Globalization and the Middle East (London: IB Tauris, 2001).
24. M. Lynch, Voices of the New Arab Public: Iraq, Al-Jazeera, and Middle East Politics Today (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006), p.2.
25. Hassanpour, Media, pp.1–2.
26. A. Osman and M. Abdel Samei, ‘The Media and the Making of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution’, Global Media Journal (2012), p.1.
27. N. Sakr, Transformations in Egyptian Journalism (University of Oxford: I.B Tauris & Co. in association with the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, 2013), p.3.
28. Sakr, Transformations, p.3.
29. Ibid, pp.6–7.
30. Ibid, pp.89–90.
31. F. El Issawi and B. Cammaerts, ‘Shifting Journalistic Roles in Democratic Transitions: Lessons from Egypt’, Journalism Vol.17, No.5 (2012), pp.549–66.
32. Established in 2009, al-Shuruq is a private Egyptian newspaper that was able to bring on board a number of famous writers representing a wide range of views in the Egyptian political arena. Re. al-Ahram, see below.
33. In Egypt, state-run mass media are called the ‘national media’, suggesting that they are run by the people and are intended to serve them (Osman, Revolution, p.2).
34. Osman, Revolution, p.2.
35. Memri, 15 February 2011(http://www.memri.org.il/cgi-webaxy/sal/sal.pl?lang=he&ID=107345_memri&act=show&dbid=articles&dataid=2678).
36. Hisad al-Usbuʿ, 14 July 2011, 22 September 2011, see also Badiʿ’s weekly messages dated from 20 October 2011 and 1 March 2011.
37. Khayrat al-Shatir, who was kept in prison for years, is known for being a symbol of sacrifice and heroism. The Brotherhood's newspapers continuously devoted reports to this during the course of his imprisonment (see, for example: Safhatuna Baida Nakiya wa-Abiya, 14 December 2006).
38. R. M. Entman, ‘Framing: Toward Clarification of a Fractured Paradigm’, Journal of Communication Vol.43, No.4 (1993), pp.51–8; S. D. Reese, ‘The Framing Project: A Bridging Model for Media Research Revisited’, Journal of Communication Vol.57, Issue 1(2007), pp.148–54; Entman, Media, pp.163–73; D. A. Scheufele and D. Tewksbury, ‘Framing, Agenda Setting and Priming: The Evolution of Three Media Effects Models’, Journal of Communication Vol.57, Issue 1(2007), pp.9–20; R. M. Entman, ‘Media Framing Biases and Political Power: Explaining Slant in News of Campaign 2008’, Journalism Vol.11, No.4 (2010), pp.389–408; S. D. Reese, Findings Frames in a Web of Culture in Doing News Framing Analysis: Empirical and Theoretical Perspective (New York, NY: Routledge, 2010), pp.17–42; B. Van Gorp, Strategies to take Subjectivity out of Framing Analysis in Doing News Framing Analysis: Empirical and Theoretical Perspective (New York, NY: Routledge, 2010), pp.84–109.
39. D. L. Paletz, The Media in American Politics: Contents and Consequences (New York: Longman, 1998), pp.150–2.
40. Berenson, Painting, p.377; D'Angelo, Framing, pp.1–14; A. J. Kuypers, Bush's War: Media Bias and Justifications for War in a Terrorist Age (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2006), pp.135–140; Gamson, Media, pp.1–37; Reese, Findings, pp.17–42.
41. J. E. Richardson, Analyzing Newspapers: An Approach from Critical Discourse Analysis (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), p.47–53.
42. Al-Gumhuriyya, 7 June 2011.
43. Al-Ahram, 25 June 2011; al-Gumhuriyya, 15 June 2011.
44. J. Rauch, S. Chitrapu, S. Tyler Eastman, J. C. Evans, C. Paine and P. Mwesige, ‘From Seattle 1999 to New York 2004: A Longitudinal Analysis of Journalistic Framing of the Movement for Democratic Globalization’, Social Movements Studies Vol.6, No.2 (2007), pp.131–45; K. Tenenboim-Weinblatt, ‘Producing Protest News: An Inquiry into Journalists’ Narratives’, The International Journal of Press/Politics Vol.19, No.4 (2014), pp.410–29.
45. J. D. McCarthy and M. N. Zald, ‘Resource Mobilization and Social Movements: A Partial Theory’, American Journal of Sociology Vol.82, No.6 (1977), pp.1212–41; W. Gamson and G. Wolfsfeld, ‘Movements and Media as Interacting Systems’, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol.528, (1993), p.116; D. A. Rohlinger, ‘Framing the Abortion Debate: Organizational Resources, Media Strategies, and Movement-Countermovement Dynamics’, The Sociology Quarterly Vol.43, No.4 (2002), pp.479–507.
46. M. Lynch, Voices of the New Arab Public: Iraq, Al-Jazeera, and Middle East Politics Today (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006), p.2; Rodgers, Journalism, p.1; Richter, Perestroika, p.3.
47. Al-Ahram, 28 June 2011.
48. Ibid.
49. Al-Ahram, 1 July 2011.
50. A dispute should be noted in the research literature regarding the Brotherhood's position on the matter of democracy. There are those who claim that they adopted democratic values (M. Lynch, ‘The Brotherhood's Dilemma’, Middle East Brief No.25 (2008), pp.1–12. There are, however, also those who have taken a more restrained approach regarding the Brotherhood's discourse (Hatina, Religious, p.39).
51. Al-Ahram, 15 August 2011.
52. Ibid.
53. Hisad al-Usbuʿ, 7, 14 July 2011.
54. Al-Ahram, 8 July 2011.
55. Berenson, Painting, p.381.
56. Kim, Think, pp.8–9; Reese, Project, pp.148–9; Scheufele, Framing, p.10; J.W. Tankard, ‘The Empirical Approach to the Study of Framing’, in Framing the Public Life: Perspectives on Media and Our Understanding of the Social World (Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2001), p.95.
57. Osman, Revolution, pp.16–7.
58. Al-Ahram, 8 July 2011.
59. Ibid.
60. Al-Ahram, 1 August 2011
61. Al-Gumhuriyya, 27 July 2011.
62. Hisad al- Usbuʿ, 7 July 2011.
63. Entman, Media, p.167.
64. Al-Gumhuriyya, 3 August 2011.
65. Entman, Media, p.165.
66. Berenson, Painting, p.381; Entman, Media, p.166 (see also: Entman, Framing, pp.51–8; R. M. Entman, ‘Cascading Activation: Contesting the White House's Frame after 9/11’, Political Communication Vol.20, No.4 (2003), pp.415–32).
67. Al-Gumhuriyya, 3 August 2011.
68. Al-Ahram, 3 August 2011.
69. Al-Gumhuriyya, 3 August 2011.
70. Ibid.
71. Hisad al- Usbuʿ, 11, 18 August 2011.
72. Hisad al- Usbuʿ, 11 August 2011.
73. Al-Gumhuriyya, 3 August 2011.
74. L. Porat, ‘The Muslim Brothers and the Arab Rulers: Changing Foci in Political Strategies’, in The Muslim Brothers: A Religious Vision in a Changing Reality (Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 2012), p.119.
75. M. al-Tawil, Al-Ikwan al-Muslimun fi al-Barlaman (Cairo: Dar al-Tawziʿ wa al-Nashr al-Islamiyya, 1994).
76. Y. Meital, ‘The Muslim Brothers at the End of the Mubarak Era’, in The Muslim Brothers: A Religious Vision in a Changing Reality (Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 2012), p.152.
77. N. Fahmi, ‘The Performance of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Egyptian Syndicates: An Alternative Formula for Reform?’, The Middle East Journal Vol.52, No.4 (1998), pp.551–62.
78. Porat, Brothers, p.120.