NEW MEDIA AND POLITICAL
CHANGE IN EGYPT: CAUSES,
IMPLICATIONS AND
COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES
Sahar Khamis (Ph.D.)
Department of Communication,
University of Maryland, College Park
THE CAUSES OF THE EGYPTIAN REVOLUTION:
Thirty years of dictatorship and autocratic rule
 Corruption
 The emergency law
 The faulty constitution
 Economic distress: 40% of Egyptians living under the
international poverty line
 Growing calls for constitutional, economic, political and
social reform
 Forging the latest parliamentary elections
 The successful popular revolution in Tunisia

THE IMPLICATIONS FOR EGYPT:
Charged the Egyptian people with a new sense of
positivity, empowerment, determination, national pride,
and solidarity.
 A peaceful, youthful grassroots revolution that was
“across the board” involving different political, religious,
and social groups
 A unique “leaderless revolution”
 Unity between Muslims and Coptic Christians
 The significant role of women
 A new era of social and democratic reform: “Egypt will
not go back to where it was before Jan. 25th”

THE IMPLICATIONS FOR THE ARAB WORLD:
The domino effect or the ripple effect: Echoes of both the
Tunisian and the Egyptian revolutions in Libya, Yemen,
Bahrain, Jordan and Syria
 Arab rulers started to take some steps in the direction of
political reform
 Arab governments can not ignore the power of the Arab
street or the power of public opinion in their own
countries
 A new era of political change, empowerment and
awakening already started in the Arab world

THE INTERNATIONAL IMPLICATIONS:
Revisiting the U.S. foreign policy: Forging alliances with
corrupt dictators, who suppress their people under the
claim of preserving stability, is not an effective strategy
 Under suppression and repression there is no true
stability: There is only a “boiling pot with a lid ready to
pop off any minute”
 Not buying into the “Islamic scare” strategy, which
legitimizes oppression as a means to curb Islamic
influence: Playing on “Islamophobia”
 Peace and security can be achieved through fair and
equitable relations between neighbors, not through strong
armies and superior weapons

THE CHANGING ARAB MEDIA LANDSCAPE:
Arab media before 1990: Monolithic, uniform,
strong government control and ownership: No
diversity, plurality or freedom
 Arab media after 1990: The introduction of new
media, such as satellite television channels and
the Internet: New avenues for spreading
information and fueling opposition
 Paradox: These alternative new media channels
and avenues didn’t lead to a transition to political
mobilization or democratization until 2011
 The “safety valve” explanation for the media role

THE GOVERNMENT’S COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES:
Combining the suppression of protestors on the
streets with the suppression of the truth through
national, state-controlled media
 Cracking down on foreign journalists
 Closing down the office of Al Jazeera in Cairo and
detaining some of its staff members
 Cutting off the cell phone lines for a few days
 Blocking off the Internet for a whole week:
Pushing down the “kill switch”
 Using the mentality of the 50s and the 60s
 Failed and incompetent political and
communication strategies

THE PEOPLE’S COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES:
Deploying new social media: posting and chatting
on Facebook, tweeting, blogging and texting
 Facebook became the “people’s book”: The
“Facebook Revolution”
 Creating the missing link between mediated selfexpression and street mobilization, i.e., between
the “virtual world” and the “real world”
 Finding alternative, creative ways to access and
spread information: The “Speak to tweet” service
and using “hot bird” instead of “Nile Sat” to
watch Al Jazeera

THE MULTIPLE ROLES OF NEW MEDIA:
Catalysts that paved the way for a democratic transition
 Platforms for self-expression
 Channels for communication and organization
 Bridge-builders between the young activists and their
followers, between the “virtual world” and the “real
world”
 Avenues for civic engagement and popular participation:
From “safety valves” to “mobilization tools”
 Arenas for a new form of citizen journalism

A LAST WORD…EGYPT “AFTER MUBARAK”:
There is no turning back: The road to democratization
and reform has already started and will continue
 The transition to democratization needs to be done
“swiftly but safely”
 New era of civic engagement and popular participation
 Greater role for youth leadership
 Greater role for women’s participation
 Greater role for new media as “mobilization tools”
 Enhancing Egypt’s leadership in the Arab world
 Enhancing Egypt’s international image & reputation
