Media Of Egypt

The media of Egypt went through some major development through 1990s, as a result of the launch of the Internet to the Arab World. Social media has played a significant role in the development of news coverage. The advent of Al- Jazeera, CNN, role of bloggers, impact of Facebook and twitter have made many enhancements to the Egypt in promoting the political as well as social news around the globe.

CNN

CNN beamed live coverage of the Gulf War on satellite television in 1991, from then it has become a sensation in Egypt. In the early years, television was very new and television journalism did not exist in the Western world. The shocking presentation of the CNN in comparison to the other state-controlled news of Egypt, and altered not only the expectations of viewers but the approach of media as well. CNN presented itself by introducing innovative visual and sound effects, especially with inverted-pyramid-style journalism, which was presented in order of interest and worthiness.

Al-Jazeera

Al-Jazeera has been credited with the first Arab show broadcasting, which was modeled after the CNN. Talk shows enjoyed exceptional success in Egypt. The Egypt has allowed private satellite channels on the screen. Other channels included Al-Hayat, OnTV, Dream television and Al-Mehwar. This channel broadcasts the most popular talk shows in the World of Arab.

The effect of bloggers and blogs has played a significant role several times in major ways during the past years, especially political bloggers and blogs. Social media and traditional media have reached to a symbiotic coexistence. While the bloggers and online activists have much experience and connections with the traditional media to make them to publicize an event or idea beyond the internet realms. It has been agreed by the journalists that there is minor coverage of minority issues and the coverage is negative. Women have not been a minority but still they are marginalized. The media of Egypt seemed taking benefit from the right of freedom after the fall of President Mubarak. The users of face book and twitter have been multiplied after the revolution began in 25th January. These internet applications have become common place to see people protesting within the boundaries of Egypt. These changes have become irreversible and permanent, and seem to be growing in the upcoming years.

There is a horizontal communication in the Egypt, which was never possible to rise before by the interactive nature of the social media particularly through the internet. The tune of Down with Hosni Mubarak became available on the YouTube for the first time in Egypt. This assisted to turn more public into activism offline. In the meantime, the activists of internet such as Manal Hasan, Alaa Abdel Fattah, Wael Abbas, Malek Mostafa, Hossam El-Hamalawy, and many others uploaded videos of election rigging, brutality by police officers, different desecration of human rights, and corruption evidences at all levels of all kinds.