Mona El Tahawy’s “Why do they hate us”

Mona El Tahawy’s most recent article “Why do they hate us” published by Foreign Policy has provoked many debates. The way new social media are employed in order to discuss the article shows once more in what way those media can be useful and fruitful, but also what their limits are. Mona El Tahawy argues in her article that misogyny is such a wide spread phenomena in the Arab world that it denies women freedom. Subsequently she has been accused of portraying her country and the Arab countries in general in a very negative way and of only reinforcing the stereotypes the West has about the Arabs. Plus Mona El Tahawy was criticized for being simplistic and even reproducing an orientalist vision in order to attract more attention. On the blog “Tahrir and beyond” Mona El Tahawy’s article is even called “disgraceful” and “one-dimensional” and the blogger considers her argumentation as “vague-over-generalized-orientalist”.

Mona El Tahawy appeared on the Melissa Harris Perry show on MSNBC on April 28th 2012 where she could defend her article and discussed about it with the famous Egyptian scholar and feminist Leila Ahmed. During the show Mona El Tahawy argued that the treatment of women in the Arab world can’t just be concealed, because it might create a bad image of Arab societies. But to her opinion issues that important have to be discussed openly. The show gave birth to even more debate on the article on social media, in particular on twitter. 

The social media seem to be an important outlet for involved people who want to share their opinion on different issues with others. Nevertheless one has to say that the comments on social media are usually very short and therefore not that profound. Consequently social media are an important tool in order to measure reactions from different people on different topics, but they can’t completely replace more traditional tools, such as newspaper and TV shows. Professional journalists have to analyze the issue and reactions to it in more depth. However social medias are very valuable because they allow everybody to contribute to different issues and debates with their opinion. Furthermore we have to distinguish between often superficial comments on media such as facebook and twitter and media such as blogs which allow people to write more profoundly about issues they are concerned with. Some blogs, for instance “Tahrir and beyond” also point out interesting articles on blogs and mainstream media on the topic of Mona El Tahawy’s article, which can be helpful for readers who want to get more information and different perspectives on the topic. Finally blogs often reproduce interesting comments the authors found on social media, such as facebook and twitter. Consequently the social media help to acquire a broad impression on the topic and the different existing opinions very quickly, but can a only be very fruitful if readers combine them with other more traditional media.

Conversation with Egyptian journalist Shahira Amin gives important inside on the media situation in Egypt today

The Egyptian journalist Shahira Amin has been working for the Egyptian state TV for more than 20 years. Since she was working for the channel Nile TV which broadcasts in English, she had more freedom addressing certain issues than colleagues working in Arabic. Nevertheless she decided to quit on the 3^rd of February 2011. In May 2011 she accepted to come back to Nile TV, but this time on her own terms. However she realized how little changed for journalists after the revolution when she was reporting about the virginity tests the army was undertaking on female protesters from Tahrir square. 

During a conversation we had with her over the phone on February 1^st 2012 she told us that corruption and censorship worsened since the fall of Mubarak. According to her, the army has simply replaced Mubarak and is even more rigorous concerning critical journalists. She claimed to be herself a victim of threats and of a campaign of defamation led by the Supreme Council of Armed Forces. However during the conversation she also pointed out some little improvements and changes. She noticed for example that journalists are more willing to take risk and to write about controversial topics since the revolution. In addition to that, she says that even among people from lower social classes, which can’t afford satellite TV, the skepticism towards state TV is growing. The most significant sign for a change that occurred after the revolution is in her opinion the fact that the society lost its fear. One adequate example for that loose of fear is to her mind that the women who were forced to take the virginity test decided to sue the army for perpetrating those test against their will. The conversation with Shahira Amin left us with an overall optimistic feeling, even though it became clear once more that Egypt still has a very long way ahead of itself.                                               

Interview with Professor Jakob Skovgaard-Petersen from the Copenhagen University

Professor Skovgaard- Petersen teaches at the Department of Cross Cultural and Regional Studies at the University of Copenhagen. A specialist of Islamic Studies, Islamic Law but above all Arab media, he has written numerous works about media in the Arab world and gained a great amount of knowledge about Egypt thanks to his research. Right now he is involved in a project called "The New Islamic Public Sphere" which has as its mission according to the project's website to "map and analyse how new media such as satellite TV and the Internet are changing Islamic norms, politics and identity in the contemporary Middle East." We are very thankful to Professor Skovgaard- Petersen for having agreed to give us this interview and to Rasmus Schäffner Jacobsen, a student at Copenhagen University, who conducted the interview on our behalf.

Interview with Egyptian Sciences Po student Farah Radwan

EE: Thank you for being willing to give us this interview Farah. Let’s start with: What kind of media do you use in order to get information about what is going on in Egypt?

Farah: Primarily I use egyptindependent, English version of al masry al youm and the daily news egypt website.
I also have a very active friend named omar el sabh who wrote for al masry al youm and he is constantly posting articles on facebook and what not. I use the Arabist blog for a more casual opinionated read.

EE: What kind of role do social media play for you in the case of Egypt? (For example, does facebook and twitter help you to stay in touch with what is happening in Egypt on the ground especially when you are abroad?)

Farah: I don’t use twitter so i wouldn't know what the benefits of that are. I do use facebook as i already mentioned one of the ways i know whats going on is through my friend... Being abroad of course takes its toll on the information we receive. My friends are the ones who tell me whats happening on a daily basis.

I have stopped using Aljazeera I just feel it is too superficial. When reading it I feel like I’m reading an article composed of many different titles if that makes any sense? Al arabiya is more accessible to me I feel more comfortable reading it. And i feel like it gives me what i want to know in terms of substance.

EE: Do you notice a difference in the way media report about politics in egypt before and after the revolution?

Farah: Before the revolution everyone EVERYONE was making excuses for all of our actions including our beloved president. After the revolution there is no room for excuses. Those who make excuses are shamed either by themselves or by people around them. During the revolution the reporting was intense, talking about the issues and the focus and what needs to happen on many levels. It was "serious" reporting but after the revolution I am finding it hard to find what I need in terms of substance because everything that is being reported is relatively shallow and superficial. Things about the headscarf things about the salafi with a nose job… seriously? I dont care about such things I want to know about judicial and legislative reconstruction and education but this is not what is mainly being reported.

EE: Who do you think has the most influence on you right now [in the media landscape] concerning Egypt?

 Farah: Omar el Sabh (my friend is honestly so inspirational and dedicated to the cause), my family of course and daily news Egypt.

EE: Thank you so much Farah.

Interview with German media scholar Maria Schröder

Encounter Egypt (EE): While reading some of your works, one term came up many

times that grasped our attention.Could you please explain the phenomenon 

of "mediated civic identity construction"?

The term "mediated civic identity construction" is describing the formation of identity in our post-modern world. Nowadays, there are no fixed or prescribed structures or institutions anymore, that shape our identities, but it is up to us to form our own identities. The concept that I am using here stems from the field of psychology, the theory of a “narrative identity”, put more easily: I tell my story, therefore I am. Now to make the link to the field of media, and especially modern media, these tools give us many possibilities to express ourselves and therefore shape our identity, construct our identity. It is a performative act that we can witness on facebook, blogs etc.

Connected to the notion of “achieved citizenship”, a model of citizenship, which does not focus so much on rights and responsibilities but rather on the construction of a civic identity (only when I feel and recognize myself as a citizen of a country, can I act as a citizen and do I feel the power to act as a citizen), we achieve the concept of “mediated civic identity construction”. I think that this concept is very important when we talk about the role of media and when we try to define the role of modern media in the Arab spring.

EE: Could you share with us your first insights on your own research that you conducted in Egypt about the media use of Egyptian activists and youth in general?

The activists are very strongly interconnected. The hardly watch TV at all (which is remarkable for n Egyptian because in Egypt TV still plays the role of the most far reaching medium). They use almost exclusively online media and move in “like-minded” circles on the web. They feel so empowered by their use of social media that they have the feeling of almost themselves being the media (We are the media!).

EE: Sometimes, it seems to us that social media almost gets a little bit too much hype or credit for what it's worth. Could you explain a little bit what according to you social media is able to do and where its limits lie?

On the one hand of course in Egypt the provision with internet access is not given everywhere, so one hast to keep in mind the Digital Divide in the Egyptian society. On the other hand however, the rate of people gaining internet access in Egypt is growing rapidly and online media has become very important especially in the framework of the political discourse that takes place.

The online sphere has played a great role before the onset of the demonstrations as a counter sphere towards the official public sphere, where the different ideas and opinions of the opposition were communicated and exchanged. These kinds of counter spheres (for example the blogosphere) are also important so that certain groups can communicate amongst their members about their identity, their values and norms and so on before their ideas are being transmitted towards the public.

Furthermore, social media like facebook are helping diminishing the significance of class difference between the different activists, suddenly, people are getting in touch with each other who before have been living in two completely different worlds (for example Zamalek and Manshiet Nasr).

The possibility of citizen journalism also empowers the citizens and adds another space to Egypt’s public sphere where critic can be exercised.  

And last but not least, over facebook it is very easy through such means as for example pictures, to create a certain notion of solidarity and in that way to mobilize the masses.

EE: With the arrival of satellite TV there was a lot of talk about a change of the Arab public sphere. What do you think about that and as a matter of fact now with the Arab revolutions (if we can name them that way in lack of a better word of description) taking place, how can the Arab public sphere transform into something even more important/greater?

Arab satellite TV (foremost Al Jazeera) has thoroughly shaken the national public sphere in the Arab world, because the Arab public sphere before consisted primarily of a sphere of taboos and consensus that was enforced by the regime.  

Aj has with its live transmitted political and quite liberal talk shows created a sphere of legitimate controversy. This translated into the Arab public sphere from before trying to adjust a little bit towards the standards of AJ. AJ and Al-Arabiya have also changed the standards of good journalism and reporting in the Middle East.

EE: Talking about Egypt, is there something that makes Egypt stand out when

talking about the public sphere? Has the media also undergone a revolution in Egypt or was the taboo of talking about Mubarak simply replaced by the taboo to talk about the SCAF?

The media landscape in Egypt is going through quite a change right now. Revolutions are most of the time connected to the change of the system of political communication. The media run by the government have of course lost a huge amount of credibility and new forms of online media which have massively used the form of citizen journalism over the last year, are trying to fill that gap.

Whereas the center of news reporting in the Middle East moved to the Gulf, Egypt’s film industry is still very important. Egypt is an important political actor in the region and is also home to the seat of the Arab League. Thus Egypt produces most of the news coming from this region and the network of foreign correspondents is very dense in Egypt.

However Egyptian news are of course also oriented towards the Egyptian nation, which has been made clear during the protests. A sign of this was for example the rising use of Egyptian dialect in political communication processes.

EE: Then, we saw that you once gave a seminar about media and democracy. Could you explain and elucidate a little bit further where you make the link between the two? And how this could be important for Egypt?

Media and democracy are linked through the concept of “the public”. A public sphere is created through the existence of (mass)media, through media it is institutionalized and kept alive. Media works as the connecting link between the state and the society, it serves to criticize political decision making processes, legitimizes or delegitimizes actions of politicians, gives attention to problems that exist within the society and also provides ideas and blue prints for possible solutions to different problems (peaceful way of resolving conflict in a society). Media can offer orientation for the citizens (throughout an election) etc. All this is important for every political system when it finds itself in a transformation like the one we are witnessing in Egypt. The reason why the media is so important in Egypt right now is the fact that media can create this public space that is needed for discussions.

EE: Thank you so much Mrs. Schröder for the interview.

Does the Egyptian revolution equal a revolution of the press?

Mubarak of course has been known to Egyptian journalists as the president of Egypt for the last thirty years. However, the word Mubarak also signified to most journalists a red line, a limit that shall not be crossed. Criticizing Mubarak openly and attacking the way he ruled the country were not an option for the majority of Egyptian journalists.  Even though freedom of speech might have not been as curtailed as it is in most of the Gulf countries nowadays, the name Mubarak certainly was not one to be dragged into the mud.

Today, we live in a time where everything seems possible: dictators were brought down by the people; the military leaders of Myanmar seem to be warming up towards the idea of granting their citizens more rights, after the death of Kim Jung Il even North Korea might get a chance to reconsider its past and start with a clean slate.

However, no need to get too excited too soon. In a time where everything seems possible, freedom of the press should be one of the easiest things to attain.  That much established, can we possibly talk about a revolution that has taken place in the Egyptian media sphere over the last 12 months, or did the revolution stop dead in its tracks before entering Egypt’s printing and publishing houses?

Once we get a closer look at the state of freedom of the press in Egypt, the picture we get has a quite sobering effect on our previously exhilarated minds. One thing becomes clear, with Mubarak gone, the red line of today’s news reporting has become the ruling military council, known under the name of SCAF.

Only a few days ago, the prominent talk-show host Reem Maged as well as her guest Hossam el- Hamalawy, known to be a n activist and journalist, had to appear in front of the SCAF who accused them of portraying lies about the military council. Maged and Hamalawy had expressed concern that the SCAF who tries to portray itself as going hand in hand with the people and protecting the revolution for their own good, had actually physically attacked protestors.

On top of that, not only local journalists and activists fall victim to the SCAF, only last Saturday, the Australian journalists Austin Mackell along with his Egytian translator Aliya Alwi were arrested by the military while covering a general strike in the city of Mahalla.

Joseph Mayton on bikyamasr.com commented the case of Mackell and Alwi in the following: “Now, my colleagues are being taken to a military prosecutor and could face an illegal military trial for doing their job. For attempting to show the world the truth. This is the face of SCAF. They have lost all credibility and their stalwart attempts to paint foreigners, and especially journalists, as the enemy of the revolution, must come to an end. […] Without their removal from power, journalism is dead; the revolution is dead.”

If one were to argue that this article so far has been solely based on observations and subjective experiences, here is a number that should make Egyptians as well as the rest of the world worry: According to the latest Press Freedom Index issued by Reporters Without Borders, Egypt has since the beginning of the revolution fallen 39 places and now lands on rank number 166, on par with countries like Cuba.

It is time that Egypt again protects the right by its citizens and most of all journalists to seek the truth, to question and of course, to disagree.  It is time for a revolution of the press.

What is the role of social media in the Arab revolutions?

With people arguing that the revolutions in the Middle East can be called social media revolutions, one sometimes asks oneself whether or not those people are aware of the fact that they not only show of their ignorance and lack of understanding but also a huge disrespect to what is happening in the Middle East right now. A different way of looking at the role of social media in the upheavals/civil wars/revolutions that we are witnessing is offered by the prominent twitter personality of Sultan al-Qassemi, who stated that social media helped make the uprisings "more efficiently". Check out the article about al-Qassemi and his personal contribution to the Egyptian revolution over twitter on :

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/richard-adams-blog/2011/jul/08/sultan-al-qassemi-twitter