With the recent uprisings and revolutions in the Arab world, a big focus was given to the region’s issues in the world media. Perhaps one of the most reported of these revolutions was that of Egypt which lasted for 18 days and ended with the ouster of president Hosni Mubarak on February 11. Egypt has a special significance in the region and in the global community. A historic country, Egypt has a major influence in Middle Eastern politics and stability, and is a strong ally of the United States and the first Arab country to have a peace treaty with Israel.
In this essay, I will be looking at two different types of media outlets and their coverage of the events. Firstly, I will look at international media through Al Jazeera. I will then look at portrayal of events and protestors in Egyptian media.
Before proceeding, as part of the framework for critical assessment of media, I think it is important to analyze the possibility of my own bias. As a person of Egyptian origin, who has lived in Egypt for four years and as a person who worked in journalism and is currently pursuing my Master’s degree in the field, I followed the situation in Egypt extensively as a citizen, a consumer of news and through the mindset of a journalist.
I will start my analysis with an example of international media. Perhaps one of the outlets that had the most extensive coverage of the Egyptian revolution was the Qatari based Al Jazeera. The channel had reporters on the ground for both its Arabic and its English channels. Furthermore, Al Jazeera had a live feed throughout the revolution where live images from Tahrir Square, the center of the protests, was almost continuous. The channel also provided news coverage on its website.
One of the best things about the channel’s coverage is that it went to the heart of the protests and provided videos, interviews and pictures rather than just words. This did create an emotional response though that could have swayed the viewers’ opinion. When looking at the framework for the critical assessment of media and its question of visuals, we can see that the images broadcasted were very dramatic, especially in the more violent days of the protests. They tended to create an emotional response from viewers. However, the images seemed to correspond with reality, as various news sources were broadcasting different angles of the same images and saying the same things- with the exception of Egyptian media.
The channel however, definitely focused more on the anti-government protests and their views. This seemed to be the trend in international media and the opposite seemed to be true for Egyptian media who focused on pro-government demonstrations. Using one of the questions of the framework, as far as I can tell, the statements and reports pass truth tests and do correspond with reality. The pro-democracy protestors far outnumbered the pro-government protestors. It seemed acceptable then, that coverage would be more swayed towards the majority side, as long as mention was made of the other side.
In a video report entitled Egypt Burning- Standoff on the Nile [1], Al Jazeera chronicles the days of most violence between pro and anti- government protestors. In it, the images are dramatic and the focus is on the pro-democracy protestors. There is however a few minutes of mention of the pro-Mubarak protestors in the approximately 25 minute program. The program uses strong language such as “...Egypt descends into chaos,” and the reporters use strong words to describe the scene unfolding in front of them. The chaos was blamed on the pro-Mubarak demonstrators and the program goes on to say that there is increasing evidence they are actually undercover state police or people “paid to come and agitate the protestors.” Reporters rely on eyewitness sources that say some of the pro-government demonstrators have been captured and their identity cards show that they were police. Al Jazeera however, did not give a chance for these pro-Mubarak protestors to defend themselves on the program.
Although, it seems that it was reporting on the truth, Al Jazeera clearly did show a bias towards one side of the story. With the emphasis being on pro-democracy protestors, the channel did capture the majority view and feeling of the revolution. Yet it should have given more space for people opposing the protests. Uneven coverage puts Al Jazeera in a position where its integrity could be compromised. This is especially true if we consider the reports in the Guardian in December 2010 that claim that a Wikileaks document claims that Qatari Prime Minister, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani told the US Senator, John Kerry, that he had proposed a bargain with the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, which involved stopping broadcasts in Egypt in exchange for a change in Cairo's position on Israel-Palestinian negotiations.[2]” A more unbiased perspective on the revolution would have helped it steer clear from the image that it is trying to tarnish the ex-Egyptian regime.
On the other extreme, the Egyptian media focused heavily on pro-government supporters. It is important to know that the ex-Egyptian regime had media under tight control and that there was heavy censorship. In Module 5 of our course we can see that Hachten and Scotton put Egypt under the Authoritarian concept with government controlled media in their five basic theories of the press. [3]
Egyptian state TV frequently had callers who claimed to be protestors talk about foreign agents and influences that have taken over the protests and made it their own. The pro-democracy protestors were sometimes branded as traitors and people who were paid to do it. Ahram Online reports (post-revolution) that a TV presenter made this claim on national TV: “It has become clear now that protestors are being given $100 and a Kentucky Fried Chicken [KFC] meal every day by certain ‘foreign entities’ serving wicked agendas [4].”
Videos on YouTube show clips from the Egyptian media where near hysterical callers claim to be people who protested in the beginning of the revolution and now regret what happened because it was hijacked by foreigners. The most jarring of these was a call on the Egyptian TV station Al Mehwar where an un-named woman claims to have been a part of a group that was sent to countries in Europe and the US to be trained by the CIA and Israeli Mossad to start a revolution in Egypt and cause instability in the country[5]. The “suspicious Zionist force” behind this was an organization called Freedom House, she claimed. She was originally protesting pro-democracy but saw the forces of the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas taking over the square, she said. The Egyptian anchors appear to be shocked, and ask her to re-state some of the more dramatic parts of her speech. They thank her for her bravery and claim the importance of these allegations. They ask her why she didn’t approach the international media, and she says she tried repeatedly but they don’t record her conversations, she then says they did but they didn’t publish it. They specifically name Al Jazeera among channels they frame as misconstruing information.
The caller continues to claim that there are more than 3 million people (unconfirmed information) protesting with her, pro-Mubarak. She hysterically and emotionally yells “we are sorry ‘Papa’ Mubarak...we are not ungrateful.” No background is said about who this person is or why the source should be trusted. The caller claims to have evidence of her allegations, but the anchors don’t press her to find out what kind of evidence she has. She claims she would proudly say her name but is too scared of her colleagues and these foreign forces that will come and seek revenge from her for exposing the truth.
The Egyptian media is usually not trusted in the first place. They blatantly used emotional sources to try and give a certain image of the protestors. They made claims that seem absurd, such as that protesters were offered KFC for food, when the KFC in the square was shut after the first day of protests. Their sources could not be verified, their claims had no evidence, they relied on emotional reactions and their images were in discrepancy with true events, such as is demonstrated in this Al Jazeera clip that shows a split screen of Al Jazeera coverage and state TV coverage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SszZDDkGp-I. They have failed to be objective if we look at their coverage through the media critical assessment framework.
Analyzing both outlets we can see that both of these outlets at times showed such discrepancy that it bordered on absurd. Because of Egyptian media’s propaganda reputation, it was easier and more trustworthy to rely on international media. A proof of the national media’s propaganda is how quickly the media’s message changed when Mubarak fell to celebrating and glorifying the protestors. [6] It is important to keep in mind who controls the media and who influences it. Al Jazeera is not free of bias either, especially with the allegations of Wikileaks making it seem more suspicious and influenced by Qatari foreign policy. However, it definitely did the better job at trying to report the truth.
[1] AlJazeeraEnglish. (Producer). (2011). Egypt burning-standoff on the nile. [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dxn0Afd1hu8&feature=channel_video_title
[2] Booth, R. (2010, December 6). Wikileaks cables claim al-jazeera changed coverage to suit qatari foreign policy. The Guardian , Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/05/wikileaks-cables-al-jazeera-qatari-foreign-policy
[3] Hachten, W. & Scotton, J. (2007). The world news prism: Global information in a satellite age. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
[4] El-Wardani , S. (2011, February 21). Egypt calls for a media revolution. Ahram Online , Retrieved from http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/5921/Egypt/Politics-/Egypt-calls-for-a-media-revolution.aspx
[5] Mehwar. (Producer). (2011). Egyptian tv propaganda: we are sorry "papa" mubarak [english subtitles]. [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiCJaVxvpc8&feature=related
[6] Zayed, D, & Hammond, A. (2011, February 15). Egypt state media change tune after mubarak's fall. Reuters , Retrieved from http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/15/us-egypt-media-freedom-idUSTRE71E5J520110215