Journalists’ use of social media in revolutionary Egypt

TY - ABST

T1 - Journalists’ use of social media in revolutionary Egypt

AU - Mollerup, Nina Grønlykke

PY - 2012/9/14

Y1 - 2012/9/14

N2 - There has been a surge of citizen journalism and information-centred activism in Egypt in the recent years and this has greatly influenced journalism in the country. Activists and other citizen journalists are influencing the news agenda and pushing at the limits of what can be and is being said in mainstream media. Journalists correspondingly use social media extensively in their work and this has in many ways enhanced the quality and diversity of the Egyptian mainstream media as a whole. In this presentation, I investigate how the appropriations of social media technologies influence the work of journalists in a society with restricted media freedom. By showing how social media are part of larger communicative ecologies, I argue that the appropriation of social media by activists, journalists and others in Egypt has changed journalism in the country by changing information flows related to journalism from being top-down driven, with authorities being the main sources and instigators of stories to becoming what can more pertinently be described as many-to-few-to-many communication with activists and journalists creating bridges between different publics. This presentation is based on 4 months ethnographic research in Egypt in 2012 and thus I will exemplify my argument with empirical data. I have carried out participant observation and interviews with activists and journalists with the goal of understanding how the two often overlapping groups use each other in their work.

AB - There has been a surge of citizen journalism and information-centred activism in Egypt in the recent years and this has greatly influenced journalism in the country. Activists and other citizen journalists are influencing the news agenda and pushing at the limits of what can be and is being said in mainstream media. Journalists correspondingly use social media extensively in their work and this has in many ways enhanced the quality and diversity of the Egyptian mainstream media as a whole. In this presentation, I investigate how the appropriations of social media technologies influence the work of journalists in a society with restricted media freedom. By showing how social media are part of larger communicative ecologies, I argue that the appropriation of social media by activists, journalists and others in Egypt has changed journalism in the country by changing information flows related to journalism from being top-down driven, with authorities being the main sources and instigators of stories to becoming what can more pertinently be described as many-to-few-to-many communication with activists and journalists creating bridges between different publics. This presentation is based on 4 months ethnographic research in Egypt in 2012 and thus I will exemplify my argument with empirical data. I have carried out participant observation and interviews with activists and journalists with the goal of understanding how the two often overlapping groups use each other in their work.

M3 - Conference abstract for conference

T2 - Reclaiming the Public Sphere

Y2 - 14 September 2012 through 17 September 2012

ER -