122. Name: Aneela Rashid Title: The Role of Social Media in the Egyptian Uprising of 2011 (CNN and Al Jazeera as Examples) Institution: Erasmus University Rotterdam Country: Netherlands Date: 2012 Language: English Abstract: This study aims to understand the role social media played in the Egyptian uprising of 2011. The study comes in two parts; the first investigates the role of social media as depicted by the Egyptian activists, and the second focuses on the role of social media as represented by CNN and Al Jazeera news websites. The researcher used both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. The qualitative study analyzed data gathered from ten in-depth interviews conducted with Egyptian activists who actively participated in the 2011 Uprising. The quantitative study used content analysis to examine data gathered from 100 news articles published by two respective news websites. The results of in-depth interviews revealed that social media played a pivotal, but not determinant role in the protest movement in terms of interactivity and organization. The content analysis of news articles demonstrated that CNN website gave more importance to the role of social media, especially Facebook, and presented it in a positive tone. Al Jazeera’s news articles revealed a more neutral tone regarding the role of social media networks, mentioning the importance of Egyptian activists’ blogs in particular.
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