From spectacle to spectacular: How physical space, social media and mainstream broadcast amplified the public sphere in Egypt's 'Revolution'

Journal of North African Studies

Volumn 16, Issue 4, 2011, Pages 573-603

  Nanabhay, Mohamed ^a   Farmanfarmaian, Roxane ^b  

^a Head of al Jazeera Online English ^*  (Qatar)

^b UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

al Jazeera; Arab Spring; Egypt; mainstream media; media amplification; networks; political hegemony; public sphere; Social media; social movements; Tahrir Square

Indexed keywords

HEGEMONY; INTERNET; MEDIA ROLE; POLITICAL CHANGE; POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY; POLITICAL INSTABILITY; SOCIAL MOVEMENT; SOCIAL NETWORK;

EGYPT;

EID: 84859120521     PISSN: 13629387     EISSN: 17439345     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/13629387.2011.639562     Document Type: Article

References (119)

1. Abdelrahman, M. M. 2004. Civil society exposed: the politics of NGOs in Egypt, London: Tauris Academic Studies.
2. Abu-Lughod, N. 2005. Dramas of nationhood: the politics of television in Egypt, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
3. Adamson, W. L. 1980. Hegemony and revolution: a study of Antonio Gramsci's political and cultural theory, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
4. Aday, S. 2010. Blogs and bullets: new media in contentious politics. Peaceworks No. 65, Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace.
5. Amin, G. 2011. Egypt in the era of Hosni Mubarak: 1981-2011, Cairo: The American University in Cario Press.
6. Araf, A. Al-Din. 2009. The Mubarak leadership and future of democracy in Egypt, New York: Palgrave MacMillan.
7. Asur, S. 7 Feb 2011. "Trends in social media: persistence and decay. Working Paper Series, Social Science Research Network, Social Science Electronic Publishing, Stanford. arXiv:1102.1402v1 [cs.CY]". 7 Feb, www.papers.ssrn.com
8. Auter, P., Arafa, M. M. and Al-Jaber, K. 2004. Who is Al Jazeera's audience? Desconstructing the demographics and psychographics of an Arab Satellite News Network. Transitional Broadcasting Studies, Spring-Summer.
9. Ayres, J. M. 1999. From the streets to the internet: the cyber-diffusion of contention. Annals of the American academy of political and social science, Nov 566, 134
10. Ayubi, N. N. 2008. Over-stating the Arab state: politics and society in the Middle East, London: I.B. Tauris.
11. Benkler, Y. 2006. The wealth of networks: how social production transforms markets and freedom, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
12. Bennet, W. L. and Entman, R. M. 2001. Mediated politics: communication in the future of democracy, Edited by: Bennet, W. L. and Entman, R. M. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
13. Best, M. L. and Wade, K. W. Aug 2009. The internet and democracy: global catalyst or democratic dud?. Bulletin of science, technology & society, 29(4)255-271.
14. Black, J. 2008. Egypt's press: more free, still fettered. Arab media & society, Jan.www.arabmediasociety.com/
15. Bollier, D. 2008. Viral spiral: how the commoners built a digital republic of their own, New York: The New Press.
16. Bowker, R. 2010. Egypt and the politics of change in the Arab Middle East Cheltenham: Edward Elgar
17. Bunt, G. R. 2009. iMuslims: rewiring the house of Islam, Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press.
18. Canetti, E. 1984. Crowds and power, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
19. Carr, E. H. 1961. What is history, Harmondsworth: Penguin.
20. Castells, M. 2004. The power of identity, 2, Oxford: Blackwell.
21. Castells, M. 2007. Fernandez-Ardevol, Qiu Jack Linchuan, Sey Araba, mobile communication and society: a global perspective, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
22. Castells, M. 2009. Communication power, New York: Oxford University Press (Kindle Edition).
23. Castillo, C. and Mendoza, M. B. Poblete, information credibility on twitter. Paper presented at WWW 2011. 28 March-1 April2011, Hyderabad, India.
24. Chick, K. 18 Jun 2010. Beating death of Egyptian businessman Khalid Said spotlights police brutality. Christian Science Monitor, Available from: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2010/0618/Beating-death-of-Egyptian-businessman-Khalid-Said-spotlights-police-brutality [Accessed 15 September 2011]
25. Cleveland, W. L. 2000. A history of the modern Middle East, 2, Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
26. Constanza-Chock, S. New social movements in the network society. Proceedings, conference and workshop. April16 172008, Uppsala. Big brother and empowered sisters: the role of new communication technologies in democratic processes, Uppsala Universitet.
27. Cooke, M. and Lawrence, B. B. 2005. Muslim networks from Hajj to Hip Hop, Edited by: Cooke, M. and Lawrence, B. B. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press.
28. Couldry, N. and Curran, J. 2003. Contesting media power-alternative media in a networked world, Edited by: Couldry, N. and Curran, J. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
29. Curran, J. 2002. Media and power, London and New York: Routledge.
30. D'Arcus, B. 2006. Boundaries of dissent, protest and state power in the media age, London and New York: Routledge.
31. Drezner, D.L. and Henry F., (2008). 'Introduction: Blogs, politics and power-a special issue of Public Choice'. Public Choice, 134; 1-13.
32. Duval, J. 2010. Next generation democracy: what the open-source revolution means for power, politics and change, New York: Bloomsbury.
33. Earl, J. and Kimport, K. 2011. Digitally enabled social change: Activism in the internet age, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
34. Egypt Country Statistics. United Nations Population Division, UNICEF. Available from: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/egypt_statistics.html [Accessed 20 September 2011].
35. Egypt Human Development Report, 2010. United Nations Development Programme and the Institute of National Planning, Egypt.
36. El-Ghobashy, M. 2011. The Praxis of the Egyptian Revolution. Middle East Report 258-People Power, 41 (Spring), Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP), MER258
37. El-Mahdi, R. and Marfleet, P. 2009. Egypt: the moment of change, London: Zed Books.
38. Etling, B. June 2009. Mapping the Arabic blogosphere: politics, culture, and dissent, Berkman Center Research Publication Number No. 2009-06, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.
39. Egypt Country Statistics. United Nations Population Division, UNICEF. Available from: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/egypt_statistics.html [Accessed 20 September 2011].
40. Faris, D., 2010. Revolutions without revolutionaries? Social media networks and regime response in Egypt. Publicly accessible Penn Dissertations. Paper 116. Penn Libraries, University of Pennsylvania. Available from:http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/116
41. Fawcett, L. 2009. International relations of the Middle East, 2, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
42. Forgacs, D. 1988. The Antonio Gramsci Reader: selected writings 1916-1935, Edited by: Forgacs, D. London: Lawrence and Wishart.
43. Francese, J. 2009. Perspectives on Gramsci: politics, culture and social theory, Edited by: Francese, J. London: Routledge.
44. Germino, D. 1990. Antonio Gramsci: architect of a new politics, Lafayette: Louisiana State University Press.
45. Ginsberg, M. 2011. Is Al Jazeera Fueling "Tunisteria?". Huffington Post, 20 Jan.Available from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amb-marc-ginsberg/al-jazeera-fueling-tunist_b_811865.html [Accessed 20 Sept 2011]
46. Gladwell, M. 2010. Small change: why the revolution will not be tweeted. The New Yorker, 4 Oct
47. Gladdwell, M. and Shirky, C. 2011. From innovation to revolution: Do social media make protests possible?. Foreign Affairs, 90(2) March/April, 153-154
48. Grant, R., Nov 2004. The democratization of diplomacy: negotiating with the internet. Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, Research Report No. 5.
49. Grewal, D. S. 2008. Network power: the social dynamics of globalization, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
50. Habermas, J. 1991. The structural transformation of the public sphere: an inquiry into a category of bourgeois society, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
51. Hafez, K. 2007. The myth of media globalization, Cambridge: Polity Press.
52. Harding, T. 2001. The video activist handbook, London: Pluto Press.
53. Holger, A. 2007. "Authoritarian opposition and the politics of challenge in Egypt". In Debating Arab authoritarianism: dynamics and durability in nondemocratic regimes, Edited by: Schlumberger, O. 59-74. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
54. Howard, P. N. 2010. The digital origins of dictatorship and democracy: information technology and political Islam, New York: Oxford University Press.
55. Howard, P.N., et al., 2011. Opening closed regimes: what was the role of social media during the Arab Spring? Working Paper 2011.1. Project on Information Technology and Political Islam, University of Washington.
56. Human Rights Watch, 29 Nov 2010. Egypt: elections marred as opposition barred from polls. Available from: http://www.hrw.org/news/2010/11/29/egypt-elections-marred-opposition-barred-polls [Accessed 15 Sept 2011].
57. Jan van, D. 1999. The network society, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
58. Joyce, M. 2010. Digital activism decoded: the new mechanics of change, Edited by: Joyce, M. New York: Idebate Press.
59. Juris, J.S., 2008. Networking futures: the movements against corporate globalization. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
60. Juris, J. S. Jan 2005. The new digital media and activist networking within anti-corporate globalization movements. The annals of the American academy, AAPSS, 597189-208.
61. Khasnabish, A. 2010. Zapatistas: rebellion from the grassroots to the global, London: Zed Books.
62. Kienle, E. 2001. A grand delusion, democracy and economic reform in Egypt, London: I.B. Tauris.
63. Langohr, V., Posusney, M. P. and PennerAngrist, M. 2005. Authoritarianism in the Middle East: regimes and resistance, Edited by: Langohr, V., Posusney, M. P. and PennerAngrist, M. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.
64. Lessig, L. 2008. Remix: making art and commerce thrive in the hybrid economy, London: Penguin.
65. Loader, B. D. 2007. Young citizens in the digital age: political engagement, young people and new media, Edited by: Loader, B. D. Routledge.
66. Lotan, G. 2011. The revolutions were tweeted: information flows during the 2011 Tunisian and Egyptian Revolutions. International journal of communications, 5: 1375-1405.
67. Lovink, G. 2008. Zero comments: blogging and critical internet culture, London: Routledge.
68. Lust-Okar, E. 2007. "Management of opposition in Egypt, Jordan and Morocco". In Debating Arab authoritarianism: dynamics and durability in nondemocratic regimes, Edited by: Schlumberger, O. 39-58. Stanford, CA: Stanford Univeristy Press.
69. Lynch, M. Feb 2007. "Blogging in the New Arab Republic". In Arab Media and Society
70. Lynch, M. 2007. Voices of the New Arab Public: Iraq, Al Jazeera, and Middle East politics today, New York: Columbia University Press.
71. Lynch, M. After Egypt: the limits and promise of the online challenge to the authoritarian Arab State. Perspectives on politics, 9(2)302
72. Lynch, M., 25 Jan 2011. Watching Egypt (but not al-Jazeera) Foreign policy. Available from: http://lynch.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/01/25/watching_egypt_and_lebanon_and_the_pa_and [Accessed 31 July 2011].
73. Malin, C. 2011. Egypt Facebook demographics. Spotonpr, 26 Jan
74. Mayer-Schonberger, V. and Hurley, D. 2000. "Globalization of communication". In Governance in a globalizing world, Edited by: Nye, J. S. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.
75. McAdam, D., Tarrow, S. and Charles Tilly, C. 2001. Dynamics of contention, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
76. McNair, B. 2006. Cultural chaos: journalism, news and power in a globalised world, London: Routledge.
77. Mellor, N. 2011. Arab Media: globalization and emerging media industries, Cambridge: Polity Press.
78. Mendoza, M., Poblete, B. and Castillo, C., 25 July 2010. Twitter under crisis: can we trust what we RT? Presented at 1st Workshop on Social Media Analytics (SOMA '10), Washington, DC.
79. Miles, H. Jul-Aug 2006. Al Jazeera. Foreign policy, 15520-24.
80. Miles, H. 2 Mar 2005. Arab Television News and Al-Jazeera', speech, London: The Frontline Club.
81. Morozov, E. 2011. The net delusion: the dark side of internet freedom, New York: Public Affair Books.
82. Park, J., et al. 'Revolution 2.0 in Tunisia and Egypt: reactions and sentiments in the online world'. Paper presented to the Fifth International Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence. Conference on Weblogs and Social Media, Barcelona, July 17-21.
83. Porta, D. 1999. Donatella and Diani, Mario, social movements: an introduction, Oxford: Blackwell.
84. Papacharissi, Z. 2011. A networked self: identity, community, and culture of social network sites, Edited by: Papacharissi, Z. London: Routledge.
85. Peterson, M. A. 2011. Connected in Cairo, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
86. Pintak, L. 2011. The New Arab journalist: mission and identity in a time of turmoil, London: I.B. Tauris.
87. Radsch, C. Sept 2008. "Core to commonplace: the evolution of Egypt's blogosphere". In Arab Media and Society
88. Roberts, J. W. 2009. "How the Internet is changing the practice of politics in the Middle East". Lampeter, UK, and Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellen Press.
89. Rodgers, J. 2003. Spatializing international politics: analysing activism on the Internet, London: Routledge.
90. Rogers, R. 2004. Information politics on the web, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
91. Romero, D. M., Meeder, B. and Kleinbery, J. Differences in the mechanics of information diffusion across topics: idioms, political hashtags, and complex contagion on twitter. Paper presented at WWW 2011. 28 March -1 April, Hyderabad, India.
92. Routledge, P. 1998. "Going global: spatiality embodiment and mediation in the Zapatista insurgency". In Rethinking geopolitcs, Edited by: Dalby, S. and O'Tuathail, G. London: Routledge.
93. Rugh, W.A., 2004. Arab mass media: newspapers, radio, and television in Arab politics. Westport, CT: Praeger.
94. Ryan, C. R. 2001. Political strategies and regime survival in Egypt. Journal of third world studies, 18(2): 25-46.
95. Sadiki, L. 2009. "Rethinking Arab democratization: elections without democracy". Oxford: Oxford University Press.
96. Sassen, S. 2000. Digital networks and the state: some governance questions. Theory Culture & Society, 17(4): 19-33.
97. Schlumberger, O. 2007. Debating Arab authoritarianism: dynamics and durability in nondemocratic regimes, Edited by: Schlumberger, O. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
98. Scholte, J. A. 2005. Globalization, a critical introduction, 2, New York: Palgrave MacMillan (Kindle Edition).
99. Seib, P. Dec 2005. Hegemonic no more, western media, the rise of Al-Jazeera, and the influence of diverse voices. International studies review, 7(4)601-615.
100. Sharp, G. 1973. "The politics of nonviolent action". In Power and Struggle (The power of nonviolent action Part I), Boston: Porter Sargent.
101. Sharp, J. M. 11 Feb 2011. Egypt: the January 25 revolution and implications for U.S. Foreign Policy. Special Report, pages 1-35, http://books.google.com/books?id=hRMe8oJ_z9AC&pg=PA1&lpg=PA1&dq=Sharp+J+Egypt+The+January+Revolution&source=bl&ots=eWbddVtZSQ&sig=PCQxgbMferSlffBb_Kx6bm7SFig&hl=en&ei=5hzNTsX3EKmfiAKPy6mbBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false. Congressional research service. 7-5700. Washington, DC
102. Shirky, C. 2008. Here comes everybody: the power of organizing without organizations, New York: Penguin.
103. Sreberny, A. 2008. The analytic challenges of studying the Middle East and its evolving media environment. Middle East journal of culture and communication, 1: 8-23.
104. Stanford, D. 2008. Egypt takes on the new media. Mideast monitor, 3(3)
105. Stevenson, N. and Webster, F. 2001. Culture and politics in the information age: a new politics?, Edited by: Stevenson, N. and Webster, F. London: Routledge.
106. Strangelove, M. 2010. Watching YouTube: extraordinary videos by ordinary people, Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press.
107. Sullivan, D. J. and Jones, K. 2008. Global security watch: Egypt - a reference handbook, Praeger Security International.
108. Surowiecki, J. 2005. The Wisdom of Crowds, New York: Anchor.
109. Telhami, S. 2010. 2010 Annual Arab Public Opinion Survey, Bethesda, MD and New York: University of Maryland with Zogby International.
110. Trager, E. Sept/Oct 2011. The Unbreakable Muslim Brotherhood: Grim prospects for a liberal Egypt. Foreign Affairs, 90(5): 114-126.
111. Virilio, P. 2006. Speed and politics, Semiotext(e).
112. Virilio, P. 1989. War and cinema: the logistics of perception, London: Verso.
113. Wadah K., 1 Mar 2011. A historic moment in the Arab world. TED Talk. Available from: http://www.ted.com/talks/wadah_khanfar_a_historic_moment_in_the_arab_world.html [Accessed 27 July 2011].
114. Webster, F. 2001. Culture and politics in the information age: a new politics?, Edited by: Webster, F. London: Routledge.
115. Wheeler, D.L., July 2006. Empowering publics: information technology and democratization in the Arab World-Lessons from Internet cafés and beyond. Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, Research Report No. 11.
116. Whitaker, B. 2003. Battle station. The Guardian, 7 Feb. Available from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2003/feb/07/iraqandthemedia.afghanistan [Accessed 20 Sept 2011]
117. Wittkower, D. E. 2010. Facebook and Philosophy: What's on your mind?, Edited by: Wittkower, D. E. Chicago and LaSalle, IL: Open Court.
118. Wolman, D. 2011. The instigators: how a small band of digital activists risked their lives and helped bring down the government of Egypt, Brooklyn: The Atavist (Kindle Edition).
119. Wu, S. Who says what to whom on twitter?. Paper presented at WWW 2011, March 28-April 1. Hyderabad, India.