Tactical Media Activism in Egypt

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Following a successive revolution in Tunisia where protesters forced the then president Ben Ali out of position, it seemed as what people called an Arab revolution. However, in perhaps the most unexpected development in the modern Egypt history, the Egyptians also decided to follow the road used by Tunisia to end the 29 years dictatorship of President Hosni Mubarak.

On 25^th January 2011, young protestors came to the streets in the wake to push Mubarak to announce his intention not to participate in the coming election and these protestors used the social media to organize a great number of people that culminated to the ever-larger nationwide protests (Sharp 2).

On 28 January, thousands of protestors throughout the country were on the streets in what they called peaceful demonstrations where approximatly100, 000 protestors turned up in Cairo alone (Sharp 2). After a few days, the government learnt the role of the media and internet during the protests and the magnitude of the protestors’ growth; they put limits all media including internet (Sharp 2).

The government arrested Gael Ghonim, a young Google executive who created a Face book group Khaled, the main protestors’ social networking site (Sharp 10). The protests further continued until the resignation of Mubarak on February 11. However, the status in Egypt even after the resignation of Mubarak is not at rest.

In the past few weeks there has been instability in Egypt as the citizens are not contempt with the army’s rule and the preparations for 28^th November elections. In this paper, the focus is on the view and the role of the tactical media and the media activists in these protests.

What do you think about tactical media and media activism in relation to Egypt protests? Rita Raley (1) describes tactical media as “interventional media art practices that engage and critique the dominant political and economic order.” The practitioners of this media engage in well crafted politics of disruption, intervention, and education.

The tactical media practitioners use media away from the mainstream media. They spread information that is not in the mainstream news commonly referred as media activism (Rita 5). In addition, media activism involves the use of media and communication technology for social movement as well as the attempt to change media and communication policies (Rita 6).

Tactical media and media activism featured highly during the Egypt protests. During the protest, it is evident through the attempts of the government to stem the media coverage of the protest. The recent protest is characterised by use of media activisms, which comes out through the issues that caused the protests.

As mentioned earlier the practitioners use political disruption. In this case, the protests are on the proposed principles of constitution, and the worry that the military would be shaped as a state within a state. In the January’s protests, the government blocked the internet access, traffic as well as SMS but this did very little. The protestors used mobile phones, social networks such as Face book, twitter and You tube to pas information, videos, images, and stories.

They also used other web, third party apps, proxy websites, software, and VPN where this tactical media passed information that had little truth in Egypt and to rest of the world. Dotson A, 2011 in strategic social media J412 at the University of Oregon asserts that even long before the newscast reported of the protest in Egypt, people in New York new about it through social media and therefore social media played a great role during this protests.

What Are The Roles Played By Tactical Media And Media Activism In Egypt During Protests? The tactical media and media activism played a great role during the Egypt’s protests. First, the initial start of the protests started through the social media. People sent incitement information through the social media against the Mubarak’s rule and his failure to declare his stand not to participate in the next elections.

Further, after the eruption of the protests the number grew larger due to communications through the social media. The protestors used mobile phones, Face book; You tube and twitter to pass information and this aggravated the situation in Cairo as well as in Egypt. This media was used to pass information from the ground that was more exaggerated in order to catch the attention of the World and therefore played a role in seeking sympathizers from other parts of the world.

The media passed pictures and video of the inhuman acts by the riot police to the protestors, which called for the nations like USA to intervene.

The intervention of other nations to the situation in Egypt even made things worse as this media encouraged the protestors of the worldwide support. In addition, the use of social media gave the protestors the confidence to continue as it made them aware that they were not alone in this fight. They therefore, believed even if they suffer, they would not suffer alone. Thus, the media acted as a tool of encouragement.

Conclusion

Media and communication technology is of great importance to the world because it keeps the world in touch of the happenings as well as enlightening the people. Further, it used to unite the people for a common goal such as the fight against drug abuse, environmental conservation and HIV/AIDs control. However, it is dangerous if used for the long purpose as it causes a stable country to be ruined as for the case of Egypt.

Works Cited

Rita , Raley. Tactical Media. New York. University of Minnesota. 2009. Print.

Sharp, Jeremy. Egpyt: The January 25 Revolution and Implications for U.S. Foreign Policy, Washington DC, USA. Congressional Research Service. 2011. Print

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Tactical Media Activism in Egypt

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