The Role of the Media Among Egyptian Diaspora in the UK During the 2011 Egyptian Uprising and Afterwards

Abstract

This paper focuses on the role of the media among the Egyptian diaspora during and post the 2011 uprising. The first topic discussed is how the Egyptian diaspora in the UK dealt with the media during the uprising. In order to examine how the Egyptian diaspora used the media, interviews conducted with 22 Egyptians from different generations and two Facebook pages have been analysed. Information gathered from 22 interviews and two Facebook pages were gathered and analysed using thematic analysis. Regarding the theoretical framework, the main theoretical framework is based on the concept of Goffman ‘performing identity’ in addition to concepts related to media, sociology and diaspora groups. The Egyptian diaspora used social media in two ways: the first was to stay informed of the uprising in Egypt, whereas the second was by way of using social media websites, such as Facebook as a platform to gather and participate in protests organised in the UK as a support for fellow Egyptians in Egypt and to prove their Egyptian identity. The Egyptian diaspora in the UK including different generations were in agreement with the notion of mistrusting Western and Arabic mainstream media. Conversely, the role of social media was controversial. Egyptian interviewees looked for alternatives to social and mainstream media as a source of information and by using personal networks to gain this information. Keywords: Diaspora, uprising, Egyptian, social media, mainstream media, identity DOI: 10.7176/NMMC/93-04 Publication date: September 30 th 2020