Chapter 1: Introduction

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1 Chapter 1: Introduction The Egyptian political sphere of Mubarak's regime used to impose censorship on all mass media outlets, although the margin of freedom of expression has increased compared to previous regimes. Due to the different measures of control imposed by Mubarak s government, Islamists were depending only on the Internet or the private television satellite channels to express their views and ideologies. Before the 25 th of January revolution, the massive technical and artistic developments in the media, particularly the Internet and satellite television channels, have represented a fertile field for the Islamic media (Sultan, 2012). The Islamic media, in field of journalism and broadcasting, benefit from Internet because among the main characteristics of the Internet are ease of use, low cost especially in the infrastructure costs (Sultan, 2012). Also, the advent of the Internet helped the Islamic media to be spread because the Internet surpasses many barriers, such the infrastructure costs and official permits which make it difficult to get a license for newspaper, magazine or broadcasting channel (Sultan, 2012). Moreover, the Islamic channels before the revolution were focusing only on the education and interpretation of Islam, and were not used as a tool to propagate for the political ideologies of Islamic movements. Yet, after the revolution, and in the midst of this "uncontrolled wave of expansion, because of modern technical means and relative low cost of launching a satellite channel, some of purely Islamic channels have appeared" (Hroub, 2012). Before the Arab Spring, Islamic mass media in 1

2 different forms have been a crucial tool in the process of Islamizing the society, and in the strategy that adopted and promoted by Islamists movements (Hroub, 2012). At the beginning of these Islamic channels such as al-majd satellite channel and Iqra' satellite channel, they focus on religion education and interpretation. However, after the 25 th of January revolution, the Islamists channels such as al-hafaz satellite channel and al-nas satellite channel start to act as a forum for the politics of the Islamists groups. Mainly, the early Islamic channels in the Arab countries were about discussing religious rules and explaining the Islamic teachings, which mean they insist on non-political issues. "Religious channels in pre-revolution times avoided covering politics and kept to their orthodox discourse of the religion" (Hroub, 2012). In pre-revolution times, these Islamic channels preoccupied the audiences with religious, social, and other issues, away from criticizing the practices of the political regimes (Hroub, 2012). This means that the main policy of these Islamic satellite channels was avoiding political issues (Hroub, 2012). "In the realm of Islamism, mainstream Salafi movements have for a long time been apolitical, focusing on bringing Muslims back to what they perceived as a pure path of Islam" (Hroub, 2012). The goal of these Islamic satellite channels lies at the heart of the 'Islamisation' endeavor; they did not show interest in challenging the corrupt political rulers in their countries (Hroub, 2012). 2

3 Statement of the Problem It is noticeable that there are not a lot of studies examining the Islamists media outlets whether Internet websites or Islamic satellite channels. "There are certain tendencies in the broadcasting, including religious tendencies, have not attracted as much attention and research as they really merit" (Hroub, 2012). Before the Arab Spring Islamists assumed that politics is corrupt, so that it would corrupt religion if politics brought into it (Hroub, 2012). After the Arab Spring and when the Islamists become the rulers, the Islamists started to control the media and there is a fear of reaching the masses in the country by their Islamic ideologies. "It is obvious that the Arab countries are mostly dominated by movements and discourses which are shaped or influenced by political Islam" (Hroub, 2012). After Arab Spring there is a worry of replacing the "police state" with "religious state", the Islamists can apply the religious or Islamic state by utilizing the mass media because audiences mainly convinced by preachers who speak according to religion (Hroub, 2012). Islamic broadcasting has been playing a greater role than other types of broadcasting in communicating values and promoting particular social and cultural models that correspond to the current political and cultural projects advocated by Islamic movements (Hroub, 2012). In the revolutionary cases of Arab Spring such as Egypt, Islamic political parties have invested a massive effort to mobilize the public in order to gain control of the political system of the country through mass media (Hroub, 2012). "Moderate and fanatical Islamists, in their pursuit of power and 3

4 control, have joined forces to deploy all the resources at their disposal, including, of course, mass media (Hroub, 2012). This study aims to analyze and examine the content of mass media of Muslim Brotherhood group and Freedom and Justice Party. The theoretical framework of this research is the Agenda Setting Theory with the focus of media Priming. Also, this research aims to study how the Muslim Brotherhood group and Freedom and Justice Party use their media to present their ideologies and goals to the Egyptian public. The Islamization project of Islamic movements such as Muslim Brotherhood group, believes that the political system of the Muslim world should be re-islamized, so they can use mass media to reach this goal (Hroub, 2012). "The Islamic movements focus on the use of all sorts of media to reach out more audiences and to deliver their message" (Hroub, 2012). 4

5 Chapter 2: Historical Background and Ideology 1- Hassan al-banna and the Foundation of Muslim Brotherhood The Muslim brotherhood group was established by Hassan Al-Banna in 1928, he believed that the Islamic community at that time was at an important crossroads, and he maintained that Muslim countries would get their strength from applying the rules of Islam (Bajoria, 2012). Adhering to the vision of God s supremacy, Al-Banna and his six friends established Al-Ikhwan al-muslimoon, the Muslim Brotherhood, "The Brotherhood took the oath to be troops [Jund] for the message of Islam, brothers in the service of Islam; hence, we are the Muslim Brothers" (Piason, 2007). The creator of the Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Banna, represented an organization that equipped people with means of political expression, and a positive path towards social improvement by applying the rules of Islam (Piason, 2007). The Muslim Brotherhood group, at the beginning, wanted to present the Islamic rules and concepts in order to counter the phenomenon of Westernization; they were different from their prior generations of Egyptian Islamic reformers who preferred to imitate the Western countries to achieve development of Egypt (Zollner, 2009). Hasan al-banna instead, promoted Islam as an inclusive and independent solution to the decline of Islamic development and civilization, and to counter Westernized Egyptians who were considered an apparent threat as the British colonialists (Ghanem, 1992). Al-Banna's ideology provided the Egyptian society with the essential method to be independent country, without the pressure of the West, by the use of Islam and the path that God provides (Piason, 2007). As Egyptians had rejected the Western imperialism in the country, the Muslim Brotherhood group had a rapid growth and 5

6 popularity; within twenty years the total number of members of the group reached two million and about 2,000 branches were established across Egypt (Piason, 2007). Al-Banna, supported the application of Islamic Shariah, and believed that the revival of Islam was the sole method of achieving the social and political regeneration of Egyptian society (Ghanem, 1992). The program of Brotherhood worked to identify the significance of Islamic Shariah and its importance to the social, economic, and political objectives of a lot of Egyptians (Zollner, 2009). Al-Banna promoted a number of economic developments that included the redistribution of land, the start of social benefit programs, and the support of local investment instead of foreign capital (Ghanem, 1992). Under al-banna s leadership, the Muslim Brotherhood developed into an organized group, providing social services for people under the morals of Islam, and participating in political struggle against the British and Zionist colonization (Ghanem, 1992). Throughout the Second World War, al-banna supported the pro- Axis side, and then al-banna and his followers were banished from Cairo (Ghanem, 1992). After this conflict, the political conflict gave a way to use violence by the Muslim Brotherhood group s Special Apparatus (Ghanem, 1992). According to Rogan (2009), for the period of the Arab-Israeli war of 1948, Muslim Brotherhood group dispatched volunteers troops to battle against the Israeli armed groups in Palestine (Islamopedia Online, Hassan al-banna and the Early Muslim Brotherhood, 2012) Moreover, the members of Muslim Brotherhood group played a part in fighting against the British troops in Egypt and the group was charged of encouraging uprisings against the government (Ghanem, 1992). Egyptian Prime Minister Mahmud Sami al-nukrashi confirmed a military law which led to the dissolving of Muslim 6

7 Brotherhood group on December 8, 1948 (Islamopedia Online, Hassan al-banna and the Early Muslim Brotherhood, 2012). On December 28, 1948, al-nukrashi was killed by a member of the Muslim Brotherhood group (Islamopedia Online, Hassan al- Banna and the Early Muslim Brotherhood, 2012). According to Rogan, on February 12, 1949, Al-Banna was assassinated by the police in Egypt. After Al-Banna was killed, his successor was Hassan al-hodaybi who was elected as Murshied-Aam [general guide] of the group (Piason, 2007). 2- Muslim Brotherhood and King Farouk The Muslim Brotherhood group in the beginning supported King Farouk when he came to rule and they called him the Caliphate of Muslims because they believed that the King would apply the Islamic rule and government (Ramadan, 1982). On the other hand, the group s support to King Farouk decreased after he signed the Anglo- Egyptian treaty in 1936 with the British occupation (Fathi, 2010). Through the early years of World War II, British policy towards the Muslim Brotherhood group in Egypt essentially involved efforts to suppress the group (Ramadan, 1982). However, at this time the group, that was associated to the political right, also enjoyed the support and aid of the pro-british Egyptian kingdom, that had started to fund the Muslim Brotherhood group in 1940 (Ramadan,1982). "King Farouk saw the Brothers as a useful counter to the power of the major political party in the country the secular, nationalist Wafd Party and the communists" (Curtis, 2010). A British intelligence report of the year 1942 stated that King Farouk had started to benefit from the group of Muslim Brotherhood (Curtis, 2010). Throughout this period, a lot of Islamic societies in Egypt were supported by the authorities to resist rivals or promote the British interests, the King or other effective groups (Ramadan, 1982). 7

8 "The first known direct contact between British officials and the Brotherhood came in 1941, at a time when British intelligence regarded the organization's mass following and sabotage plans against the British as the most serious danger to public security in Egypt" (Curtis, 2010). In 1941, Egyptian government sent al-banna to prison and this act was under the pressure of British officials; however, he was released later at the same year after some contacts between the British and the Muslim Brotherhood group (Ramadan, 1982). According to some sources at that period, the British officials in Egypt offered to aid the Muslim Brotherhood group which means that the British officials purchased the group's support (Ramadan, 1982). There are no official sources about whether al-banna agreed or rejected the offer of the British support, but the Muslim Brotherhood group did not fight against the British for some time after this period, so it is possible that British aid to the group was accepted (Curtis, 2010). The Egyptian Prime Minister Mahmoud El-Noqrashi in December 1948 applied a military order to dissolve the Muslim Brotherhood group, because the group was accused of secretly plotting to bring down the kingdom (Curtis, 2010). Moreover, El- Noqrashi prohibited the members of Muslim Brotherhood group from travelling to Palestine to participate in the war against Israeli troops (Ramadan, 1982). One month after the dissolving of the group by one month, El-Noqrashi was assassinated by a member of the Muslim Brotherhood group; later on, the Egyptian government revenged from the group by assassinating El-Banna in February 1949 (Ramadan, 1982). After El-Noqrashi assassination, his successor Ibrahim Abdel-Hadi dealt severely with the Muslim Brotherhood group through jailing a lot of its members (Ramadan, 1982). In July 1949, the government of Abdel-Hadi changed and 4000 members of 8

9 the group were imprisoned. However, the Egyptian government believed that it is appropriate to try to accommodate the group of Muslim Brotherhood (Ramadan, 1982). As a result, the court released the members of the Muslim Brotherhood who were accused of conspiracy to overthrow the kingdom (Ramadan, 1982). On April 30, 1951, when the political party al-wafd won the parliamentary elections, the Muslim Brotherhood group was banned (Ramadan, 1982). The Muslim Brotherhood group participated with the Free Officers who led by Gamal Abdel Nasser, who forced King Farouk of Egypt to step down (Ramadan, 1982). 3- Nasser's Regime and the Muslim Brotherhood At the beginning of the 23 rd of July Revolution in 1952, the connection between the Free Officers and the Muslim Brotherhood group was positive (Islamopedia Online, The Brotherhood and Politics during Nasser Regime, 2012). Muslim Brotherhood group participated in fighting against the British troops in Egypt, and they played a part in the war against the Israel troops in Palestine in 1948 (Ramadan, 1982). The members of both the Free Officers and Muslim Brotherhood had a close relationship before the revolution in 1952; however, very soon the conflicts appeared over the political system of the country (Ramadan, 1982). These disagreements between Muslim Brotherhood group and Free Officers soon expanded to apparent hostility and sometimes aggressive confrontations (Islamopedia Online, The Brotherhood and Politics during Nasser Regime, 2012). During the year 1953 the Egyptian political parties were eliminated, so that the Muslim Brotherhood group had the permit to persist its activities as an organization (AL-Awadi, 2009). Muslim Brotherhood group believed that their famous ideologue Sayyid Qutb, had a leadership position in the Liberation Rally with the Free officers, but after a short time the relationships between him and the regime weakened swiftly 9

10 (Islamopedia Online, The Brotherhood and Politics during Nasser Regime, 2012). The Muslim Brotherhood members protested against the system of military rule in Egypt, demanded for shaping a civilian regime, and rejected to admit the legitimacy of the Egyptian regime that did not apply Islamic law (AL-Awadi, 2009). The members of Muslim Brotherhood participated with the Communists in organizing demonstrations against Nasser regime, and calling for the return to civilian regime (AL-Awadi, 2009). The turning point of the relationship between Nasser and Muslim Brotherhood happened in October 1954, when a member of the group tried to assassinate President Nasser; this event added to Nasser s popularity (Ramadan, 1982). After the attempt of assassinating Nasser, the Muslim Brotherhood group was banned, and a large number of its members were detained, tortured, and put on trial; several members received lengthy prison sentences with hard labor (AL-Awadi, 2009). Seven members of the Muslim Brotherhood group received death sentences, and one of them was the General Guide of the group at that time that was Hassan al-hudeiby (Islamopedia Online, The Brotherhood and Politics during Nasser Regime, 2012). According to Soage and Franganillo (2010), the punishment of Al-Hudeiby later on was changed from death sentence to life imprisonment (Islamopedia Online, The Brotherhood and Politics during Nasser Regime, 2012). 4- Sayyid Qutb and Nasser's Era politics One of the most important and influential men within the Muslim Brotherhood was Sayyid Qutb; as Al-Banna is viewed as the founder of the group, Qutb is considered to be the creator of its dogma (Piason, 2007). Sayyid Qutb's writings were very influential in the radicalization of ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood group; they believed that he is a very important Egyptian educator; Qutb joined the group when he returned from a trip to the United States (Islamopedia Online, Sayyid Qutb 10

11 and the Radicalization of the Brotherhood, 2012). "In the United States he was shocked by what he perceived as moral decay of American society, he subsequently came to reject Western values altogether, and under the banner of the Brotherhood sought to protect Egypt from the dangerous threat of Westernization" (Islamopedia Online, Sayyid Qutb and the Radicalization of the Brotherhood, 2012). At the beginning, Qutb supported the Free Officers headed by Nasser, because they were opposing the Egyptian kingdom which was pro-western (Ramadan, 1982). However, Qutb and the Muslim Brotherhood rapidly became dissatisfied with Nasser because of Nasser s policy of Pan-Arab socialism (Ramadan, 1982). Qutb believed that the policy of Pan-Arab socialism is incompatible with the principles of Islam (Ramadan, 1982). As Nasser in year 1954 started the crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood group, Qutb was jailed for some years (Ramadan, 1982). During his prison, and under the torture of security forces, the Islamic ideology of Qutb developed into more radicalism, and his ideology was concluded in his famous book Ma alim fi-l-tariq (Milestones on the Road) (Ramadan, 1982). "In this text, he argued that Egyptian society was not truly Islamic, but instead steeped in jahiliyya, a state of ignorance characterized by pre-islamic Arabia" (Islamopedia Online, Sayyid Qutb and the Radicalization of the Brotherhood, 2012). Qutb advocated the development of a vanguard consisted of loyal Muslims who can effectively struggle against the harmful effects of jahaliyya, by the active jihad (Ramadan, 1982). "Sayyid Qutb publicly opposed the Anglo- Egyptian Pact that Gamal Abdel Nasser, the first president of the Arab Republic of Egypt, entered into with the British government in July of 1954" (Bajoria, 2012). The Egyptian military responded to Qutb s opponent statements by prohibiting Muslim Brotherhood in September, 1954 (Piason, 2007). As Nasser had a fear from the ideology of Qutb on 11

12 his political regime, he executed Qutb in 1966 (Islamopedia Online, Sayyid Qutb and the Radicalization of the Brotherhood, 2012). The writings of Qutb made a division among the members of the Muslim Brotherhood (Ramadan, 1982). After the detention and execution of Qutb by Nasser regime, many young members of Muslim Brotherhood became more dissatisfied with the passive status of the Muslim Brotherhood toward the Nasser regime's oppression (Islamopedia Online, Sayyid Qutb and the Radicalization of the Brotherhood, 2012). According to Soage and Franganillo (2010), after this event the members of the group separated and shaped new militant groups which was inspired by the ideology of Qutb (Islamopedia Online, Sayyid Qutb and the Radicalization of the Brotherhood, 2012). In contrast, the normal members of the Muslim Brotherhood, who did not, participated in the new militant continued to be anti-violence and preferred to participate in the social and political life within the existing system (Ramadan, 1982). The moderate ideology of these members of Muslim Brotherhood was represented by the book of, General Guide of Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al-hudeiby in 1971 which named Du a la Quda (Preachers, Not Judges) (Islamopedia Online, Sayyid Qutb and the Radicalization of the Brotherhood, 2012). This book criticized the takfir (expiation) of the Egyptian society which was the ideology of Sayyid Qutb (Islamopedia Online, Sayyid Qutb and the Radicalization of the Brotherhood, 2012). The militant groups of Muslim Brotherhood created the Western fear and criticism of these groups and called them terrorist groups (Islamopedia Online, Sayyid Qutb and the Radicalization of the Brotherhood, 2012). However, these militant groups had left the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1970s because they believed that the group favored the moderate ideology and participating in the political sphere (Ramadan, 1982). 12

13 5- Politics and the Muslim Brotherhood in the Sadat Era Egyptian president Anwar Sadat released Islamists from prison, so the Muslim Brotherhood acted on its temporary freedom and in its effort to unify the Egyptian nation through the slogan: Religion is for God and the Nation is for all' (Piason, 2007). The defeat of the 1967 war was one the reasons that led to encouragement of spreading Islamist politics (AL-Awadi, 2009). The Egypt's defeat in the 1967 war was generally described by Islamists as the punishment of God because the Nasser regime did not apply the Islamic law; it replaced religion by secularism, and the continuous persecution of the government towards Islamists (AL-Awadi, 2009). The Egyptian President Sadat did not have a charisma like Nasser, and he realized that Nasserites and nationalist groups were strong and had the ability to weaken his regime s authority (AL-Awadi, 2009). In order to counter the power of these groups, Sadat allowed the Islamists to participate in the political sphere in Egypt through releasing their leaders from detention, and they supported them to dominate the unions of student and trade to take the place of pro-nasser groups (AL-Awadi, 2009). In 1976, Sadat permitted the political opposition parties to participate in the Egyptian political sphere (AL-Awadi, 2009). At that period, the Muslim Brotherhood General Guide was Umar al-tilmisany ( ), he preferred the moderate political ideology and opposed the Jihadi ideology of Qutb; however, he did not succeeded in ending the 1954 banning of the Muslim Brotherhood (AL-Awadi, 2009). Consequently, the Muslim Brotherhood group continued to be a banned group, but they were able to gain some recognition in political and social sphere in Egypt. (AL-Awadi, 2009). A few years later, some of the militant groups opposed Sadat because they believed that he failed to apply Islamic law after he signed a peace treaty 13

14 with Israel (AL-Awadi, 2009). One of these militant groups which is al-gama'ah al- Islamiyah [the Islamic group], and not the Muslim Brotherhood, was responsible for Sadat s assassination in 1981(Piason, 2007). 6- Politics and the Muslim Brotherhood in the Mubarak Era "In 1980s Hosni Mubarak, exhibited the commitment toward expanding the freedom of opposition parties, whose number expanded to thirteen by the mid-1980s" (Piason, 2007). During the 1980s, the Muslim Brotherhood group developed more than before and they became one of the main participants on the Egyptian political sphere (AL-Awadi, 2009). At the beginning, Mubarak's regime was tolerant toward the Muslim Brotherhood group, but it created some restrictions on the group, and the Muslim Brotherhood continued to be banned (AL-Awadi, 2009). Until the Egyptian Supreme Court ruled that the Party List electoral system was unauthorized, the candidates of the Muslim Brotherhood were not allowed to participate on parliamentary elections, only through one way which is joining political party on the list of known parties (BBC News, 2012). In 1984, the Muslim Brotherhood candidates joined Al-Wafd Party to be able to participate in the parliamentary elections (AL-Awadi, 2009). The alliance between Al-Wafd Party and the Muslim Brotherhood obtained a little over 15 percent of the vote, or 58 seats, of which 8 went to members of the group (Piason, 2007). In 1987, the Muslim Brotherhood formed a united front with the Labor and Liberal parties; the alliance won 17 percent of the vote, or 56 seats, 36 of which were occupied by members of the Muslim Brotherhood (Piason, 2007). Although the Muslim Brotherhood group approved the non-confrontational way in their communication with the Egyptian government, a conflict started in the 1990s relating to the group s opinion toward Egypt s involvement in the second Gulf War to 14

15 force out Iraqi armed forces from Kuwait (AL-Awadi, 2009). The professional organizations which were managed by the Muslim Brotherhood group stated declarations against the military interference that was led by America (AL-Awadi, 2009). The turning point in the relationship between Muslim Brotherhood group and Mubarak regime was the Earthquake in Egypt in October This earthquake gave a golden opportunity to the Muslim Brotherhood's members to prove their ability for helping the Egyptian citizens (AL-Awadi, 2009). The incompetence of the government s reaction to this event of Earthquake was compared with a rapid and effective response of Muslim Brotherhood group in providing shelters, food services, medical services, schools, cloths, and money for the victims (AL-Awadi, 2009). As a response of the Egyptian government to the effective reaction of Muslim Brotherhood after the Earthquake, the government started to take some actions such as raiding of businessmen offices that belong to the group, detention of their main leaders, interference in the student's union's elections to prevent the members of the group from participating (AL-Awadi, 2009). Furthermore, the government approved the 1993 union law which ended the professional unions' boards that the members of Muslim Brotherhood directed and made them under a selected administrative board (AL-Awadi, 2009). The 1993 union law insisted on the elections of the union impose that in order to the elections to be valid, half of the members should vote; one time the Muslim Brotherhood members won the boards of some of unions through less than half the members voting (AL-Awadi, 2009). The response of Muslim Brotherhood after this law was raising terrorist actions in 1990s; then Mubarak system did not differentiate 15

16 between the diverse political groups that established under Islamic banner, his regime alleged that it was targeting Islamic militants (AL-Awadi, 2009). 7- Muslim Brotherhood Electoral Success and the 2007 Platform In the 2005 parliamentary elections, under pressure from the Bush Freedom Agenda, the Mubarak regime gave the Brotherhood a wider space in the media and more freedom to conduct their electoral campaign (Piason, 2007). The Muslim Brotherhood group won a surprising 20 percent of the votes, which means it won the majority seats of any opposition group, without regarding the absolute cases of rigging of the parliamentary elections (BBC News, 2012). The electoral success of candidates of Muslim Brotherhood placed the group under spotlight (BBC News, 2012). The Mubarak regime initiated a campaign against the Muslim Brotherhood through targeting its main leaders (BBC News, 2012). The group was under pressure from different groups such as Egyptian political parties, political intellectuals, and other civil society groups to expose the Muslim Brotherhood group's opinion on some of topics it had formerly continued to be silent such as political issues (AL-Awadi, 2009). In 2006, the Muslim Brotherhood declared a comprehensive plan for the Consultative Assembly elections, and in September of 2007, a complete party platform was issued by the group (AL-Awadi, 2009). The Muslim Brotherhood party platform showed a serious challenge for the group s reliability (AL-Awadi, 2009). There were some disagreements inside the Muslim Brotherhood group between modernist and conservative members of the group because this 2007 platform will place the group under the spotlight (AL-Awadi, 2009). Moreover, the Muslim Brotherhood formerly was able to remain unclear about some issues for example, the 16

17 rights of women and minority groups, citizen rights, the relationship between religion and government, and the explanation of Islamic law (BBC News, 2012). The 2007 party platform of Muslim Brotherhood was inclusive regarding the issues that it contained, this platform consisted of 128 pages, and it is considered the largest programmatic report that is declared by the group (AL-Awadi, 2009). Regarding the economic issues in the 2007 platform, Muslim Brotherhood stated they prefer to apply the interventionist economic system that would reduce the consequences of free trade system (AL-Awadi, 2009). Regarding the political issues, the 2007 platform suggested a partial role of the state, and unlimited role of civil society organizations (AL-Awadi, 2009). Although, the 2007 platform had a lot of details of these suggestions, its issues were considered to be mainly overshadowed by extreme differences and disagreements about "guarantees for the implementation of Article 2 of the Constitution and the suitability of women and Christians for the presidency and prime minister" (BBC News, 2012). The Muslim Brotherhood group suggested the forming of the Ulama (scholars) Council in order to stress on a strict and exact applying of Islamic law (AL-Awadi, 2009). This council according to Muslim Brotherhood shows a variation from the earlier practice of Islam which was just a frame of reference (marja ) (AL-Awadi, 2009). The Ulama Council was projected as a board that would be elected through the complete participation of all scholars of religion in Egypt; the function of this council is to give advice for the legislative and executive authorities on all issues through religious explanation (AL-Awadi, 2009). Nevertheless, this Ulama Council was supposed to play an important role more than consultation; which means that its decisions were recommended to be obligatory in issues where Islamic jurisprudence is obvious and cannot be matter to explanation (AL-Awadi, 2009). 17

18 8- Muslim Brotherhood and the Revolution of 25 of January In the first parliamentary elections after the 25 th of January revolution which forced Mubarak to resign in February 2011, the new political party Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) which is the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood won about half of the seats in the Egyptian parliament (BBC News, 2012). In April 2012, the Muslim Brotherhood group proclaimed that it would participate in the presidential elections although the group previously assured it would not have a candidate in these elections (BBC News, 2012). The group's decision about participating in the presidential elections increased worries among political liberals, political secularists and the Egyptian military because the Muslim Brotherhood could become excessively powerful (BBC News, 2012). The first Egyptian President after the 25 th of January revloution was Mohamed Morsi who was the candidate of Freedom and Justice Party (BBC News, 2012). 9- Historical background of Freedom and Justice Party and its ideology In February 21, 2011, after the resignation of Mubarak, Dr Mohammad Badie, the General Guide of Muslim Brotherhood, announced that the group will establish a political party that represents the ideology of the group and adopts the group's vision in the political field in Egypt (FJP Internet website). The freedom and Justice party (FJP), is the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood group in Egypt, this group could not launch a political party without the revolution of 25 th of January in Egypt (Ahram Online, 2011). Before the revolution at Mubarak era, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood group was the most organized Islamist group; moreover, it was not allowed to form a political party and it was a banned group that didn't have the right to participate in political life. (Ahram Online, 2011). 18

19 Formally, the Freedom and Justice party was established in June 6, 2011, the party declared that it is intending to "a modern state, democracy, women s rights, and national unity" (Ahram Online, 2011). The Freedom and Justice Party has nine thousand members which includes one thousand women and one hundred of Copts (Ahram Online, 2011). According to FJP Internet website, the goals of the party are "working to rebuild state institutions on the basis of a strong and sound commitment to the will of the free Egyptian people, including the institution of the presidency, the government, parliament and local councils". Moreover, "the party works to establish institutions of civil society; trade unions, public groups, associations and human rights organizations to enhance the unity of the nation". According to FJP Internet website, "the party asserts that Egypt is a civil state with an Islamic reference; our party believes in the liberalization of the Egyptian national will, the political independence of the decision-making process and dealing with external international powers on the basis of mutual respect; and we state that such trends cannot be relinquished". This quote proves that the Freedom and Justice Party applies the ideology of al-banna, which was discussed above, this ideology is about establishing an Islamic state and freeing it from Western dominance. 10- Religious ideology of Muslim Brotherhood group "Our duty as Muslim Brothers is to work for the reform of selves, of hearts and souls by joining them to God the all-high; then to organize our society to be fit for the virtuous community which commands the good and forbids evil-doing, then from the community will arise the good state" (Piason, 2007). Muslim brotherhood is a Sunni religious group; this movement believes that Islam is an inclusive ideology for individual and public life, and consequently the 19

20 base for Muslim state and society (Piason, 2007). The ideology of Muslim Brotherhood is the principles of Islam provide the public with the essential services for a healthy living, while remaining regular with the teachings of the belief (Piason, 2007). The Muslim Brotherhood group is considered as the oldest and largest Islamist organization; its ideology is derived from the tradition of the Qur'an (BBC News, 2012). The group primarily intended simply to extend Islamic morality and good works; however, after a short time the group concerned about politics, mainly the battle against British colonial control of Egypt and get rid of Western influence (BBC News, 2012). Although the Muslim Brotherhood group declares that it supports democratic rule, one of its declared goals is creating an Islamic state ruled by Islamic law (Shariah) (BBC News, 2012). The most famous motto of Muslim Brotherhood group is: "Islam is the solution" (BBC News, 2012). "Muslim Brotherhood called for a return to the Qur an and the Sunna and the practice of the early community to establish an Islamic state and system of government through means of preaching the unity of din, religion, and Dawla [the state]" (Piason, 2007). The main beliefs of the Muslim Brotherhood is there is no difference between religious and secular law, or the inhabitant and the believer, in consequence establishing a single state and society ruled by Islam (Piason, 2007). The credo of Muslim Brotherhood is, "Allah is our objective; the Quran is our law, the Prophet is our leader; Jihad is our way; and death for the sake of Allah is the highest of our aspirations" (Piason, 2007). The Ikhwanweb, the official English language website of Muslim Brotherhood describes the rules of the Muslim Brotherhood as containing firstly the prologue of the Islamic Shariah as "the basis for controlling the affairs of state and society" and secondly, works to unite "Islamic 20

21 countries and states, mainly among the Arab states, and liberating them from foreign imperialism." Muslim Brotherhood's initiator Al-Banna believed that the Quran and Sunnah of the Prophet compose an ideal way of life such as the social and political organization that God has created for human being (Ghanem, 1992). Islamic government must be based on this system and eventually unified in an Islamic Caliphate (Piason, 2007). The main goal of Muslim Brotherhood, as mentioned by its initiator Hassan al-banna, was to regain Islam's obvious future, an empire (Ghanem, 1992). The belief of Muslim Brotherhood is Islam help or direct individuals to achieve social justice, eradicate corruption and poverty, and apply political freedom according to Islamic principles (Ghanem, 1992). 11- Political ideology of Muslim Brotherhood The ideological messages of Al-Banna, described his organization as a group of believers whose main aim is establishing an Islamic state that based on the Quran law of Allah (Ghanem, 1992). One of the main objectives of Al-Banna is liberating the Muslim society from any kind of foreign ruling, then shaping a Muslim state ruled by Islamic religious law (Ghanem, 1992). According to Al-Banna, the founding of such a Muslim state is not considered a final goal (Ghanem, 1992). On the other hand, the new Islamic state is obliged to realize its social order in agreement with Islamic law, and become an origin for spreading Islam through the whole world, ultimately concluding in the emergence of Islamic supremacy around the world (Ghanem, 1992). Al-Banna planned seven phases in order to accomplish all these goals, and each objective to be carried out in a regular fashion (Ghanem, 1992). The seven phases are divided into both social and political phases (Ghanem, 1992). The three social phases are based on informing people, family, and the whole society of the Muslim world in 21

22 order to apply Islamic laws in every aspect of individuals' daily life (Ghanem, 1992). The four political phases included: supposing power throughout elections, determining an Islamic state, freeing Islamic nations from the burden of both physical and ideological western occupation, uniting Islamic countries into one Islamic state ( new caliphate ), and broadening the Islamic morals throughout the whole world (Ghanem, 1992). Muslim Brotherhood group has specific implications to achieve the principle of liberating the Muslim countries from the foreign occupation powers (Ghanem, 1992). Muslim Brotherhood s attitude towards Israel, they believed that its establishment is a central part of the main goals of Western countries to defeat and divide the Muslim world (Ghanem, 1992). Muslim Brotherhood group rejected the right of Israel to be existed, and the group applied a determined resistance to any sign of normalization in relations with Israel (Ghanem, 1992). At the time of al-banna, he believed that political practices in Egypt were an imitation of the Western liberal model (Ghanem, 1992). As al-banna had a conservative culture and he was versed in the issues of Islamic political ideology, he thought that the Western liberal model can lead to tension and competition among the political parties in Egypt (Ghanem, 1992). Al-Banna didn't support the idea of the political opposition should be organized and be permanent such as the example of shadow government in the Western democracy (Ghanem, 1992). On the other hand, al-banna believed that the organized opposition against the ruling regime of the country makes the power as a main goal of all political parties which cannot lead to country stability (Ghanem, 1992). Furthermore, al-banna did not believe in the permanent surrender for the existing political system without conditions or restrictions (Ghanem, 1992). This concept was 22

23 obvious in his statement which is: Islam does not admit the idea of second leadership, but it encourages Muslims to be united together; moreover, according to al-banna Islam does not recommend the unofficial popular oppositions or civil leadership except in only one case which is when the existing system is deviated from the straight path and the Islamic law (Ghanem, 1992). Al-Banna determined that the Islamic ruling system should be based on three main rules which are: the responsibility of ruler, nation unity and respect for the will of the nation (Ghanem, 1992). 12- Al-Banna ideology about woman issue Another issue that represents the ideology of al-banna is the issue of woman. He had three main beliefs regarding the issue of woman (Ghanem, 1992). The first issue, according to Islam the basic workplace of woman is her house and taking care of her children to raise up a true Muslim (Ghanem, 1992). The second issue is, according to al-banna Islam gives the woman all personal, civil and political rights, but it decides certain rules that the woman should consider while practicing these rights (Ghanem, 1992). The third issue is, according to al-banna the Muslim woman should take the opportunity to practice her rights, that Islam gave it to her, especially in education in order to raise up her children to be a true Muslim (Ghanem, 1992). However, al- Banna mentioned that there are some restraints and warnings that prevent a woman from practicing her rights such as the mixing between men and women, if she cannot avoid this mixing the woman will not be able to participate in the political life as a voter, elected or minister (Ghanem, 1992). 13- The radical ideology of Muslim Brotherhood group The principles of al-banna s still characterize the ideological establishment of the Muslim Brotherhood group; nevertheless, there are some extensive improvements in 23

24 the validity of al- Banna ideological message since the end of World War II (Ghanem, 1992). The change mainly relate to the radicalism of Muslim Brotherhood group in Egypt following the mass arrests of group members by president Nasser in the 1950s and 1960s, and the rising of limitations on the group's political involvement in diverse Arab countries since the 1970s (Ramadan, 1982). The development of the Muslim Brotherhood group's radical ideology is associated with Sayyid Qutb ( ), a leading ideologue in the group s Egyptian branch (Ramadan, 1982). In the period of 1950s and 1960s, Qutb wrote a lot of books (some of these books during his prison period) complementing Al-Banna s thoughts with a radical spirit (Ramadan, 1982). Consequently, Qutb improved the concept of modern jahiliyya, which means that modern Islamic society is living in ignorance and has strayed from the regulations of conduct that are required by God (Ramadan, 1982). In this condition, Qutb debated the phenomenon of Westernization, in addition to the existence of political regimes based on man-made authorized systems (Ramadan, 1982). Consequently, Qutb considered the Arab regimes were lacking religious and divine legality, which he believed a crucial value, and consequently he publicly called to oppose these non religious regimes (Ramadan, 1982). Although Qutb did not highlight that struggle to these non religious regimes should be violent, he formed an opportunity for such violent movement by describing jihad for the implementation of Islamic law (Shariah) in Muslim society as every Muslim s responsibility (Ramadan, 1982). Qutb s was executed in 1966, which many members of Muslim Brotherhood believe that it is shahada (martyrdom for the sake of God), served to further spread of his thoughts (Ramadan, 1982). 24

25 Chapter 3: Literature Review 1- The Relationship Between Media and Religion Throughout the human history, different types of religions have been communicated by traditional types of communication which mainly based on the extensive spread networks such as mosques, churches, temples, group prayers, religious celebrations, religious speeches (Anas, 2009). "In more formal way to propagate religions, institutions like Madrasas (Islam), Ashramas (Hinduism), Sabbath schools (Jews), biblical schools (Christians), Buddhist seminaries were also opened in their respective societies" (Anas, 2009). These examples show that they had a role in communicating with a large number of people, so that those religious institutions were not less qualified than that of modern forms of mass communication networks (Anas, 2009). Moreover, during the last years there are some ways of effective communication through theological and philosophical religious debates which became well-known, and they are conducted by experienced and fluent preachers or debaters (Anas, 2009). For illustration, nowadays, there are a large number of modern Islamic preachers whose audio video cassettes or Compact Discs (CDs) have a high popularity among Muslim people (Anas, 2009). As mentioned above, religions relied on traditional communication networks, so that the response of religions to mass media cannot be supposed to be aggressive as its response to other technological and scientific developments (Anas, 2009). Religions used mass media with the purpose of utilizing it to convey the religious message to people by lower expenses; religious people's skepticism of mass media technologies was weakened; however, their criticism of media use for anti-religion continued (Anas, 2009). 25

26 Main efforts have been tried to bring religion closer to mass media, but these efforts did not try to bring mass media closer to religion, or to eliminate or decrease the traditional boundaries between the religion and mass media (Hosseini, 2008). There were some attempts done by various researches that highlighted the necessity of establishing new bridges between religion and mass media (Hosseini, 2008). These efforts to interrelate media and religion have encouraged media scholars to think that in the media era, the "secular is sacred and the sacred is secular" (Hosseini, 2008). The practitioners of religious media should consider the essential distinction between religious mass media and mediated religion (Stout, 2012). The fundamental principle of "media essentialism" has been approved, so religion has to be consistent with the exclusive and special nature of the mass media types (Stout, 2012). Throughout centuries, the displaying of religion has been indebted to traditional mass media (Bahonar, 2009). In the twentieth century, the existence of mass media, particularly radio and television, makes it probable to convey messages to a large number of the public audiences (Bahonar, 2009). "This important situation has caused groups and official religious organizations to take great measures in this respect by using electronic media" (Bahonar, 2009). Religion is considered one of the main essential forces of Arab mass media (Anas, 2009). There are several theoretical frameworks in order to classify the dynamics of the interface between religion and mass media such as the theory that is formed by Stig Hjarvard which is called Mediatization (Anas, 2009). "The mediatization is meant to understand the process through which the media have developed into an independent institution in the society at the same time; they have become integral to the functioning of other institutions like family, politics and religions" (Anas, 2009). According to Hjarvard 2008, the theory of Mediatization of 26

27 religion includes the system in which mass media change current religious phenomenon and come to provide joint purposes in society that up till now have been done by religious organizations or institutions (Anas, 2009). According to Hoover 2009, the process of religious media studies is close to the researches of cultural tradition of media because both of them providing the same purposes (Anas, 2009). "According to Hjarvard 2008, mediatization identifies media s major three roles, firstly media as conduits where most of the religious contents are produced by media not the religious institutions" (Anas, 2009). Secondly, the content of mass media is based on languages, so the way that media content is formed identifies the relationship between both of sender, receiver and message content (Anas, 2009). Thirdly, media is an environment which involves the interaction and communication of media institutions in a society (Anas, 2009). The core of modern technology including the types of mass media has formed people's ideology (Hosseini, 2008). According to Heidegger, consequently, any effort to religionize the mass media or turn religion to mass media is ineffective and unsuccessful (Hosseini, 2008). Moreover, modern technology could not have any form of interaction or interface with religion because both of them have a contradicting nature (Hosseini, 2008). The works of Stewart Hoover (1997), a modern scholar, and his colleagues, were regarded as major attempts that aimed to interrelate religion and mass media (Hosseini, 2008). Hoover, defined the main roles of mass media as the creating of symbols, their explanation and functions; also he emphasized the significance of applying the interaction between mass media and religion (Hosseini, 2008). On the other hand, Hoover gave a definition and an explanation of religion that fits the 27

28 anticipated purposes of interaction with the mass media; he did not explain religion as an "institutional phenomenon" decreased to personal experience (Hosseini, 2008). Furthermore, Hoover stated that religion is not limited to actions or events that happen in a sacred domain, but as a part of culture through making religion and culture undividable (Hosseini, 2008). According to Hoover & Lundby (1997), actually the main role of religion is to provide meaning to human life (Hosseini, 2008). Religious mass media is considered as a kind of utilization of media, by their distinctive characteristics, to achieve religious goals, ultimate objectives, and divine aspirations, instead of the teachings and beliefs of the religion (Stout, 2012). 2- The Interface between Islam and Mass Media Islamic religion's encounter with mass media in general and particularly satellite television channels was a kind of strange experiences because the knowledge of Islamic religion has derived from texts and oral teaching (Anas, 2009). Essentially, the format of Islamic seminaries did not contradict the television format; however, the producers of Islamic programs on television believed it is complicated to initiate all types such as dramatized program of Islam (Anas, 2009). One of the sensitive issues in Islam is the issue of drama forms for Islamic programs; so that no producer can be able to take these high level risks of public anger, the producer of Islamic programs should take permission from religious and legal authorities of the governments (Anas, 2009). "Islamic scholars have gradually shifted toward a moderate and pragmatic approach way throughout the Islamic world which gave rise to principle consent to start religious programming for televisions also, provided that they follow Islamic dos and don'ts" (Anas, 2009). According to Kamalipour and Mowlana 1994, mass media are powerful tools to support and encourage "nationalism" or "Islamic universalism" to alter into device of 28

29 attracting religious scholars, authorities to utilize mass media for the affairs and issues of religion and to control non-religious content from mass media (Anas, 2009). The interrelation between religion and media has been developed symbiotic relationship which has extensively changed both mass media and religion in terms of format and content (Anas, 2009). The reconciliation of the religion of Islam with new technologies demonstrates the reality that the interpretations of Islam have growing nature rather than static (Anas, 2009). After the religious scholars allowed the using of motion pictures for Islamic objectives, the religious authorities formed outlines of Islamic mass media, and there are hundreds of Islamic television channels worldwide, Islam has become one of the most significant religions on television channels (Anas, 2009). Prevailing study on the interrelation of Islam and mass media in the Arab countries has created from assumptions of negative presentation of Islam by Western media (Anas, 2009). The concept of media war against Islam has a lot of debates and writings in the Arab Islamic academia (Anas, 2009). The media war against Islam creates a necessity of forming Islamic networks to argue against anti-islamic propaganda (Anas, 2009). "Most of the Islamic channels started out of sense of insecurity and sense of victim hood by the Western media; Islamic channels whose majority claim to have objective of presenting Islam s true picture" (Anas, 2009). According to Hafeez 2006, most of literatures on mass media in the Islamic countries disclose the suspicion against Western media in the world (Anas, 2009). The research about interrelation of mass media and religion has a main concern about de-secularizing societies as ordinary result of the interface between Islam and media (Anas, 2009). Liberal and democratic countries are worried of return of religions in their secular societies; on the other hand, there is a frequent criticism 29

30 against the inappropriate coverage or misrepresentation of religion in the mass media particularly in the Middle East (Anas, 2009). "According to McLuhan, here media are demanded to have pro-religion and pro Islamic appearance; perhaps notions like Digital Islam, Sound Bite Islam, Print Islam, Television Islam etc signify the applicability of medium theory in this interface" (Anas, 2009). As the mass media have two features which are international and independent, media theorists have been declared that print Islam is more democratic and distinguished than oral Islam before the globalization era; moreover, digital Islam has unequally broken the power of institutions controlled by clerics because the new generation is no more reliant on traditional sources of Islamic information (Anas, 2009). According to Mandaville 2001, new shapes of Islamic knowledge are being planned because of these media (Anas, 2009). The religious authorities have anti media speeches because these media are the reason of their increasing marginalization in their societies (Anas, 2009). This unprecedented access of information of common followers to Islamic Internet websites and television channels has encouraged Jon Alterman (1998) "to predict a possible scenario that the days have gone when governments and religious authorities can control what their people know, and what they think" (Anas, 2009). Secular narratives of mass media assume that media should be an instrument of social change to achieve social development (Anas, 2009). The mass media are supposed to "take a shift from pre modern to modern, oppressive to free, from hierarchical to egalitarian, tyrannical to democratic, religious to secular and from backward to enlightened position" (Anas, 2009). On the other hand, Islamic societies in Arab countries are not convinced with this project and mass media of these Islamic societies continued to be critical to secular descriptions of media (Anas, 2009). With 30

31 these anxieties, Arab Television channels, particularly, Islamic religious channels have improved their own Islamic narratives (Anas, 2009). The research of Arab Islamic mass media has a gap on how Islamic programs are established by inter-islamic competitions (Anas, 2009). The process of mediation of Islam persists on all difficulties and restructures alternative narrations like Pan Arabism, Pan Islamism, and Cultural Islam; it requires an outline which includes the religious and cultural principles of the Arab region (Anas, 2009). "It is how one can define Mediated Islam as interaction within Islam signified by extended media technologies and far reaching social impacts"(anas, 2009). Islam has specific difficult possessions or rules which cannot be found in other religions (Anas, 2009). Al- Jazeera phenomenon asserts the importance of the concepts like Pan-Islamism or Pan- Arabism in the mass media (Anas, 2009). According to Zayani 2005, Mediatization concept deals with the interface between mass media and religion, and mediation concept captures scope of process of interface between religion and media (Anas, 2009). Islam provides better source of self identity, comparing to other religions which have less concerns about social and political issues of contemporary secular globe (Anas, 2009). In the last century, in the Arab Islamic world, Islam has successfully provided mass appeal for various political and social groups (Anas, 2009). For example, Iranian Islamic revolution have determined path of social change in Islamic world; the majority of the social and political groups in Islamic countries have obvious political objectives with stronger religious overtones (Anas, 2009). The development of mass media and communication creates new types of interaction and new forms of social relationship (Anas, 2009). 31

32 According to Thompson: 1995, Islam has been mediated to provide new forms of interaction to various groups of Islamic world which were not available before (Anas, 2009). "Given this hypothesis, media may help Middle Eastern society transform from core Islamic state to moderate Islamic society, create new institutions and Islamic public sphere" (Anas, 2009). Based on this hypothesis, there should be an academic investigation about the way in which Islam is encountering with motion pictures and television programs (Anas, 2009). It is important to understand whether the process of social change of Islamic state is threatening religious institutions in Islamic world as mediatization theory indicates, or this process is reimagining an Islam which is more individualized and based on the consumer (Anas, 2009). "Mediation concept is a process that involves certain actors like media producers, media owners and administration of media regimes; on the other hand, it also involves versatile audience of both religious people non-religious people" (Anas, 2009). In the countries of Middle East, mediation concept has political and cultural significance (Anas, 2009). In the Middle East, the current religious media implies that the content and format of religious media are accurately adopted so that it does not anger religious allies of the ruling system (Anas, 2009). The interface between media and religion, in the Middle East states, provides an exceptional case study where religion and state are extremely intertwined and they compete to shape the mass media according to their preferences (Anas, 2009). The symbolic relationship of religion, state, and media cannot be found in the Western countries where market represents dominating role (Anas, 2009). The two concepts of mediatization and mediation of media and religion contain complex dynamics of the Arab mass media where the media markets are not crucial powers (Anas, 2009). In most of the Arab countries, the institutionalized religion is a major part of state affairs, and there is an increasing 32

33 dependency of religious media on state and religious organizations (Anas, 2009). "Any reform project whether democratization or Islamization, such as Muslim Brotherhood group, Mediatization will require engagement of religion" (Anas, 2009). In the Arab countries, ownership style, advertisement tendencies and media strategies of media companies show that the emerging private mass media relies on state or semi state power (Anas, 2009). Furthermore, advertisement profits of religious channels in the Arab countries are more than the profits of news channels which indicate that religious satellite channels are not dependent on market generated resources such as sponsorships and contributions (Anas, 2009). In the Middle East, religion is considered as a main source of legitimacy, and it is an essential definer of mass media debates in the Arab countries (Anas, 2009). There was a survey about the media laws in the Arab countries; the result of this survey supports the hypothesis that religion and mass media cannot be separated in the Middle East (Anas, 2009). As the countries of the Middle East are religious states, Arab constitutions specially mention protection of Islamic identity and respect of religious figures; furthermore, the media laws of the Arab countries have sentences that prohibit blasphemy, criticizing the Prophet and Islam or religious authorities (Anas, 2009). On February 12, 2008, Arab countries signed Charter of Principal for Regulating Satellite Broadcasting in the Arab Region (Anas, 2009). Article four, five, six and seven of the charter are about the details of the regulations of do s and don ts for satellite television channels in which consideration of national unity, public order, and social peace (Anas, 2009). Article four and five of the charter are about the religious and ethical values of Arab country (Anas, 2009). "Article 6/9, refrain from insulting God, revealed religions, prophets, Mazhabs (religious sects), and religious symbols" (Anas, 2009). "Calling for religious and sectarian extremism, disrespect for God, and 33

34 monotheistic religions, the prophets, religious sects, or the religious leaders of various groups manifestations of wanton or sexual [behavior] are part of all Arab League charter as well as 22 signatory of Arab league states" (Anas, 2009). Because of the religious inclination of the individuals in a lot of Islamic countries, the traditional standards of communication have still kept their legitimacy, thus rendering illegitimacy to other types of mass communication (Bahonar, 2009). The religious leaders and figures in the Islamic countries preserved their participation in social communication through traditional forms of media such as mosques, religious ceremonies and Islamic schools (Bahonar, 2009). Nowadays, the approaches of the Islamic media are influenced by three main factors which are history, contemporary culture and politics (Stout, 2012). According to Abdollashyan (2008), in Iran, the young Muslim generations experience disagreement between official religious media and secular media like the Internet; this formed "challenges" to "their religious identity" (Stout, 2012). Muslim people frequently disagree about the necessity of shifting between sacred and secular environments to fulfill shared discourse and a public sphere (Stout, 2012). So, Muslim people prefer religious and regionalized media more than secular media (Stout, 2012). Currently, there are hybrid genres that integrate Islamic teachings with secular formats which become very popular in the Islamic countries like the Islamic satellite television channel Al-Risala (Stout, 2012). According to Lindesy (2006), Al-Risala general manager Sheikh Tarek Swidan says, " Our understanding of Islamic media is it is any clean media, so that any program that is clean and has a massage to improve a human being; improve them religiously, ethically, put them towards being productive and effective, having ambitions" (Stout, 2012). 34

35 3- Islamic Satellite Television Channels in the Middle East "According to Arab Satellite Communication Organization, there are 22 religious satellite channels registered at ArabSat" (Anas, 2009). Several numbers of religious satellite channels are registering at NileSat, and categorization of these channels can be done according to their ideology and sectarian roots (Anas, 2009). In idealist approach, the religious satellite channels believe that mass media is supposed to have a function as a reformer and preacher of the society according to Islamic principles (Anas, 2009). This idealist role for mass media is forced by audiences, media producers, religious powers and the governments, and they would be evaluated in identical paradigms not on market based accomplishments (Anas, 2009). Mass media have to play a subordinate function to the religion in order to develop the society and purify individuals (Anas, 2009). "Islamic concept of Call has been repeatedly reminded by Islamic scholars of the region to media managers and professionals" (Anas, 2009). v According to Anas 2009, the main characteristics of Islamic satellite channels as follows: the laws of Islam. lamic media are supposed to call people to Islam (Al-Dawaha ilal Islam) Western countries 4- Islamic Perspective of Journalism "In practice today there is no journalistic code of ethics based on the principles of Islam, and few scholars have attempted to define an Islamic framework for mass media ethics" (Siddiqi, 2012). This explains the reason of why the Muslim world, 35

36 which is counted more than one billion, does not have a control over different sources of information (Siddiqi, 2012). The Muslim world has "600 daily newspapers, about 1500 weeklies, 1200 monthly news and views magazines, and about 500 miscellaneous Muslim publications" (Siddiqi, 2012). The first Asian Islamic Conference planned by the Mecca-based World Muslim League in Karachi, Pakistan, in 1978 determined that the Islamic journalists should be organized in order to be able to counteract the Western domination of media and its propaganda against Islam (Siddiqi, 2012). The first International Islamic News Agency (IINA) was launched by the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) in 1979 with its head office in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (Siddiqi, 2012). On the other hand, as Schleifer has explained, "The most poorly served IINA objectives is its very first one to consolidate and safeguard the rich cultural heritage of Islam; a more significant limitation to IINA coverage, from a Muslim perspective, is the relatively low amount of intrinsically Islamic news content" (Siddiqi, 2012). In the first International Conference of Muslim Journalists located in Jakarta, Indonesia, in 1981, the Islamic media professionals agreed on the Islamic media should have regulations that the media practitioners should apply in their journalistic activities, and Muslim media should work towards accomplishing incorporation of the Muslim people personality (Siddiqi, 2012). In this conference, it was mentioned that the unification of faith of Muslims in Islamic values and ethics should be the major responsibility of Islamic mass media (Siddiqi, 2012). On the other hand, no one of the above mentioned efforts were able to achieve the development, and more prominently, the applying of an Islamic code of ethics among the Islamic journalists (Siddiqi, 2012). The reasons are: "lack of support from Muslim 36

37 governments; lack of interest and enthusiasm by Muslim journalists themselves; and lack of support from Muslim scholars' as well Muslim society in general" (Siddiqi, 2012). As Schleifer has said: "The reverse-secularism of Western and Islamic Movement journalism insists that religion is worthy of reporting only in the political domain and a political domain of confrontation" (Siddiqi, 2012). Schleifer added there is a particular danger of "Islamic journalism" up till now is that the journalist replaces the life and activities of the different Islamic groups for the life and activities of the much wider Islamic society of which the political groups are small part (Siddiqi, 2012). Schleifer said "when the Islamic journalist substitutes the life and drama of Islamic movements for the life and drama of Islamic society, he not only over politicizes Islam but he invariably becomes side-tracked into the same sort of surface reporting of organized political life in the Muslim world that characterizes the secular press and ends up even reporting poorly on many political and public developments of profound importance to Muslims" (Siddiqi, 2012). 5- Basis for an Islamic Code of Ethics in Journalism Islamic journalists should consider a process of gathering news, making of news and disseminating of news which is appropriate within an Islamic framework (Siddiqi, 2012). "And in order to compete with the existing information orders Islamic journalists have to provide theoretical foundations and arguments as well a driving force that will ensure its implementation among Muslim journalists throughout the world" (Siddiqi, 2012). In order to define news and trying to build up an Islamic code of journalism ethics, initially discuss the basis of the Islamic ethical structure because it plays a very significant role in the understanding of the Islamic worldview within which an Islamic journalist should to operate and which is essentially unlike the secular or Western 37

38 worldview (Siddiqi, 2012). "The central force in the Islamic moral system is the concept of Tawhid - the supremacy and sovereignty of one God. Tawhid also implies unity, coherence, and harmony between all parts of the universe" (Siddiqi, 2012). One of the responsibilities of the Islamic mass media organizations and Muslim journalists would be eliminating the legends (Siddiqi, 2012). "In our contemporary world these myths may include power, progress, science, development, modernization, democracy, achievement, and success" (Siddiqi, 2012). One of the main roles of Islamic media is the destruction of ideas that are based on racialism, dualism, familial supremacy and tribalism; one of the dualisms is the secular belief of the separation between politics and religion (Siddiqi, 2012). An additional strategy in the improvement of an Islamic code of ethics is the idea of social responsibility (Siddiqi, 2012). "The Islamic principle of social responsibility is based on the concept of amar bi al-maruf wa nahi an al-munkar or commanding right and prohibiting wrong" (Siddiqi, 2012). This means that it is the responsibility of the media institutions such as television, journalism, radio and cinema, to prepare people and society all together to accept Islamic main beliefs and act upon them (Siddiqi, 2012). Although, practitioners of Islamic media accept social responsibility as a basis of their work, there is no Islamic code of ethics in journalism in the Muslim world (Siddiqi, 2012). 6- The Conception of News in the Islamic Media The major criteria of journalism objectivity are a legend that should be examined and challenged by the practitioners of Islamic mass media (Siddiqi, 2012). According to Siddiqi, 2012, objectivity as described by a lot of modern scholars of mass media is interpreted to mean: 1- Reporting only apparent phenomena. 38

39 2- In news reporting avoid personal emotions. 3- In news reporting avoid personal opinion. 4- In news reporting avoid personal values. 5- Equal reporting of all news. "A robot journalist might fulfill all the above requirements, but some of them are humanly impossible; moreover, Islamic news criteria are much more practical and beneficial" (Siddiqi, 2012). Islam equally highlights the media content, the purpose and the way of gathering the news within the framework of the idea of social responsibility (Siddiqi, 2012). "But the pursuit of good Islam does not permit, not even to a journalist, spying or seeking to confirm suspicions, slander, circulation of rumors, or name-calling" (Siddiqi, 2012). Therefore, news can be described as the coverage of events in a manner which achieves the desires of Muslim society and as a result this leads to peace and stability in agreement with the ethical and moral beliefs of Islam (Siddiqi, 2012). "Thus in principle Muslim media should form a universal source of news and information and serve the cause of unity and equality between all humankind in general and the Muslim community in particular" (Siddiqi, 2012). Furthermore, Islamic media are supposed to be free of censorship or regulations by the ruling systems of different Muslim countries because supremacy of country belongs to the God not to a specific president or King (Siddiqi, 2012). Consequently, an Islamic code of journalism ethics would possibly provide the best guiding principles for utilizing the mass media, to diminish and eradicate tension between nations and to serve humankind in general by presenting accurate, fair, and objective news of the world events (Siddiqi, 2012). 39

40 "Lastly, the concept of taqwa (piety) is yet another basis for developing an Islamic code of journalistic ethics; it raises a person's individual, moral, spiritual, and psychological capacity to a level that the individual becomes immune from excessive material desires" (Siddiqi, 2012). The debates and concerns regarding the Islamic codes of ethics in current mass communication concentrate on one topic: who should have the power to implement these codes of ethics: governments, institutions of mass media, or journalists (Siddiqi, 2012). "The problem is not the lack of a code, rather lack of adherence to and implementation of a code (Siddiqi, 2012). 7- The Main Problems, Challenges, and Suggestions of Islamic Media There is no effort has yet appeared in a practical Islamic information system which can be able to end the dependence of Muslims on Western sources of information (Siddiqi, 2012). The practitioners of Islamic media are reliant on the four international news agencies which are the AP [Associated Press], UPI [United Press International], AFP [Agence France Pressse] and Reuters (Siddiqi, 2012). "In a survey conducted in 1986 it was revealed that most Muslim newspapers in Arabic, English, Persian, and Urdu base 90% of their news coverage on these four agencies" (Siddiqi, 2012). "Seventy percent of foreign news in Muslim countries belong to the Western news agencies, whereas the number of Muslim countries' news bureau is hardly 5% of the total.18 Ten years on, the situation is not much different" (Siddiqi, 2012). It is obvious that the Western news agencies have a powerful presence in Muslim societies which leads to discourage of media performs that do not adapt the norms of these sources of information (Siddiqi, 2012). Thus, it is crucial to build up an alternative and practical source of information that can replace the dependence on the sources of information that their main goals contradict with the fundamental system of Islam (Siddiqi, 2012). 40

41 Unless Islamic media is one of the leaders in the expansion of different sources of information, and unless they prove great motivation to accommodate the ignored social groups such as Muslim women, youth, children and the rural inhabitants, they will continue to be limited to a little audience lacking any realistic significance, particularly, the Muslim audiences and the globe in general (Siddiqi, 2012). Therefore, the need or aspiration to adhere to an Islamic code of ethics in journalism will remain as low desire (Siddiqi, 2012). It is essential to clarify that Muslim mass media practitioners should build up an independent structure of Islamic mass media (Siddiqi, 2012). Unfortunately, it is noticeable that there is very little exchange or share of thoughts and experiences among journalists who work on Islamic newspapers and magazines (Siddiqi, 2012). Consequently, already limited resources of human and material are exhausted in duplicating the same efforts (Siddiqi, 2012). Some essential features of the improvement of a professional code of ethics of Islamic journalism are the preparation and training of journalists who work on Islamic media (Siddiqi, 2012). Furthermore, there are various training centers to prepare journalists in different features of the job, but journalists cannot get training or preparation on particularly Islamic journalism's aspects (Siddiqi, 2012). It is obvious that there is a vital need to create an "Islamic Institute of Mass Media Research and Training" (Siddiqi, 2012). According to Siddiqi, 2012, this institute can accomplish numerous significant missions in addition to training journalists throughout the following five steps: 1- Organization of an index of Muslim journalists for international and regional collaboration. 41

42 2- Organization of a comprehensive bibliography on the accessible literature on the Muslim mass media. 3- Organization of monographs on particular topics and problems that Muslim media and journalists face. 4- Organization of mass media monitoring group to keep in contact with the Western mass media's deformation of Islam and to examine and evaluate the relationship between pres and governments in Muslim countries. 5- Organizing of seminars regionally and internationally wherein both Muslim and non-muslim media professionals can share their perceptions and knowledge. All of the above are few suggestions to understand the objective of building up a practical policy of Islamic media ethics and principles within an Islamic frame (Siddiqi, 2012). Initially, the Islamic mass media professionals can form an active debate to share information about codes of ethics of the Islamic journalism in Muslim societies (Siddiqi, 2012). Moreover, they can share and cooperate with media practitioners in non-muslim countries, and media organizations that have a concern about the relationship between media, religion and culture (Siddiqi, 2012). Moreover, this forum could afterward play a major function in the shaping of an international institute for research and training for journalists who work in Islamic journalism (Siddiqi, 2012). 8- Characteristics of Islamic Media There are a lot of Arabic writings about the main features of the philosophy of Islamic media, but all these writings did not succeed in forming a comprehensive theory about the characteristics the Islamic mass media (Al-Samasiri, 2008). On the other hand, some Islamic scholars believed that the idea of forming a theory about the 42

43 Islamic mass media is incorrect because it will narrow the prospects of Islamic mass media because the Islamic media should be comprehensive, so that if it applied to theory it will not be inclusive (Al-Samasiri, 2008). However, other Islamic scholars approved that the Islamic mass media can be applied to a theory as this theory is based on the roles of Islam (Al-Samasiri, 2008). Mohamed Fathy Amarah mentioned in his book titled (Islamic Media and Future Challenges), there is no doubt that the future of Islamic media is linked to its ability to understand the nature of communicating with the other, and to be open on the other; and here comes the role of Islamic media in presenting Islamic message that depend on moral freedom coupled with responsibility, but the Islamic media is not like the state media in the totalitarian regimes (Al-Dahabi, 2013). According to Amarah, the current Islamic media experiments suffer from some deficiencies including the weakness of media professionals and lack of trained media staff (Al-Dahabi, 2013). Consequently, there is an urgent need to have the developed Islamic media, which is not controlled by certain group or particular category, and the Islamic media should be accessible to all people and represent all Islamic nation well (Al-Dahabi, 2013). Amarah added that Islamic media should aim to unify the political opinions with the Islamic jurisprudence in order to a have a powerful unified Islamic nation (Al-Dahabi, 2013). The major problem that challenges the Islamic media is its specialized people who support it still believe in the idea that the Islamic media should be "religious media " or "missionary media" which means that the Islamists tried to transfer the mosque to the satellite channel (Sultan, 2012). The Islamic media ignore other issues that are related to the public such as politics, economics, security, culture; 43

44 furthermore, the Islamic media are still sensitive to diverse activities such as arts and sports (Sultan, 2012). There is no doubt that the Arab spring revolutions remove a lot of barriers and obstacles that faced the Islamic media, the Islamists should benefit a lot from the Arab spring to provide an attractive and modern media messages that are able to attract millions of citizens of diverse aspirations and interests (Sultan, 2012). There are two axes that are considered the biggest challenge for the Islamic media (Sultan, 2012). First, the Islamists' ability to benefit extremely from the recent openness situation to create technical and artistic professionals as soon as possible, and to have high qualified trainers and programs for the staff of Islamic media, and transformation of trainees to direct practice in newspapers, magazines, television channels and radio stations (Sultan, 2012). Second, the ability of Islamists to override the loyalties to the political party or the group in order to make Islamic media that are capable, attractive and professional based on "quality" not "loyalty", the loyalty should be limited to the general strategy of the media not the details of the work (Sultan, 2012). This challenge has emerged obviously in the simple experiments that have recently appeared after Arab spring revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia in the experiment of new Islamic political parties' media (Sultan, 2012). Islamists believe that the Islamic media is a distinguished media because it acquires its characteristics and qualities from the teaching and approach of Islam (Islamweb, 2004). According to the article titled The Characteristics of Islamic Media on Islamweb, 2004, there are six main characteristics of Islamic media which are: 44

45 ý First: Honesty All forms of media are based on the word, so that this word in the Muslim community must be honest, this honesty should be stemmed from the sincere Islamic vision in order to achieve benefit and good of Muslims (Islamweb, 2004). News in the Islamic media should be honest mirror of the abstract reality (Islamweb, 2004). Islamic media aiming to achieve the good for the human society in general and the Muslim community particularly, so that the media material should be targeted to achieve human benefit (Islamweb, 2004). ý Second: Realism It means that the Islamic media is based on the Islamic approach that aims to inform humanity in order to build a good human life in its all aspects, this is based on three basic foundations which are 1- Call for the charity and good 2- Promotion of the virtue 3- Prevention of the vice (Islamweb, 2004). ý Third: Comprehensiveness One of the characteristics of Islam is it is a comprehensive religion, as Islamic media is based on the approach of Islam it should be a comprehensive media which means it should be able to reach all people and influence them (Islamweb, 2004). A major feature of Islamic media is it is comprehensive which means it represents all the different aspects of the event which really can lead the audiences to understand the complete truth of this event (Al-Samasiri, 2008). As the Islamic media is comprehensive, it should integrate diverse aspects that meet the needs of human life and the good for all mankind (Islamweb, 2004). 45

46 ý Fourth: Stability and Flexibility Stability of the Islamic media means the stability of its fundamentals and ideology which implies the goals and objectives of Islamic media are stable in every place and time (Islamweb, 2004). Flexibility of Islamic media means its ability to keep up with every progress and change occurs in the human life, as well as directing all human activities to the appropriate and accurate purpose (Islamweb, 2004). ý Fifth: Islamic media is balanced One of Islamic media characteristics is it is a balanced media through covering all news equally which means no one event can be covered more than other events; furthermore, Islamic media should not be biased to some issues more than others (Al- Samasiri, 2008). ý Sixth: social responsibility of Islamic media The main role of Islamic media is it should highlight the country problems whether these problems are social, political, religious and economic, and emphasize the reasons and solutions of these problems (Al-Samasiri, 2008). The mission of Islamic media is to provide the Muslim public with the facts of Islam that derived from the God and The Prophet Muhammad in order to help the Muslim person in applying Islamic roles to his behaviors and dealings (Al-Bar, 2005). The basis of Islamic media is they should be religious and specialized media for the Muslim society that inform the Muslim public about information of different aspects of the life (Al-Bar, 2005). According to Al-Bar 2005, Islamic media has specific characteristics, that make they are different from other forms of media, as following: 1- The Islamic media should have freedom of expression because freedom does not contradict with Islam, and it is one of the roles of the religion of Islam. 46

47 2- The Islamic media should be committed to Islamic morals, and this leads to the Islamic media can have certain features such as honesty, sincerity, accuracy, objectivity and comprehensiveness. 3- The Islamic media should be independent and reject any form of reliance. 4- Islamic media should base on advice not coercion to inform the Muslim public though persuasion. According to Dr Ibrahim Imam in his book titled "Islamic media", he mentioned that the Islamic media have certain goals which described as the following: 1- Islamic media has multiple objectives that cover all the aspects Muslim people life. 2- The ideological goal of Islamic media is to teach the Muslims the roles of Islam derived from Qur'an and the Prophet. 3- The cultural objectives through spread awareness and knowledge. 4- Social objectives of Islamic media are spreading the social morals of Islam such as interdependency, cooperation, love of other, altruism, unity and goodness. 5- Economic goals of Islamic media are improving the economic conditions of the country through fighting monopoly, and displaying the best ways for trade and money management. 6- Political goals through the guidance and counseling the Muslim public in political issues, and development the relationship between the ruler and the people on the basis of fairness, obedience and loyalty. (Islamic media: its realty, goals and how it exit from its crisis, 2011 ) The Islamic media is governed by the purpose and the means of Islamic law (Ibrahim, 2012). The Islamic media is characterized by their distinct objectives, 47

48 principles, purposes and style because it is derived from the Islamic roles (Ibrahim, 2012). The Islamic media is a domestic and international media, functioning according to one policy that does not change by time or place; moreover, Islamic media do not favor certain social class, group or sect, but it serve all Muslim public (Ibrahim, 2012). Islamic media is not only a news oriented media, but also it is advocator of the good for the humanity, so that the Islamic media need executive authority that can design the Islamic media strategy to counter the Western media, and the preachers should need to be trained on media developed technologies and techniques (Islamic Media Responsibility at the Age of Globalization, 2009). There is a new study done by Dr Rushdi Shehata, professor at Helwan University, this study titled (Islamic Media Responsibility in the New World Order), he called for the need for coordination between various devices to be able to achieve calling plans that are scientific and balanced to eliminate the inconsistency and duplication between the various programs of the Islamic media (Islamic Media Responsibility at the Age of Globalization, 2009). The Islamic media should use the modern technology to be able to reach different audiences all over the world (Islamic Media Responsibility at the Age of Globalization, 2009). According to Shehata, therefore, in order to reach a strong Islamic media that can achieve the ultimate goal that improve the negative image of Islam and Muslims in the West, there are some steps to be followed: 1- Selection of qualified staff of the Islamic media. 2- Continues training of Islamic media staff. 3- Use of communication technology in the servicing the Call of Islam. 48

49 4- Debunking the Western media (Islamic Media Responsibility at the Age of Globalization, 2009). 9- Old forms of Muslim Brotherhood Mass Media Hassan Al-Banna wrote a lot of articles and notes that represent his ideology in the newspapers and magazines that were published by the Muslim Brotherhood (Ghanem, 1992). According to Ghanem (1992), here is a list of newspapers and magazines that were published by Muslim Brotherhood; and they are ordered according to date: 1- Muslim Brotherhood Weekly Newspaper ( ). 2- The Weekly Magazine Al-Nazier ( ). 3- The Magazine Al-Manar Al-Shariyah ( ). 4- The Weekly Magazine Al-Ta'aruf (1940). 5- The Weekly Magazine Al-Shu'aa' (1940). 6- The Muslim Brotherhood Weekly Newspaper ( ). 7- Muslim Brotherhood Daily Newspaper ( ). 8- The Monthly Magazine Al-Shahab ( ). 9- Al-Kashkoul Al-Jadid Magazine (1948). 10- The Magazine Al-Da'wa ( ). 10- Muslim Brotherhood and Freedom and Justice party's Mass Media Here is a list of official media of Muslim Brotherhood group and Freedom and Justice Party: 1- The Arabic Internet website al-da'wah (the call) owned by Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwanwikipedia website) 49

50 2- The Arabic Internet website NafiazatMisr (Egypt window) owned by Muslim Brotherhood (Egyptwindow website). 3- The Arabic Internet website Ikhwanonline owned by Muslim Brotherhood group in 2003 (Ikhwanonline website). 4- The English Internet website Ikhwanweb owned by the group of Muslim Brotherhood 2005 (Dahr, 2008). 5- The website Ikhwanyoutube in 2009 (Abdel- 'Aal 2009). 6- The Arabic Internet website Ikhwanwikipedia owned by Muslim Brotherhood group in 2009 (Abdel- 'Aal 2009). 7- Misr 25 television channel owned by the group of Muslim Brotherhood in 2011 (Hassan, 2011). 8- Muslim Brotherhood group account on Facebook in 2011 (Muslim Brotherhood account on Facebook). 9- Muslim Brotherhood group account on Twitter in 2011 (Muslim Brotherhood account on Twitter). 10- Freedom and Justice daily newspaper owned by Freedom and Justice Party in 2011(Freedom and Justice Party, 2011). 11- Freedom and Justice Internet website in Arabic and English languages owned by Freedom and Justice Party in 2011 (FJ website). 12- Freedom and Justice party account on Facebook in 2011 (FJ account on Facebook). 13- Freedom and Justice party account on Twitter in 2011 (FJ account on Twitter). In a restrained and suppressive environment in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood has used the Internet as a unique technological force providing freedom from observation, (Dahr, 2008). Muslim Brotherhood created an official website, 50

51 where they state: "The Ikhwanweb is the Muslim Brotherhood s only official English website, our staff is exclusively made of volunteers and stretched over five continents"(dahr, 2008). The opinions and views Muslim Brotherhood members can be found under the sections MB statements and opinions, in addition to the Editorial Message, other issues posted under other views are frequently diverse from these opinions of the Muslim Brotherhood (Dahr, 2008). Ikhwanweb is not a news website, however it reports news that relates to the Muslim Brotherhood s grounds, its major mission is to present the Muslim Brotherhood vision (Dahr, 2008). The use of the Internet permits freedom of expression, and a run away from state censorship which the most of Egyptian independent media are forced (Dahr, 2008). "In response to long-term shifts in social structure and short-term alterations in social circumstances, issue-oriented associations, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, formed Ikhwanweb to affect public opinion and its representatives in the civil sphere in the Egyptian society" (Dahr, 2008). The Muslim Brotherhood group uses the Internet to initiate their appeals to the Egyptian public and to accomplish their communicative objective and intent (Dahr, 2008). 11- The Muslim Brotherhood Satellite Channel Misr 25 According to the journalist and Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohsen Radhi, the major objective of the Misr 25 television channel is to present the moderate opinions and views of the Muslim Brotherhood group (Hassan, 2011). Radhi added, the vision of Misr 25 channel is that it needs to present a message that would achieve renaissance, improvement, and culture in the Egyptian society, as well as showing diverse issues in an exciting, informative and neutral way, that will suit all Egyptian 51

52 citizens and this diverse issues support the idea of the freedom of Egyptian mass media (Hassan, 2011). Radhi said, "The channel will most definitely represent the Muslim Brotherhood s identity and activities that will serve to better illustrate who the Muslim Brotherhood are and what they seek" (Hassan,2011). According to Radhi, the most essential feature of the channel is that it will focus on broadcasting documentaries that will prove the truth about Egyptian history, better address Egyptian issues, contribute in developing nationalism, and will cooperate with all media establishments to free it from boundaries (Hassan, 2011). Radhi said, "The leaders of Muslim Brotherhood have nothing to do with the channel or its organizers, we are fully aware of the independence of the channel, or else it will inevitably fail" (Hassan, 2011). Radhi continued, the organizers will be in charge of developing the main policies only, after that the professionals will take over in an independent and free manner (Hassan, 2011). Radhi said, " At Mubarak era the Egyptian security forces were always keeping an eye on the Brotherhood to the point that media professionals that were members of the Muslim Brotherhood would have to hide their identities when working in the media business" (Hassan,2011). He continued, however, "I believe now that the group changed its strategies with this regard, because the regime that was oppressing the Brotherhood is now gone, and it s about time the Brotherhood deals with itself and society as a presenter of a project worthy of implementation" (Hassan, 2011). Radhi added, consequently, it will work to display its thoughts in a way that can practically demonstrate its beliefs (Hassan, 2011). Radhi said "the channel will be completely independent, the channel will have a level of freedom that will astonish and surprise everyone" (Hassan, 2011). He added 52

53 that the main philosophy of Misr 25 will require us to accept the opinions of others (Hassan, 2011). Radhi said, "The channel will display a variety of internal and external issues" (Hassan, 2011). Radhi said, "We will display drama series; the Egyptian society loves such things; however, we will only display things that are in tune with the culture and values of the Egyptian society and the Islamic faith" (Hassan, 2011). Regarding the display of women in Misr 25, Radhi said that the channel display "women who are not bound by Islamic attire, as long as their attire is acceptable by the Egyptian society, culture, and values"(hassan, 2011). According to leading MB member Essam al-arian, the group is presently studying the possibility of establishing a new satellite television station and a number of magazines and newspapers (Salah, El-Waziry, 2011). Freedom of access to information is the key to keeping up with the evolution of international media, al- Arian told Al-Masry Al-Youm (Salah, El-Waziry, 2011). Al-Arian added that Egyptians "are fed up with biased media. Soon we will begin publishing a monthly magazine called 'Al-Daawa,' in addition to a weekly newspaper (Salah, El-Waziry, 2011). Head of the Muslim Brotherhood's media committee Assem Shalabi said the Muslim Brotherhood group was preparing to publish daily, weekly and monthly newspapers and magazines (Salah, El-Waziry, 2011). We're expecting amendments to Egypt's press laws that will facilitate the publication of new newspapers," said Shalabi. "This is why we are seeking to issue different publications" (Salah, El- Waziry, 2011). 53

54 Chapter 4: Theoretical Framework 1-Agenda setting Essentially, an agenda is defined as a list of objects ordered according to their significance, which means the most important items are at the top of this agenda (Severin and Jr, 2001). Agenda building is defined as a collective process in which government, mass media and the public affect each other in determining the most important topics or problems that should be considered (Severin and Jr, 2001). "Agenda setting is the phenomenon of the mass media selecting certain issues and portraying them frequently and prominently, which leads people to perceive those issues as more important than others" (Wu and Coleman, 2009). The definition of agenda setting is the mass media ability to influence the public to give more attentions to particular topics such as political candidates, social problems, civic issues (Chernov, Valenzuela, and McCombs, 2011). Basically, agenda-setting hypothesis is the mass media ability of conveying the item salience in the news to the community or the public, whereas agenda building focuses on the broadcast of item salience between sources and the mass media (Ragas, 2012). Moreover, the agenda setting theory can function at a wider level, in which the mass media can influence the audience about the "attributes" of items, throughout presenting and highlighting a number of characteristics and qualities of these items (Chernov, Valenzuela, and McCombs, 2011). One of the main concepts of agenda setting theory has been the conveying of issue salience, or the way that media highlighting of specific topics increases their importance for the public (Wu and Coleman, 2009)."The greater an individual's need for orientation in the realm of public affairs, the more likely he or she is to attend to the agenda of the mass media" 54

55 (Chernov, Valenzuela, and McCombs, 2011)."The agenda setting function of the media refers to the media's capabilities, through repeated news coverage, of raising the importance of an issue in the public's mind" (Severin and Jr, 2001). According to Norton Long, the newspaper is considered the major mover in setting the agenda, it has an enormous role in determining the topics that the public talk about, the facts that the public think about, and the public thoughts of the best ways to deal with the problems of the country (Severin and Jr, 2001). According to Kurt Lang and Gladys Engle Lang, the mass media give attention to particular topics; moreover, they create certain images of political figures in the public's mind, they are frequently presenting items signifying what people in the society should think about, know about, and have feelings about (Severin and Jr, 2001). "According Bernard Cohen, it may not be successful much of the time in telling people what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling readers what to think about" (Severin and Jr, 2001). The theory of agenda setting is extremely compatible with cognitive psychology, and this is obvious in the examination of the salience that the public assign to particular issues (Severin and Jr, 2001). Funkhouser (1973) examined the correlation between reality and mass media coverage; he found that the mass media coverage did not correspond, constantly, very well to the realities of the topics (Severin and Jr, 2001). Funkhouser found that the mass media reporting of the Vietnam War, campus conflict, and urban unrest peaked a year or two before these events reached their climax in the reality (Severin and Jr, 2001). Media coverage of drugs and inflation problems was to some extent in line with reality; however, media coverage of racial relationships, criminal issues, and poverty and pollution problems has little relation to reality (Severin and Jr, 2001). Funkhouser concluded, "the news media are believed by many people (including 55

56 many policymakers) to be reliable information sources, but the data presented here indicate that this is not necessarily the case" (Severin and Jr, 2001). McCombs and Shaw (1972), present some evidences of causal direction or effect between mass media agenda and shaping the audiences' agenda, rather than vice versa (Severin and Jr, 2001). The hypothesis of agenda setting advocating that the mass media content has an effect on the community perception of the significance of certain issues (Severin and Jr, 2001). According to Wanta and Wu (1992), when the individuals are exposed to more media news, the salience of issues for media topics will be in a higher level (Severin and Jr, 2001). McCombs and Weaver recommended that the larger the significance of the information and the greater the doubt regarding the subject, will result in greater need for orientation (Severin and Jr, 2001). Wanta and Miller (1995), advocated that watching of the president's speech and being exposed to the mass media, can increase the effect of agenda setting; however, being exposed to the mass media essentially increased agenda setting effect more, they think that the president in fact needs the mass media to more highlight and clarify the topics that he considers significant (Severin and Jr, 2001). The researchers identify agenda setting theory as items listed according to saliency in the mass media content or in audiences' perception, and then agenda setting can be processed at diverse stages (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). Traditionally, first level of agenda setting research means that the objects have been issues; moreover, the second level of agenda setting based on the idea that an agenda is a theoretical concept and that several things further than issues may possibly be objects on the list (Severin and Jr, 2001). The first and second level of agenda setting can be applied to the study of mass media of Muslim Brotherhood 56

57 group and Freedom and Justice Party. The first level of agenda setting relates to the categories of different issues that are discussed in these media such as political issues, economic issues, religious issues, social issues and criminal issues. The second level of agenda setting relates to the sub-topics of the different categories of news in the mass media of Muslim Brotherhood and Freedom and Justice Party. For example, the sub-topics of political category issues are parliamentary elections, presidential news, governmental news, political participation and political parties' news. Zucker recommended that the obtrusiveness of the topic may perhaps be a significant aspect in whether agenda setting have an effect or not (Severin and Jr, 2001). He argued that when the public has less direct experience or knowledge with a specified issue, they will depend on news media for getting information about this specified issue which leads to high effect of agenda setting (Severin and Jr, 2001). On the other hand, topics that individuals have direct experience with such as unemployment problem are obtrusive issues, and topics that individuals do not have direct experience such as pollution problem, are unobtrusive issues (Severin and Jr, 2001). In the unobtrusive issues people do not mainly depend on the media to get information about the issue, but they use their own experience to judge the issue, so that the agenda setting effect in the unobtrusive issues has little effect (Severin and Jr, 2001). According to McCombs and Evatt (1995), the studies of second level of agenda setting effect examine how the coverage of certain issues in mass media influences what issues the public thinks about and how they think about these issues (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). Essentially, this second level of agenda setting deals with the particular characteristics of an issue and how these features affect public opinion and attitudes (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). For instance, Benton and Frazier's 57

58 study one item of issue-agenda setting which is the economy; they search different characteristics such as the reasons of particular economic problems, future solutions, and the pro and con basis for economic strategies (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). The first level of agenda setting theory relates to conveying of item salience from the mass media agenda to the public agenda, on the other hand, the second level of agenda setting theory occupies two main hypotheses about attribute salience of the issue which are the following: 1- The method a topic or item is presented in the mass media (attributes highlighted in the media news) influences the manner that the audiences think about that item (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). 2- The method a topic or item is presented in the mass media (attributes highlighted in the media news) influences the salience of that item on the public agenda (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). Fundamentally, the first level of agenda setting relates to the way of selecting the specific news in the mass media and its effect on the public agenda (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). However, in the second level of agenda setting, the mass media agenda is regarded as highlighting particular characteristics or perspectives of issues (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). Agenda setting theory focuses on the significance of topics and problems; mainly it deals with the classification of topics; moreover, problems and evaluation deals with the formation of an opinions atmosphere (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). "Media coverage of issues in the media has been linked to public opinion where the salience of issues in the media agenda leads to the salience of issues in the public agenda; how the media cover an issue can have a cognitive influence on how the 58

59 public thinks about the issue" (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). This transform of the salience of characteristics is considered the center of the second level of agenda setting (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). The Agenda setting theory looks on the selection of story news as a determinant of people perceptions of topic significance, and indirectly throughout media priming and evaluations of political figures (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). The idea of agenda setting revitalized Lippmann's conception of how the mass media affect the determining of the pictures in public heads (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). McCombs and Shaw (1972) theorized that the topics highlighted in the news media affect the topics that the voters regard as important (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). On the other side, the news media agenda determine, to some level, the public agenda of the audiences (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). The way of determining what the public choose to watch and what to pay no attention for specific news relates to the idea of the perception that the public apply to view the political world (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). Agenda setting concept is definitely an extra expression of the reality function of the mass media (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). "The model using the agenda of issues is termed issue-agenda setting, whereas the model using the agenda of attributes of an issue or public figure is called attributeagenda setting" (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). Issue-agenda setting and attribute-agenda setting can be applied to the study of mass media of Muslim Brotherhood group and Freedom and Justice Party. The issue-agenda setting relates to the issues that are discussed in the media of Muslim Brotherhood group and Freedom and Justice Party such as political issues, religious issues, and economic issues. 59

60 Regarding the attribute-agenda setting, this can applied to the attributes that the mass media of Muslim Brotherhood group and Freedom and Justice Party. These mass media represent specific characteristics of their group members and political figures in their official media. The Muslim Brotherhood group and Freedom and Justice Party can apply the attribute-agenda setting to represent their ideology to the Egyptian public and improve their image in the society. McCombs (1994) identified the issue-agenda as the "first dimension" of the agenda setting theory; furthermore, the agenda of attributes as the "second dimension"(mccombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). Issue-agenda setting relates to the transference of issue/topic (object) salience; on the other hand, attribute-agenda setting implies transference of attribute salience from the mass media to the public audiences (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). "The study that fits the word attribute must be that identification candidate images by Weaver, Garber, McCombs and Eyal in 1981" (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). These researchers described a candidate images as a collection of perceived attribute that are different in their saliency (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). In any elections it is obvious that most of voters do not have direct contact with the presidential candidates, the image the voters have of a candidate will rely on how the mass media show the candidate (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). Weaver and his assistants examined this hypothesis in the 1976 U.S. presidential campaigns; they found some proof that the attribute agenda of the newspaper affected the agenda of the voters (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). 60

61 2- Media priming "Media priming concept is defined as the result of agenda setting theory, and its influence depends among other aspects on the strength of the priming event" (Valenzuela, 2009). Priming concept, is generally considered as an extension of agenda setting theory, promote that the audiences or the public use major media agendas as main criteria when they judge political issues, actions, and figures (Ha, 2011). Priming concept is described as the technique, used when mass media focus on some topics and ignore other issues; therefore, mass media can change the standards that the audiences apply to make an evaluation of political candidates and topics (Severin and Jr, 2001). "Audience members rely upon available considerations usually those emphasized by the news media to determine the criteria on which an opinion about a candidate, institution, or any other object of public attention is based" (Valenzuela, 2009). The mass media news have the ability to highlight certain topics, and make them salient among the individuals; therefore the mass media make those topics basically available in the viewer's memory while shaping opinions about essential social problems or issues and making selections on political performers (Ha, 2011). When the mass media present a particular issue more than other issues, this particular issue will be primed and this will make the public depend more on what they know about that issue to formulate political opinions (Valenzuela, 2009). One of the main effects of priming occurs when distinctive information is activated by the increasing exposure to news messages of the mass media (Ha, 2011). Moreover, attitudes about issue's significance and criteria of evaluation can be associated with diverse rational aspects, such as person's preexisting schemas and motivations (Ha, 2011). 61

62 Price and Tweksbury (1995) identified priming concept as the influence of the media's agenda on the public's agenda such as the evaluations of political figures (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). They define priming concept as "the tendency of audience members to evaluate their political leaders on the basis of those particular events and issues given more attention in news reports" (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). According to Krosnick and Brannon (1993), media priming research have found strong practical support for the priming hypothesis that the news coverage of television not only enhances audience cognizance of specific issues, but also influences the criteria of judgment of the political leaders or figures (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). Although the media priming concentrates on the cognitive and behavioral consequences of agenda setting concept, both approaches depend on topic salience as a main dependent variable (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). Perhaps due to this conceptual relationship, some scholars consider media priming concept as an extension of agenda setting; on the other hand, some researchers define agenda setting as " one particular variant of priming" (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). Fiske and Taylor described cognitive priming, "as the effects of prior context on the interpretation and retrieval of information, focuses on the effects of long term memory on the processing of new information" (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). Basically, priming is based on the hypothesis that the occurrence, prominence, or characteristic of a stimulus activates earlier educated cognitive structures and affects explanations of an indistinct stimulus (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). Simple illustration of the influence of priming concept on memory retrieval is found in the natural tendency to understand a specific expression in terms of the most new encounter with it (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). 62

63 For instance, the regular accessibility of an idea such as the foreign policy of the president will be more for audiences who have been exposed comprehensively to news coverage about this topic in the past (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). Therefore, "the temporary accessibility of a construct resulting from short term media priming effects has to be measured against the baseline of chronic accessibility which results from more long term media exposure to an issue" (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). An informative technique to think about the influences of priming concept is in terms of a hierarchal structured network of ideas, schemata, or characteristics that are related throughout associative pathways (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). The exposure to a specific stimulus with a certain meaning "primes" in the mass media, the audiences after some time start to use these "primes" in their judges of political figures or the main problems that are facing the country (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). Consequently, while individuals identify particular event through the mass media, ideas that have same meaning are activated in people minds for a short period subsequently, which could activate other semantically correlated beliefs or concepts (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). Priming has been illustrated to affect a diversity of opinions, including word or letter acknowledgment, retrieval of this word or letter in the memory, shaping of individual feelings, in addition to judgments of the satisfaction of life (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). Some priming studies showed that the mass media can also affect the subsequent behavior of individuals who formerly exposed to semantically linked ideas such as cooperation and assistance in the mass media (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). 63

64 Cognitive priming has shown as an extension to the theory of traditional agenda setting (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). Cognitive priming and traditional agenda setting are similar in concentrating on the significance of both the media agenda and semantic content of the media in affecting political communication (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). Iyengar and Kinder (1987) were the earliest scholars to show the effects of television news in increasing the perceived salience of topics that have more coverage in the news. They found that the "primes" of mass media affect the audiences' evaluation of political candidate's performance and political parties (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). There were a number of experiments planned to present manipulated news content for people, these experiments proved that the influence of high media exposure to general problems like energy problem, defense, and inflation, significantly enhanced the respondents' evaluation of President Carter (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). Iyengar and Kinder (1987) argued that when common people face complex political topic or event, they do comprehensive analysis that is based on information they may have learned from the mass media (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). Moreover, it is supposed that a lot of people formulate judgment or opinion based on the knowledge they could simply repossess from their mind (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). According to priming concept, the mass media not only influence the apparent salience of topics, but also affect the level to which topics are used as criteria to evaluate political figures (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). One of the main achievements of applying the priming concept to agenda setting theory has been that it presented a reasonable, hypothetical model of how the mass media can affect audiences' perception of the significance of topics, and how these perceptions in sequence, might influence political attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors 64

65 (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). Price and Tewksbury (1995) believed that agenda setting and priming rely on the similar "cognitive mechanism," which illustrates topic salience because of augmented accessibility of mental constructs in the long term memory owing to media exposure (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). They concluded that "agenda setting commonly thought to be a kind of basic media effect upon which priming depends is actually but one particular variant of priming, which is itself a far more general effect" (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). The analysis of agenda setting and priming support the idea that the mass media coverage of diverse issues or events can have interactive impact on issue salience (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). Priming clarifies the structure and consequences of issue salience in terms of impermanent information accessibility (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). For instance, if a person is primed with media coverage about foreign policy of President Clinton's, only the coverage weight of that topic should increase in public's evaluation of the president (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). The news about Clinton's foreign policy creates a prime for public to think of semantically linked topics such as example domestic policy or national defense. Consequently, affecting the weight of ideas that are not clearly implicated by the news coverage (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). News coverage of political campaigns in the mass media is able to prime people to consider specific character or personality traits, for example proficiency or honesty in their judgment of political candidates (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). Iyengar and Kinder (1987) investigated the effect of media coverage on priming through a comparison between news topics that did or did not highlight the president's accountability for national problems (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). As 65

66 anticipated, the scholars proved that the priming effect was more distinct for those news topics that included clear indications about the president's accountability for a country problem (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). The assumption of media priming concept is based on the hypothesis that both of "issue salience and the semantic content" of news topics cause the activation of prime linked information (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). Furthermore, the news story's tone whether (positive, negative, or neutral) is able to affect the kind of prime linked concepts that come to mind because of media exposure to particular topics (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). In the election campaign, this might represent that negative news coverage not only primes public to regard certain topics as more essential while evaluating a political candidate, but also makes the public feel more negative about this candidate because of negative feelings activated by negative coverage in the mass media (McCombs, Shaw and Weaver, 1997). 66

67 Chapter 5: Methodology Based on the information, mentioned above, about the historical background of Muslim Brotherhood group and Freedom and Justice Party, both of them have the same ideologies. Muslim Brotherhood group aims to achieve political, social and economic developments from a comprehensive Islamic perspective. The Freedom and Justice Party is a political wing of Muslim Brotherhood group and it is based on the religious and political ideologies of the group. However, Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt is an unofficial group; however, Freedom and Justice Party is one of the official political parties in Egypt. Ultimately, the Muslim Brotherhood group claims that it is a preaching group that aims to reform and develop the Egyptian society in different fields such as political, economic, religious and social issues. Furthermore, Muslim Brotherhood group uses Freedom and Justice Party as a method of political reforming and development of the Egyptian society. So, there should be a distinction between the official media outlets of Muslim Brotherhood group and Freedom and Justice Party in this research. The examination of the mass media of Muslim Brotherhood group will show the group's ideology and vision in different categories such as political, economic and religious; moreover, studying the mass media of Freedom and Justice Party individually will demonstrate in-depth information about the group's political ideology and vision. 67

68 1- Research questions and hypotheses RQ1: How does Muslim Brotherhood group use its official media outlets to represent their ideology and vision to the Egyptian public? RQ2: How does the Freedom and Justice Party use its official media outlet to display the party's political ideology to the Egyptian public? H1: The media content of official media of the Freedom and Justice Party concentrate on political issues more than the official media outlets of Muslim Brotherhood group. H2: The Islamic official media outlets of Muslim Brotherhood group and Freedom and Justice Party cover local, regional, and international news issues. H3: The Islamic official media outlets of Muslim Brotherhood group and Freedom and Justice Party have little coverage of liberal political parties. H4: The Islamic official media outlets of Muslim Brotherhood group and Freedom and Justice Party have little coverage of art, sport and woman issues. 68

69 2- The research questions and hypotheses with operational definitions: RQ1: How does Muslim Brotherhood group use its official media outlets to represent their ideology and vision to the Egyptian public? Independent variable: the usage of Muslim Brotherhood of its official media outlets. Operational definition: the usage of Muslim Brotherhood of its official media will be measured according to three categories that have news about Muslim Brotherhood which are social category, religious category and political category. Level of measurement: Nominal Dependent variable: the representation of Muslim Brotherhood's ideology and vision to the Egyptian public. Operational definition: the representation of Muslim Brotherhood's ideology and vision to the Egyptian public will be measured according to 12 categories which are economic, social, religious, political, criminal, sports, arts and culture, health, media, education, women and other (the category that have issues that don t fit the previous categories) Level of measurement: Nominal RQ2: How does the Freedom and Justice Party use its official media outlet to display the party's political ideology to the Egyptian public? Independent variable: the usage of Freedom and Justice Party of its official media outlet. 69

70 Operational definition: the usage of Freedom and Justice party of its official media will measured according to one category that have news about Freedom and Justice party which is political category with its sub-topics. Level of measurement: Nominal Dependent variable: the displaying of Freedom and Justice Party's ideology to the Egyptian public. Operational definition: the displaying of Freedom and Justice party's ideology to the Egyptian public will be measured according to 12 categories which are economic, social, religious, political, criminal, sports, arts and culture, health, media, education, women and other (the category that have issues that don t fit the previous categories) Level of measurement: Nominal H1: The media content of official media of the Freedom and Justice Party concentrate on political issues more than the official media outlets of Muslim Brotherhood group. Independent variable: the coverage of political issues in the Muslim Brotherhood group official media. Operational definition: the coverage of political issues in the Muslim Brotherhood group official media will be measured according to one category which is political with its sub-topics. Level of measurement: Nominal Dependent variable: coverage of political issues in Freedom and Justice party official media outlets. 70

71 Operational definition: the coverage of political issues in Freedom and Justice party official media will be measured according to the one category which is political category with its sub-topics. Level of measurement: Nominal H2: The Islamic official media outlets of Muslim Brotherhood group and Freedom and Justice Party cover local, regional, and international news issues. Independent variable: the religious media content of official media outlets of Freedom and Justice Party and Muslim Brotherhood group. Operational definition: the religious media content of Freedom and Justice Party and Muslim Brotherhood group official media will be measured according to one category which is religious category with its sub-topics Level of measurement: Nominal Dependent variable: representation of local, regional and international news. Operational definition: the representation of local, regional and international news will be measured according to 6 categories which are economic, social, criminal, health, media, education and other (the category that have issues that don t fit the previous categories). Level of measurement: Nominal H3: The Islamic official media outlets of Muslim Brotherhood group and Freedom and Justice Party have little coverage of liberal political parties. Independent variable: the religious ideology of Muslim Brotherhood group and Freedom and Justice Party. 71

72 Operational definition: the religious ideology of Muslim Brotherhood group and Freedom and Justice Party will be measured according to one category which is religious category with its sub-topics. Level of measurement: Nominal Dependent variable: the representation of liberal political parties Operational definition: the representation of the visions of liberal parties will be measured according to one category which is political category with its sub-topics. Level of measurement: Nominal H4: The Islamic official media outlets of Muslim Brotherhood group and Freedom and Justice Party have little coverage of art, sport and woman issues. Independent variable: the religious ideology of Muslim Brotherhood group and Freedom and Justice Party. Operational definition: the religious ideology of Muslim Brotherhood group and Freedom and Justice Party will be measured according to one category which is religious category with its sub-topics. Level of measurement: Nominal Dependent variable: the coverage of art, sport and woman issues in the official media outlets of Freedom and Justice Party and Muslim Brotherhood. Operational definition: the coverage of art, sport and woman issues in the official media outlets of Freedom and Justice Party and Muslim Brotherhood will be measured according to three categories with their sub-topics which are sport, art and woman. Level of measurement: Nominal 72

73 3- Content Analysis: Kerlinger's (2000) definition of content analysis is "it is a method of studying and analyzing communication in a systematic, objective, and quantitative manner for the purpose of measuring variables" (Wimmer and Dominick, 2009). The content analysis is appropriate for this study because it gives the chance to describe the communication content of the Muslim Brotherhood and Freedom and Justice party media outlets, and to test the characteristics of the message of these media, furthermore, to examine the main issues that are highlighted in these official media more than other issues. Universe of the study As mentioned above in the literature review, the Muslim Brotherhood group and Freedom and Justice Party have about 13 official media, some of them are only about the news of the group and the party such as the Internet website of FJ Party; it is about the news and activities of the party. On the other hand, Muslim Brotherhood group and Freedom Justice Party have a news-oriented media such as Misr 25 channel and Freedom and Justice Newspaper. This research focus on the news-oriented media of MB group and FJ party in order to analyze the specific topics that they highlight and other issues that they ignore. 1- Two media outlets for Muslim Brotherhood group which are: a) Misr 25 television satellite channel because it is news-oriented and it is the only television channel of Muslim Brotherhood group, and it is common that television reach more audiences comparing to other media, especially the illiterate people so that it is important to examine its content. 73

74 b) The news online website Ikhwanonline because it is a news-oriented website in Arabic language which can reach more audiences; furthermore, as the news Internet website has a popularity now as mentioned above in the literature review, it is important to analyze the content of this Internet website. 2- One media outlet for Freedom and Justice Political Party: - Freedom and Justice Daily Newspaper because it is news-oriented and it is the only newspaper of Freedom and Justice Party; moreover, other media of the party such as social media accounts and party's Internet website are about the activities, goals and visions of the party. Sample of the study The sample of this study is non-probability sampling which is a purposive sample. The purposive sample means including of respondents, issues, or elements chosen for particular characteristics or qualities and eliminate other respondents or elements that fail to meet the measures of the purpose of the study (Wimmer and Dominick, 2009). According to Riffe and Freitsg (1997), there is a popularity of using a purposive sampling method in the content analysis; they found that 68% of content analysis of Journalism Quarterly from 1971 to 1995 used a purposive sampling method (Wimmer and Dominick, 2009). The purposive sample is suitable for the purpose of this study because it has specific categories that have certain topics with particular sub-topics. "According to Riffe (2005), two constructed weeks are sufficient for representing a year s worth of news coverage" (el-masry, 2012). The sampling period of this study is one composite week as the following: 74

75 1. Wednesday March 6, Thursday March 7, Friday March 8, Saturday March 9, Sunday March 10, Monday March 11, Tuesday March 12, 2013 This study consists of analyzing 7 issues of Freedom and Justice daily newspaper at the days of composite week which are chosen randomly. Moreover, 7 days of Ikhwanonline website which chosen randomly at the days of composite week. A total of 63 hours of 18 television programs and talk shows of Misr 25 television channel were chosen randomly at the days of the composite week. The unit of analysis and the operational definition The unit of analysis of this content analysis study is the topic. All the topics and sub-topics of the categories that are discussed in Freedom and Justice Newspaper, Misr 25 television channel and Ikhwanonline website in the sampling period. Categories of content analysis In first level agenda setting research, the objects have been issues; however, the second level of agenda setting means that an agenda is a theoretical idea and several things other than issues can be objects on the list (Severin and Jr, 2001). For example, in a election campaign, taking an issue such as economics and categorize a number of sub-issues or categories under that main issue such as balancing the country budget, reducing state dept and restructuring income tax (Severin and Jr, 2001). 75

76 In order to examine the Muslim Brotherhood and Freedom and Justice party official media, topics were coded into 12 categories. These 12 categories represent the major issues (first level of agenda setting), the attribute are the sub-issues of the major issues (second level of agenda setting). As the priming theory mainly relate to the salience of certain issues more than others, it can be applied to this study of the official media outlets of Freedom and Justice party and Muslim Brotherhood group through the salience of the sub-issues of the 12 main categories. 1- Economic issues: This category is about the main economic issues and problems in Egypt such as taxes, rise of food prices/ inflation, maximum / minimum salaries, economic growth, poverty, investment, unemployment, Egyptian national dept, economic national projects, Islamic Sukuk and other issues like tourism and stock market. 2- Social issues: This category is about the main social issues in Egypt such as labor rights, Muslim brotherhood social campaigns, charity campaigns, worker's strikes, citizens issues (rights/ obligations), religious rights and other issues like social problems and social campaigns. 3- Religious issues: This category is about the religious issues in Egypt such as religious preaches, national unity, sectarian tension, Islamic concepts (rights and obligations of Muslim person/ relationship between Muslims and non-muslims) and other issues like religious events. 76

77 4- Political issues: This category is about the major political issues and problems in Egypt such as parliamentary elections, Shura council news/decisions, Presidential meetings/ speeches/ visits/ decisions/ communications, news of Muslim Brotherhood group, electoral campaigns of FJ party and MB group, news of Freedom and Justice party, governmental news/ decisions/ problems, news of Egyptian Islamic political parties, political participation, oppositions criticism / arrests, news of National Salvation Front, protesters' killing, demonstrations/ strikes, Egyptian military news and other issues like Egyptian foreign relations. 5- Criminal issues: This category is about the main criminal problems and issues in Egypt such as police violence and protesters, news of Ministry of Internal Affairs, thefts (cars/ houses/ personal belongs), murders, terrorism actions, trials (common people/ the previous regime of Mubarak) and other issues like accidents and fires. 6- Sports issues: This category is about the main sports issues in Egypt such as matches, sports activities (national team/clubs' teams), sports championships, news of sports players, ultras news and other issues like media sports. 7- Arts and culture issues: This category is about the main art issues in Egypt such as Arts and culture news, celebrity interviews (actors/ actresses/ singers/ writers/ directors/ artistes), art festivals, archeology news, drama/theater news, cinema news, galleries and concerts and other issues like songs. 77

78 8- Women issues: This category is about the main women issues and problems in Egypt such as women in Islam (rights and obligations), women rights (right of working, rights of political participation and rights of participating in demonstrations), women and Egyptian constitution, women issues (marriage and divorce laws), harassment of women in demonstrations and other issues like women problems. 9- Health issues: This category is about health issues and problems in Egypt such as diseases, health care, medicines, hospitals news/problems and other issues like health insurance problems. 10- Media issues: This category is about the media issues in Egypt: for example, media in Egypt such as censorship, freedom of expression, media laws, regulations and rules, media social responsibility, journalists rights/arrests, suspension of newspapers or programs, criticism of talk shows' presenters and other issues such as state television. 11- Education issues: This category is about the educational issues and problems in Egypt such as education quality, schools education news/problems (private tuition/ teachers training), higher education and other issues such as the exams schedules. 12- Other: Any topic that doesn't fit the previous categories A. Science and technology news. It is about the news of new inventions and new technology applications in Egypt and other countries in the 78

79 whole world, and it does not fit the education category because it contains only the issues and problems of educational system in Egypt. B. The crisis of pipeline of gas. It does not fit the previous categories because it has two reasons which are economic reason and black market C. Shortage of gas. It does not fit the previous categories because it has economic reason and social reason which is black market. D. Garbage collection. It does not fit the previous 11 categories and it has economic reason and social reason. E. International news (Western countries). It does not fit the previous categories because it is about news of Western countries, and it does not fit the media category because it focuses on media issues in Egypt. F. Regional news (Arab countries). It does not fit the previous categories because it is about news of Arab countries, and it does not fit the political category because it concentrates on political issues and problems in Egypt. G. Traffic problems. It does not fit the previous 11 categories because it has social reason and the other reason is the police of traffic does not do their jobs well. H. Electricity issues. It does not fit the previous categories because it has economic reason and social reason which rationalization of consumption. I. Bread problems. It does not fit the previous categories because it has economic reason and social reason which is black market. 79

80 Inter-coder Reliability In order to be an unbiased research 10% of this study is coded by second coder with the researcher. The second coder is fluent in Arabic and English and was trained by the researcher to make sure that the second coder understands all the details of coding sheet and code book of this research. The coding sheet and code book of this research were updated after a pilot study of subsample of the three networks Misr 25, Ikhwanonline and Freedom and Justice Newspaper. The pilot study was done by the researcher and second trained coder to reach the maximum detail of every category of the study. Holsti (1969) describes this formula for calculating the reliability of nominal statistics in terms of level of agreement: Reliability = 2M / N1 + N2. (Wimmer and Dominick, 2009). M= the total number of coding decision that the coders agreed upon. N= the total number of coding decision of the sample that are studied by the coders. (Wimmer and Dominick, 2009). To calculate the inter coder reliability of this study using Holsti formula, in this study M= 189, N= 194. Reliability= 2(189) / = 378 / 388= 0.97 The inter coder reliability of this research is R = 0.97 or 97%, which is very high percentage 80

81 Chapter 6: Results v The tables and figures of this study are done by using SPSS program ý Media content of official media of Muslim Brotherhood and Freedom and Justice: Figure 1 Media content of Misr 25 Television Channel The figure 1 illustrates the media content of the television channel Misr 25 that owned by Muslim Brotherhood group. The media content of Misr 25 consists of

82 % of political news. However, 13.4 % is criminal news. The miscellaneous category news represents 13 % of the media content of Misr 25. Moreover, 10.9 % are religious topics. Also, the economic content of Misr 25 is counted as 7.8 %. Furthermore, the amount of social issues of Misr 25 channel is 5.3 %. In addition, media news and topics are measured by 4.9 %. Whereas, only 4.7 % of Misr 25 content is news about arts and culture. The news of sports is 4.4 %. Moreover, the topics of women have little percentage which is 2.3 %. Also, the Misr 25 has little amount of education issues which is 1.7 % education news. Only 1.4 % of the Misr 25 channel content is about health issues. 82

83 Figure 2 Media content of Ikhwanonline Website Figure 2 demonstrates the media content of the Arabic internet news website Ikhwanonline which is owned by Muslim Brotherhood group. It is noticeable in the figure that the political topics in Ikhwanonline website have a high percentage which is 39.3 %. Moreover, the miscellaneous category news has also high percentage which is 15.8 %. The religious issues do not have high percentage which is 7.9 %. Whereas, the percentage of criminal topics in Ikhwanonline counted as 7.7 %. Ikhwanonline do not have high amount of economic news which is measured as 6.2 %. Furthermore, the sports issues are only 4.7 % of its content. 4.3 % of Ikhwanonline content is about news of arts and culture. In addition, the education topics are counted as 4.3 % of Ikhwanonline content. It is clear in figure 2 that the women issues do not have high 83

84 percentage which is 4.1 %. The social issues in Ikhwanonline website are 3.6 %. Followed by 1.3 % are about health news. Furthermore, the news or issues of media have very low percentage which is 0.9 % of Ikhwanonline content. 84

85 Figure 3 Media content of Freedom and Justice Newspaper Figure 3 shows the media content of Freedom and Justice (FJ) Newspaper which is owned by Freedom and Justice Party (FJ party). As the Freedom and Justice Newspaper is the mouthpiece FJ party it is obvious that the political news in this newspaper have high percentage which is 32 %. Moreover, the miscellaneous category news is counted as 15.2 %. Followed by 9.3 % is criminal news. Sports news has somehow a larger percentage which measured as 8.5 %. In addition, 7.3 % of FJ newspaper content is about economic issues. The social topics are counted as only 5.1 %. Whereas, the news of arts and culture is measured as 4.9 %. Also, the health issues in FJ newspaper are counted as 4.9 %. The education issues are 4.7 % of FJ 85

86 newspaper. Additionally, 3.3 % of FJ newspaper content is news of media. On the other hand, the religious topics do not have high percentage in FJ newspaper because it counted only as 3.3 %. It is observable in figure 3 that women issues have little coverage in because only 1.6 % of the newspaper content is women news. This percentage proves that the FJ Party applies Al-Banna ideology regarding woman issue which is the main workplace of woman is her house and its main duty is raising up her children. 86

87 ý Research Question #1 RQ1: How does Muslim Brotherhood Group use its official media outlets to represent their ideology and vision to the Egyptian public? Table 1 Political media content of Misr 25 television channel Frequency Percentage Parliamentary elections Shura Council news Presidential news News of Muslim Brotherhood News of F&J party Governmental news News of Islamic political parties Oppositions news News of National Salvation Front Protesters killing Demonstrations/strikes Egyptian military news Other Total Table 1 indicates the political content of Misr 25 television channel. 20 % of political content of Misr 25 are news of government. Moreover, 12.5 % are presidential news. In addition 9.8 % of political content of the channel are news of Freedom and Justice Party. Whereas, the news of Islamic political parties is counted as 8.6 %. News of Muslim Brotherhood group composed 8.2 % of political content of Misr 25. Furthermore, 7.8 % are news of National Salvation Front. Followed by 7.5 % are news of demonstrations and strikes. Whereas, 5.5 % of political content of Misr 25 is news of Egyptian military. The news of parliamentary elections composed 5.1 % of political content of the channel. The coverage of oppositions is counted as 5.1 %. 87

88 Followed by 4.7 % are about Shura council news. The other political issues are counted as only 2.7 % of political content of Misr 25. The news of protesters murder has little coverage which is counted as 2.4 %. Table 2 Political media content of Ikwanonline website Frequency Percentage Parliamentary elections Shura Council news Presidential news Muslim Brotherhood news Electoral campaigns of MB 1.5 and F&J News of F&J party Governmental news news of Islamic political parties Oppositions news News of National Salvation Front Protesters killing Demonstrations/strikes Egyptian military news Other Total Table 2 demonstrates the political content of Ikhwanonline website. 20 % of political content of the website are news of Freedom and Justice Party. Moreover, 19.5 % are news of government. The news of Muslim Brotherhood group is counted as 19.5 % of the political content of Ikwanonline. The presidential news is composed 10.3 % of the political content of the website. 5.9 % are news of Islamic political parties. Whereas, the news of Shura council is counted as 4.9 %. Furthermore, the 88

89 other political issues are counted as 4.9 %. Followed by 4.3 % are news of demonstrations and strikes. On the other hand, the news of Egyptian military is 3.2 % of the political content of the website. The news of parliamentary elections measured as 2.7 % of the political content of the website. 2.2 % of Ikwanonline website is about opposition's news. Only 1.1 % is news of National Salvation Front. Followed by 1.1 % is news of protesters murder. On the other hand, 0.5 % of political content of Ikhwanonline are news of electoral campaigns of Muslim Brotherhood and Freedom and Justice political party. 89

90 Figure 4 Religious media content of Misr 25 television channel Figure 4 indicates the religious media content of Misr 25 television channel. It is noticeable that religious preaches have high percentage of the religious content of Misr 25 which is 51.6 %. Religious preaches is about encouraging the Muslims to develop their life and society and to do the right and avoid the evil actions, also it is a kind of call for charity and good, promotion of virtue and prevention of the vice. Moreover, 39.6 % of the religious content of Misr 25 is about Islamic concepts and rules such as rights and obligations of Muslim people and the relationship between Muslims and non-muslims, moreover, it is explaining of the main rules of Islam. Only 90

91 6.6 % of religious content of the channel are issues of national unity. Also, 2.2 % of religious content of Misr 25 are other religious issues. No news about sectarian tension. Figure 5 Religious media content of Ikhwanonline website Figure 5 shows the religious media content of Ikhwanonline website. Religious preaches have very high percentage of the religious content of the website which is 67.6 %. Religious preaches is about encouraging the Muslims to develop their life and society and to do the right and avoid the evil actions, also it is a kind of call for 91

92 charity and good, promotion of virtue and prevention of the vice. Moreover, 24.3 % of the religious content of the website are about Islamic concepts and rules such as rights and obligations of Muslim people and the relationship between Muslims and non- Muslims. 5.4 % are about other religious topics. On the other hand, only 2.7 % of religious content of the website are about national unity. No news about sectarian tension. Table 3 Economic content of Misr 25 television channel Frequency Percentage Taxes Inflation Maximum/minimum salaries Economic growth Investment Unemployment Economic national projects Islamic Sukuk Other Total Table 3 explains the economic content of Misr 25 television channel % of the economic content of Misr 25 is about economic growth. Furthermore, 15.4 % are about investment. Whereas, 15.4 % is news about other issues of economy. Economic national projects composed about 12.3 % of the economic content of Misr 25. On the other hand, the news of taxes counted as 10.8 %. The unemployment problem does not have high coverage which is 7.7 %. Also, the problem of inflation has only 6.2 % of the economic content of Misr % of the economic content of the channel are 92

93 about the maximum and minimum salaries. In addition, the coverage of Islamic Sukuk counted as 3.1 %. Table 4 Economic content of Ikhwanonline website Frequency Percentage Taxes Inflation Maximum/minimum salaries Economic growth Investment Economic national projects Islamic Sukuk Other Total Table 4 demonstrates the economic content of Ikhwanonline website. The economic content of the website has about 27.6 % news of economic growth. Followed by 24.1 % are about other issues of Egyptian economy. Moreover, 13.8 % are about Islamic Sukuk. The website coverage of the economic national projects is counted as 10.3 %. Only 6.9 % are about the problem of inflation. Whereas, the website coverage of maximum and minimum salaries is 6.9 %. Furthermore, 6.9 % of Ikhwanonline coverage is about investment. However, only 3.4 % of the economic content of the website are about taxes. 93

94 Table 5 Social issues of official media of Muslim Brotherhood group Frequency Percentage Labor rights MB social campaigns Charity campaigns Worker's strikes Citizen's issues Other Total Table 5 indicates the social news of official Muslim Brotherhood group (Misr 25 and Ikhwanonline). The news of citizens issues are 31.1 %. Moreover, 21.3 % are news of Muslim Brotherhood social campaigns. Also, 14.8 % of the social issues of the media of MB are news of labor rights. Whereas, 14.8 % is news of workers strikes. Furthermore, the news about charity campaigns is counted as 11.5 %. The other social issues of the media of MB group counted as 6.6 % other. Table 6 Criminal news of official media of Muslim Brotherhood group Frequency Percentage Police violence and protesters News of Ministry of Internal Affairs Thefts Murders Terrorism actions Trials Other Total

95 Table 6 illustrates the criminal news of official media of Muslim Brotherhood group (Misr 25 and Ikhwanonline) % are news of Ministry of Internal Affairs. Moreover, 18.9 % of media MB coverage is about news of trials. Also, 8.1 % are news of police violence and protesters. On the other hand, 4.1 % of the coverage of MB media is about thefts. Furthermore, 3.4 % are about other criminal issues. 2.7 % of the criminal issues of MB media are news about murders. But, only 1.4 % is news of terrorism actions. Table 7 Health news of official media of Muslim Brotherhood group Frequency Percentage Diseases Health care Medicines Hospitals news/problems Other Total Table 7 shows the health news of official media of Muslim Brotherhood (Misr 25 and Ikhwanonline) % are about hospitals news and problems. Moreover, the news of health care counted as 23.5 %. Also, 23.5 % of the health news of the media of MB is about news of medicines. Whereas, 5.9 % is news of diseases. Also, 5.9 % of the health news of MB media is about other health issues. 95

96 Table 8 Media news of Muslim Brotherhood media Media in Egypt censorship/freedom of expression Frequency Percentage Media laws/regulations/rules Media social responsibility Journalist's rights/arrests Criticism of talk shows presenters Total Table 8 explains the media news of Muslim Brotherhood group (Misr 25 and Ikhwanonline). It is noticeable in the table 8 that 47.7 % of the media news of MB media is about criticism of talk shows presenters. Moreover, 27.3 % are news of media laws and regulations and rules. Followed by 11.4 % is news of media social responsibility. The news of journalists' rights and arrests do not have high coverage which is 9.1 %. However, 4.5 % are news of censorship and freedom of expression. Table 9 Education news of official media of Muslim Brotherhood group Frequency Percentage Education quality Schools education news/problems Higher education Other Total Table 9 indicates the education news of official media of Muslim Brotherhood group (Misr 25 and Ikhwanonline). News of higher education has the high coverage 96

97 which is 64.7 %. Followed by 17.6 % are about schools' education news and problems. Also, 11.8 % are news of education quality. Whereas, 5.9 % is news of other issues of education. Table 10 Miscellaneous category of Muslim Brotherhood media Frequency Percentage Science and Technology news Crisis of pipeline of gas Shortage of gas International news (Western countries) Regional news (Arab countries) Traffic problems Electricity issues Bread problems Total Table 10 shows the miscellaneous category of Muslim Brotherhood media (Misr 25 and Ikhwanonline). It is clear in the table 10 that Arab countries news have high coverage which is 49.2 %. Followed by 20.7 % is international news. Followed by 12.3 % is news of the problem of shortage of gas. Moreover, 10.6 % the MB group is about news of bread problems. Whereas, 2.8 % is science and technology news. Only 1.7 % is news of crisis of pipeline of gas. However, 1.7 % is electricity issues. Followed by only 1.1 % is news of traffic problems. 97

98 Figure 6 Sports news of official media of Muslim Brotherhood group Figure 6 shows the sports news of official media of Muslim Brotherhood group (Misr 25 and Ikhwanonline). Approximately, 32.8 % are news of sports activities. Followed by 27.6 % is news of sports championships. Moreover, about 15.5 % of the sports news of MB media is about news of ultras. Also, 13.8 % are news of sports players. On the other hand, 10.3 % are news of other sports issues. 98

99 Figure 7 Art news of Muslim Brotherhood group media Figure 7 represents the art and culture news of Muslim Brotherhood group media (Misr 25 and Ikhwanonline). It is obvious in table 7 that 45.8 % are news of other arts and culture news. Followed by 16.9 % are arts and culture news. Moreover, 8.5 % of the art and culture news of MB media are about the archeology news. However, 8.5 % are cinema news in MB media. Also, 8.5 % are news of galleries and concerts. 6.8 % of the arts and culture news of MB media are about drama and theater news. Only 5.1 % are about celebrity interviews. 99

100 Figure 8 Women issues in the official media of Muslim Brotherhood group Figure 8 represents the women issues of the official media of Muslim Brotherhood (Misr 25 and Ikhwanonline). Mainly the coverage of women issues in MB media are about women rights which is 35.9 %. Whereas, 35.9 % is news of women issues such as marriage or divorce. Followed by 15.4 % is news of women in Islam. Only, 10.3 % are about women and Egyptian constitution. Furthermore, 2.6 % are news of other issues of women. No news about harassment of women in demonstration. 100

101 ý Research Question# 2 RQ2: How does the Freedom and Justice Party use its official media outlet to display the party's political ideology to the Egyptian public? Table 11 Political media content of Freedom & Justice Newspaper Frequency Percentage Parliamentary elections Shura Council news Presidential news News of Muslim Brotherhood Electoral campaigns of F&J and MB News of F&J party Governmental news News of Islamic political parties Oppositions news News of National Salvation Front Protesters killing Demonstrations/strikes Egyptian military news Other Total Table 11 illustrates the political content of Freedom and Justice Newspaper. It is obvious in table 11 that the newspaper has high coverage of government which is counted as 20.4 %. Followed by 16.3 % is news of Muslim Brotherhood group. Moreover, 12.8 % are news of Freedom and Justice Party. Furthermore, the coverage news of parliamentary elections is counted as 8.2 %. Followed by 7.1 % is presidential news. The coverage of Shura council in FJ newspaper is counted as 6.6 % Also, 6.6 % are other political issues. Moreover, 5.6 % are news of Islamic political 101

102 parties. Followed by 4.1 % is news of National Salvation Front. The coverage of Egyptian military news in FJ newspaper is counted as 3.6 %. Whereas, 3.6 % is oppositions news. 3.1 % of FJ newspaper is news of demonstrations and strikes. Only 1 % is news of electoral campaigns of Muslim Brotherhood and Freedom and Justice Party. Also, 1 % of FJ newspaper is news of protesters murder. Figure 9 Religious media content of Freedom & Justice Newspaper Figure 9 explains the religious media content of Freedom and Justice Newspaper. Religious preaches have very high coverage in FJ newspaper which is counted as 85.7 %. Religious preaches is about encouraging the Muslims to develop their life and society and to do the right and avoid the evil actions, also it is a kind of call for 102

103 charity and good, promotion of virtue and prevention of the vice. Followed by 14.3 % are about Islamic concepts and rules such as rights and obligations of Muslim people and the relationship between Muslims and non-muslims, moreover, it is explaining of the main rules of Islam. No news about national unity and sectarian tension. Table 12 Economic content of Freedom & Justice Newspaper Frequency Percentage Taxes Maximum/minimum salaries Economic growth Poverty Investment Unemployment Economic national projects Islamic Sukuk Other Total Table 12 presents the economic content of Freedom and Justice Newspaper. The economic content of FJ newspaper has about 32.6 % news of economic national projects. Followed by 25.6 % is news of investment. Moreover, only 11.6 % are news taxes in FJ newspaper. On the other hand, 7 % of economic content of FJ newspaper are about economic growth. Also, 7 % are news of Islamic Sukuk. Whereas, 4.7 % is news of maximum and minimum salaries in FJ newspaper. Only 4.7 % are news of the economic problem of unemployment. Also, 4.7 % are news of other issues of Egyptian economy. The FJ newspaper coverage of the economic problem poverty is low which counted as 2.3 %. 103

104 Table 13 Social issues of Freedom & Justice Newspaper Frequency Percentage Labor rights MB social campaigns Charity campaigns Worker's strikes Citizen's issues Other Total Table 13 demonstrates the social news of Freedom and Justice Newspaper % of the social news of FJ newspaper is news about workers strikes. Followed by 16.1 % is news of charity campaigns. Also, 16.1 % are news of citizens' issues. Followed by 12.9 % is news of Muslim Brotherhood social campaigns. Furthermore, 9.7 % are news of news of labor rights. Only 6.5 % of the social issues of FJ newspaper are about other social topics. Table 14 Criminal news of Freedom & Justice Newspaper Frequency Percentage Police violence and protesters News of Ministry of Internal Affairs Terrorism actions Trials Other Total Table 14 shows the criminal news of Freedom and Justice Newspaper. About 45.6 % are news of Ministry of Internal Affairs. Whereas, 40.4 % of criminal news of 104

105 FJ newspaper is news of trials. Followed by 10.5 % are news police violence and protesters. Only 1.8 % is news of terrorism actions. Also, 1.8 % of the criminal news of FJ newspaper is about other criminal topics. Table 15 Health news of Freedom & Justice Newspaper Frequency Percentage Diseases Health care Medicines Hospitals news/problems Other Total Table 15 indicates the health news of Freedom and Justice Newspaper. Approximately, 36.7 % of the heath news of FJ newspaper is news about health care. Followed by 33.3 % are hospitals news and problems. Moreover, 20 % are news of diseases. Also, 6.7 % of health news of FJ newspaper is news of medicines. Only 3.3 % are news of other health issues. Table 16 Media news of Freedom & Justice Newspaper Media in Egypt censorship/freedom of expression Frequency Percentage Media Laws/regulations/rules Media social responsibility Journalists rights/arrests Criticism of talk shows presenters

106 Other Total Table 16 explains the media news of Freedom and Justice Newspaper. The news media laws and regulations and rules have high coverage in FJ newspaper which is 36.4 %. Followed by 31.8 % is criticism of talk shows in other television channels. Furthermore, 13.6 % are news of censorship and freedom of expression. Also, 9.1 % of the media news of FJ newspaper is about other media issues. About 4.5 % are news of media social responsibility. Only 4.5 % are news of journalists' rights and arrests. Table 17 Education news of Freedom & Justice Newspaper Frequency Percentage Education quality Schools education news/problems Higher education Other Total Table 17 shows the education news of Freedom and Justice Newspaper. It is clear in table 17 that higher education news has a high coverage in FJ newspaper which is 41.4 %. Followed by 27.6 % are schools education news and problems. Also, 17.2 % are news of education quality in Egypt. Only 13.8 % are other news of education. 106

107 Table 18 Miscellaneous category of Freedom & Justice Newspaper Frequency Percentage Science and technology news Crisis of Pipeline of gas Shortage of gas Garbage collection International news (Western countries) Regional countries (Arab countries) Electricity issues Bread problems Total Table 18 represents the miscellaneous category of Freedom and Justice Newspaper. About 26.9 % are news of science and technology. Followed by 20.4 % is international news. Also, 20.4 % are Arab countries news. Whereas, 12.9 % is news of the problem of shortage of gas % are news of bread problems in Egypt. On the other hand, 4.3 % are news of the crisis of pipeline of gas. Moreover, 3.2 % are news of the problem of garbage collection. Only 1.1 % is news of electricity issues and problems. 107

108 Figure 10 Sports news of Freedom & Justice Newspaper Figure 10 illustrates the sports news of Freedom and Justice Newspaper % are news of sports championships whether club's teams or Egyptian national team. Followed by 40.4 % is news of sports activities. In addition 11.5 % are news of sports players. The ultras news coverage in FJ newspaper is counted as 3.8 %. Only 1.9 % is news of other sports issues. 108

109 Figure 11 Art news of Freedom & Justice Newspaper Figure 11 represents the art and culture news of Freedom and Justice Newspaper. Approximately, 63 % are arts and culture news. Additionally, 22.2 % are cinema news. Followed by 3.7 % are celebrity interviews. Only 3.7 % are news of art festivals. Whereas, 3.7 % is archeology news. Also, 3.7 % are news of galleries and concerts. No news about other category. 109

110 Figure 12 Women issues in Freedom & Justice newspaper Figure 12 demonstrates the women issues of Freedom and Justice Newspaper. It is noticeable that news of women rights in FJ newspaper is high percentage which is 50 %. In addition, 30 % are news of women issues whether marriage or divorce. Followed by 20 % is news of women in Islam. No news about women and Egyptian constitution and harassment of women in demonstration. 110

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