Citizen Journalism and Democratic Transformation in Egypt

This book uses Habermas's concept of the public sphere to explore the impact of alternative and citizen media, especially blogs, in Egypt. It examines the dynamic relationship between politics and media in Egypt to better understand the role of new media and blogs in this process. Interviews with bloggers, human rights activists, and journalists, as well as the case-study and textual analysis of one of Egypt's and the Middle East's most popular political blogs-Al-Wa'i al-Masry-show that blogging in Egypt has succeeded in breaking down political and social taboos in Egypt (often ignored by the traditional media) and has played an important role in the current debate about political reform in Egypt. However, despite these successes, one of the major conclusions of this book is that the very language used in blogs undermines the possibility of achieving the rational-critical discourse necessary to meet one of the most fundamental conditions of the Habermasian public sphere, and further that this language raises doubts about the civility and ethics of blogging in general.