Author : Dr Ibrahim Saleh
Source : Global Media Journal, American Edition
Date of Publication : 06/2004
Abstract :
Egypt is currently witnessing a serious of crossing roads stage in its contemporary times. The Egyptian media and political arena are clustered into two categories: the hard-liners, or the old guards refusing to yield change or any restructuring, namely the autocrats on the one hand. And the new wave of development, under the auspices of the Gamal Mubarak, who is more, inclined to compromise on the other hand. The rhetoric function of the news media depicts the events as a confrontation between “the other and us” that emphasize the main claim of the “attribution theory” by Richard Eiser. It denotes that people tend to attribute their own failures to external situational causes, while the failures of others to internal disposition causes (Michael Gurevitch, American Behavioral Scientist, Vol.33, No.2, November /December 1989, p.221-229).
Since 1952 coup de’ et’at, the Egyptian progressive community has been deeply divided between anti-interventions and humanitarian interventions. Public opinion is a major source of power in the decision making process and in contributing to the legitimacy of the state, as well as adding to the social capital of the nation by enhancing the communication richness of the public opinion apparatus. In the political process, news discourse is carefully constructed to satisfy both politicians and interest groups in an increasingly provocative approach to amplify their views. It makes news discourse conceived as a socio-cognitive process involving all three players: information sources, media personnel and audience members operating in the universe of shared culture on the basis of socially defined roles.
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