Patricia Leitner's List: 3.6 Digital Citizenship Presentaion

• Egyptian security forces killed more than 50 protesters on October 6 in one of the bloodiest days of the ruling military's crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood.
• The end of political dictatorship. This requires a democratic redesign of the basic state institutions and a deepening of electoral accountability so that citizens can truly participate in democratic decision-making and oversight of state institutions. At the heart of this is reform of the judicial system, the restructuring of the police and security apparatuses, the broadening of the scope of local government and the purging of its apparatuses of dictatorial forces, the restoration of the right to freedom of association, and the removal of restrictions on the media.

• The Dilemma says that if dictatorial rulers permit increased Internet penetration, they risk overthrow; if they do not, they isolate themselves from the global information economy, causing economic decline.

• • There were no protections
    for those writing
    against the Mubarak
    regime. Bloggers were
    arrested for what they
    wrote or for participating
    in demonstrations.
• • In a 2007 case that
    received global attention,
    Kareem Amer
    received a four-year
    prison sentence for
    blogging about religion
    and the president.
• • Their roots actually go back to 2004
    when Al-Masry Al-Youm newspapers
    was launched, and that was followed
    by the emergence of other nonstate-run
    papers and TV channels.
• • Fortunately, blogs were flourishing
    in Egypt by then.
• • I am also working on a start-up
    project to spread practical information
    about social media and ways to use
    it professionally. I call this project
    "Masrawyya—Egyptian Media Hub,"
    and it is among the first of what I am
    certain will be more media development
    nongovernmental organizations
    in Egypt. Through it, I provide training
    for journalists, media students, and
    others interested in seeing independent
    news media flourish.
• • Yet in this disheartening traditional
    media landscape, we find encouraging
    signs of independent media—in
    the truest sense of the phrase—being
    established in Egypt.
• • they were
    privately owned media, owTied and
    controlled by pro-regime businessmen.
• • The third incident happened in
    late July when popular TV host
    Dina Abdel Rahman, who worked
    for Dream TV, was fired after she
    challenged General Abdel Monem
    Kato, a consultant for the Supreme
    Council of Armed Forces. Kato had
    tried on air to accuse Egyptian columnist
    Naglaa Badeer of betraying
    her nation. Rahman didn't accept
    Kato's accusation and responded that
    Badeer had dedicated her career to
    giving voice to the aspirations of
    her fellow Egyptians. The owner of
    Dream TV, Ahmed Bahgat, a close
    business associate of the Mubarak
    regime, fired Rahman after they had
    a heated discussion on the phone
• • Often a news story gets its start either
    in state-run or privately owned media.
    That news gets picked up and shared,
    digested and commented on via social
    media, and that process can lead to
    a new story coming out of the more
    traditional outlets. And so the cycle
    goes. While it is impossible to predict,
    one can wonder whether the trends
    we see will lead us to a time when
    traditional media will be integrated
    with social media.
• • Kharabeesh produces a blend of political
    and entertainment content, what
    it describes as "original and genuine
    Arabic minicartoon shows" that are
    streamed over the Internet and mobile
    networks. The videos on Kharabeesh's
    YouTube channel have been viewed
    close to 17.5 million times.
• • Today in Egypt, these three types of
    media compete for people's attention:
    state-run media are adapting but likely
    not fast enough to changing sensibilities
    and expectations; privately owned
    media are flush with financial resources
    and talent but sometimes lacking in
    credibility, the key element of news
    reporting; and entrepreneurial digital
    and social media are scrambling for
    resources but appear to be gaining in
    influence and public attention
• • Qabila TV
    was set up by a group of Egyptians in
    their 2O's who also oversee a website,
    YouTube channel, and Facebook page.
    Since March, their YouTube videos
    have been watched more than half a
    million times.
• • Also on January 25, another group of
    technologically savvy young Egyptians
    launched Rassd News Network (RNN)
    through Facebook.

11 more annotations...

• The author relates her experience on combining traditional mass and digital media and challenges faced by journalists in covering the Egyptian political uprising. While working for the state-run newspaper "Al-Ahram," she set up her independent blog known as "Ala Baab Allah" to gather and deliver news without being affiliated with the government. She cites several journalists who lose their jobs or were imprisoned for challenging the reign of former President Hosni Mubarak.