How diverse are Egypt’s media: A look at the post-revolution presidential elections

This article examines media diversity and inclusiveness of the coverage in Egypt through a content analysis of Egyptian media during the first Presidential elections following the 25 January revolution of 2011. Diversity is defined as the inclusiveness of different groups in terms of race, ethnicity, religion, nationality, age, income-based discrimination, gender and any other factors that make individuals or groups different from, but equal to, each other. The author used quantitative content analysis of four popular state and private newspapers and a critical analysis of the main television news bulletin and several talk shows. Overall, the coders analysed a total of 5308 stories that were published on the elections in the four newspapers. They also analysed the main news bulletin and three talk shows on state and private satellite channels. Analysis started a week before and ended a week after each round of the Presidential elections for a total of 32 monitoring days. The research addressed diversity both in terms of the agents featured in the media and the topics mentioned/discussed. The results indicate that, even though the journalistic standards were sometimes reasonable, coverage ignored important issues of substance and all issues related to inclusiveness and diversity as they relate to women, children, the elderly, religious minorities and ethnic minorities. The study concludes that diversity issues are still largely ignored in the Egyptian media.