what role did social media play in the news coverage of 2011 egyptian revolution?

© Kathryn Corrick 2011

What role did social media play in the news coverage of 2011 Egyptian revolution?

23 February 2011


Introduction

This research is part of a wider piece of introductory training in how to use social media in journalism, specifically for real-time reporting, that I conducted in February 2011 for the Foreign Press Association.

It seeks to show, using the example of the Egyptian protests, the many ways in which social media is being integrated into journalism practice and also a few lessons to bear in mind when doing so.

The focus is mostly on English language media, but I would be delighted to hear of anyone doing similar research for Arabic language media.


Journalists on the ground used Twitter to report in real-time

This then got picked up by other media

Source: http://edition.cnn.com/video/?/video/bestoftv/2011/01/31/exp.piers.twitter.reporter.cnn http://twitter.com/#!/ssirgany


Journalists (and activists) uploaded photographs in real time and when they had internet connections

http://www.demotix.com/news/570090/thousands-protest-tahrir-square-cairohttp://twitpic.com/3vjpfshttp://www.flickr.com/search/?q=egypt%20protests&w=all


As well as activists placing videos on YouTube

broadcasters placed clips and footage on the site

In addition to telling the story, this enables viewers to share footage on their own websites, blogs and social networks such as Facebook. The clips are often free of voice-over commentary enabling them to be accessible to a wider number of people.

Russia Today and Al Jazeera often use this method of distribution.

Source: Russia Today http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xWiBCIxjIk


Journalists and editors also used social media to link to other information and stories on their own news operations and others

Nicholas Kristof, New York Times, used Facebook throughout the uprisinghttp://www.facebook.com/kristof?v=wall


The use of English was a factor

• Tweets/Facebook updates went out from Middle East journalists in English as well as Arabic

• This increased the likelihood of being picked up by western media and other English speakers

• Al Jazeera English in particular benefited from this, as their output was picked up and used by other media, particularly in the US.


Social media was used to repeat and track what was being said, photographed and videoed by Egyptians, activists and those involved

Some examples


Facebook –Mohamed Elbaradei fan page

This is the Facebook fan page of Mohamed Elbaradei, maintained by Google employee Wael Ghonim. Ghonim was held for 11 days during the uprising. The page continues to be updated with information from followers.

http://www.facebook.com/Elbarad3i


Twitter - @acarvin

Andy Carvin, senior strategist in social media at NPR in the US, averaged 400 tweets a day during the protests to amplify the voices and news coming out of Egypt on Twitter, he said…

http://twitter.com/#!/acarvinhttp://tweetstats.com/graphs/acarvin


Andy Carvin…

“...When I first started [using Twitter to report Egyptian developments], I was just casually retweeting stuff from sources I found interesting. But as things intensified, I basically decided to drop everything I was working on and focus on capturing as much as possible regarding what was going on there. As the week went on, I found myself putting in 12-15 hour days, getting up really early to catch up on what’d happened overnight, keeping at it until past midnight, then starting again the next morning.”Sources:http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2011/02/04/interview-with-andy-carvin-on-curating-twitter-to-watch-tunisia-egypt


And its value?

“It’s not just a means to get a lot of tweets out there. I see curation as a serious form of narrative—one that we’re just beginning to recognize. I’m still not sure if it’s more art than journalism (or social responsibility for that matter), but I’ve discovered that it’s a medium that I’m at home in. And if I can help inform people in the process, so much the better.”

http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2011/02/04/interview-with-andy-carvin-on-curating-twitter-to-watch-tunisia-egypt


Twitter hashtags

#egypt#25january#mubarakSource: http://media.twitter.com/1207/egypt-tweetsTweetdeck – http://www.tweetdeck.com

ABC’s Diane Sawyer in front of a Tweetdeck screen following different hashtags


What are tags and Twitter hashtags?

• Tags are key words or phrases (no spaces) added to a piece of content - blog post, video, photo, Tweet – to help categorize and add additional information

• Twitter tags have with a # before the word eg. #egypt, which has become known as the hashtag

• They enable Tweets to be easily searched and gathered together

• They are an easy way for any individual no matter how many followers they have to add to a conversation or news item


One use: twitter hashtags can be used automatically to aggregate content and generate a ‘newspaper’ via services like Paper.li and Flipboard

http://paper.li/AhmedYahia/1292846947

http://paper.li/tag/lybia


Example of the flow of information & role of diaspora

• This is a screenshot of one of the SMS sent by Vodafone on request of the Egyptian government.

• The SMS were photographed and sent to Sherief Farouk by Riham Nabil (Riham Farouk) who was on the ground.

• Sherief Farouk uploaded the photos onto Flickr and added a translation.

• The photos were then linked to on blogs, Twitter and elsewhere.

• This set of photos has received nearly 3 million views

http://www.flickr.com/photos/59098813@N06/5411904816/in/set-72157625964108236/

Translation: ‘The Armed Forces asks Egypt's honest and loyal men to confront the traitors and criminals and protect our people and honor and our precious Egypt.’


Those reporting became a target

‘Foreign journalists became the target on Wednesday. As Pro-

Mubarak mobs, believed to be thugs and undercover police, tried to

storm the pro-democracy protest in Tahrir Square, anyone with a camera became a target.’

- Sarah Sirgany, personal blog, 3 February 2011

Source: http://sirgoslabyrinth.wordpress.com/2011/02/03/revolution-diaries-feb-3-run-journalists-run/


All this information needed reporting, curating and disseminating


Arabica curated and aggregated news from across the web and social media

http://www.newarabica.com/egypt/?cat=Egypt


Wikipedians distill information which is often updated in real-time

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wael_Ghonim http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egypt


Live blogging


The Al Jazeera English Live Blog

The live blog page included a live TV feed at the top of the pageLive Blog for 28 January - http://blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/2011/01/28/live-blog-281-egypt-protests


You could also hear short audio messages from Al Jazeera reporters

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/2011/01/30/live-messages-egypt


Canada’s CBC used Scribble Live for their live Egypt blog

This meant they could draw in and curate other media – Twitter, photos, video – easily and have others contribute.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/yourcommunity/2011/02/live-blog-uprising-in-egypt.html


As did Reuters

http://live.reuters.com/Event/Unrest_in_Egypt?Page=0


The BBC’s live coverage page

The BBC uses a mix of live TV footage, short news posts and Twitter.They also include key points and ways to contact them.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12307698


Al Jazzera used a timeline to summarise events to-date

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/01/201112515334871490.html


The Guardian said…

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/07/al-jazeera-television-egypt-protests?CMP=twt_gu


And when the internet was switched off…?


The telephone became once again vital.Example: Google introduced Speak to Tweet

Speak to Tweet enables users to phone a telephone number and record a message which is then Tweeted with a link to listen to the recording. http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/some-weekend-work-that-will-hopefully.html http://twitter.com/#!/speak2tweet


Lessons?


Understand the network and how it operates

‘The map is arranged to place individuals near the individuals they influence, and factions near the factions they influence. The color is based on the language they tweet in -- a choice that itself can be meaningful, and clearly separates different strata of society.’ – Kovas Boguta

Source: http://www.kovasboguta.com/1/post/2011/02/first-post.html


Think ahead if you can

Source: http://twitter.com/EthanZ/statuses/39678452848271361 https://twitter.com/#!/globalvoices/gabon-unrest-2011


Understand the complex web of factors of a story. What enabled the Egyptian uprising?

Social media?

“While university-educated new middle classes have played a key role in organizing the protests and mobilizing youths, they are typically tightly connected with labor syndicates and blue collar workers, whether urban or rural. Many of the key demands of the movement have to do with pay equity and living conditions for the working poor and the unemployed.” http://detnews.com/article/20110210/OPINION01/102100341/Labor-movement-drives-Egypt--Tunisia-protests


Bear in mind the role of the diaspora in spreading information


And the importance of understanding the difference between activism and journalism

• Bearing witness• The importance of analysis, curation

and understanding the context of what is going on

• Reporting more than one aspect or perspective


Liveblogging: Ensure there are ways for people to get up-to-speed with the story-so-far

• Break up content into logical sections – day/week/geography/theme

• Create a timeline page that summarises events to date

• Make it easy to navigate


Plus… new media, familiar problems

• Verification• Reliability• Curation and editing• Limits of technology and connectivity• Censorship• Interpretation and analysis• Spotting the story


Finally

Think about what you would do if the internet goes down.Have a back-up plan


More links

http://www.delicious.com/tremendoustrifles/Egypt


Questions?

www.kathryncorrick.co.uk@[email protected]

what role did social media play in the news coverage of 2011 egyptian revolution?

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