The Egyptian Press and Coverage of Local and International Events

The book focuses on the Egyptian press since Egyptian newspapers and magazines deserve study because of their large readership. Written in Cairo, the author offers an in depth analysis of the state of various press systems in Egypt. It qualitatively and quantitatively examines the press's framing of three regional crises: Israel's War on Lebanon in July 2006, sinking of Al-Salam 98 ferry in February 2006, and the protest by Sudanese refugees in Cairo in December 2005.

The Egyptian press has a large readership and potential influence on public opinion in Egypt and the Arab world. The Egyptian Press and Coverage of Local and International Events analyzes this understudied area. Written in Egypt, the book is formed of five chapters and analyzes in qualitative and quantitative methods close to 300 newspaper and magazine articles. It studies the Egyptian press and investigates the challenges it faces to be compatible with that in the west, and evaluates the renowned book Four Theories of the press and whether today's Egyptian press can fit in one of those theories. It also looks at the concepts of framing and discourse analysis adopted later. The author examines how the Egyptian press framed the Sudanese refugees' riot in Cairo in December 2005 by the top thirteen Egyptian national, independent, and party newspapers. It found that independent and party newspapers enjoy more freedom than national ones in criticizing government and the way police tackled the protest. However, independent newspapers were more vigorous in their criticism than party ones. The author observes that the weekly magazines tended to frame their coverage in a somewhat anti-government slant, accusing authorities and ferry owners of failure and corruption. Finally, the book compares coverage of the Israeli War in Lebanon in July 2006 by Egypt's giant semi-official daily newspaper Al-Ahram with that by two prominent, non-Egyptian pan-Arab dailies Al-Hayat and Asharq Al-Awsat. He finds that while Al-Hayat and Asharq Al-Awsat, which are owned by Saudi businessmen, portrayed Hizbullah in an unfavorable manner, Al-Ahram was somewhat favorable in its coverage of the Lebanese resistance group.

Chapter 1. The Egyptian Press
Chapter 2. Theoretical Perspectives
Chapter 3. Protesters in Pharaohs' Land: Egyptian Newspaper Coverage of the Sudanese Refugees' Riot
Chapter 4. Who is Responsible? Characterization of the Red Sea Ferry Disaster in Egyptian Magazines
Chapter 5. Images of the 2006 Lebanese War inAl-Ahram, Al-Hayat, andAsharq Al-Awsat
Chapter 6. Rising Tension in U.S.-Egyptian Relations
Chapter 7. Obama's Speech to the Muslim World: An Open Hand of Friendship