Bachelor Thesis from the year 2011 in the subject Communications - Media and Politics, Politic Communications, grade: 2,0, University of Bonn (Anglistik), language: English, abstract: "Lotus Revolution" (Egypt State Information Service1), "18-Day Revolution" (Armbruster 2011), "Nile Revolution" (Murdock February 8, 2011), "Facebook Revolution" (Herrera February 12, 2011) - what happened in Egypt at the beginning of 2011 was given many different titles. Some even call it "the most unexpected development in modern Egyptian history" (Sharp 2011b: 2). After 18 days of protests in Cairo and other cities all over Egypt, the Egyptian people made their President Hosni Mubarak resign. He had been ruling the country for almost 30 years and his people wanted to get rid of him and his regime. That was their goal and that is what they achieved. Of course there were international reactions to the uprisings from all over the world. "Numerous press reports [...] have recounted feelings of popular empowerment and pride inspired by the exploits of Egypt's young protesters" (Sharp 2011b: 5). During the revolution, European leaders urged "Egypt's transition to a new government" at the beginning of February (Murdock February 4), while China blocked the word "Egypt" from a twitter-like micro blogging website, according to Associated Press (quoted by Al Jazeera 2011).Further, when considering recent developments in Libya and Syria, other Middle Eastern countries seem to be inspired by the revolutions in both Tunisia and Egypt. After Mubarak had stood down on February 11, the reactions were even stronger - "Today, we are all Egyptians", stated Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and David Cameron suggested "We should teach the Egyptian revolution in our schools" (ESIS 2011). However, the United States seem to keep a particularly eager eye on the most populous country of the Middle East. Souad Mekhennet, New York Times and ZDF correspondent, states in an interview with the German medium

Egypt's January 25 revolution was triggered by a Facebook page and played out both in virtual spaces and the streets. Social media serves as a space of liberation, but it also functions as an arena where competing forces vie over the minds of the young as they battle over ideas as important as the nature of freedom and the place of the rising generation in the political order. This book provides piercing insights into the ongoing struggles between people and power in the digital age.

For too long Egypt's system of government was beholden to the interests of the elite in power, aided by the massive apparatus of the security state. Breaking point came on 25 January 2011. But several years after popular revolt enthralled a global audience, the struggle for democracy and basic freedoms are far from being won. Media, Revolution, and Politics in Egypt: The Story of an Uprising examines the political and media dynamic in pre-and post-revolution Egypt and what it could mean for the country's democratic transition. We follow events through the period leading up to the 2011 revolution, eighteen days of uprising, military rule, an elected president's year in office, and his ouster by the military. Activism has expanded freedoms of expression only to see those spaces contract with the resurrection of the police state. And with sharpening political divisions, the facts have become amorphous as ideological trends cling to their own narratives of truth.

The former Google executive and political activist tells the story of the Egyptian revolution he helped ignite through the power of social media. In the summer of 2010, thirty-year-old Google executive Wael Ghonim anonymously launched a Facebook page to protest the death of an Egyptian man at the hands of security forces. The page’s following expanded quickly and moved from online protests to a nonconfrontational movement. On January 25, 2011, Tahrir Square resounded with calls for change. Yet just as the revolution began in earnest, Ghonim was captured and held for twelve days of brutal interrogation. After he was released, he gave a tearful speech on national television, and the protests grew more intense. Four days later, the president of Egypt was gone. In this riveting story, Ghonim takes us inside the movement and shares the keys to unleashing the power of crowds in the age of social networking. “A gripping chronicle of how a fear-frozen society finally topples its oppressors with the help of social media.” —San Francisco Chronicle “Revolution 2.0 excels in chronicling the roiling tension in the months before the uprising, the careful organization required and the momentum it unleashed.” —NPR.org

Many things can be said about the 2011 revolution in Egypt. And actually, many things have been said about it, especially by the media. The course of the news reports differed significantly from paper to paper. This study compares four US-newspapers, namely 'The Wall Street Journal', 'The New York Times', 'The Washington Times', and the 'San Francisco Chronicle' with regard to their reports on the events in Egypt from January 26 until February 12, 2011. This study provides the reader with important information about these specific newspapers, and the events that happened during the so called "Lotus Revolution." Further, it provides a thorough analysis about the information that have been selected by the newspapers, the words used for the reporting and the choice of interview partners. However, the study does not only offer a comparison between the different news stories that were published in the four newspapers, but also takes into account letters to the editor and editorials for these texts are important concerning the whole style and format of a newspaper. It helps the reader to form an opinion about the objectivity of reporting in US print media, and triggers him or her to think about the factors that might influence objective reporting and the reasons for it. The study is suitable for everyone who is interested in the 2011 revolution in Egypt, in the political reporting and media bias in the United States, and in the way this bias can be transported through different text types in print media.

Examining the concept of dignity, or karama in Arabic, this provides insights into protesters' motives in participating in the 2011 Egyptian revolution.

An examination of women′s political participation and engagement during and after the 2011 uprising in Egypt.