PERFIL PSICOLOGICO DEL INDIVIDUO QUE TOMA UNA DECISION DE INVERSION

Herman and Chomsky’s theory of manufactured consent (1988) suggests that mass media often, willingly, act as propaganda agents for state ideologies without the state having to coerce them to. Self-censorship in favour of the state is often a result of market dynamics and media economics and availability of sources. Officials provide access to information for media outlets that are more favourable in their coverage of state policy, and so opposing media is left with little access to official information, news and sources. This in turn affects their readership and so ultimately their advertising revenue. Herman and Chomsky argue that the private sector, whose interests often intertwine with that of the state, also shies away from advertising with media outlets that are strongly opposing state and corporate policies.

This government and financial pressure then forces the mass media outlets to refrain from harsh state or corporate criticism to stay in business, without the state having to coerce them into favourable coverage.

In the Egyptian context, the media is often under both, state and self- censorship. The state can sue and imprison journalists for what they write under umbrellas such as religion disdain and others. This means the media is often careful to what they write, but it is also because of media ownership in Egypt. Most of the popular newspapers and channels are owned by businessmen whose interests coincide with those of the state. Therefore, there is always the editorial struggle to have enough freedom to gain readers’ trust without affecting the financial interests of their shareholders through harsh attacks on the state or the private sector’s biggest players. So censorship comes in the form of state-imposed, self-censorship in fear of one’s security as well as censorship imposed by shareholders and owners who want to maximize advertisement revenues as well as ensure being on the favourable side of the regime.

Chomsky and Herman then argue that given such pressures, mass media have filters through which they decide what to include or exclude from the news agenda. These filters normally answer to the interests of not only the media elite, but the society’s power elite as well, which is normally involved in one way or another with the media elite. This is manifested in media ownership in the Egyptian context where businessmen and political players, or power elite, like Sayed Badawy and Naguib Sawiris own two of the most popular satellite channels; Hayah and ONTV and therefore intertwining with the media elite. Chomsky and Herman argue that coverage of mass media undergo five filters that often bias their reporting. Those filters are the size, concentrated ownership, owner wealth and profit orientation of the dominant mass-media firms, the advertising as a primary source of income, the reliance on

information provided by the government, business, and experts, flak as means of disciplining the media and finally anti-communism as a national religion and control mechanism, (1988, p.2). The last element, anti-communism, has since been revised to fit any popular ideology that serves as a scarecrow to fight. This element can now be seen as political Islam in the post-January 25th Egyptian context.

The ownership of mass media firms is at strong play in Egypt because there are not many media platforms that are independently funded as discussed in chapter 4. The model of popular public service broadcaster is weak in Egypt due to state television and newspapers losing credibility, especially after their biased reporting on the 2011 uprising. Therefore, the majority of popular media platforms in the country rely primarily on advertising for revenue. When it comes to bloggers in particular, however, the third filter “reliance on information provided by the government, business, and experts” does not directly apply because bloggers who join mainstream media are mostly opinion-writers and so do not need sources to write their columns, unlike traditional journalists or reporters. Flak is a strong element as well in the Egyptian context because journalists and bloggers have been known to be targeted for what they write. Throughout the last five years there have been many court cases against journalists and bloggers for articles or posts they wrote, some in front of military courts. Flak also came in the form of media- sponsored character assassinations to particular writers through channels and newspapers that are known to be supportive of the state. Finally, the fifth filter; anti-communism as a national religion and control mechanism, came into play strongly after the Muslim Brotherhood year in power. Public figures, including

writers, who oppose the state would easily be dubbed pro-Islamist or pro- political Islam as a way to restrict them from expressing anti-regime sentiments.

Herman and Chomsky’s theory of manufactured consent helps guide this research when studying the implications of bloggers joining the historical bloc after being once independent from the pressures Herman and Chomsky lay out for mainstream and media elite. It will help determine whether bloggers are becoming media elite through joining mainstream and media elite platforms and so the implications of that on their content. If the bloggers are joining institutions that undergo those five filters, biasing their reporting, it is important to see the degree to which bloggers’ content, both on those media platforms and on their own blogs, are affected by the same filters that are the result of the pressures mass media undergo.