I am planning to study the political discourse in Egypt as a case study to help me understand political dialogue as it stands in a country like Egypt which has redefined government and governance in its historical locality. This redefinition, its acceptance, its resistance, its discussion and its practical implications are of interest to me. The implementation of the idea of a democratic system and the experience of the existence of that system in everyday life are two separate things and it is the activity in the gap between them that i want to get hold of. My project to test this in less and unpopular democracies like Egypt and then hold the popular democracies under the lens.
To understand what happens in this gap between thing in place in definition and the experience of it in the everyday, much like a marriage, where one can’t rely on the certificate and what is the definition of a marriage, if one wants to understand the relationship between the partners. I intend to study the commentary both for and against the Mubarak regime. For this i am thinking of selecting one or two newspapers which are pro-government and one or two which are fairly independent, as this is where the ‘public’ talks of the issues on a daily bases.
I wanted to have your suggestion in selection of these newspapers, could you advice me which have the most hold on Egyptian people or their opinion or represents most each of the two sides?
OR
Is there another methodology or way to achieve what i put forth in the first paragraph than newspapers?
Hope to hear from you about this and any other advice that you think will make the project a more useful and relevant body of work in the future vis-à-vis democracy, its relevance, its applicability or about the specificity of Egypt or anything that comes to mind.
Best
Ghazal Saif
Research Scholar/Broadcaster/Writer/Journalist
PhD, SOAS, University of London, UK
MA, ‘International Journalism’, University of Leeds, UK
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I am planning to study the political discourse in Egypt as a case study to help me understand political dialogue as it stands in a country like Egypt which has redefined government and governance in its historical locality. This redefinition, its acceptance, its resistance, its discussion and its practical implications are of interest to me. The implementation of the idea of a democratic system and the experience of the existence of that system in everyday life are two separate things and it is the activity in the gap between them that i want to get hold of. My project to test this in less and unpopular democracies like Egypt and then hold the popular democracies under the lens.
To understand what happens in this gap between thing in place in definition and the experience of it in the everyday, much like a marriage, where one can’t rely on the certificate and what is the definition of a marriage, if one wants to understand the relationship between the partners. I intend to study the commentary both for and against the Mubarak regime. For this i am thinking of selecting one or two newspapers which are pro-government and one or two which are fairly independent, as this is where the ‘public’ talks of the issues on a daily bases.
I wanted to have your suggestion in selection of these newspapers, could you advice me which have the most hold on Egyptian people or their opinion or represents most each of the two sides?
OR
Is there another methodology or way to achieve what i put forth in the first paragraph than newspapers?
Hope to hear from you about this and any other advice that you think will make the project a more useful and relevant body of work in the future vis-à-vis democracy, its relevance, its applicability or about the specificity of Egypt or anything that comes to mind.
Best
Ghazal Saif
Research Scholar/Broadcaster/Writer/Journalist
PhD, SOAS, University of London, UK
MA, ‘International Journalism’, University of Leeds, UK
Ghazal@soas.ac.uk