Journalism in Network Society:Role of Information Communication Technologies in Egyptian Newsrooms

Ahmed El GodyMedia and Communication StudiesÖrebro University

Egyptian News Industry: Where does Society Fit!

Egyptian Print Media “Authoritarian” for the Past 60 years

160 law article govern the Media Journalist Community = Gov’t

Employees

Introduction of ICTs

More Egyptians are communicating in Cyberspace

Number of Internet users increased seven fold reaching 23.1 million

38% annual increase in high-speed Internet subscribers

Mobile subscribers reached 65.4 million with 84.1% penetration

Personal computers 38 million

ICTs Political Empowerment Tool Egyptians started utilizing the technology to debate

current events, criticize the government, public officials, political parties, and to share personal experiences to propose solutions to current socio-political problems

Citizens quickly harnessed ICTs creating online news sites, blogs, Vblogs, YouTube, twitters, podcasts, SMS text messages, mobile phone web publishing, and establishing accounts on social networks facebook (3.2 million users), Blogs (1,135,000) Youtube (3 million users)

Egyptian society:Where Does Media Fit

Two Spheres (Traditional Sphere/ Online Network Sphere)

Proliferation of Independent Media (40% Market Size in the past 5 years/ circulation increased 59% of market)

Question Role ICTs play in promoting news industry and the social democratisation process in Egypt. Further what are the problems hindering the full adoption and usage of ICT in Egyptian newsrooms?

Al Ahram Newsroom

Al Dostor Newsroom

Al masry Al Youm Newsroom

Infrastructure

ICT Use Inside NewsroomJOURNALISTS USE OF ICTS INSIDE NEWSROOMS

WHILE REPORTING JOURNALISTS USE

ICT Use Inside (cntd.)

Typical Day of Technology usage inside Al Ahram Newsroom

Typical Day of Technology usage inside Al Dostor Newsroom

Typical Day of Technology usage inside Al Dostor Newsroom

ICT Use Inside (cntd.)

ICT Use Inside (cntd.)

Conclusion

ICTs as technology is often thought to bring radical and fundamental change at the organizational structural level, where the boundaries between original and new traditions of communicating are becoming less clear and the relationship between different media production are characterized by increasing co-operation and compatibility.

ICTs diffusion proved to be a form of slow evolutionary diffusion rather than revolutionary.

News organizations do segregate between online and traditional production where online journalists are not involved in the newsroom meetings or taking part in the overall plans of organization development.

Online Journalists are seen as assistant journalists whose job is to build news archives or help journalists produce their ‘real work.’ 

  Further, statistical figures witnessed stagnation in Egyptian news organization online presence where most

organizations fail to present original online content, update information presented, or interact with their audience.

Reviewing Journalists attitude towards incorporating ICTs in their routine, longitudinal research showed diffusion of ICTs ‘online’ elements in their ‘offline’ routine activities.

Qualitative observation proved that point showing journalists do use material online either without attribution or attributing the work to themselves.

The concept of networking is still in its initial stage

Presence of a gap between the organization and journalists, that is clear in the number of journalists who reported not knowing ICTs diffusion on the organizational level but giving answers on their own individual level, which brings the issue of transparency of information within news organizations.

A decade of studying newsroom convergence, still there are barriers that hinder full adoption of ICTs into news production. Individual barriers, organizational, technological, professional, legal, and governmental barriers we defined as the main problems hindering the evolution of the adoption. Time changed in the dynamics of order of levels of barriers however time also showed an increase in the intensity of the problems.