Was Former Pres. Mubarak’s Control of the Media Counterintuitive?

By Geneva Maniwong-Schlottman

    Although many might agree that the media helped spread world-wide recognition of the corruption in Egypt, certain research has shown that the internet also slowed the population’s recalcitrance in the protests. According to Yale graduate student Navid Hassanpour, former Egyptian President Mubarak’s decision of cutting off all social networking was counter-intuitive to his control of the nation. After recent studies of the protests, Hassanpour concluded that after Jan. 28, the Egyptian public became more involved with their government’s actions since they had no other outlet of communication.

            When former Pres. Mubarak shut down internet access, he forced the people to look outside their windows and to actually become involved with their government. While the media helped them gain the involvement and concern of the political world, it distracted the public’s interaction. Although the number of protesters never escalated, Hassanpour’s studies show that the protests spread to different areas of the country. Instead, Hassanpour and other analysts suggest that the smarter tactic would be to discreetly slow internet access and communication or to limit it to certain areas of the population. Either way, this would prove as a more tactful approach to the control of any nation.  

           Although the media can be a useful tool for the communication of vital issues, it has also proven to be a substitute for public interaction. As the result of former Pres. Mubarak’s actions the Egyptian population became more involved- pressuring the resignation of their leader and helping speed the end of their tyranny. 


Sources: http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/egypt/index.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/business/media/in-times-of-unrest-social-networks-can-be-a-distraction.html?ref=egypt
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Observer/Columnist/Columnists/2011/6/16/1308236088727/Anti-Mubarak-Protesters-G-007.jpg