Wearing shades in the bright future of digital media: Limitations of narratives of media power in Egyptian resistance

Authors

  • Karin Gwinn Wilkins University of Texas at Austin

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7146/mediekultur.v28i52.5491

Keywords:

Political Communication, Media, Egypt

Abstract

Political engagement means more than reliance on a single medium, but requires collective human action. In making this argument, I consider how the media landscape, along with social and political contexts, have contributed to this process of shifting political power in Egypt. This background contextualizes the limitations of a dominant Hollywood narrative in U.S. media, not only telling a reductive tale of hero, victim and villain, but also privileging the role of social media as an anthropomorphic heroic sidekick. Mediated communication can be valuable as a vehicle for mobilization and as a site for political contestation, but it is the access to the production and reception of knowledge that matters. In essence, the critical issue in political resistance is power, not technology.

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Published

2012-03-30

How to Cite

Wilkins, K. G. (2012). Wearing shades in the bright future of digital media: Limitations of narratives of media power in Egyptian resistance. MedieKultur: Journal of Media and Communication Research, 28(52), 13 p. https://doi.org/10.7146/mediekultur.v28i52.5491