<Linked In> Locked Out The informal participation hierarchy and the discursive patterns of top contributors in the April 6th Youth Movement Facebook group Alexandra S. Dunn 2010 Master’s Thesis for Consideration in the Institute of Media and Communication at the University of Oslo 2010 Alexandra Dunn A thesis submitted for partial fulfilment of a master’s in philosophy in media studies Alexandra S. Dunn – Master’s Thesis IMK <Linked In> Locked Out 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Graphs and tables ............................................................................................................................................................ 6 Foreword............................................................................................................................................................................. 7 Abstract................................................................................................................................................................................ 8 Chapter 1: Introduction ..............................................................................................................................................10 Chapter 2: Historical-Political Background in Egypt......................................................................................12 Egypt Post-Monarchy: From Nasser to Mubarak .......................................................................................12 Gamal Abdul Nasser...........................................................................................................................................12 Anwar Al-Sadat ....................................................................................................................................................13 Hosni Mubarak.....................................................................................................................................................13 Modern Executive Branch.....................................................................................................................................14 Civil Society.................................................................................................................................................................16 Mass Media in Egypt................................................................................................................................................17 Newspapers...........................................................................................................................................................18 Television ...............................................................................................................................................................19 Radio.........................................................................................................................................................................20 Online Media...............................................................................................................................................................20 Internet Infrastructure in Egypt...................................................................................................................20 Egyptian Blogosphere .......................................................................................................................................21 High Traffic Online Spaces ..............................................................................................................................23 Facebook Structure ............................................................................................................................................23 April 6 Youth Movement on Facebook.......................................................................................................24 Chapter 3: Background Media Theory..................................................................................................................27 Social Network Sites................................................................................................................................................27 SNS and Link Analysis ............................................................................................................................................28 Research on Facebook............................................................................................................................................28 Public sphere..............................................................................................................................................................32 Media-System Dependency.............................................................................................................................33 Counter-Public Sphere......................................................................................................................................33 Civil Society............................................................................................................................................................34 Online Public Sphere Versus Online Public Space ................................................................................35 Two-Step Flow Model of Communication......................................................................................................36 Agenda-Setting ..........................................................................................................................................................37 Fusion of Agenda-Setting and Two-Step Flow Models.............................................................................38 Gatekeeping ................................................................................................................................................................39 Alexandra S. Dunn – Master’s Thesis IMK <Linked In> Locked Out 3 Agenda-Setting, Opinion Leaders Online .......................................................................................................40 Gatewatching ...............................................................................................................................................................42 Research Questions and Hypotheses...............................................................................................................43 Chapter 4: Methodology..............................................................................................................................................46 Data Collection...........................................................................................................................................................46 Ethical Issues..............................................................................................................................................................46 Informed Consent ...............................................................................................................................................46 Privacy and Confidentiality.............................................................................................................................47 Facebook Platform..............................................................................................................................................47 Studying Social Networks.....................................................................................................................................47 Data Collection Techniques..................................................................................................................................49 Constructed Sampling ............................................................................................................................................51 Generalizability....................................................................................................................................................51 Collection................................................................................................................................................................51 Top Hyperlinkers as Opinion Leaders.............................................................................................................52 Opinion Leaders........................................................................................................................................................52 Definitions of Facebook Activity........................................................................................................................53 Weight of Wall Contributions..............................................................................................................................54 Scoring for Weight..............................................................................................................................................55 Hyperlink Analysis and Qualitative Categorization...................................................................................55 Reliability of Qualitative Categories............................................................................................................60 Chapter 5: Data Analysis.............................................................................................................................................62 Overall Group Activity............................................................................................................................................62