Parallel spheres: The shifting role of digitally engaged activist journalism after Egypt’s January 25 revolution

Abstract

This study reexamines the social media practices of the April 6th Youth Movement, which brought together a diverse group of reformist Egyptians in the 2011 uprisings. By conducting a comparative content analysis of Facebook posts from 2011 (N = 661) with those from 2018 to 2019 (N = 354), this study explores whether the movement practiced a hybrid of digitally engaged activist journalism. The results suggest that the activists continue to call for media reforms, but their messaging functions less like quasi-journalism than it did in 2011. While advocating for increased freedoms, transparency and democratic reform, the group also promotes the social importance of journalism. Even so, the movement’s posting tactics suggest that they function more like information activists than citizen journalists.