Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Mass Communication - Department of Journalism

Media giants and oligarchs are currently dominating the global media sphere raising concerns regarding the influence this ownership concentration has on different media functions. Media diversity, objectivity, and democracy could suffer due to owners{u2019} influence on outlets and self-censorship. Although media ownership concentration is well documented in the United States, Europe, and other regions around the world, there is a scarcity in studies examining this phenomenon in Egypt. The Egyptian media scene has witnessed various changes since the early 2000s and especially after the 25th of January revolution in 2011. This study seeks to fill this research gap; it examines ownership concentration in the Egyptian media sphere by describing the evolution of media ownership and mapping media outlets and their owners. Through the Habermasian lens and by using a mixed-methods approach, this study contends that Egypt{u2019}s public sphere is controlled by a few players that threaten media diversity. Three patterns of ownership are identified in the Egyptian media: concentrated state ownership, concentrated private ownership, and not concentrated private ownership. The first two categories represent the majority of Egyptian media outlets. In order to determine whether different society segments are well represented in the Egyptian public sphere, this study examines the impact this concentration has on media diversity using content analysis on a sample of Egyptian print outlets in terms of diversity of editorial formats, topics, geographical locations, actors, and sources. News is found to be the dominant editorial format in all ownership concentration patterns

Issued also as CD