CAIRO: In an effort to enhance global dialogue and online journalism in Egypt and the Arab World, the Kamal Adham Center for Journalism Training and Research at the American University in Cairo (AUC), has assigned eight Egyptian bloggers to cover the US presidential elections on a blog. Under the USAID-funded project, "Blogging the American Election, the eight bloggers were sent to the US in September and will be going back for the last week of the campaign and election day in November. "The project came from the fact that we feel really strongly that there is a need to support online journalists and serious bloggers who are doing journalistic kinds of work, said Lawrence Pintak, director of the Kamal Adham Center. The center, the US embassy and USAID all felt that this project will be a great opportunity to better acquaint Egyptians with the American electoral system. The selection"We felt that bloggers are playing a very important role in Egypt these days, in terms of driving public opinion, not because so many people see their blog but because of the effect that they have on the mainstream media, Pintak explained. They selected a certain type of bloggers for this project, those "who are like columnists in newspapers who are writing about important issues, expressing their opinions on it, but that expression is based on a solid foundation of fact and information. And those are the bloggers we were trying to support in this project, explained Pintak. The age range of the bloggers is from early twenties to mid-thirties, the majority of which are blogging anonymously on the project's website: http://egyptblogsamerica.blogspot.com/. The selection was based on three aspects: Who are the serious bloggers? Who is interested in writing about American politics? Who is interested in the project and who can travel? "We did not filter for politics, we have very liberal bloggers and conservative bloggers, said Pintak, stressing that the bloggers are free to write about whatever they want and there are some critical entries which "people in Washington are probably cringing about. Brave new worldFor the first of the two-part project, the eight participants visited Washington, D.C. for a round of briefings at the National Press Foundation. There, they joined Journalist to Journalist, an outreach program for journalists from all over the world. The eight bloggers were then split up for week-long trainings at online news organizations. A group of two went for training at the WashingtonPost.com; the second group, which included three bloggers, at Time.com; and the remaining three bloggers at the HuffingtonPost.com. By the end of the week, each blogger has written an article which was published by their respective training organization. The articles covered a variety of topics, including the necessity of anonymous blogging in Egypt, how Egyptians are using Facebook as a channel for political expression and the difference between Egypt and America in terms of rotation of power. For the third week of the trip, the group was split up again into groups of two to spend some time at journalism schools around the country. They went to Syracuse University, University of Texas-Austin, University of Nebraska and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill where they were exposed to the state and local election process. Miral, 24, was one of the bloggers who went for training at the HufingtonPost.com and later went to the University of Nebraska. "We went to different places where we supposedly could see the real Americans. After visiting New York and D.C. we [went] to these areas which are more representative of American people and American culture, she said. The time there was insightful not only for the bloggers but for those they met who learnt about Egyptians and how Egyptians view the US elections. "This was something that came in as a bi-product which we didn't plan for. We thought we were going to be the only ones getting insight about America but at the journalism schools we were giving insight about Egypt to these people who were very enthusiastic to know more about us, our culture, our politics and how Egyptians see America, explained Miral. According to Miral, the most frequently asked question was, "Do people in Egypt have a bad impression about Americans; do they hate us? to which she responded with, "The majority of Egyptians knew that the American administration did not necessarily represented the American people and what they want. And we kind of know what that means because we are not really represented by our government. But . the Egyptian people put the responsibility on the American people to make use of the power they have and make changes. Elections face-offBlogger Wael Abbas was interested in the project because it gave him the opportunity to compare the Egyptian elections with American elections. "I found out that there are many similarities between the US elections and Egyptian elections. But it is the participation in the elections that is different; the American people have more freedom, said Abbas. "The American people are being manipulated by the media and there are only two political parties, the democratic and the republican, who have a shot during the elections, he said. "I interviewed a number of other candidates in the presidential elections but they don't get any coverage from the media. This is because there is no alternative media in the US; the huge corporations monopolize the media, whether TV, radio or newspapers. So, only their voice is being heard ... definitely capitalism allies with power and authority, explained Abbas. "The campaigns are all about Barack Obama and John McCain and rarely do you find other candidates mentioned, he added. "This exists in Egypt, but the people have no choice during the elections because power is used to control the people through means such as the central security and shutting down election stations [where people go to vote]. "I heard that similar activities take place just like in Egypt, for example in some of the poorer areas people are paid a scant amount of around $10 to go and vote for a certain party or candidate. In addition, violent clashes also take place in the US during the campaigns just like Egypt. Abbas explained that the situation is relatively better in the US because citizens are aware of their civil rights and are able to support and vote for their favorite candidates without harassment. "Sitting there in the US among citizens while the debate is on gives them [the bloggers] a whole different perspective on how Americans see this whole thing and that will inevitably . enrich what they write about when they come back here, said Pintak. On the other hand, Abbas has a different objective from this project. "We are being exposed to the elections process in a country which is the most powerful in the world, so we can use this experience to point out the disadvantages and weakness of the elections in our country and try to avoid them and it's all to our benefit. . We are able to see whether this is the democracy we want and if it is applicable here in Egypt.
