ALEXANDRIA, Egypt: Press and social networks ignited revolutions by displaying events that occurred in the 1970s and 1980s to encourage the youth, according to editor-in-chief of Weghat Nazar (Point of View) magazine, Ayman al-Sayed. “Online media is influential and caused state media to take over the unconventional but popular media after the Internet and cell phone connections were cut off for all Egyptians on January 28,” Ayman al-Sayed said. Al-Sayed was referring to the coverage of the 2011 uprising in Egypt on AlJazeera.net. “The downfall of Egyptian media will not lead to a downfall of journalists, since there was no neutral channel covering the January 25 demonstration in tahrir,” al-Sayed said. Al-Sayed disagreed with the opinion that media has a minor role, since private newspapers influenced the beginning of the revolution. “Newspapers are now discussing current cases of corruption. Newspapers weren't as influential as youth who made the revolution succeed. The youth usually take the first step because they have their own form of press and media,” al-Sayed commented in a seminar called 'The Media and January 25 Revolution' at the Library of Alexandria. The youth's creativity appeared through Internet networks where they could openly discuss and encourage Egyptian people, according to al-Sayed. He said the January 25 Revolution is not necessarily a ‘Facebook Revolution,' a name popular with some Egyptians. The Egyptian press was against the thugs during the revolution and strongly upset with contradictory press, those who changed their opinion and coverage according to who was ‘winning.' Al-Sayed also called all Egyptians to read and preview all newspapers and media communications to know all real trends to form complete images.
