In Search of Reliable Media

Mariam Mohsen
Editor-in-Chief
mmmohsen@aucegypt.edu

There are a number of things that are nearly impossible to find in Egypt; like a teenage girl who does not suffer from “Bieber Fever” or a mother who does not suffer from the “El Sissi” syndrome. One thing I believe is harder to find than those two put together is a source of objective Egyptian broadcast media.

No matter which television channel I switch to, I am faced with an overly frustrated emotional presenter. Even those who manage to convey their message(s) in a calm manner are hard to tolerate because of their evident biases.

And that’s just the thing! Conveying messages. Since when is it okay for television presenters to include their opinion(s) whilst covering events? Why have viewers become accustomed to presenters who convey messages? I cannot think of one slightly objective television show – let alone an entire channel – that I can tune into knowing that I am being “fed” accurate information; which leads me to my second point.

Another crisis with Egyptian broadcast media is that it spoon feeds the audience information which is, unfortunately, usually inaccurate and serves a certain agenda; much like the famous “invisible hand.”

When the concept of the “invisible hand” was first conceived after the January 25 Revolution, people’s minds automatically shifted to Western countries, namely the USA. In my opinion, the only entity worthy of that title would be our media.

According to UNESCO data, more than 88.6 percent of Egyptian households have television sets. That’s higher than the country’s literacy and close to the country’s employment rate. To make matters worse, Egypt has 98 broadcast channels; making it the twelfth out of all 89 countries on the list.

Their biased information sways public opinion. So many people act on what is fed to them by the things they watch, and many fail to pause and think critically and formulate their own independent opinions.

Mass Media Ethics and Responsibility is a course that all students majoring in mass communication have to take at AUC. One of the first things we learn as students in that course is that the media should act as a watchdog and that personal opinions should always be set aside whilst presenting news.

If the entire country had to pass that course to present or to even watch television channels, I believe we’d be living in a pretty different country.