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The Death of A Media Discourse? Reframing the 1973 War in Egypt
Abstract
The paper explores and problematizes the war discourse regarding Egypt's victory in the 1973 War. It traces the process through which this discourse was constructed and reconstructed by the state throughout the periods of President Anwar Sadat, his successor Hosni Mubarak, and current President Abdelfatah el-Sisi. It uses strategic narrative/discourse analysis of key texts such as newspaper articles of al-Ahram newspaper, taken as the mouthpiece of the regime. Key findings are that the war is fixably portrayed as a massive and unquestioned Egyptian victory, thus eclipsing, downplaying or hiding less ‘victorious’ moments in the war. The war discourse also takes each leader as war personified, where the war and the leader are inseparably connected as part of reification which expands any criticism of one side as correspondingly applied to the other. Combined with interviews of the discourse makers, the paper also studies the socio-political milieu related to personal authoritarianism and the state’s intricate relations with the army, the press and Islamists. the paper can help us unravel the current dynamics of power and control on basis of instrumentalizing the war and canalising the event as still-relevent part of the political landscape in a biased and favorably controlled manner.
Discipline
Political Science
Geographic Area
Egypt
Sub Area
None