Place of publication: United States, Ann Arbor; ISBN=978-1-339-21381-1
Ph.D.
Mass Communication and Media Arts
Southern Illinois University at Carbondale
2015
This dissertation was conducted to determine whether Egyptians' use of Facebook between December 17, 2010 and February 11, 2011 affected their perceptions of majority and minority opinions about President Hosni Mubarak's government and thus influenced their willingness to express their opinions about that regime, in turn forming a new online public opinion that called for the January 25 revolution. For the purpose of this study, the theoretical framework was the spiral of silence theory. To answer the research questions in this dissertation the researcher used the qualitative approach, combining in-depth interviews with Egyptian Facebook users and qualitative content analysis of their Facebook pages.
Journalism; Communication; Web Studies; Mass communications
Communication and the arts;Arab Spring;Facebook;Public opinion;Social media;Spiral of silence;Spiral of voice