Egyptian media culture and its effect on Egyptian youth

“The Yacoubian Building.” A poor lady, Buthayna played by Hend Sabri, was seeking a job and was constantly harassed by her bosses. There were several cases of harassment on Buthayna, one of which was an old man known for harassing all his employees, he took them to warehouse located under his garment store to be able to be alone with themHe used his power has their boss to give them 20L.E extra for giving him the chance to make out with them. He took advantage of their situation.

Content Analysis of Movies

Results

• 35 Respondents

Samples

Hypothesis

. Snowball sampling

. surveys

. for wider circulation

. volunteer sampling

• interviews

• Media has increased the rate of sexual harassment in Egypt and has negatively affected the standards of society

History of Egyptian media

TV

1970s-1980s:

• Egyptian film industry decline with rise of "contractor movies"
• movies to gain quick money with no real content

• 1st country in Africa & Middle East to establish a film industry
• Cinematic production:
• first news film in 1909 and silent movies in 1920s
• Studio Misr in 1935 led to more production
• 1940s-1960s: golden age of Egyptian cinema
• historical events as monarchy, colonialism, WWII, & 1952 coup
• mass media experienced a turning point when film industry was nationalized in 1964

new trend of "contractor movies" and how they affect youth behavior

Sha'abi music that's widely circulated & contains explicit and foul language

• In Modern times,Egyptian cinema has gone in 2 directions:

1. Small art films that gain international attention but are not appealing domestically

2. Contractor/Commercial movies that gained wide appeal to Egyptian youth

• El Sobky, Tamer Hosny, etc.
• spread post revolution bec. it's low in cost and targeted at the low class segment (majority of population)
• guaranteed success

Music Industry

• Sayed Darwish, Um Kalthum, Abdel Halim Hafez, etc.music legends
• 1970s:
• Spread of Egyptian pop music
• Now:
• Spread of Egyptian folk music: Sha'abi
• focuses on social and class issues
• lyrics composed of local Egyptian words
• reached other classes through social media after they were remixed and made more "hip"
• contains explicit & foul language
• blamed for deterioration of youth's morals and values
• Oka & Ortega

Jane D. Brown and Kelly Engle (2011)

• hypothesis: exposure to sexually explicit content will predict greater perpetration of sexual harassment
• Their "social learning theory" model suggests that people create & store "scripts" that guide social behavior
• imitation of behavior
• stratified sample based on age and race where sample was asked about sexual harassment activities they had perpetrated after watching sexually explicit content
• 63% reported 5-10 perpetrations
• conclusion: The more children are exposed to movies, music videos, etc. that have sexual content, the more they're likely to engage in sexual harassment.

Ashley Williams (2011)

• increasing sexual harassment incidents in schools (sexual phrases, gestures, inappropriate pictures, etc.)
• study where 33 students watched music videos and their behavior was observed
• simple random sample
• conclusion: language, nudity, etc. and the more children are exposed to music videos, the more likely they're going to harass other females

American Association of University Women (AAUW)

• survey with alarming results in schools
• 56% of girls and 40% of boys said they experienced at least 1 incident of sexual harassment during the school year

Conclusion

Topic

Literature Review

• Emilie Buchwald (2009)
• argued that sexual harassment is connected to the portrayal of violence in the media
• study of 52 men who had less empathy after being exposed to more violent movies that showed sexual assault
• concluded that media contributes to the perpetuation of sexual assault because it views women as objects or bodies.
• This increases rate of sexual harassment

• Egyptian media's deterioration and the negative effect on the behavior of the youth
• Popular Egyptian movies and music increased vulgar language, use of substance, and sexual violence

• Media has a great influence over the behavior of the youth.
• Content that includes foul language, using drugs or alcohol, and sexual innuendos negatively affect the youth
• The egyptian media is facing constant decline
• Youth of different social classes are influenced by the decline in the media, and believe it is one of the reasons in the increasing rate of sexual harassment
• Media should be further censored because it is one of the factors of the increase in the rate of sexual harassment

Question

Mass Media & Culture

• Does Egyptian media increase the chance of sexual harassment?

• has powerful social implications on how youth think, behave, dress, and talk.
• Globalization changed how people perceive what's right vs what's wrong
• Violence, vulgar language, sexual innuendos, & explicit content increased in the Egyptian media
• actors engaging in shameful behaviors (harassment, drugs, alcohol, violence) & glorification of these acts can lead to irresponsible behavior choices and a blurred understanding of reality.

Egyptian media culture and its effect on Egyptian youth