The Discourse of the Egyptian January 25th Revolution: The Facebook Generation’s Perspective

Abstract

This qualitative empirical study deals with the Egyptian revolutionary
discourse published on Twitter by the revolutionaries from the so-called
Facebook generation during the January 25th revolution. Their Twitter
accounts have been analysed using methods based on grounded theory. As
a result, nine general categories that they work with have been identified
(nationalism, pan-Arabism, historical mission, national unity, national
polarization, moral superiority, civil society, Mubarak as a scapegoat, and
uncertainity). We also identified the relations among them and the main
general categories of the discourse: secular nationalism, dignity and
empowerment. The framing of the revolutionary action in terms of secular
nationalism and dignity (empowerment) has motivated the revolutionaries.
These two narratives provided powerful meanings for their actions and
repertoires of contention, which would be highly improbable without such a
framing. At the same time such narratives represent a culture of resistance
rather than a coherent ideology. The revolutionaries’ culture of resistance is
not building on notions of political Islam, but on the former regime’s
discourses of secular nationalism and citizenship (the civil state). However
the revolutionaries used such concepts that were produced by the regime
against the regime itself.