The role of social media in the formation of public opinion towards Islamists: A content analysis

This research investigated how users of social media express their opinions towards the Islamic movement in Egypt through comments on Facebook wall, on Twitter and on comments page of Al Masry Al Youm newspaper. The research argues that comments and opinions expressed in social media – whether pro or anti-Islamist — clearly show specific frames of expression, which uses certain adjectives, words and tones that are formed and spread through the interactive nature of social media, and can be counted towards the evidences that form public opinion towards specific issues in the society. frames revealed the arguments used by either pro or anti Islamists in their defense or attack of Islamists as active participants in the political scene after the revolution.
Since the analysis of the comments was done over two phases: first, immediately after the revolution, and the secondly, during the progress of events and before the presidential elections, the content analysis revealed clear lines of public opinion that can be summarized as follows:
After the revolution, appeared a clear and strong framing of Islamists as being rational, ideals when compared to fewer anti-Islamists frames that described them as fundamentalists or primitive. This positive framing towards Islamists continued in the second phase with a larger percent when compared to anti Islamists frames that started to describe them as biased and sometimes primitive. This result witnesses the starting development of negative attitudes towards Islamists.
 
When we further analyze the frames of comments in the selected sample, we find that in the first phase of the study, the majority of arguments were around civil rights such as citizenship rights and the right to practice democracy. Latter and before the presidential elections, the arguments related to civil rights have heightened, when compared to using other rights as the call for liberal rights or women’s rights.
This clear trend of supporting Islamists was supported by logical analysis and stories of the first days of Islam, and this trend continued during the presidential elections and supported by using faith and hopes for a better future, which appeared through statements as let’s hope, the future will show.