ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of relevant research on how social media were utilised in Egyptian politics, by key political movements. Every movement has its own story and every era is historicised via its own storytelling tools. For our era, social media platforms provide variety of ways with which to tell, share and feel our way into developing stories. In addition to media outlets, external non-Arabic speaking observers became participants in the Twitter discussions when they chimed in or showed support. Zizi Papacharissi and de Fatima Oliveira attribute the influx of non-local participants to the blending of news, opinion, and drama that created an affective news stream of tweets and encouraged commentary from participants and non-participants alike. Researchers have questioned how social media influenced journalistic practices, and how individual citizens and activists rose to prominence. At the time of the uprising, the use of social media by journalists was a relatively nascent development in the organisational routines of news work.
