Egyptian politician and academic Mustafa el-Feki (1991: 35) wrote that, ‘Any attempt to discuss the critical period in Muslim-Coptic relations between 1908-11, should include the role of the Coptic press’. Because Egypt is currently facing another critical period in Muslim-Copt relations, it is equally important to look at Coptic media today. One of the first steps in understanding the interaction of Copts with the press and national political culture is to begin to identify the main actors in Egyptian media, with the purpose of building up a picture of the dominant discourses of Copticness and the context in which they operate. As Billig (1995: 108) writes, ‘Utterances are not merely produced by contexts, but they also renew those contexts’. To trace how a media ecology is constructed and why it has taken a particular form, it is useful to present an historical overview of the development of the press sector (Khamis, 2011: 1159) with particular reference to how Coptic media actors have participated in this process. This will begin to explore the extent of the visibility of Copts and Coptic issues in the history of Egyptian media and to analyse the ways in which Coptic and Egyptian media emerged and developed in response to each other and to social and political conditions. This will set out a framework for deconstructing the relationship between media and identity as the basis for media analysis (Matar, 2007: 120). The final question for analysis is how press content on Coptic issues and Muslim-Coptic relations has changed or remained the same. Before tracing the development of the press it is necessary to distinguish

between Egyptian media and Coptic media. In this research the category of national Egyptian media encompasses media that is produced for the general national consumption of all Egyptians, whereas the category of Coptic media is specifically for the consumption of a section of Egyptian society, broadly defined as Copts and understood as Egyptian Christians belonging to the Coptic Orthodox Church. The intended identity of the audience is significant, because journalists tend to produce content for an unknown ideal audience that possesses the cultural knowledge with which to correctly interpret the intended implicit and explicit meanings of the content (Bourdieu, 1999). I label this as Coptic rather than Christian because Coptic

describes not only a specific religious denomination, but also a heritage that is national and social, so Coptic media is not necessarily religious in content or purpose. In the discussion regarding the development of the Egyptian press it is necessary to include also a third category, which I will label national Coptic press. This describes the newspapers owned by Copts, which were part of the mainstream Egyptian press and highlighted national issues as well as Coptic issues, directed at a national audience but with a mandate to offer a Coptic perspective. It should be noted that, despite my use of the generic term ‘Coptic media’, Coptic media has never presented just one face. As this book unfolds, the diversity of Coptic media, its forms, producers and audiences will be revealed, along with the implications for power relations and belonging within the Coptic community and in the Egyptian public sphere.