


































Communication, Society and Media 
ISSN 2576-5388 (Print) ISSN 2576-5396 (Online) 

Vol. 3, No. 1, 2020 
www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/csm 

27 

 

Original Paper 

News Trend in Political Participation: Does News Convince 

Female Electors to Vote? A Comparative Study between Egypt’s 

(Cairo) and Morocco’s (Rabat) Media Campaigns 

Monia Mohsen
1*

 & Iman El-Bastawisi
2
 

1 
October University for Modern Sciences & Arts (MSA University), Egypt 

2 
SAPE Dep., the American University in Cairo & the Facu lty of Postgraduate African Students, 

Anthropology Dept., Cairo University, Egypt 

* 
Monia Mohsen, Advertising and Public Relations Dept., October University for Modern Sciences & 

Arts (MSA University), Egypt 

 

Received: February 7, 2020     Accepted: February 18, 2020     Online Published: February 24, 2020 

doi:10.22158/csm.v 3n1p27                       URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/cs m.v3n1p27 

 

Abstract 

The aim of this paper to explore the news availability and its effect on female voting behaviour in 

Egypt’s capital Cairo and Morocco’s capital Rabat political elections. The study used an exploratory 

research design, working within a qualitative paradigm two sources of evidence were employed. 

Commentary was compiled from respondents: (i) Twenty in-depth face-to-face interviews with key 

respondents from Egypt and Morocco (ii) Four focus groups with each group containing six 

respondents in Egypt and Morocco. In regards to the findings, the media impact was apparent in both 

countries that influence citizens. However, they mentioned minimal influence by the available political 

news. Egyptian citizens confirmed that they were not convinced that the available news convince 

females to vote, as they felt that the available newspapers and news websites is of less credibility, yet 

Moroccan citizens confirmed that the available news is credible and it does convince females to vote. 

Mentioning social and cultural determinates that affects females in the society, both Egyptians and 

Moroccans claimed that females have their full rights that gives full freedom to  participate in the 

elections. Finally, both citizens conformed that the social media, is the most effective medium employed 

in political media campaigns. 

Keywords 

female, voting, news, Egypt and Morocco 

 



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1. Introduction 

The most famous and probably the shortest definition of democracy was delivered by Abraham Lincoln 

in h is historic Gettysburg Address of 1863: “Government of the people , for the people, by  the people”. 

Democracy as a perception, it is way different and multifaceted, it is something which is documented 

by plenty of modern democracy theories (Saage, 2005;  Schmidt, 2010). Besides, a main factor which 

distinguishes these challenging theories, is the participation level and the engagement forms they 

expect from cit izens (Dahlgreen, 2009). Yet, one main  civ ic duty which is common by all modern 

theories of democracy, is that the citizens should keep themselves informed about public issues; first to 

be able to  participate in  the public d iscourse, second to form qualified  political opin ions, and finally to 

implement their right to vote.  

Past studies have shown that the Arab media tend to operate with authoritarianis m and social 

responsibility as media norms, which override liberalis m. Past evidence also shows that Arab 

governments used press laws and intimidation to close down media and news outlets to maintain their 

strict control over the media and its content (Rugh, 2004; Sakr, 2001). However, there was a slow 

movement towards democratic reform in Egypt that allowed more freedom of the press and the 

adoption of western democratic press principles.  

The former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was required to resign after 18 days of strikes and social 

arrest. Media played the role of engaging and organizing the protes ts. Moreover, it was a major element 

in build ing the movement (Sohail & Chebib, 2011). The important effect of media during the revolution 

led the government to block internet (consequently no access for Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube…, 

etc.), and blackout mobile phones’ network. However, those barriers were not sufficient, as successful 

workarounds were found (Sohail & Chebib, 2011). People were attracted to media and eventually they 

were attracted to the revolution leading them to participate.  

During Pres ident Hosni Mubarak’s regime, the Egyptian media environment was characterized by 

inconsistency and uncertainty. Mubarak had strict control over media outlets and operations through 

various laws such as the Egyptian penal code, the 1996 press law, the Egyp tian constitution, and press 

licensing laws. Nevertheless, in the later years of Mubarak’s reg ime, the Egyptian media started to 

observe much freedom and democracy when the existing government allowed the format ion of the first 

daily independent newspaper Al Masry Al Youm, plus it eliminate the ban on issuing licenses for 

private channels (Al Masry, 2012). On the other hand, the Egyptian television environment started to 

embellishment in 2000s, for the first time, when, the Egyptian government conformed on the issuing of 

issue licenses, which allowed private Egyptian television channels to be launched. Mainly the 

government was under severe pressure to satisfy the national business niche, pamper in state 

investments and finally  to surpass other Arab countries to be the finest among Pan  Arab media 

production.  



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It is not only Egypt in the Arab region who fought for freedom, years ago following the March 1998 

elections, but also an alliance government headed by opposition socialist Abderrahmane Youssoufi, 

which is main ly fo rmed of min isters chosen from opposition parties. Morocco Prime Minister 

Youssoufi's government was the first government elected chiefly from opposition parties. Moreover, it 

was the first time in Arab  world, the modern political history, that the opposition seized power after the 

elections. As for now the current government is ru led by Saadeddine Othmani.  

The 2011 pro-democracy 20 February revolutions, injected a new energy into the Moroccan state media. 

The expansion of the Moroccan media industry reflects its historical, political and social subtleties in 

country. Besides, the history of the Moroccan media shows a pervasive uncertainty with irregular series 

of openness and closure which is depending mainly  on the government’s acceptance, and its need to 

endure modernizat ion encounters; such as encouraging journalists to debate and to challenge the 

historical constitutional taboos, as the recent constant restrictions on critical reporting is reducing 

journalists again to self-censorship. Still, the limited possibility and impact of this movement 

vulnerable merg ing all of these trends.  

This leads to understand that media strategies and promotional campaigns, which are usually used to 

help increase their share through election campaigns (Kotler, 1975). Indeed, authors assume that 

perceptions of candidates and voting objectives are more generally focused on personality image, rather 

than policy (Guzmán & Sierra, 2009). It is crucial to consider media and communicat ion processes 

generally in the study of conflict formation which has been widely pred ictable (Hoffmann, 2013).  

Given what has been discussed thus far, this led the researcher to seek understanding the news in Egypt 

and Morocco in order to exp lore the news availab ility and its effect on female voting behaviour in 

Egypt’s capital Cairo and Morocco’s capital Rabat  political elect ions. To address this, five main areas 

were d iscussed from cit izens perspectives (i) The media impact in Egypt and Morocco (ii) The extent 

were the female electorates influenced by availab le political newspapers or news website (iii) Female 

electorates perception of the available news (iv) Social and cultural determinants of the female political 

participation, and finally (v) Most effective medium employed in political media campaigns. This paper 

does not represent the political, religious, economic and/or social views of the authors. The paper is 

structured as followed: literature review, methodology, findings, and conclusion.  

 

2. Literature Review 

The studies are mostly very relevant to the discourse under construction and provided insight into the 

various dimensions of the topic. On  rev iewing the literature of the topic under examination, it  has been 

found that many studies were done in the point under research; however, most of these studies were not 

conducted on the Arab media. Only limited number of studies were done on that area. Few literature 

studies conducted in in Egypt and Morocco. The importance of women’s involvement in formal politics 



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or political representation has been underlined by large number researchers of feminist and democracy 

researchers. Yet, many forms of polit ical part icipation or other behaviors exist outside of the formal 

political scope must be tackled in order to both acknowledge their importance along with how they 

cooperate with more fo rmal political behaviors. 

Naib (2011) wrote about females who had become polit ical activ ists. Thusly, they utilized online life to 

illuminate and report their “ace progressive stories and commitments” adequately. Their online posts, 

pictures, recordings and tweets became moment web-based life hits, so turning into a web sensation 

and turning into an energizing cry to move others to jo in the fights at Tahrir Square. As an example, 

Naib (2011) in her written news article for Aljazeera, t itled “Women of the Revolution” reports on a 

number of young women who had become political act ivists. As such, they used social media to inform 

and document their “pro-revolut ionary stories and contributions’ very effectively. Their on-line posts, 

pictures, videos and tweets became instant social media h its, so going viral and becoming a rally ing cry 

to inspire others to join the protests at Tahrir Square. What the discussion has highlighted thus far is the 

dichotomy faced by Egyptian women. The Arab spring, and more so, the revolutions of January and 

June revived women’s aspirations. Women became active actors that helped shape the future of Egypt, 

they felt at  last they had a voice and their contributions recognized  (Khodair & Hassib, 2015). Naib 

(2011) claimed that a real sense of how women felt about their part icipation with in the revolution, 

Egyptian women, just like men, as they all as Egyptians shaped a new political and social scene (Naib, 

2011). 

Ironically beyond this, such aspirations remained very much an idealist view and the reality proved to 

be much more complex, because women faced social and cultural obstacles, and still do even to this 

day (Botman, 1999; Bastawy, 2014, 2015;  Frantzman, 2017). According to OpCit Research (2013),  

reviewed  the barriers to women’s inclusion in politics, and, through case studies and research with new 

media users, how new media may should embrace the growth women’s involvement in all, different 

levels, political part icipation, and, o f course, including formal representative politics. It focused on new 

media such as Computer Assisted Communication (CAC), social networking, networked activ ities, 

online fo rums. The study used a focus group with a d iverse group of women recru ited from the general 

public; also, in-depth twitter-enabled survey, and an in-depth semi-structured survey of members of an 

international professional women’s network. Finally, the s tudy revealed that several barriers to 

women’s involvement and new media strategies should be developed using gender mainstreaming 

principles. Besides, there were few differences between male and female uses of new media. Women 

seemed to be more interactive on social media, as they have more followers and likes, compared to 

men. 

Mcleod et al. (1999), that examined the ro le of community integration and mass and interpersonal 

communicat ion in forecasting two types of local polit ical participation; “institutio nalized” acts of 



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participation, and less traditional acts of participating and speaking out in a forum. It showed a strong 

role of newspaper readership and a somewhat lower impact of interpersonal discussion on 

institutionalized participation. Different patterns emerged for participation in a civic forum, Television 

news use had no direct impact on either type of participation, but it did have a modest indirect impact 

on institutionalized part icipation. Moreover, Bakker, T. P., & de Vreese, C. H. (2011) added that 

political participation has attracted a great deal o f scholarly attention. Start ing from a notion of 

differential media use and an encompassing notion of polit ical participation, this art icle tests the 

relationships between media use (newspaper, te levision, and Internet) and offline and online forms of 

political participation. Findings from a national survey reveal that a variety of Internet uses are 

positively related with different forms of political part icipation, whereas the relationship between  most 

uses of traditional media and participation are weak, though positive. Moreover, positive relat ionships 

between online communicat ion and non-informational uses of the Internet vis -à-vis participation are 

found. Moreover, Sylvia Tamale in her book: When Hens Begin to Crow Gender and Parliamentary 

Politics in  Uganda. Stating that Uganda is unique in  its affirmative action program for 

women-participation. The book mainly  studies how women have adapted their legislat ive strategies for 

empowerment in light of Uganda’s patriarchal h istory and social structure. President Yoweri Museveni, 

in the late 1980s, claimed  that Uganda’s effective development was main ly because it increased gender 

equity, plus it  supported the opinions by involving females in centered policies in  motion; for example, 

saving thirty-nine seats for women in  the parliament. The study referred to other African and 

non-African countries struggling with the same challenges of democracy and development; moreover, 

it showed that media contributed in help ing participation of women.  

Unlike majority of studies, a study by Wilkins (2010) b laming media for declining political 

participation among cit izens. The study is faulting media for declining political part icipation in the 

United States. As the survey research results indicate that public engagement and political suspicion 

may be related with polit ical Participation; however, these procedures are not straightforwardly 

described by watching television. Instead, newspaper reading and television news watching, along with 

level of education, tend to be related with electoral part icipation. The author suggests that uncertainty 

be re-conceptualized as a healthy part of the democratic progression. 

Finally, Tolbert, C. J., & Mcneal, R. S. (2003) suggests that changes in communication technology may 

play an important ro le in influencing electoral behaviour. Th is study main ly focuses on the 

communicat ional part  that traditional models of voter turnout may  be under-specified with respect to 

changes in the media, especially use of new information technologies. Furthermore, the Internet 

improves voter’s perception and informat ion about electorates and the elections; as a result, it  increases 

voters’ participation. Respondents with access to the Internet  and online election news were 

significantly more likely to report voting in the 1996 and 2000 presidential elections. It also suggests 



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that access to Internet and online election news significantly, improved the chance of voting.  

 

3. Method 

According to Malhotra, Birks, and Wills (2010), Qualitative research approach (Figure 1) is divided 

mainly into two categories direct and indirect. The researcher mainly used both direct approaches. 

Figure 1. Qualitative Research, Source: Malhotra et al. (2010) 

 

3.1 Research Instruments 

The paper used two sources of evidence: face-to-face semi-structured interviews and focus groups. The 

advantages and disadvantage of these sources of evidence is well documented and will not be rehearsed 

here. The rationale for this techniques merge is found in what the paper aimed to exp lore. The aim of 

this paper to exp lore the news availability and its effect on female voting behaviour in Egypt’s capital 

Cairo and Morocco’s capital Rabat political elect ions. In addition, the design was concerned with 

extracting detail appertaining to individual interpretations and richness of individual insight relevant to 

news content. Looking at each technique in brief:  

3.1.1 Face-to-face Semi-structured Interviews 

Qualitative research is a category of research design that is concerned with individual interpretations; 

and richness of descriptive reports of individual insight which is mainly used in feminist research 

(Hakim, 2000). Moreover, according to Carson et al. (2001), if a politician wants to test a sudden 

incline in quantitative poll, he/she is required to conduct qualitative research to understand the reason 

and deep feelings of voters. Promise, Tony Blair’s campaign  name, used qualitative approach to test 



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citizens’ feelings towards Tony Blair; they used the Blair focus groups to know people’s feelings 

towards the brand. Simultaneously they asked some citizens to write letters to Tony Blair (Scammell, 

2007). Th is research conducted twenty in-depth face-to-face interviews with citizens in both capitals 

Cairo and Rabat (key informants – see table 1). Respondents were chosen from occupations such as 

academia, communicat ions, financial services, organizat ions. 

 

Table 1. Interviewees 

Interviewees 

Moroccan Egyptian 

Director Marketing Manager 

Media Relation Manager Sales Manager 

Media Account Manager  Housewife  

Economic Research Production Executive 

Student-Faculty of Languages Student- Faculty of Law 

Dig ital Market ing Executive  Television Reporter 

Finance Associate Sound Engineer 

Cost Manager Oncologist 

Interior Designer Creat ive content Director 

Freelance Creative Director Human Resources Executive 

 

Key informants were selected because they were well informed about the issue pertaining to political 

landscape, the access was established with indiv idual respondents via face to face interaction to make 

sure that they are willing to participate in the study, interview appointment was scheduled and 

conducted upon respondents’ agreement. This was made possible because the study had an Egyptian 

female researcher in situation. Owing to the sensitivity of the topic, some interviewees refused access 

while others agreed and were happy about it. The interview schedule, with associated questions, 

concentrated on five key areas: (i) the media impact in Egypt and Morocco (ii) The extent were the 

female electorates influenced by available political newspapers or news website (iii) female electorates 

perception of the available news (iv) Social and cultural determinants of the female political 

participation, and finally (v) Most effective medium employed in political media campaigns. 

3.1.2 Focus Groups 

Morgan (1996) suggest focus groups are a valuable tool in qualitative consumer research when 

conducted from a truly qualitative perspective. Moreover, they work fo r topics concerned with (i) 

convictions and beliefs of others and (ii) group interactions that may knock into t he motivation and 

unconscious areas of the human essence. To this end, four focus groups were conducted with each 



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containing six respondents (Morgan, 1996; Threlfall, 1999; Hakim 2000; Malhotra & Briks, 2003). 

Respondents were drawn from: socio-economic groups A and B from d ifferent professions, as noted in 

earlier in table 1 above.  

Moreover, based on particular demographics, such as, education, gender, nationality and age 

respondents were targeted and placed into one of the four focus groups. Unlike Egyptian focus groups, 

it was an obstacle in Morocco to set the focus groups with n a place, which was café and restaurants, 

with d ifferent citizens. Therefore, given that the topic negotiates an important political issue which is 

controversial topics in both Egypt and Morocco, the paper wished to explore the differing opinions of 

the various cohort of citizens, and ascertain whether they were able to influence and change opinions of 

one another. In essence, as an unexplored topic, value from focus g roups, allowed the researcher to 

reach valuable evidence on language or behavior and capture real -life communicat ion among the 

various focus group members (Threlfall, 1999). A combination of snowballing, judgmental and 

referrals were used to access suitable respondents, focus groups revolved around the same interview 

guidelines; in order, to confirm what has been concluded from the interviews.  

 

4. The Peripherals  

All research instruments were being tested throughout the pilot study; the pilot study allowed  

adjustments and pre-warning aspects within the study that could demonstrate any problem. On the 

other hand, the possibility of reliab ility and generalizab ility were conceded as Morocco and Egypt’s has 

a very unstable political situation; also, the attitudes from city to city and from urban to rural. Given the 

environment and sensitivity of the study, Judgmental and Snowballing techniques were considered 

appropriate forms of sampling. With regards to ethical issues, before participating within the study all 

respondents were made aware of the nature, topics and purpose. Also, all respondents consented to 

have their names published. However, names will not appear with in this paper. Each indiv idual will be 

coded from the alphabet from A to J and have an initial letter as (e) o r (m) depends on their country. 

Retouring to cultural and polit ical sensitivity, all fieldwork was conducted by a trained female Egyptian 

researcher, in Cairo, Egypt and, within the natural and familiar setting of the respondents. The 

interviews and focus groups were conducted in Arabic, as its convenient for both Egyptian and 

Moroccans; thus, the issue of forward  and back translation was addressed, main ly, two  steps to 

translation were conducted. First, interviews, and, focus group’s questions were written in and 

translated from English to Arabic. These were then sent to an experienced English/Arabic translator to 

approve the translation reliability. After, the completion of the fieldwork, instruments were translated 

from Arabic back into English during  the process of transcribing data. The integrity of the respondents 

spoken word was maintained throughout. Finally, all semi-structured interviewers were voice recorded 

via an electronic devise, as well as, copious notes taken. Similarly, focus  groups were recorded to in 



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order to remember the discussion.  

In-depth interviews and focus groups are necessary in emerging marketing theories. A large number of 

studies using qualitative methods have been conducted in market ing in the consumer context (e.g., Belk, 

1992; Belk et al., 1988;  Alam, 2005). However, in this paper, the author intends to follow the theory 

building purpose by using in-depth field  interviews with Egyptian and Moroccan citizens. As, research 

does advantage from having different sources of evidence. Additionally, the use of multip le sources of 

evidence helps in achieving construct validity in  a qualitative research (Yin, 1994). In -depth interviews 

are used more in academic research with 15-25 people (Hakim, 2000).  

 

5. Findings 

There are five main areas that the study explored  from the cit izens perspective, (i) the media impact in 

Egypt and Morocco (ii) The extent were the female electorates influenced by available political 

newspapers or news website (iii) Female electorates perception of the availab le news (iv ) Social and 

cultural determinants of the female polit ical participation, and finally (v) Most effective medium 

employed in polit ical media campaigns. Where necessary data extrapolated via the various research 

tools will be used in conjunction with each other to help support discussion under the five areas noted 

above. Looking at each:  

(i)The media impact in Egypt and Morocco: 

This section focused upon general key questions that explored  the respondents’ knowledge on media 

impact in  Egypt and Morocco, the section involved around five questions that revolved around the 

importance and impact of media in both countries in regards of most used media and the credible one. 

During  the face-face interview phase it transpired that the media impact  was apparent in both Egypt 

and Morocco, that had a huge influence on citizens. Ostensibly, citizens believed that nowadays digital 

media has a huge impact on daily lives, and most people get information and news from on line media 

as respondent B(e) noted:  

“media is the thing that we wake up to its our source of news, and mostly it’s so 

credible.” 

Also, respondent I(m) 

“media is credible as long as you know how to interpret the message”  

Respondent C (m) added, 

“I don’t buy newspapers for political news I go  for online news, and I believe what I 

read, why would they lie”  

Besides, respondent H(e) supported, 

“I don’t read newspapers I get all new either from Facebook or from by friends and 

family”  



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Citizen also confirmed that the Media impact on the social level is more palpable 

than political one, as respondent J(e),   

“media impact is high we learn everything from media, we get updates about our 

family and friends through, we even know how to dress from media, and we get some 

political updates” 

What became evident throughout the interviews and all focus groups that citizens noted a huge media 

impact, especially on teenagers and young adults, that when the interviewer asked on media impact, 

mostly all cit izens confirmed that all people became media users by different means, so eventually 

citizens are always updated by what happened in the country either polit ical or social news, as 

respondent D(e) added, 

“we are always online smart phones made it so easy to be updated by all news; for 

example, I am subscribed on certain news application, that send me news minute by 

minute” 

(ii) The extent were the female electorates influenced by available political newspapers or news website  

Within this section the paper wished to explore extent were the female electorates influenced by 

available political newspapers or news website. For instance, despite what has been discussed in the 

section above, they mentioned min imal influence by the available political news on females. Here 

questions focused upon areas related to the availab le newspapers and online news with a common 

theme. Citizens confirmed that that the news available during elect ions are not strong motive for 

voting, 

Respondent B(m) “the news does not help us in finding the suitable candidate” 

Citizens were also asked to evaluate news content that they find daily or weekly according to their 

usage,  

Respondent C(e) added, “mostly the available news is an agenda from the 

government”  

Respondent A(m) supported, “we find the new but it doesn’t mean that the news 

available if of a value” 

During the focus groups citizen were confirming that they find news, in both countries, as they news 

always available on tv, online or through newspapers. However, they mentioned that not always 

updates about the political arena.  

(iii) Female electorates perception of the available news  

It was found that Contrary to popular belief, media exposure seems to have little relat ionship to voters'; 

prior political attitudes and educational levels are much stronger predictors of these perceived images 

rather than the available news. Egyptian citizens confirmed that they were not convinced that the news 

(availab le news) convince females to vote, as they felt that the availab le newspapers and news websites 



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is of less credibility, yet Moroccan citizens confirmed that the availab le news is cred ible and it does 

convince females to vote. 

As respondent B(e) went on to pointed out:  

“of course, the news available during the voting period that specific times will all 

support the candidate” 

Egyptian citizens confirmed that news credibility is weak and does not provide the true image 

consequently it does not help in the voting behavior, respondent E(e) added, 

“I go vote but not because of the news is trustworthy. but because I will be fined if I 

didn’t vote”  

Some cit izens confirmed that the voting behavior is done according to prior informat ion regarding the 

candidates, and the available news is usually is a form of updates rather than valuable news, 

Respondent E(m) added, 

“we vote because we have a prejudgment on the candidate” 

(iv) Social and cultural determinants of the female political participation 

The penultimate part of the interv iews and focus groups explored the perceived role of women within 

the society. Its important part to understand the society role. Here questions focused upon seven areas 

with a common theme of social and cultural determinants. Citizens from both countries agreed upon 

female having their fu ll rights in the society, as respondent E(e) stated, 

“men and women are equally treated in the society” 

On the other hand, only one respondent from Morocco claimed that females and males a re not treated 

equally and still female d id not achieve their freedom, Respondent I(m),  

“females are bargain ing and fighting, but still they are mostly home as housewives” 

Also, citizens were asked to comment on the female ro le in the political arena, which was more likely 

positive and the role in the society, all respondents equalized the role as male make ones. Respondent 

C(e). In essence, respondents were asked to comment on Challenges and barriers that face women’s 

political participation, Respondent A (e) added, Respondent A(m) claimed,  

“proactive gender equality policy in parliament which results in a high number of 

female polit icians” 

Citizens were asked to comment on Challenges and barriers that face women’s polit ical participation, 

answers varied but within the same context, some of the cit izens commented on the Male Pressure in 

the society as respondent B(e) added,  

“we always follow men in voting we take it as family decision, we usually vote for 

the same candidate” 

Respondent C(m) supported, “it ’s  not like they force us to vote but eventually we vote for the same 

candidate” 



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Also, Respondent E(e) claimed, 

“Use Peer Pressure Telling others about your voting plan can also remind them to 

vote, ask your friends what their voting plan is when and where they will vote. Then 

follow up and ask if they kept to it, social pressure is mighty persuasive”  

(v) Most effective medium employed in political media campaigns 

The last section consisted of question regarding the most effective medium employed in politica l 

campaigns and whether this medium is appealing to females or not. When respondents were asked 

regarding the most employed medium in political campaigns, noticeably of the 20 (n=100%) 

face-to-face interviewees and the four focus groups, all agreed that social media is the most used and 

most effective as respondent C(e) stating, 

“since the 2011 revolution social media became a weapon that collapsed the old regime”  

Moreover, respondents were asked to state which social medium precisely is the most used. The answer 

varied among participants, almost 10 (n=50%) conformed that Facebook is mostly used, the other n=50% 

agreed that twitter is the used and most suitable medium in political campaigns. As respondent F(e) 

purported:  

“I guess its Facebook mostly used but not as much credible as twitter”  

When participants were asked to state where the medium is appealing to females n=100% agreed that 

yes Facebook is used friendly and used by almost all females with all levels in the society, so they have 

access for information and updated by all political news. Finally, respondent G(m) stated:  

“Facebook is the most used medium for entertainment and news as well for males 

and females” 

 

6. Conclusion 

This paper set out to exp lore the news availability and its  impact on female voting behaviour in Egypt’s 

capital Cairo and Morocco’s capital Rabat  political elections. To address this, five main areas were 

discussed from cit izens perspectives. 

Through the qualitative methods, it’s been found that the media impact in Egypt and Morocco is quite 

huge. It is quite clear that the media p layed an important role in  these countries, especially  Egypt as 

throughout the interviews and focus groups the citizens mentioned how powerfu l the media was during 

the revolution, adding that the fo rmer president Hosni Mubarak was required to resign after 18 days of 

strikes and social arrest. Media p layed the role of engaging and organizing the protests. Moreover, it 

was a major element in building the movement. Cit izens did also mention that the role of media in 

entertaining is more powerful than the polit ical one, especially in Morocco. The cit izens in Morocco 

confirmed that media is an important element in their daily lives, but the news or ‘political news’ is not 

that powerful and it is not of a strong impact, interestingly they are happy with what is being aired or 



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published.  

In addition, when talking about the female role in society both in Morocco and Egypt equalized the ro le 

of female with the males, mentioning that they have the s ame rights and eventually the same political 

rights. But, surprisingly, they added that of course they face some obstacles and barriers in the society 

that might prevent in  polit ical part icipation some of them is the male p ressure. On the other hand, they 

added that they do participate and they do convince their peers to participate as well. Furthermore, they 

mentioned that when females are elected it a  kind of a motive that might lead them to participate.  

The news was an interesting part in the analysis. First both countries conformed  that the newspapers 

are not durable nowadays, and the informat ion they get is from the dig ital news. However, they 

mentioned minimal influence by the availab le polit ical news. As the in fluence is not apparent and does 

not change anything. In addition to, the Female electorates perception of the available news, Egyptian 

citizens confirmed that they were not convinced that the news (available news) convince females to 

vote, as they felt that the available newspapers and news websites is of less credibility. In their defense, 

that most of political news during election will, of course, support the candidates and its kind of 

updates of what is going on in the country rather than informat ion regarding the candidates. On the 

other hand, Moroccan citizens confirmed that the available news is credible and it does convince 

females to vote, as they said it convince both males and females. The question is, so the news does not 

influence Moroccans, but it does convince them to vote? They also added that they go for news 

available on social media such as twitter and Facebook. Unexpectedly, they said that Facebook is not 

that credible, but it’s the most used medium, along with twitter especially in polit ical news. Also, they 

mentioned that Facebook is appealing and easy to use, as of course each candidate always makes sure 

to establish a communicat ion channel which is usually through Facebook or twitter with cit izens. 

This research revealed the important trends that need to be addressed by the news to avoid the decline 

in the distrust of the voters. At the same time, it  focused exclusively on the views and comments by 

electorates from two countries which represents only one-sided view of the picture. To deeply 

understand the phenomena of trust and trust breach between political candidates and voters, voters 

should be brought on the board and their views should be compiled. A very important future research 

direction is based on the identification o f reasons and factors contributing in the voter’s decision, is the 

analysis of news content. This will help the political candidates as well as polit ical parties to utilize the 

research findings to strengthen the relationship with their voters based on trust. It is important to 

understand that political success is not always defined and determined by the same factors, and that the 

needs and expectations of the electorate might vary from one country to another. 

 

 

 



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