Table Of ContentThe American University in Cairo
School of Global Affairs and Public Policy
Egyptian
Audience’s
Perception
of
Political
Satire
Show:
An
Analysis
of
the
Perceived
and
Actual
Influence
of
Political
Comedy
Programming
A Thesis Submitted to
The Department of Journalism and Mass Communication
In partial fulfillment of the requirements for
The degree of Master of Arts.
By Dina Mohamed Younis
Under the supervision of Dr. Amani Ismail
July 2014
The
American
University
in
Cairo
School
of
Global
Affairs
and
Public
Policy
Egyptian
Audience’s
Perception
of
Political
Satire
Show:
An
Analysis
of
the
Perceived
and
Actual
Influence
of
Political
Comedy
Programming
A
Thesis
Submitted
by
Dina
Mohamed
Younis
to
the
Department
of
Journalism
and
Mass
Communication
July
2014
in
partial
fulfillment
of
the
requirements
for
the
degree
of
Masters
of
Arts
has
been
approved
by
Dr.
Amani
Ismail
Thesis
Adviser
Affiliation
____________________________________________
Date
____________________
Dr.
Naila
Hamdy
Thesis
Second
Reader
Affiliation
____________________________________________
Date
____________________
Dr.
Dina
Bassiouni
Thesis
Third
Reader
Affiliation
___________________________________________
Date
___________________
Prof.
Mervat
Abou
Oaf
_________________________________________
Department
Chair
Date
____________________
Dr.
Laila
El
Baradei
_________________________________________
Dean
of
GAPP
Date
____________________
ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
In
the
name
of
Allah,
the
Most
Gracious,
the
Most
Merciful.
First,
I
thank
god
for
giving
me
the
opportunity
and
blessing
to
conduct
my
MA,
all
of
my
success
is
granted
to
him.
Al
Hamduallah.
Second,
I
would
like
to
thank
my
father
and
mother
for
their
support
both
morally
and
finically
through
out
the
years
from
the
beginning
of
my
bachelor
degree
until
this
very
moment.
My
sister,
Ayda,
I
will
be
forever
grateful
to
her
for
her
continuous
and
unconditional
love,
support
and
blessing.
Much
thanks
goes
to
my
brother
and
brother-‐in-‐law
for
their
help.
A
huge
thanks
to
my
lovely
cousin
Ayaat
Ehab
for
her
generous
help
and
support.
Third,
I
would
also
like
to
express
my
utmost
gratitude
to
my
adviser
Dr.
Amani
Ismail
for
her
continuous
guidance,
timely
feedback,
patience,
and
encouragement.
I
am
very
thankful
for
her
endless
support,
I
could
have
not
continue
this
thesis
without
Dr.
Amani
and
her
willingness
to
generously
donate
her
time
to
help
me
when
needed.
Fourth,
I
am
particularly
thankful
for
the
constant
help
of
my
friends.
Mariam
Amer,
you
have
my
deepest
gratitude
for
all
of
your
support
and
assistance.
My
best
friends
Dina,
Abeer
and
Haidy
deepest
thanks
to
you.
To
all
of
my
colleagues
in
B121
I
would
like
to
Thank
You
for
helping
me
distributing
my
survey
among
the
sample.
Special
thanks
are
extended
to
the
boys
of
B121
for
their
help
and
for
helping
me
with
the
data
entry.
Fifth,
I
would
also
like
to
thank
my
committee
members,
Dr.
Naila
Hamdy
and
Dr.
Dina
Bassiouni,
for
giving
me
their
valuable
time
and
accepting
to
be
in
my
committee.
Their
valuable
critique
and
praise
were
highly
appreciated
and
helpful.
iii
ABSTRACT
As
more
Egyptians
continue
to
expose
themselves
to
the
political
comedy
program
Al
Bernameg,
scholars
should
seek
to
understand
the
audience’s
perception
of
the
program.
This
study
examines
the
perception
of
the
Egyptian
audience
on
the
political
satire
show
Al
Bernameg.
The
study
aims
at
measuring
the
perceived
bias
of
Al
Bernameg
and
the
perceived
and
actual
influence
of
the
program.
This
study
seeks
to
explore
the
influence
Al
Bernameg
has
on
its
audience
in
relating
it
to
the
Third
Person
effect
theory.
It
examines
the
difference
between
the
actual
purpose
for
watching
Al
Bernameg
and
the
perceived
purpose.
The
study
employed
survey
research
as
its
primary
source
of
data
collection
to
investigate
the
research
hypothesis
via
a
purposive
sample
of
508
Egyptians.
The
research
findings
revealed
a
significant
third-‐person
effect
pattern
for
the
political
satire
program,
especially
among
younger
viewers.
iv
TABLE
OF
CONTENTS
Title
Page
#
1. Introduction
1
1.1. Introduction
1
1.2. Al
Bernameg’s
Evolution
3
1.3. About
Bassem
Youssef
5
1.4. Egypt’s
Political
and
Media
Environment
6
1.5. The
Shift
from
Offline
to
Online
8
1.6. Purpose
of
the
Study
11
2. Literature
Review
13
2.1. Political
Shows
13
2.2. Political
Entertainment
13
2.3. Political
Satire
14
2.4. Media
Bias
16
2.5. Humor
&
Politics
16
2.6. Political
Satire
Shows
18
2.6.1. The
Daily
Show
with
Jon
Stewart
18
2.6.2. The
Colbert
Report
21
2.7. Media
in
Egypt
Before
January
25th
Revolution
21
2.8. Media
in
Egypt
After
January
25th
Revolution
26
2.9. Political
Satire
In
Egypt
27
2.10. Al
Bernameg
28
2.11. Egypt’s
Acceptance
of
AL
Bernameg
29
2.12. Pro/Against
Al
Bernameg
31
3. Theoretical
Framework
34
3.1. Social
Comparison
Theory
34
3.2. The
Third
Person
Effect
Theory
37
3.2.1. The
Receptiveness
of
the
Audience
39
3.2.2. Factors
Affecting
the
Third
Person
Effect
39
3.2.3. Perceptions
towards
Persuasive
Messages
40
4. Research
Hypotheses
43
4.1. Research
Hypotheses
43
5. Research
Design
and
Methodology
47
5.1. Type
of
Research
47
5.2. Method
of
Data
Gathering
47
5.3. Types
of
Survey
48
v
5.4. Approach
to
the
Study
48
5.5. Data
Collection
49
5.6. Sampling
49
5.7. Sample
Selection
50
5.8. Questionnaire
Design
51
5.9. Pilot
Study
53
5.10. Operationalization
of
the
Study
Variables
54
5.11. Measurements
55
5.12. Statistical
Analysis
57
6. Results
58
6.1. Description
of
the
Sample
58
6.2. Descriptive
Statistics
59
6.2.1. Frequencies
59
6.2.2. Measures
of
Central
Tendency
59
6.3. Inferential
Statistics
70
6.3.1. Hypothesis
Testing
70
7. Discussion
and
Conclusion
77
7.1. Discussion
77
7.2. Conclusion
83
7.3. Limitations
of
the
Study
85
7.4. The
Significance
of
the
Study
86
7.5. Direction
for
further
research
87
Afterword
89
Bibliography
91
Appendix
105
Appendix
A:
English
Survey
106
Appendix
B:
Arabic
Survey
111
Appendix
C:
IRB
Approval
Letter
116
Appendix
D:
CAPMAS
Approval
Letter
117
vi
LIST
OF
TABLES
Tittle
Page
#
Table
1.1
Respondents’
Gender
59
Table
1.2
Respondents’
Age
59
Table
1.3
Respondents’
Education
59
Table
1.4
Number
of
Episodes
60
Table
1.5
Political
Interest
63
Table
1.6
Talking
about
politics
63
Table
1.7
Accurate
Information
64
Table
1.8
Trustworthy
Information
64
Table
1.9
Fairness
64
Table
1.10
Provides
me
with
a
reasonable
understanding
65
of
political
issues
Table
1.11
Provides
Egyptians
with
a
reasonable
66
understanding
of
political
issues
Table
1.12
Influencing
my
opinions
68
Table
1.13
Influencing
Egyptians’
opinions
68
Table
1.14
Well-‐informed
about
political
events
69
Table
1.15
Political
Terminologies
69
Table
2.1
Mean
Scores
of
perceived
bias
of
Al
Bernameg
65
Table
2.2
Mean
scores
of
the
audience’s
perception
of
Al
Bernameg
68
Table
2.3
Mean
scores
of
audience’s
Self
esteem
69
Table
3.1:
ANOVA
Test
to
measure
the
relationship
between
70
exposure
to
Al
Bernameg
and
the
audience
perception
of
the
program.
Table
3.2:
Correlation
test
to
measure
the
relationship
between
71
watching
Al
Bernameg
and
the
third
person
effect
theory
Table
3.3:
ANOVA
Test
to
measure
the
relationship
between
72
viewers’
political
interest
and
their
perception
of
the
Egyptian’s
audience.
Table
3.4:
ANOVA
Test
to
measure
the
relationship
between
72
viewers’
education
level
and
their
perception
of
the
Egyptian’s
audience.
Table
3.5:
ANOVA
Test
to
measure
the
relationship
73
vii
between
viewers’
age
and
their
perception
of
Al
Bernameg.
Table
3.6:
ANOVA
Test
to
measure
the
relationship
74
between
individuals’
political
views
and
the
perceived
bias
of
Al
Bernameg.
Table
3.7:
Correlation
test
to
measure
the
relationship
75
between
Individuals
with
liberal
political
ideology
and
the
third
person
effect
theory
Table
3.8:
Correlation
test
to
measure
the
relationship
76
between
Individuals
self
esteem
and
the
third
person
effect
theory
viii
LIST
OF
FIGURES
Tittle
Page
#
Figure
1:
Al
Bernameg
Views
60
Figure
2:
Respondents’
Political
Views
61
Figure
3:
Reason
for
watching
Al
Bernameg
62
Figure
4:
Individuals
Believe
that
Al
Bernameg
66
is
a
satirical
Program
Figure
5:
Individuals
believe
that
Egyptian
believes
67
Al
Bernameg
is
a
satirical
Program
ix
Chapter
One
1.1
Introduction
“Turn
on
the
television
in
any
number
of
countries
around
the
world,
and
you
are
bound
to
find
at
least
one
highly
topical
news-‐parody
show
providing
its
own
take
on
contemporary
events.
As
you
forward
choice
clips
from
those
shows,
you
will
also
likely
encounter
the
newest
satirical
Internet
video"
(Day,
2011,
p.
1).
Recently,
after
the
Egyptian
revolution,
most
Egyptians
started
to
watch
a
new
form
of
political
satire
program
that
tackles
social,
cultural
and
political
issues.
This
type
of
political
satire
constitutes
a
new
method
for
discussing
and
criticizing
the
political
arena
and
democracy
in
Egypt.
Viewers
have
started
to
turn
to
these
political
shows
in
order
to
become
aware
of
current
political
and
social
events
in
Egypt,
to
acquire
political
information
and
to
gain
knowledge
about
their
political
system.
Political
satire
shows
in
general
receive
little
research
in
comparison
to
other
entertainment
programs.
Al
Bernameg,
in
particular,
is
underresearched
in
the
field
of
political
communication
and
persuasion.
Like
other
global
satirical
shows,
Al
Bernameg
has
been
able
to
successfully
reach
viewers
who
do
not
have
high
levels
of
political
engagement,
and
gain
their
attention
by
using
humor
and
comedy.
Having
noticed
the
significance
of
this
new
and
growing
phenomenon
in
Egyptian
society,
the
researcher
decided
to
tackle
this
issue
to
understand
the
different
aspects
and
features
of
this
new
genre
of
political
shows,
including
its
1
Description:Perceived and Actual Influence of Political Comedy Programming. A Thesis pattern for the political satire program, especially among younger viewers watched television program in Egypt and it had the highest advertising rates.
