520 |
|
|
|f 1. The main issues in the speech of Egyptian newspapers in question varied towards social protection policies adopted by the State. However, "Providing and supporting basic goods and services" came at the forefront of other issues, given the importance of monetary support for supply goods, petroleum products, and other services such as health care, government education, housing, drinking water, and sanitation, etc., for poor and middle classes. It also showed that there are differences between the issues dealing with the subject of the study in general in Al-Ahram, Al-Wafd, and Al-Shorouk newspapers. These issues have an intense presence in the Al-Wafd newspaper's speech over Al-Ahram and Al-Shorouk newspapers, which can be attributed to its editorial policy based on its ideology and partisan principles. 2. The reference frames cited by the writers of opinion pieces in the newspapers in question varied in emphasizing their point of view or denying the views opposed to them. They varied between support to economic, political, legal, social, and humanitarian frameworks and the use of citations from reality. However, the support frameworks came at the forefront of other frameworks in the speech of the study sample newspapers as writers of opinion pieces cited various kinds of monetary and in-kind support provided by the government to citizens. The use of these referrals in the context of the press speech varied according to the general framework governing the production of the speech within each study newspaper. For example, Al-Ahram newspaper's speech highlights the government's efforts to provide all kinds of cash and in-kind support to citizens. However, the speech in the newspapers Al-Shorouk and Al-Wafd tended to emphasize the low value of the support provided by the government to the neediest groups and its failure to reach the beneficiaries optimally in light of successive high prices, in conjunction with the low level of income and living standards of the majority of citizens, in addition to criticizing State's economic measures and fiscal and monetary policies — especially the non-application of progressive taxation — and the low income and middle class bearing the burdens of economic reforms. 3. The results indicate that the sample Egyptian newspapers increasingly use rational and logical paths than irrational paths. This may be due to their desire to evaluate social protection programs in accordance with a serious objective vision and not to discredit the government's efforts in this regard. Although the Al-Shorouk newspaper ranked on top of the newspapers that focused and used logical paths and there is a significant difference between this newspaper and others. Al-Ahram newspaper ranked second, while Al-Wafd newspaper was one of the newspapers that widely used illogical paths and uses. Among the most prominent logical evidence paths relied upon by the writers of the opinion pieces are "citation of evidence and logical arguments," "presentation of the importance of the event and proposed solutions," then "providing facts, figures and statistics," "presenting the importance of the event and proposed solutions," then "providing facts, numbers, and statistics," and finally "presenting viewpoints." The findings indicate that Al-Shorouk and Al-Ahram newspapers agree that "citing evidence and arguments" is the most important logical path of proof to be relied upon when addressing social protection policies adopted by the State. The Al-Wafd newspaper relied on "presenting the importance of the event and the proposed solutions" to a greater extent among the logical evidence pathways when dealing with the study subject. Regarding the irrational evidence paths adopted by Egyptian newspapers in opinion pieces when dealing with the study subject, "offensive proof" and "anonymity of sources of information," "presentation of a single point of view," then "defensive proof," and finally "using general structural drafting" ranked on top. The findings point to the agreement of the Al-Shorouk and Al-Wafd newspapers in relying on the method of proving offensive proof to a greater extent than other irrational paths when dealing with the study subject and by a large margin in favor of the Al-Shorouk newspaper. Contrary to the speech of Al-Ahram newspaper, which relied on using defensive proof and presented a single point of view when addressing the study subject, which is consistent with the vision and mission of national newspapers and their editorial policy, which aims to defend the government's internal and foreign policies, support and affirm its point of view, contrary to the policy of the Al-Shorouk and Al-Wafd newspapers, which attacked the government's recent decisions on economic reforms, whether to lift subsidies on petroleum goods, services and products and the subsequent high prices in light of the low standard of living of the majority of people. The two newspapers also view the State's social protection programs provided for the poor and middle classes as weak. 4. Despite the diversity of the main actors in the discourse of the study sample Egyptian newspapers, between government officials, civil society organizations, the private sector, and regional and international organizations and bodies; however, the newspapers focused on government officials (78.2%), especially representatives of the Ministries of Social Solidarity (headed by Dr. Ghada Wali, and (supply and internal trading), headed by Dr. Ali al-Muselhi), as the most important main actors in the press discourse and far from other actors, and highlighted their efforts to expand social protection programs. The study newspapers also agreed in addressing the main actors and ranking them according to their importance when monitoring and analyzing social protection policies adopted by the State during the analytical study period. This reflects the fact that the newspaper's ideology and editorial policy have not affected the ranking of organizations and charitable institutions as secondary actors in terms of importance in the speech of Al-Ahram and Al-Shorouk newspapers and their weak role in the government's participation in providing social protection to citizens, especially low-income people, in the speech of the opinion piece writers in Al-Sharouk newspaper, who stressed the importance of the private sector, civil society organizations to play their developmental role in society in accordance with sound regulations and transparent standards. 5. The results of the study revealed a high percentage of positive qualities and roles attributed to the active forces in the Al-Ahram and Al-Shorouk newspapers, especially "government officials," despite having different media policies and ownership patterns. In more than one subject, the two newspapers praised the positive role of the government in adopting social protection programs for citizens and achieving social justice and social solidarity for all citizens by providing an umbrella of social and health security covering all uninsured citizens having irregular and temporary employment, marginalized and female breadwinners, in addition to youth employment programs and making available various funding for a variety of low-income groups, providing adequate social housing for the poor and middle classes, reproductive health and population reduction programs, Takaful and Karama programs to provide equitable social protection nets for the most needy, providing and supporting supply goods, as well as the promulgation of the Law on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which guarantees their political, health, educational, cultural, social and sports rights, and finally improving the wages and pensions of state and private sector employees and applying the unified insurance law, which aims to establish a legislative umbrella to protect insurance funds, invest them for pensioners, and provide them with social and economic protection. Emphasis was also placed on the positive role of regional organizations such as the Arab Women's Organization as a key player in the issue of violence against women, to which they pay great attention, economic, legal, and political empowerment of women and other areas. The newspapers also praised the role of some international organizations such as the World Food Programme (WFP), which is involved in providing and supporting social protection mechanisms in Egypt through its support to the National School Feeding Programme, and finally highlighted the positive role of civil society organizations that provide health, education, cultural and humanitarian services to millions of citizens. They also contribute with the State to fill significant gaps and provide an alternative social protection network. The ideological influence and partisan orientation of the producers of the press speech in Al-Wafd newspaper were clear in focusing on the negative roles and qualities of the active forces in the newspaper's speech. The newspaper's speech focused on criticizing government policy when distributing the burdens of economic reforms, such as rising prices for goods, products, and services, as middle-and low-income social segments bear the costs of these reforms and higher prices than high-income social segments. The private sector's negative role has been highlighted in failing to play its role in the government's participation in providing employment opportunities for youth through the establishment of productive projects that accommodate the largest possible number of employment. The paper also highlighted the negative role of regional and international organizations, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which focused on monetary and fiscal policy and assisting the Member States facing balance-of-payments deficits, without paying any attention to policies for economic development, particularly the main production sectors, agriculture, and industry, which contribute to the
|