“Old media” the unsung avenger

    “The revolution will not be televised”, sang Gil Scott-Heron in a 1970s proto-rap number in the wake of the United States civil rights movement. But when revolution broke out in Egypt in January, it was not only televised, it was tweeted, Facebooked, YouTubed, linked by email and splashed on the front page of newspapers at home and abroad. Those far away in Europe and the United States, perhaps seeking to assert a Western contribution to the popular uprising, dubbed it another Facebook or Twitter revolution, as they had with Tunisia a few weeks earlier. Others emphasized the role of the Qatari satellite news channel Al Jazeera, which amplified the voices of the Egyptians protesting on the streets, carrying their words of defiance into living rooms and coffee shops across the Arab world. Media academics are now picking through the electronic trail that the revolutionaries left behind them, trying