A Comparative Study of Social Media and Print Media in Empowering Women Economically"

AMERICAN UNIVERSITY IN CAIRO

A Comparative Study of Social Media and Print Media in Empowering Women Economically"

Research Paper Engy Azzam Tawfik 5/18/2016

Presented to Dr.Naila Hamdy, Course: Current Issues in Mass Communication

Abstract This research study tackles the social media’s role in empowering Egyptian women economically, women from different ages & social classes. Economic empowerment of women could be achieved through leading them to job vacancies that suit its qualifications & skills, helping them to promote for their businesses by building their social profiles & official pages and developing open channel between female job seekers & employers to exchange their prior work experiences with each other.

Furthermore, Social media could upgrade women’s research & work skills, as they monitor face book & LinkedIn ads for workshops & training courses.

Moreover, this study highlights the advantages of social media that have existed since 2005 and varied from being specialized for classmates & those specialized for workmates. Social Media‘s applications (audio & video messages, instant conversation, blogging, sharing) contribute to the women economic empowerment.

Therefore the study makes a comparison between different social media & its applications, in order to figure out which social media attracts huge number of job seekers, which social media offered a platform for exchanging entrepreneurship discussions & opinions, which jobs are available on these networks and how do female job seekers use these networks.

Also, the study includes a comparison between Social media & traditional media (newspapers) in empowering women economically and which one of both has succeeded in fulfilling this mission. All the interviewed females have agreed on using social media websites for learning about news , contacting friends and shopping, where less than the

half of sample have said that they use these websites for

entertainment, selling products, marketing, doing research, applying jobs.

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Table of Contents

Introduction: ................................................................................................4 Literature Review: ......................................................................................7 Theoretical Frameworks ...........................................................................12 Methodology: ............................................................................................15 Validity and Reliability .............................................................................16 Data Collection Tool:................................................................................16 Conclusion: ...............................................................................................17 Appendixes ...............................................................................................21 References: ................................................................................................23

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Introduction: Studies are being published in newspapers show how women are addicted to social media sites. For instance, the British newspaper “Telegraph” has assured that if the internet no longer existed, women would miss social media websites the most. Also, Telegraph article has determined for what purposes, women use social media, they are looking up shopping deals, learn new things, and expand their knowledge on various topics (Entwistle,2012).

While “Forbes” described women as mature social media users, as they well manage their social media profiles than men. Women allow only friends to view their face book, LinkedIn or their twitter accounts (Bercovici, 2012).

Women have been using their smart phones more than men for social networking since December 2009, according to Nielsen research company’s data, and a larger number of women view online video uploaded on social media .learning about new products and look for product recommendations are the incentives that drive women to use social media (Nielsen, 2010).

Moreover, a study published on PR newswire, has revealed that mothers are approximately 61%more likely than other women to own a Smartphone and be an active on social media websites. They have been logging into Face book & Google plus in a daily aspect, they trust information received from companies through social networking sites and they tend to discuss companies/brands on social sites. Apparels, automobiles and travel were products that have been purchased by mothers (PR newswire, 2012).

Apart from learning about new products, Arab women have been using social media websites for acquiring political knowledge, launching online revolts and networking

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with mainstream media and groups of activists in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Yemen(Radsch,2012).

Women in Egypt have been using Internet-based empowerment to in-crease information access and professional development, widen the scope of their social networks and shape their social and political knowledge. Women's use of social media may have presented them with opportunity to by-pass obstacles to their empowerment. It changes the perception about women's use of technology and how women fit into the male-dominated industry of information-technology (Wilding, 1998).

In2010, women made up 40% of Egypt's 20 million Internet users. Educated women of the upper and middle classes are turning to the internet, and at times surpassing men with their use of innovative technologies such as e-publishing (blogs). 37% of Egyptian Facebook users are women (Dubai School of Government, 2011).

Empowerment in general has been a great motivation that drives Egyptian women towards the Internet. Through the internet, they have been able to realize the different pillars of empowerment including independence, self-actualization and reliance, confidence (Wheeler, 2008).

Egyptian women perceived the internet as a crucial tool to access different data and huge amount of information. Furthermore, the internet was used by women to enlarge their social networks. They have access to multiple political data and views and that helps them to be aware of all the political issues and incidents and become knowledgeable of their surroundings (Wheeler, 2008).

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Facebook is being used heavily by Egyptian women to be opened up to new information. On the contrary, Twitter has not been much used by them. Inspite of using the internet as a medium to grasp the feelings of empowerment, the online empowerment of women was not reflected in reality. A large number of Egyptian women agreed believe that the Internet in general empowered them economically especially those who are not employed (Berenger, 2013).

So, it is clear that social media websites are good platform for women to learn about new products, express themselves and participate within the political public space, but was it a tool for economic empowerment for women especially those who live in countries that get last ranks in empowering women in different fields. A question that needs to be answered, especially when a report issued by the World Economic Forum stated that Egypt got the tenth rank in women economic, educational and political empowerment within Arab countries, and got the 126 rank within 135 countries all over the world(World Bank,2013). The percentage of women employment in Egypt did not exceed 30% in the employment market. Consequently, the researcher did conduct the current study to know how social media platforms compared to the traditional media can contribute to women economic empowerment.

Problem Statement: Discovering the role of Social Media in empowering Egyptian women economically and compare its role with the role of traditional media tools represented in (newspapers).

Variables:

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In this research study there is two main variables: Independent variable: Usage of Social Media & Print Media.

Dependent variable: Economic Empowerment of Egyptian women.

Research Questions:  What social media platforms did empower Egyptian women economically?  What print media outlets did empower Egyptian women economically?  How did social media platforms empower Egyptian women economically compared to the traditional print media?

Literature Review: The literature review for this study covered the following points: 1- Benefits of Social Media.

2- Women & Social Media.

3- Women Empowerment & Traditional Media Benefits of Social Media Public mature of Facebook created a supportive & positive environment for women to receive & give psychological support, also women exhibited behaviors that convey warmth, kindness & politeness (Dolan, Emily A., 2012).

Online social networking is money making machine that changes the way we interact with each other. Facebook gives huge opportunity for advertisers to create WebPages or creating ads and tools for identifying key markets & target audience. Programmers were encouraged to open a shop for their applications and earn money from products applications & selling them to Facebook world. (Emre Emirgil 2008)

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Social media are ideal marketplace, where marketers can reach & influence targeted consumers; allow feedback on products & ideas from actual needs. Moreover, Facebook connects its users with other areas of the web that interest them, the online activity of users over 45 has been steadily increasing & the majority is women. Facebook needs various types of content to be efficient marketer. The majority of the interviewees agree that the site is a good platform for organizations to connect & form relationships with Consumers Company targeted them through social networks especially Face book (Saffronia Renea 2009).

Usage of online social networks influences the idea identification opportunity recognition & ultimately new venture section. the use of social network increases number of Business contacts & strong ties that entrepreneurs exchange more information with their contacts by posting information like personal profiles, pictures, music, blog that others can access concurrently (Mathew C.Lang, 2010).

Males were found a higher degree of personal learning than did females while females scored making new network connections and joining in collaborative projects. Social media provides a personal learning environment (Lindaz.eller, 2012).

Young age group (18-24) spent more time on social media than who are above 24 years old, they had more Facebook friends, lower self –esteem is associated with more time spent on Facebook & more Facebook friends (Amelia A. Murphy 2008).

Social media is playing an increasing role in fundraising efforts by charities, aid programs & community- based organizations. Social media encourages grassroots movements & interactivity, allow people to interact with the very people running the charity campaigns or even the victims themselves. Spreading messages via social

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media helps in liaison with public figures and encourages celebrities' involvement (Sarah Grooters 2011).

Women & Social Media Hamid & Ishak & Yusof (2015) confirmed that the usage of social media has increased dramatically among women and girls who are at risk in Malaysia over the past years. Utilization of social media platforms benefited this group a lot especially when it comes to their empowerment. Having used their social media accounts, they improved their life status; they acquired knowledge and new skills especially in entrepreneurship and in building up their careers. Hamid & Ishak & Yusof (2015) studied the impact of social media specifically Facebook on women empowerment from different perspectives, social, cultural and economy, psychology, political and legal. Hamid & Ishak & Yusof (2015) found out that women are driven by three motivations to use social media getting" information, engagement, entertainment".

The study clarified that the motivation of entertainment is greater than the other two motivations in terms of the prediction of social media use frequency. Malaysian women used social media in general for entertainment, they used Facebook for networking and engagement with others and they used Twitter for getting more information. The engagement motivation that drives women to use social media was found to be related to the psychological needs for affiliation, whereas the information motivation was found to be related to the information motivation (Hamid & Ishak & Yusof, 2015).

With the aim of identifying why do female bloggers use social media, Chen (2015) found out that there are three motivations for using social media platforms, information, engagement, and recreation, a finding that confirms the results of prior 9

research in the same field. However, this study affirms that social media in particular is being used because of the recreation motivation. According to the study of Chen (2005), Twitter was found to be an information-exchange online tool for women, while Facebook was used for more social purposes. This finding can guide the news outlets that integrated social media platforms in their communicative activities to establish communities among their audiences and circulate their news and information and help them decide which social media platform to use. Similarly, public relations and marketing practitioners may use this finding to select which social media platform is most relevant for their tasks. Thus, they can use Facebook for engagement purposes and they can apply Twitter to spread information. Chen (2015) noted that the social media user's age determine the frequency and for how long they blog. There was a negative correlation between the social media users' age and the frequency of their social media use. Older female bloggers spend less time on social media whereas younger female bloggers spend more time on social media. A finding that assures earlier finding which is that social media is more widespread among the youth.

Women Empowerment & Traditional Media Training and educating society members of Pakistan are considered valuable tools to empower women who are still are chained by male dominance and they are not totally empowered in various aspects of life generally in the developing countries and specifically in Pakistan. Thus, Akhter & Naheed (2014) decided to figure out the role of media outlets in empowering women through a survey study that targeted hundred and ninety nine educated Pakistani women. The scholars found out that the majority of women never used media outlets or they did use it rarely. Nevertheless, the women who were exposed to media outlets have been positively affected and got fruitful impact on their living conditions. According to this study, there was a positive 10

correlation between frequent usage of media outlets and increased females empowerment. Based on the detailed analysis of the multiple perceptions and regards of women about media, the scholars concluded that it did contribute positively in educating women and providing them with knowledge regarding their empowerment, yet it still needs some improvements. According to this study, media portrayed gender violence cases, raising the awareness of women about empowerment, providing them knowledge about their rights and commitments, and mirroring their social problems and concerns. Nonetheless, media channels in Pakistan played a fragile role in developing Pakistani women professionally. Media channels and the programs aired through it did not educate women how to generate and sustain income or provide them with tactics and plans that help them to get equal status in society.

Consequently, there is an urge to let media focus much more on the positive social outcomes of women empowerment and the techniques needed to raise the status of women in society (Akhter & Naheed 2014).

Skalli (2014) stated that social activists merged on-the-site mobilization with cyber advocacy and activism that maximizes the potential of new communication technologies (Internet and cell phone) and social networks (Facebook, Twitter and YouTube) in condemning sexual harassment in North Africa. Skalli (2014) mentioned that "Egyptian Harassmap" and the "Moroccan Women-Shoufouch" online initiatives have succeeded in demonstrating the complexity of political and patriarchal forces in that encourage sexual harassment before and since the Arab Spring. According to Skalli's study, these two initiatives have applied digital technologies such as smart phones applications and online social spaces (Facebook, Twitter and YouTube) to publish and call for actions such as lobbying, petitions and marches. The two initiatives circulated

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incidents of harassment and testimonies from victims on social media platforms, which served in boosting the outreach of this social cause.

Theoretical Frameworks 

Media Dependency Theory:

"Dependency Theory" was first developed by in 1976. This theory is comprised of a compilation extracted from the social system theory and psycho analytics. The media dependency theory considers audiences as active players in the communication process. The theory is considered an extension to the theory of Uses & Gratifications.

The theory assures that there is a circular link between media outlets, audiences and social systems.

The theory proposes that the learning experiences the audiences gain from the real life is not satisfying. Thus, people use various types of media outlets to get more information to meet their requirements. Their extensive and excessive usage of media outlets creates a dependency on media and then a dependence relationship between the audiences and the media outlets so that audiences can realize their goals by using the powerful tools of media. According to the theory, the process of dependency is created through three phases. First phase: Media outlets get the attention of audiences by providing them with a content that meets their different requirements including information, entertainment and understanding. Second phase: there is a variation in the dependence relationship. Individuals are encouraged to preserve the level of attention by the cognitive motivations. Emotional motivation assists the audiences in enhancing the level of satisfaction. Third phase: Audiences are being highly and

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intensively involved in completing the information process by the emotional and cognitive motivations.

Usage of Media Dependency Theory in the Research: Media Dependency theory is applied to explore how Egyptian women relied on social media websites and newspapers to empower themselves economically, to find a suitable job offer and to make their own businesses. Also, this theory helps in identifying how Egyptian women use social media websites and newspapers to upgrade their skills by registering in training courses & workshops ads published in both mediums.

Cyber-feminism Theory: Cyber-feminism means that women apply technology to improving their living status.

They do rely on technology to be equipped with tools that help them in sharing feminist ideas with other women and men, who cannot have other ways to be exposed to their messages. It focuses on terminating the inequality between men and women, afford women with multiple ways to free themselves from the technological community that is dominated by men. (Rosser, 2005).

Coleman (2009) considers cyberfeminnism as the "third wave feminist movement" that declines the obsolete ideas of feminists in earlier times. The movement has included the digital tools in their advocacy campaigns and activism. The crystal clear difference that exists between preceding feminist movements and cyberfeminnism is that women can network, unite and collaborate with others in a speedy manner.

Women use the internet to bind together with each other, carry out revolts and get their campaigns and messages heard all over the world instantly.(Wilding, 1998).

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Everett (2004) indicated that cyberfeminnism allows women to organize themselves, promote for their rights and movements along with overcoming the bureaucracy of mainstream media. The existence of the internet and social media did help women to voice their concerns among wide range of people and through their own channels.

Thus, they were not obliged to depend on media channels dominated by men and to get their approval in delivering their messages and concerns (Everett, 2004).

Rosser (2005) mentioned that Cyber feminism started to emerge in the 90s called for equal treatment to women when they use the Internet. Rosser (2005) introduced Cyber Feminism as a developing feminist theory, that compiles ideas from several current feminist theories and transfer these ideas to the field of cyberspace.

Paniagua (2012) stated that Cyber feminism started in the 90s and attained an impact worldwide. "Cyborg feminism" is a devised term that is used to refer to a certain division of feminism, where women adopt new gainful technological tools in their advocacy campaigns and their movements against male dominance. Cyber feminism is progressing in several scopes. From the very beginning, it started as intangible science fiction and then became a tangible and measurable item in our real life because online communications have become an inevitable part of our real life. A prominent example on that will be the contribution of cyber feminism to the improvement of communication, coordination and activism among feminists in Spain.

Because of the feminists' movements, they managed successfully to draft the Integral Law of gender violence in 2002 (Paniagua, 2012). Still, cyberfeminnism needs to be achieved in specific countries such as Iran, where women need to challenge patriarchy and call for their socio-economic. Cyber feminism there could be faced by heavy penalties. Therefore, it is necessary to seek ways for bring about equality and eliminating discrimination against women in cyberspace.

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Usage of Cyber Feminism Theory in the Research: Cyber Feminism theory is applied to explore how Egyptian women relied on the cyberspace especially social media websites on being economically empowered to find a suitable job offer, to launch their own businesses and to network with employers. Also, this theory helps in portraying how Egyptian women use social media websites to upgrade their skills by registering in training courses & workshops ads published in different social platforms.

Methodology: Comparative methodology Comparative methodology is applied to make a comparison between roles of both social media websites and traditional media (newspapers) in the economic empowerment of Egyptian women.

Descriptive Approach: This study aims to explore how Egyptian women benefit from both Social Media and traditional media represented in print media. Thus, a descriptive research approach will be applied to examine and describe how can media of different forms empower women in Egypt(Leedy and Ormrod, 2001). The descriptive approach in this study was a collection of a quantitative and qualitative data. The quantitative data is represented in count numbers of women who perceive social media as an economic empowerment tool and women who perceive traditional media as an economic tool.

The qualitative data is represented in the narrative description of women's usages of different platforms of social media.

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Validity and Reliability To triangulate and crosscheck the results of the study, multiple informants of different educational and professional background were interviewed. Furthermore, two methods of data gathering were applied, secondary sources of data such as websites and publications, In-depth interviews of Egyptian female users of social media (Ambert, Adler, Adler & Detzner,1995).

Data Collection Tool: In-depth Interviews are one of the main tools of data gathering in qualitative research that grasp the point of views of informants (Legard, Keegan & Ward, 2003). In this study, In-depth Interviews will tackle the main theme that the study wants to explore.

These interviews allowed Egyptian women to be deeply probed and explored.

Consequently, new knowledge and thoughts were created and added to the design of this qualitative design. The main objective of applying In-depth Interviews is to ensure the depth coverage of all aspects of the research and the breadth comparison between social media and print media in empowering women economically.

Data Gathering: Sampling: This study relies on purposive sampling; it is reliable and valued kind of sampling for special studies. It is the perfect match for the exploratory studies (Neuman, 2005). .

The purposive sampling has been applied in this study to overcome the difficulty of interviewing a large number of informants in a short period of time.

Data Gathering:

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In order to provide non-biased answers to the questions in this study, it was very important to ensure that a variety of informants were represented in the selected sample. Therefore, the in-depth interviews were undertaken through one set of time from March 2016 to April 2016 and. Four main factors were taken into consideration when selecting the sample of interviewees to be included in this study. First factor: Age group: Egyptian Females who could be entrepreneurs and run businesses..

Second factor: Educated/bilingual females who can read bilingual social media posts and be able to comprehend it. The third factor is that the interviewees have to be social media active users, they log into their accounts on a daily aspect. The fourth factor, different professional backgrounds (entrepreneurs, employees, job seekers).

This diversified sample were studied and analyzed because they provided different insights about how do they use social media and traditional media in upgrading their skills, networking with employers, promoting for their entrepreneurial projects. Some informants could have been included in the sample, but they were excluded from the sample because they are not social media active or due to the time-constraints In-depth interview has been conducted for 40 females of different educational backgrounds and of different age groups, to know which kind of media outlets was capable of meeting their economic needs.

Results: The presentation and discussion of the results of the In-depth interviews are organized based on the questions of this study.

1- Facebook was one of the social media websites that are being used by the forty interviewed females.19 female out of the 40 females have been using another social media website which is Twitter after Facebook. Other social media 17

websites like Google +, LinkedIn, Skype, Youtube have been repeated twice or at least once in the answers of Question “What social media website do you use?”

2- More than half of the interviewed females have reported that they log into Facebook in a daily aspect. While only 7 females have reported that they log into Twitter in a daily aspect.

3- The majority of the interviewed females clarified that they have been using Social media websites since a long time ago, they log into these websites more than one time per day and they spend more than one hour on the social media websites.

4- All the interviewed females have agreed on using social media websites for learning about news , contacting friends and shopping, where less than the half of the sample has said that they use these websites for entertainment, selling products, marketing, doing research, applying jobs. In the same context, most of the interviewed females reported that they find great interest in chatting and adding comments in these websites.

5- Speaking of what they tackle in social media networks, social, cultural and fashion pages were visited and liked by the interviewed females. 13 out of the forty females found their way in social media to register in training courses and workshops.

6- The majority of the interviewed females have described the Facebook as the most effective social media website in job search, yet only 16 females have used social media in applying for jobs and 13 females found that jobs posts in social media websites matched their qualifications as one female like the idea of establishing a group of jobs posts for a certain faculty graduates.

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7- 9 out of40 females have been assisted by the social media in making their own businesses. While 14 females have used social media websites as a promotional and marketing tool for their start-ups or their businesses e.g. creation of pages for handmade accessories, crochet, writings, journalistic work, uploading pictures for products, sending invitations to contacts & friends and using paid Ads that can sell their hand made products.

8- Accessories & selling different products were on the top of businesses that exist in Social media network then cakes, travel and working from home projects.

9- Most interviewed females declared that social media website may help in achieving the concept of entrepreneurship by sharing information, free marketing, contacting target segments, brainstorming new ideas, organizing events.

10- The majority of the interviewed females have complained about the absence of credibility of jobs posts in social media websites, to the extent that they fear of being viruses. One female complain about the absence of effective communication concerning this issue on social media website.

11- None of the interviewed females have used social media in applying for jobs, yet 12 females said that Al Ahram daily newspaper was the newspaper they use for applying for jobs, especially the issue which is out every Friday. Also, none of the interviewed females have seen newspapers as a supportive tool for entrepreneurship however newspapers were found more credible than social media websites and they suit non- internet users.

Conclusions

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This study did bring to the table new finding that may challenge other earlier findings related to media outlets' role in empowering women. Still, traditional media represented in the Print Media plays a remarkable role in getting the attention of women especially when they want to change their life status. They do utilize the Al Ahram newspaper, especially the issue that is out every Friday. The interviewed females stated that they become aware of all available job vacancies. However, they did not regard newspapers as a beneficial tool that can support their entrepreneurial projects or serve the goals of their start-ups.

The results of this study did confirm the results of earlier studies, especially when the researcher found out that Egyptian women do use social media for recreation purposes by checking fashion, cultural and networking pages.

In regards to the economic empowerment, Egyptian women have been able to establish their own ventures via the support of the Social media platforms, especially Facebook pages. They even integrated social media platforms in their marketing and promotion plans for their new ventures. Social media websites were found to help in achieving the concept of entrepreneurship by sharing information about required products, services and announcements for job vacancies. Running free marketing campaigns, contacting target segments, brainstorming new ideas, organizing events such as the opening of Bazars or new shops/ offices or the launch of new products.

Although, social media platforms were regarded as a supportive mechanism towards launching income generating projects for Egyptian women, posts of job vacancies were not seen as credible or reliable job posts.

There was clear evidence that cyber feminism did take a new direction in this study. It portrays how women can benefit from the cyberspace in reaching out employers,

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launching their own businesses and being enrolled in capacity buildings programs. In earlier studies, Cyberfeminnism did enable women to voice their concerns, spread their political views and advocate for their feminist movements. Egyptian women use social media websites to upgrade their skills by registering in training courses & workshops ads published in Facebook pages.

Certainly,

there

is

a

dependency

relationship

between

social

media

websites/newspapers and women. Women used both mediums to empower themselves economically, to search for suitable job offers and to build up their own businesses. Also, Egyptian women use social media websites to upgrade their skills by registering in training courses & workshops ads published in both mediums.

Appendixes In-depth Interview Form: Name: Age: Educational Background: Marital Status:

Questions: 1. What is the social media network that you use 2. When did you start using social media network 3. How many times do you use social media networking during the day 4. What is the social media network that you use on a daily basis 21

5. When do you use social media network during the day 6. How many hours do you spend in using social media network 7. Why do you use social media network 8. What Apps do you use in social media network 9. What pages do you like in social media network 10. Have you searched for jobs in social media network 11. Do job posts in social media network suit your qualifications 12. What are the disadvantages and advantages of job search in social media network 13. Have you searched for training courses & workshops in social media network 14. What was the most effective social media network in job search 15. What was the most effective social media network in workshop search 16. Have you used social media network in making your own business 17. Have you used social media network in marketing your own business 18. How do you use social media network in marketing your own business 19. Do you create a page/ profile for your own business on social media network 20. What is the number of your business profile‘s visitors 21. What kind of businesses do you see in social media network 22. How does social media network support the concept of entrepreneurship 23. What are the mechanisms that are still missing from social media network in providing suitable employment opportunities 24. What newspapers do you read 25. What is the period of newspapers you read 26. How many times do you read newspapers 27. What are the newspapers you use in job search 28. When do use newspapers in searching for jobs 29. Have you used newspapers in making your own business 22

30. What are the benefits of newspapers in job search 31. How did you benefit from newspapers in launching your entrepreneurial projects

References:

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