Geopolitics, Platform Power, and the Remaking of Arab Media: Egypt and the Arab World, 2011–2025

Over the past decade, media systems in Egypt and the wider Arab region have been reconfigured by intersecting forces: securitized state policy, cross-border media competition among Gulf powers, platform governance over speech, and the rapid diffusion of AI-enabled newswork. These dynamics reshape who sets agendas, how conflicts are framed, and which publics are reachable—especially during crises (e.g., the 2017 intra-GCC rift, Gaza/Palestine coverage since 2023; and climate diplomacy around COP28). Empirically, Egypt exemplifies renewed ownership concentration and regulatory centralization, while transnational broadcasters (Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya, Sky News Arabia) continue to project soft power and contest narratives region-wide. At the same time, platform moderation and algorithmic distribution increasingly mediate visibility of Arabic content, with mounting evidence of asymmetric enforcement during conflict. Finally, newsrooms across MENA experiment—unevenly—with AI for translation, verification, and automation, under conditions of economic precarity and regulatory risk. Importantly, diaspora media outlets and transnational content creators extend these dynamics beyond the Arab region. Arab diasporas in Europe and North America rely on satellite television, digital-native platforms, and community media to follow regional developments, while simultaneously refracting Arab affairs through the lens of immigrant life abroad. Content about wars in Gaza, protests in Sudan, or reforms in Egypt not only sustains transnational ties but also shapes debates on integration, discrimination, and political mobilization in host societies. In turn, Arab affairs affect immigrants’ sense of identity, belonging, and activism, as seen in diaspora-led digital campaigns on Palestine, or the mobilization of Egyptian communities in the US and UK around regime politics. This dual circulation highlights the mutual entanglement of Arab and diaspora media ecologies, where geopolitical shifts at home reverberate through immigrant publics abroad and vice versa. This panel advances a comparative, multi-method account of these shifts, integrating policy analysis, content/platform studies, newsroom research, and diaspora media scholarship to theorize “geo-platformized media orders” in the Arab world, with Egypt as an anchoring case. Dr. Hussein Amin: moderator Dr. Ahmed ElGody: discussant Dr. Mahitab Ezz El Din: panelist Dr. Rasha Allam: panelist Dr. Nadine ElSayed: panelist Prof. Salma ElGhetany: panelist Moderator: Hussein Amin, American University in Cairo Panelists: Rasha Allam, American University in Cairo; Platform Power under Authoritarianism: Social Media, Influencers, and the Future of Egyptian Media Mahitab Ezz El Din, Linnaeus University; Arab Diaspora Media in Sweden: Countering Disinformation and Mediating Migrant Experiences Nadine El Sayed, The American University in Cairo; The Shifting Political Economies of the Egyptian Media Salma El Ghetany, American University in Cairo; Platform Power, Algorithmic Silences, and Fast Moving Consumer News in Arab Media Respondent: Ahmed El Gody, Orebro University