The Egyptian media displayed a high level of content diversity in the final years of the Mubarak regime, prior to the 2011 uprising. This diversity expanded considerably after the uprising when national media embodied expressions of dissent with unprecedented openness, in defiance of the entrenched identity of the journalist as the regime’s guard. This article investigates the dynamics of journalistic agency in Egyptian newsrooms in search for a new identity, investigating the challenges, hopes and trade-offs of a painful process of change. It looks at the complex interplay between these agentic dynamics and inherited structures within an uncertain and highly contested transition to democracy, which finally collapsed into a new chapter of authoritarianism. The article argues that while journalistic agency helped support trends towards democratization in media and politics in the immediate aftermath of the uprising, it also acted as powerful platform in ‘othering’ opponents preparing the ground for the return of autocratic practices and ultimately the fall of the democratic experiment.

中文翻译：

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埃及记者与 2011 年起义后的变革斗争：变革与顺从之间模棱两可的新闻机构

在穆巴拉克政权的最后几年，即 2011 年起义之前，埃及媒体展示了高度的内容多样性。起义后，当国家媒体以前所未有的开放态度表达异议时，这种多样性大大扩大，无视记者作为政权卫兵的根深蒂固的身份。本文调查了埃及新闻编辑室新闻机构在寻找新身份时的动态，调查了痛苦的变革过程中的挑战、希望和权衡。它着眼于这些代理动态与继承结构之间复杂的相互作用，在一个不确定且充满争议的民主过渡中，最终瓦解成为威权主义的新篇章。