Digital Media Framing Strategies in the National Council for Women›s Facebook Discourse During the 2025 Senate Elections: An Analytical Study in Light of Framing Theory and Its Implications for Building Women›s Political Awareness
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Digital Media Framing, Political Participation, Political Awareness, Women's Empowerment, Digital Government Communication, Social Media, Senate Elections
Abstract
This study aims to analyze the digital media framing strategies employed by the National Council for Women’s (NCW) official Facebook page during the Egyptian Senate elections in August 2025, and to explore their potential implications for constructing Egyptian women’s political awareness in light of media framing theory.
The study adopted a case study approach utilizing both quantitative and qualitative framing content analysis. A validated coding instrument was developed encompassing five main categories: thematic focus, message type, dominant media frame, frame-building devices, and audience engagement indicators. The units of analysis comprised 17 posts, representing an exhaustive census of all election-related publications during the designated period. Inter-coder reliability was calculated at 0.89 using Holsti’s formula.
The findings revealed that the “national responsibility” frame was the most dominant, followed by the “symbolic empowerment” frame, with a clear predominance of motivational messages characterized by a mobilizational tone. Qualitative analysis uncovered a marked prevalence of affective and celebratory discourse, contrasted with limited cognitive-informational content pertaining to the nature and competencies of the Senate. Furthermore, audience engagement indicators exhibited notably higher levels for artistic and affective content compared to procedural and institutional content.
The study concludes that the framing structure of the NCW’s digital electoral discourse was characterized by a symbolic-mobilizational orientation focused on rallying participation, rather than on deepening cognitive political education. This raises—in light of the theoretical literature—questions regarding the nature of the political awareness that such a framing pattern may contribute to shaping.
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