News Trend in Political Participation: Does News Convince Female Electors to Vote? A Comparative Study between Egypt’s (Cairo) and Morocco’s (Rabat) Media Campaigns

Abstract

The aim of this paper to explore the news availability and its effect on female voting behaviour in Egypt’s capital Cairo and Morocco’s capital Rabat political elections. The study used an exploratory research design, working within a qualitative paradigm two sources of evidence were employed. Commentary was compiled from respondents: (i) Twenty in-depth face-to-face interviews with key respondents from Egypt and Morocco (ii) Four focus groups with each group containing six respondents in Egypt and Morocco. In regards to the findings, the media impact was apparent in both countries that influence citizens. However, they mentioned minimal influence by the available political news. Egyptian citizens confirmed that they were not convinced that the available news convince females to vote, as they felt that the available newspapers and news websites is of less credibility, yet Moroccan citizens confirmed that the available news is credible and it does convince females to vote. Mentioning social and cultural determinates that affects females in the society, both Egyptians and Moroccans claimed that females have their full rights that gives full freedom to participate in the elections. Finally, both citizens conformed that the social media, is the most effective medium employed in political media campaigns.