Egyptians and Libyans seek US Sympathies Through Media

(Photes courtesy of google images)

The poster on the left is an anti-Mubarak poster; the poster on the right is a famous pro-Obama poster.
Clearly, Egyptian demonstrators are using the imagery of Obama to protest against Mubarak. Professor Daves showed this to our Middle East Politics class; he also showed us another poster in the same style that had Gaddafi on it and read, “Hopeless.”

We pointed out in class that it’s unlikely that these posters were appealing to the average Libyan or Egyptian citizen, because chances are they wouldn’t understand the reference to Obama’s presidential campaign and the ideals it symbolized. Therefore, professor Daves explained, it must be appealing to Western European and Americans, trying to elicit sympathy from them by conjuring a famous image of a man that said he stood for hope and change.  

This is a great example of how important the role of media plays in revolutions nowadays. The people revolting, rather than making signs that will resonate with the people of the country they're revolting in, are making posters with slogans that will catch the attention of people thousands of miles away. The people who make these signs are so sure that there will be foreign media in their country that they decide to appeal to their sympathies rather than their own fellow countrymen. The fact that we in American can see what's going on in Egypt and Libya allows the Egyptians and Libya's to connect with us by comparing their struggles to the struggles we are going through here in the U.S. and in other Western countries.