Sources of
Information for the Coptic Population in Monterey, California: Is there a
common theme?
Background:
In what was considered to be one of the crowning
achievements of the Arab Spring, Hosni Mubarak was forced from the Egyptian
presidency by popular protest in 2011. Many,
however, have since rejected the idea that the upheaval of 2011 was somehow a
step forward in terms of democracy. The Egyptian
military initially allowed a transition to democracy. In 2012 the Muslim Brotherhood came to power,
and Muhammad Morsi was elected president.
After just a year, he was deposed by the Egyptian military in a coup
that was supported by popular protests that again filled the streets of Egypt’s
major cities. Last summer, Abdel Fattah
al-Sisi, the former head of the military, was “elected” president.
One group that is generally thought to hold this opinion is
Egyptian Copts. Copts make up roughly 10
percent of the population in Egypt. It
is estimated that as many as 450,000 Coptic Egyptians have immigrated to the United
States. The Copts were a
well-established immigrant population in the Untied States before the upheaval
began, but it is estimated that up to 100,000
additional Copts traveled to the United States between the fall of Mubarak in
2011 and the end of 2013. Among many
large Coptic populations in the United States (New York, New Jersey, Southern
California), there is a small community of Copts that live in Monterey, in the
central part of California.
This community of Copts in Monterey will be the focus of my
social network analysis project. Many of
these Copts work as Arabic teachers at the Defense Language Institute (DLI), a
military institution. It is at DLI, during
my 16 months studying Arabic, where I interacted daily with several members of
this Coptic community. During the summer
of 2013, I witnessed their real-time responses, while still in California, to
the coup that occurred in Egypt, which resulted in the removal of Mohammad
Morsi from the presidency. This
experience is the impetus for my SNA project.
Primary Questions:
1.
Does the Coptic population of Monterey,
California constitute a cohesive network that is homogenous in thought, in
terms of events that occur in Egypt?
Does this network have leaders that drive opinions, or do they take
their cues from other sources of information?
2.
How does this network stay informed about events
in Egypt?
Hypothesis:
My hypothesis is that the network is generally homogeneous
in terms of political policy and thought, when it comes to events that effect
Copts in Egypt. Through informal
observation, I have not observed any serious divergence among the Coptic community
in Monterey in this regard.
I theorize that there are three main information sources
utilized by the Coptic population in Monterey in order to maintain awareness of
Egyptian political developments. First,
there are various Coptic and Egyptian oriented websites, and blogs. These websites are also probably popular
among Copts located in Egypt. Second,
the Copts in Monterey frequently receive updates from their relatives and
friends still residing in Egypt. Third,
they use Social Media, primarily Facebook.
(I personally witnessed some of my teachers utilizing all three of these
methods to gather information.)
Data Collection and
Analysis Goals:
I will collect this data set through a survey, via Survey
Monkey. According to the Association of
Religious Data Archives, there are approximately 250 full-time adherents that
attend the Coptic Orthodox Church in Monterey.
I suspect that the number of actual Copts in the local area is significantly
higher than this figure. I have a few
close contacts within this community, but I expect a degree of reluctance to
complete the survey among some members of the Copt population.
The first portion of the survey will determine the strength
of connections among the Copts in Monterey, and how these connections
correspond to specific attributes. The
goal is to capture data that represents a single-mode network where centrality
measures and data analysis can be applied.
Important attributes from the survey will include: age groups, education
levels, amount of time living in the United States, career field, whether or
not they still have family living in Egypt, hometown in Egypt, frequency of
return visits to Egypt, and a self-measurement of political involvement or
political awareness of events in Egypt.
In addition, I will determine levels of support for certain political
positions that someone could take about events in Egypt.
The second portion of the survey will focus on sources of
information about events in Egypt. I
will query the top three sources of information for each respondent and how
often they access each source-type. This
information will yield a two-mode network that I will transform into two single-mode
networks. First, I will be able analyze
the network of information sources linked by the Copts in Monterey. I have multiple objectives for the analysis
of this network. I want to know what
sources of information are the most popular.
Are these sources also popular among non-immigrant populations in the United
States? Are these sources popular in
Egypt? How often do they utilize American
or Western sources of information?
The second single-mode network will be Copts in Monterey linked
by information sources. I want to know
whether or not this network corresponds to my initial single-mode network, and
whether the most important members of the group are also linked by particular
sources of information.
Network Measures:
I have a strong interest in comparing high Eigenvector and
Betweenness scores in order to determine the leaders of the groups. Then I want to break the groups down in
factions to see if they correspond to any divergence in political positions
among the community. Lastly, I want to
perform an analysis of high-low / in-degree and out-degree ties to find out
which members of the community are sources and broadcasters of
information. The results of this
analysis can also be compared to the survey data on sources of
information. The goal here would be to
determine if particular members are pushing sources of information on to other
members.
Conclusion:
During my personal and professional interactions with
members of the Copt community Monterey, I was struck by what I perceived as the
uniformity in their opinions about the tumultuous events in Egypt. Much of this perceived uniformity is surely
the result of their shared circumstances and experiences. However, separate from this assertion, I want
to determine if there is a link between their opinions and a) the network of
Copts in Monterey and, b) their sources of information. I want to eventually use this SNA as part of a
larger study on how diaspora populations stay connected, socially and
politically, to their home countries.
2 comments:
Nice post. You have a well-developed research question and the post shows you understand how SNA would be relevant to potentially uncovering unforeseen leaders in the Monterey Coptic population. Moreover, you have scratched the surface of the idea that there may be surprising means by which that population gathers its information. Nice attribute data and network measures as well.
Would love to see this done. Let me know if you every decide to do it.
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