Since 2005, the utilization of social media has irrevocably changed the nature of the traditional news consumption in Egyptian media landscape. One can see the Egyptian online society as a multiplicity of networks. Audiences started to provide detailed descriptions of Egyptian street politics, posting multimedia material, generating public interest, and reinforcing citizen power. This trend changed the way audiences consumed news, with traditional media, (especially independent and opposition news organizations) started to access online information to develop their media content and to escape government control. Several media organisations started to expand their presence to social networks to provide better news content, ultimately changing news organizations attitude towards diffusion of social media and social media presence in newsrooms.

In Egypt’s news organization development initiative, the convergence of social media into mainstream media perhaps perform the most critical function, playing the role of a mediator in information transactions within the society. Traditional media, especially independent media, started to utilize social media as an alternative source for information and a platform to bridge between events on the streets and the Internet. This convergence has developed the role of the journalism in Egypt, altering it from simply reporting about the political process to instead being an active participant in shaping, influencing the political process. As journalists cannot work in ‘splinted isolation’ anymore, particularly with the abundance of information and the facts that, first, the public are perfectly capable to access news and information for themselves, and second, the institutional players (profit, governmental, non-profit, activist) are increasingly geared towards addressing their constituencies directly instead of using the news media as a go-between.

The aim of this study is to examine how different news organisations (government, opposition, non-partisan independent) are utilizing social media to establish a sustainable infrastructure news flow. The study is based on newsroom analysis and interviews in four Egyptian newsrooms Al Ahram, Al Masry Al Youm, Al Shorouk, and Al Tahrir to see how different newsrooms approaches towards building a sustainable structure for distributing news and based on social networks and changes in news operation infrastructure to maintain such approach.