1. Theoretical debate: Overview
5.4 Analysis
5.4.1 Information
5.4.1.1 Quantitative analysis
After sampling the type of information material available on these websites, we now turn to examine their communication messages. The primary objective of this issues-centered examination is to call attention to the “views and arguments” delivered by these movements. To explore this more fully, we developed a thematic coding scheme.
Because it is important to understand the qualities of the mediated messages, we differentiate between four distinct content categories to see the range of diversity of information provided in the websites. Issues dealt with in these websites are not solely religious, as might be expected, but range from politics to social and economic issues.
While the analytical focus is more on the political and social issues, religious and economic remain at the periphery of in the Islam-oriented discourse in today’s Morocco.209
Similarly, the formats in which politically, religiously, economically and socially relevant information is presented are important. We distinguish between three basic expression formats through which digital information material and communication content
207 Elsewhere, content analysis of political party websites in countries as diverse as the UK, Russia and Japan have found that their primary purpose has been the provision of standard information about party organizations and policies (Norris, 2003).
208 Abdulwahid Almotawakil, senior leader of Al-Adl Wal-Ihsan, personal interview with the author, May 19, 2001, Rabat, Morocco.
209 While hard issues can be also called high-profile issues, soft issues can be called low-profile issues.
are articulated. The first form is that of statements issued by the organizations and posted on their websites. The second form is interviews given to national and international print and electronic media of leading and senior figures in the movements. The third form is essays written by members, sympathizers or drawn from Islam-oriented writers or websites.210
In the analysis and tables that follow, we present percentages of themes and issues produced by Islam-oriented websites. Our analysis documents the high frequency with which these issues-focused information were appearing on the websites.
5.4.1.1.1 Al-Adala Wat-Tanmiya
The content of the five Al-Adala Wat-Tanmiya websites does not confirm the conventional wisdom that Islam-oriented movements are religious movements. As Table 5 shows, the content of the websites focus more attention on political issues (65 percent). The second most common type of information is about social issues (22 percent). We found only eight percent of the sampled websites dealt with economics. The percentage of religious articles occupied a marginalized proportion (5 percent).
Table 9: Issues in the websites of Al-Adala Wat-Tanmiya
Issues Items Percent
Political 138 65
Social 45 22
Economic 17 8
Religious 11 5
Subtotal 211 100
210 The website of Al-Adl Wal-Ihsan contains also sometimes information material drawn from non-Islamic sources such as Le Monde, La Liberation and El-Pais.
Issues in the websites of Al-Adala Wat-Tanmiya
Economic issues
8%
Religious issues
5%
Social issues 22%
Political issues
65%
Al-Adala Wat-Tanmiya massively uses articles when dealing with political issues (65 percent), social issues (60 percent), and economic issues (76 percent) and religious issues (100 percent). Statements were rarely used and when then only in political, social and economic issues. Interviews were widely used but typically focused on political issues (30 percent) and social issues (29 percent).
Table 10: Issues in relation to formats in the websites of Al-Adala Wat-Tanmiya
Political Social Economic Religious Subtotal
Articles 90 27 13 11 141
Interviews 41 13 1 0 55
Statements 7 5 3 0 15
Subtotal 138 45 17 11 211
5.4.1.1.2 Al-Adl Wal-Ihsan
Like the Al-Adala Wat-Tanmiya websites, the websites operates under the aegis of Al-Adl Wal-Ihsan revolves around political, social, economic and religious issues. As Table 7 depicts, politics represented 55 percent, social references marked 20 percent. These figures demonstrate the political and social emphasis of Al-Adl Wal-Ihsan. 15 percent of all
websites incorporated content about economic issues. Religious issues marked only 10 percent.
Table 7: Issues in the websites of Al-Adl Wal-Ihsan
Issues Items Percent
Political 132 55
Social 48 20
Economic 37 15
Religious 25 10
Subtotal 242 100
Issues in the websites of Al-Adl Wal-Ihsan Items
Religious issues Economic 10%
issues 15%
Social issues
20%
Politica issues
55%
Of Al-Adl Wal-Ihsan coded website, articles are the dominating expression form with 105 pages for politics, 31 pages for social issues, 37 for eceonimc and 25 for religious issues. The second expression format are interviews that accounts for 20 pages for politics respectively 12 pages for social issues. Statements are rarely used in political and social issues (7) and (5) respectively. For expressing economic and religious themes, Al-Adl Wal-Ihsan never used interviews or statements.
Table 8: Issues in relation to formats in the websites of Al-Adl Wal-Ihsan Political Social Economic Religious Subtotal
Articles 105 31 37 25 198
Interviews 20 12 0 0 32
Statements 7 5 0 0 12
Subtotal 132 48 37 25 242
5.4.1.1.3 Comparison
A comparison between the two oppositions is useful because it will point out whether they are on the same track or not. Table 9 presents the results of a comparative analysis of the communication content available on the websites of the two Islam-oriented organizations.
The analysis supports the contention that Islam-oriented websites vary substantially in terms of content, but not in terms of focus. As suggested, there were differences between the two organizations regarding the provision of information. In regards to politics-related content throughout the sampled websites, Al-Adala Wat-Tanmiya tends to provide relatively more political information than Al-Adl Wal-Ihsan.
This is understandable, since Al-Adala Wat-Tanmiya is a political party.
Surprisingly, Al-Adala Wat-Tanmiya is the least informative on economic issues. The websites of both organizations were relatively rich in terms of social information. This fact can be explained with heightened debate on the Al-Mudawana between Islam-oriented movements and Western-influenced segments of the Moroccan society. As Table 9 shows the Al-Adl Wal-Ihsan was most likely to incorporate religious content.
Of the 453 pages coded, about 60 percent of the sampled pages were political. The social issues represented 21 percent, the economic content 12 percent and the religion marked eight percent. As suggested these figures demonstrated the political emphasis of Islam-oriented movements.
The findings of the study shows the websites elaborated their “views and arguments” on political and social issues in articles. Articles were the most popular reference and message strategy, accounting for the high occurrence (employed at 81 percent of the websites). Interviews were also popular as a reference and message strategy,
accounting for 13 percent of the websites. The rest of the content was distributed via statements, which accounted for 6 percent.
Table 9: Comparison in terms of issues between the websites of Al-Adala Wat-Tanmiya and Al-Adl Wal-Ihsan
Political issues
Social issues
Economic issues
Religious issues
Subtotal
Al-Adala Wat-Tanmiya
138 45 17 11 211
Al-Adl Wal-Ihsan 132 48 37 25 242