A wonderful and valuable book by Trotsky explains how to shape public opinion to conform to matters and convince people of them, even though they don't really desire them, through the media.
And how citizens are classified into two classes.
The first class: A professional class that analyzes and implements decisions and manages affairs in political, economic, and social systems, and this is a small proportion of the population.
The second class: The vast majority of the population, the passive majority, who are made into spectators only and not participants in events, and are idolized through films, matches, and pornographic films so that they don't realize the true nature of things and make their main concern the provision of the largest quantity of goods or the provision of a rich life like the one they see on television. And if these means don't work, they are scared and threatened that there is a fictional enemy, and they create necessary illusions to make them submissive. Also, they are divided and separated so that they don't unite and do something for their own benefit, which will naturally be against the interests of the ruling administration represented by the government and businessmen.
If these people engage in any collective action or start, for example, demonstrations to claim a part of their rights, the book shows how the media is used to say that they are saboteurs and against the interests of the country and that they must be stopped so that we can live together in harmony. And public opinion is filled against empty concepts like national identity or harmony or the public interest, and people are instilled with respect for military values.
This is exactly what happens in Egypt and in most countries. A corrupt media is controlled by businessmen and a simple people who believe everything the media says. The media made the January revolution into agendas and people who want to destroy the country. The media made the poor interested in films and football and made them suffocate so that all your strength and effort is put into football instead of demanding your rights.
Or through fear. In fact, in Egypt, when a bird flu case was reported, the media announced the entry of bird flu into Egypt, and all the people were scared and panicked. This is of course different from the African Cup of Nations football tournament in 2006. People were interested in the tournament, the colors, and the excitement. Baba Hosni went to the stadium, and he was with Tantawi and Suzanne. And not a single person died in the stadium, and the responsible person fled and didn't even go to jail.