Conventional media alive and well in the Middle East

A new survey of media use in the Middle East has found that digital news consumption and internet penetration has increased across the region, with two-thirds of Arab nationals saying they trust mass media rather than social media platforms to report news fairly and accurately.

The survey is the fifth of its kind to be published by North-western University of Qatar and explores patterns of news and social media use as well as attitudes towards free speech in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Lebanon, Jordan, Tunisia, and Egypt.

Internet penetration has risen in all countries surveyed, most dramatically in Jordan, Lebanon, and Tunisia, with nearly all nationals in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Qatar owning smartphones compared with 83 percent of Jordanians and 65 percent of Tunisians.

The rise in internet access correlates with a decrease in the use of offline media platforms, with newspaper readership declining the most dramatically from 47 percent in 2013 to 25 percent in 2017.

Over three-quarters of nationals get news from their phones, second to only TV, 78 percent, for accessing the media.

Jordanians, Lebanese and Tunisian nationals get news more frequently from TV than online sources, while larger numbers of Qataris, Saudis, and Emiratis access news from the internet.

The majority of Arab nationals, 62 percent, prefer a news organisation based in their home country, expect in Saudi Arabia, where the figure stands at 38 percent.

A quarter of those surveyed said the internet increases contact with people who hold political or religious beliefs different from their own, with the most highly educated internet users - secondary education or higher- twice as likely to engage with different viewpoints.

WhatsApp is used by two-thirds, 67 percent, of Arab nationals compared to Facebook, at 63 percent, and YouTube at 50 percent.

Mass media receives widespread trust from Arab nationals in their own countries, 66 percent, compared to 50 percent trust in mass media in the Arab world.

Around 47 percent trust news from social media.

For comparison, just 32 percent of Americans trust the mass media according to a 2016 Gallup poll.

Three times as many Arab nationals think citizens should be able to publicly criticise the government's policies than should be allowed to make offensive statements about religion or minorities.

In Lebanon, two-thirds support the right to criticise the government while at the lowest end only 14 percent of Emiratis and a quarter of Saudis and Qataris support criticism of government policies.