Doah: Qatar’s increasingly discernible steps to be seen as a nation embracing modernity are echoed in a recent survey on regional media and cultural trends.
Eight in 10 Qataris want their culture to do more to integrate with modern society, more than other nationals in the region, according to “Media Use in the Middle East 2016”, a survey report released by the Northwestern University in Qatar (NU-Q).
The regional survey cuts across Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Tunisia, where over 6,000 respondents were interviewed face-to-face or over the phone.
Justin Martin, an assistant professor at NU-Q’s journalism programme, believes that Qataris appear very modern in many of their media use behaviour in terms of their tools of choice and consumption of programmes. “They are the least likely nationals to watch terrestrial television, favouring other forms of entertainment,” Martin told Gulf News.
Qatari and UAE nationals (24 per cent) lead the way in the consumption of English language-based print material and television programmes in stark contrast to nationals from Saudi Arabia (8 per cent) and Egypt (3 per cent), although the overall numbers are still quite low even in the two Gulf countries.
Qataris are also shown to be more open than other nationals towards a mix of TV programmes from their own culture (80 per cent vs 59 per cent) as well as content from other parts of the world (67 per cent vs 58 per cent).
As the 2022 Fifa World Cup has brought plenty of limelight to the country which had previously been overshadowed by its Gulf neighbours, Qataris have become increasingly observant in the world’s perception of their country in the news and social media.
As the report observes, “Qataris also focus on news more than nationals in other Arab countries” on social media, and a third of Qataris on Facebook use the platform for finding and sharing news — nearly three times higher than the average of other Facebook-active nationals in the region (12 per cent).”
Martin, who was one of the leading academics involved in the study, explains this shift away from other forms of entertainment and towards news consumption: “Fewer Qataris report other media use behaviours such as listening to music and playing video games, than nationals in the other five countries. In lieu of playing games and enjoying music, then, some Qataris may be consuming news instead.”
In a surprising revelation, however, interest in Facebook among Qataris seems to have dropped drastically over the past couple of years. Image-sharing and video-centric tools such as Snapchat and Instagram have shot past Facebook among Qatari social media buffs.
These numbers are unique to Qatar as nationals in the other five countries remain loyal to Facebook as their preferred social media platform. Numbers for Snapchat are also vastly distant between Qataris and other nationals.
Martin says that privacy concerns among Qataris are also “driving internet users from legacy social networks like Twitter and Facebook to platforms such as WhatsApp and Snapchat as there is greater perceived privacy in outlets like Snapchat and Instagram.”
Among expats based in Qatar, however, Facebook maintains its popularity as a majority of these groups (67 per cent Arab expatriates, 70 per cent Asian expatriates, 60 per cent Western expatriates) rely on social media to stay connected with family and friends at home.
Shabeb Rumaihi, a young Qatari who uses all social media tools for various purposes, believes the rise in popularity of Instagram and Snapchat is due to their increased use by public figures and social entrepreneurs, which gives users a sense of proximity to the big names.
He also mentions Twitter as an increasingly popular social media tool among his compatriots. “People in Qatar are using Twitter not just as a social media platform but also as a tool to voice their concerns on local, regional and international issues,” Rumaihi tells Gulf News.
Local news outlets, he says, have also reacted to this trend by becoming more active on Twitter as compared to their other social media accounts.
