Opinions | Your Say
What people think about the media
A recently held YouGov poll in the Gulf region provides fascinating insights into public perceptions.
- By Najla Al Rostamani, Associate Editor
- Published: 00:00 December 29, 2005
While establishing the relationship between the media and the people, there are two obvious questions that would surface.
The first, to what extent does the media represent the people; and the second, to what extent does the media reflect the various segments of society.
The media, undoubtedly, leaves its imprint. But how far and how deep? This is a debate that has been going on for decades.
As individuals, we may well realise the role played by the media in our day-to-day life. But what we yet need to realise is its influence on how we perceive our daily living.
In the Gulf region, media establishments are new and hence the whole process is still in its infancy. The rapid and sudden changes in the region have charted the role played by the media.
A recently held YouGov poll on the media in the Gulf region revealed fascinating results. One look at the response suggests that it was based mainly on the demographic characteristics of the region.
For example, the majority of respondents were from the subcontinent, followed by Arab nationals and Westerners. Another interesting fact is that 69 per cent of respondents were males.
But these two facts by no means weaken the findings because the respondents are living and working in the region, and hence give us an idea not only of the media's influence but also the direction it is taking.
Censorship
On the question of censorship, the majority of respondents were of the opinion that the local media should not be censored.
This was the case regardless of the age group, gender and income level that the respondents fall into.
But if we go a little further and classify this particular category by nationality, we find that a third of respondents of Arab nationality believed that the media should be censored.
One reason for this could be that they perceived the question differently than Westerners and respondents from the subcontinent where democracy exists while a free press is only partially visible in the Arab world.
Another reason could also be that given the regional set-up, restrictions should be applied when dealing with issues relating to culture, religion and societal norms.
Media representation
Again, when we move to the question of whether the media in its respective areas practises freedom of expression, a whopping 67 per cent replied negatively.
Yet at the same time, in response to another question on whether the media was representative of the community they lived in, the response was very interesting and quiet contradictory to the previous one.
This is because the Yes and No response stood at 45 per cent each.
Perhaps this could be explained by the fact that the media's representation of a community does not necessarily mean it is practising freedom of expression.
It was only seen amongst Western respondents that 61 per cent believed the media was not very representative of their community.
Of all media outlets (print, television, radio and the internet), it was television that 73 per cent of respondents believed was amongst media outlets least likely to allow all voices to be represented.
Respondents were almost equally divided on whether representation was allowed in print, radio and on the internet.
This may be explained by the fact that the majority of television stations are owned and operated by the government, while many of the print media, radio and internet outlets are privately-owned enterprises.
Furthermore, a staggering 83 per cent believed the local media in the area in which they live in is indeed censored. This opinion was seen across nationalities, and income and age groups.
Yet, regardless of this belief, almost half of the respondents were of the opinion that the media is fairly reliable in its presentation of the news. This was the case for newspapers, radio and television local, regional and international.
The differences between the two percentages may seem contradictory. But one explanation for the variation in the numbers is the fact that perhaps respondents do not think the degree of censorship has anything to do with the reliability of the news.
This conclusion is supported by the fact that a majority of 86 per cent depended on the local/regional newspapers for news.
What type of news?
When asked about the kind of news they looked for in the local media, a total of 84 per cent said they sought local news.
This majority was noticed across the respondents various nationalities, age groups, income levels as well as among males and females.
The only exception was among Arab respondents, where the majority rated political news as being the kind of news they looked for in the media.
Looking ahead
When looking at the future, a majority of 58 per cent of all respondents expressed the opinion that the internet would become the most popular source of news in 10 years time.
Also, 76 per cent believed the news on the internet would be made available free of charge.
Such would also be the case, according to respondents, with television, too. Of all media, it was newspapers that a total of 68 per cent of respondents thought they would have to pay for to get the news.
Well, the issue of free-of-charge internet news services will always be a topic of discussion as long as the internet continues to exist. But the evolution of such services and the costs it may entail would all depend on developments taking place online.
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