TRACING NEWS ON TWITTER: FORCES SHAPING NEWS CONSUMPTION AND PERCEPTIONS IN GULF COUNTRY MEDIA SYSTEMS

Abstract

In the news media environment, the systemic relationship between the media and public is reflexive, where the media shape public life and vice versa. This dissertation centers on explaining the relationship between the media environment and news consumers in media systems in five countries that share similar sociocultural values, namely Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Kuwait. This study identified state intervention as an influential factor that alters news consumers’ perceptions of the credibility and quality of news content as well as their consumption habits. This dissertation conducted a multinational survey of Twitter news consumers in order to investigate a range of issues relating to news consumers with a fuller consideration of the media system (structure) as a significant tool that can help understand news audiences’ behavior and attitudes towards the news. Findings suggest that the level of state intervention in the media landscape shapes participants’ attitudes and behaviors toward news. Participants who experience a high level of state intervention steer clear of the regulated traditional media outlets, want to obtain news independent from the government, and perceive a very low level of credibility and quality of traditional media. When it comes to participants from a country with greater press freedom, they perceive traditional media outlets as more credible with higher quality content than Twitter because they believe that their government does not interfere with the flow of news. The overall relationship between media systems (structures) and news consumers (agents) arises in the nature and kind of state intervention that must be taken into consideration if one is to grasp news consumers’ attitudes and behavior in these gulf countries.