Northwestern University in Qatar (NU-Q) and the Doha Film Institute (DFI) will partner on a research project that explores trends in entertainment media consumption in the Middle East. The fieldwork is scheduled to begin in December and results are expected in March.
The survey research will explore how people in the Mena region consume and create media pertaining to entertainment, culture, and sports in six countries including Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Egypt, and Tunisia. The researchers hope to learn more about media use and society in the post-Arab Spring era by examining the role of entertainment in people’s lives and cultural attitudes.
The partnership was announced by Abdulaziz al-Khater, CEO, the Doha Film Institute, and Everette E Dennis, dean and CEO, NU-Q, who stressed the importance of DFI’s role in framing the research to produce rare, data-based insights into the regional media market.
Dennis said: “DFI’s collaboration is a key element of the survey design. We are working with them to identify issues that are crucial to the media and entertainment industry. Our academic and industry-specific strengths will help ensure this survey creates knowledge on a subject that is vital to understanding societies and economies in the region, and in turn has practical use for decision-makers in the field.”
Dennis also commented on the benefit this type of research brings to NU-Q students, some of the region’s top journalism and communication majors. “The research we conduct gives students and professors first-hand insights into the region’s media consumption trends, as well as helping us expand our research programme and bolster efforts with other institutions in Qatar to meet the goals of Qatar’s National Research Strategy.”
NU-Q will solicit input and feedback from students, young media consumers in the region themselves, on the types of issues to be explored in the project.
“The changing social currents in the Middle East have generated a significant shift in what audiences consume, want, and consider appropriate entertainment, but there is not a lot of recorded data to understand these issues in detail. Producing quantitative knowledge on the subject will help members of the industry make better-informed decisions,” said Abdulaziz al-Khater.
The partnership is the latest in a growing collaboration between the two organisations that frequently work together on projects that support local media students and producers, advance media literacy, and promote Qatar’s emerging film and media industries, including this year’s inaugural Ajyal Youth Film Festival, taking place from November26-30.
The research endeavour builds on a survey conducted last year by NU-Q in collaboration with the World Internet Project - a major international initiative that has spanned more than a decade in its quest to track the social, political and economic impact of the Internet on people’s lives.
The face-to-face survey of nearly 10,000 people, which was undertaken in Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan, Lebanon, and the United Arab Emirates, revealed that despite the Arab Spring many Internet users in the region remain ambivalent about openly expressing their opinions online.
Abdulaziz al-Khater and Everette E Dennis after signing a partnership pact.
