Arab Free Press Forum looks at how young people consume news

Posted by Emma Heald on June 7, 2010 at 9:47 AM

Arab young people are interested in news but don't want to pay for it, according to a study by Jad Melki, assistant professor of journalism and media studies at the American University of Beirut. The survey interviewed school and university students aged 13 to 28 in Lebanon, the UAE and Jordan. Melki was speaking at the 4th Arab Press Forum in Beirut, Lebanon.

Eighty per cent of the students said that they spend time consuming news each day. Print media ranks fairly low among sources of news for those surveyed. 49% of the young people said that they sometimes or often get their news from a newspaper or magazine, compared to 57% from news websites and 80% from TV and via friends and family. Those in the UAE use print media more than those in Jordan, who in turn use it more than those in Lebanon.

"There is an alarmingly high level of trust in online media," Melki said. He believes that many of the young people interviewed are tech-savvy but may well not be media literate and critical enough of the sources that they read. Of the survey group, 30% 'very much trusted' information they find on the Internet and 53% 'somewhat trusted it."

However, although young people are enthusiastic to consume media online, they seem reluctant to pay for online content. 81% said they had not purchased a product or service or used a credit card online in the past 30 days, despite the fact that 86% had downloaded music in that period.

In the same session, Daoud Kuttab, Palestinian journalist and founder of Jordanian news site AmmanNet explained some of the obstacles in the Arab world to making money from consumers of online content. Strong reliance on advertising in states where 'soft censorship' in the form of withdrawing advertising is a clear danger, and a conference participant argued that "we need to get away from the grip of the advertisers." As Kuttab said, however, credit cards are rare in the Arab world, meaning that opportunities for e-commerce are very limited. Making money through Google ads is also a challenge, as Arabic language ads bring in about a tenth of the amount that an English ad does.

One way that Kuttab suggested to get more subscribers would be to offer early online access to subscribers, and delay news for a few hours for non-subscribers. Another possible way to make money from online readers could be to make deals with telecom companies for paid text messages.