Date: Monday, 08 February 2010
The Dubai Press Club has completed its preparations to launch the third and most comprehensive edition of “A Look at the Arab Media”, next February 2010, the report that presents an integrated picture of the state of the media sector in the Arab world with expectations of the trends of the media industry and the most important phenomena and issues of interest to new and traditional media on the Both over the next five years.
Maryam bin Fahd, Executive Director of the Dubai Press Club, said: “The new edition of the report, titled “A Look at Arab Media 2009 – 2013: Promoting Local Content,” provides a comprehensive analysis of the media landscape across various media platforms. The report also assesses the status of the media sector In 15 Arab countries, the process of creating and disseminating content at the local and regional levels.
In comparison with the second edition of the report last year, bin Fahd pointed to the importance of the timing of the third edition, especially after more than a year and a half of the economic slowdown in the Arab region, which means a greater ability for the report to reflect the current state of the various media sectors and explore growth opportunities with expectations. Well thought out for the future.
Bin Fahd added: “The Arab Media Insight report, in its new edition, includes, for the first time, the results of an extensive research on the changing factors of media content consumption in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Lebanon. In addition to market research, the report relies on The new data is based on a rich set of data gleaned from detailed interviews with about 130 prominent media organizations in all media fields and from all markets covered by the study, including Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, the Sultanate of Oman, Palestine, Qatar, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia, Syria, Sudan, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.
The report also provides valuable information on media content perception and consumption in the region, as well as the ways in which media organizations have responded to the global financial crisis. For example, 59% of the stakeholders interviewed expressed optimism about the future of the media sector in the region during 2010, despite the effects of the crisis. In contrast to this optimistic view came the results of market research regarding the consumption of local content, which showed that more than 60% of those surveyed in the region prefer browsing Arab websites, and 80% prefer watching Arab TV channels, which belies fears of an invasion of the media. foreign in Arab countries.
Moreover, the percentage of people who prefer to consume locally developed content in their countries was much higher in countries where Arabic content is produced on a large scale such as Egypt and Lebanon. For example, 63% of consumers of media products in Egypt prefer electronic content produced in Egypt and dealing with the Egyptian issue compared to content that acquires a general character and is developed in other Arab countries and even outside it. In addition, the large presence and rapidly growing popularity of social media in the Arab world were other interesting findings, with 70% of people in the four markets surveyed using social media, and about 15% visiting these websites once per day. at least.
Although print media is still the main source of news for most people, online news reading is gaining in strength with 22% to 34% of people preferring the internet to read news on a par with print media. . This trend, in addition to the impact of the increasing penetration of broadband services and the use of social media, which in turn affected consumer preferences, is a clear indication of the path that is being drawn by the consumption of media content in the region.
It is noteworthy that the Arab Media Outlook report, in addition to the Arab Media Forum and the Arab Journalism Award, is part of the pioneering initiatives and projects launched by the Dubai Press Club with the aim of developing the media sector in the Arab world. The report is one of the most reliable sources for obtaining reliable information and data on media trends in the Arab world for media professionals and professionals, public policy experts, governments, students and advertising companies.