The global economic crisis is having a significant impact on how journalists across the Middle East are operating, according to the results of a major survey published today.
A collapse in advertising revenues - leading to title closures, redundancies and recruitment freezes - has left the region’s reporters feeling under increased pressure, although ‘government rules and regulations’ has emerged as the greatest barrier to journalists covering stories as they would like.
The MediaSource/Insight Middle East Journalist Survey 2009 canvassed the opinions of 219 journalists working for Arabic and English-language print, broadcast and online media in 13 countries across the Middle East, covering topics ranging from press releases, press conferences, PR practice, the sources journalists use for stories, and the current state of journalism in the region.
“We conducted a similar survey in 2007 and wanted to see what, if anything, has changed over the past two years,” explained James Mullan, joint managing partner of media training consultancy, Insight.
“One of the most significant differences revealed by the 2009 survey is that journalists are receiving, and using, more press releases than they did two years ago. This would appear to signify that an increasing number of Middle East businesses and organisations have adopted public relations as a significant part of their marketing mix, and the region has become more PR-savvy.”
The region’s journalists have a lot to say, however, about the quality, relevance and timing of some of the information they are being fed by PR agencies and in-house communications teams.
“The ‘most irritating practice’ for both the Arabic and English media remains the sending of irrelevant press releases, just as it was in our 2007 survey,” said Ben Smalley, managing director of MediaSource, which publishes the Middle East & North Africa Media Guide and represents global PR tool Mediadisk in the region.
“The survey reveals a pressing need for PR practitioners to become more targeted and develop a greater understanding of the subjects covered by the media outlets they are dealing with, rather than adopting a scattergun approach to distribution.”
Other gripes voiced by journalists include failure to respect deadlines and an inability to provide further information when requested, while 81% of the Arabic press and 90% of the English-language press believe PR agencies and their clients hold unnecessary press conferences either ‘often’ or ‘sometimes’.
The ‘traditional media‘ has mixed feelings about the impact of ‘social media’ such as blogs, Facebook and Twitter. The survey found 62% of Arabic and 74% of English-language journalists view the importance of social media as a source of information in a neutral or negative light, yet they feel it has a role to play in providing greater interaction with their audiences.
A number of media organisations are already using social media to interact, 55% of Arabic and 37% of English-language respondents say their media organisations aren’t using it but feel they should be, with just 7% of Arabic and 13% of English respondents believing social media to be ‘a waste of time’.
When it comes to how journalists view their own profession, 47% of Arabic journalists believe the quality of journalism in the region to be either ‘Very Good’ or ‘Fairly Good’, compared with just 22% of English-language journalists who feel the same.
The majority of the English-language press (63%) feels the quality of regional journalism is improving (a drop from 80% in 2007), but only 44% of the Arabic press agrees, with 28% saying it is ‘Staying the Same’ and 28% believing it is ‘Getting Worse’.
The factor most hindering the way both sets of journalists are able to write stories as they wish is ‘government rules and regulations’ which rose to combined top spot in 2009, from second place in 2007.
Both the Arabic and English-language media also report a greater increase in pressure from advertisers over their editorial content than they did in 2007, while the greatest impact of the global economic crisis has been a ‘significant drop’ in advertising revenues, according to 52% of Arabic and 62% of English-language respondents.
“The aim in conducting the survey is to assist PR practitioners better understand the concerns, frustrations and pressures placed on journalists,” stated Oliver Blofeld, managing partner, Insight.
“Included within the survey are around 1,300 comments from journalists relating to the topics covered which, for the most part, are extremely constructive in the help and advice they offer to the PR community to secure better coverage and enhance their working relations with the regional media.”
The full MediaSource/Insight Middle East Journalist Survey 2009 can be purchased online at www.middleeastmediaguide.com for US$150, or by emailing requests to admin@insightmiddleeast.com.
