Officials of Northwestern University in Qatar and Doha Film Institute during the announcement of partnership for research into trends in entertainment media consumption in the Middle East.
DOHA: 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 research will explore how people in the Mena region consume and create media pertaining to entertainment, culture, and sports in six countries including Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Egypt and Tunisia. By asking about both the role of entertainment in people’s lives and cultural attitudes, researchers hope to learn more about media use and society in the post-Arab Spring era.
The partnership was announced recently by Abdulaziz Al Khater, CEO of DFI and Everette E Dennis, Dean and CEO of 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.
“Doha Film Institute’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,” said Dennis.
“Our academic and industry-specific strengths combined 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.”
“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 Al Khater.
Al Khater added that fieldwork is scheduled to begin in December and results are expected in March.
The Peninsula
