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As competition between Oman's old and new media intensifies, will we see an improvement in the quality of both?

In a previous post, I admitted to a moderate obsession with Oman’s online Arabic forums (the major ones being Farrq, Sabla and Hara).  To be honest, I’ve completely spurned this country’s old media establishment in favor of new media, because I find that 95 percent of the content in print newspapers is hopelessly out of touch with reality.  The internet forums, on the other hand, are enabling vibrant, multi-perspectival debates surrounding the “bad news” stories ignored by the mainstream media which (big surprise!) prefers to publish only “good news.”  Last week, I met with a professor at Sultan Qaboos University who teaches in the Department of Media.  He has done a lot of research on new media growth and communications technology in Oman, and shared his surprisingly optimistic predictions with me.  Although the interviewee acknowledged the yawning gap between the “good news” stories that dominate Oman’s old media establishment and the “bad news” being circulated on the forums, he is confident that the gap will shrink as conventional media outlets start to lose their audience to the increasingly popular forums.  According to the professor, who wished to remain anonymous, “Traditional media like newspapers, television and radio are still talking about the same, old issues, and ignoring the issues that Omanis are truly concerned about.  At the same time, Online forums are becoming increasingly popular, and they offer the public a place to discuss issues that are too controversial for traditional media.”

True, many of the people who write on forums don’t adhere to journalistic standards, so some of the posts are based on rumors and not facts.  But the interviewee believes that as readers are exposed to more and more sources of information and news, they will become increasingly sophisticated and learn to differentiate between accurate reports and overly sensational ones.  As readers become more media-savvy, they will develop higher expectations for news sources, and gravitate toward the sources that exhibit solid journalistic practices and standards.  So the higher quality news sources will draw larger audiences, and beat out weaker competitors.  (An obvious counterpoint to this argument is the popularity of tabloids: some readers will always prefer salacious gossip to the boring, fact-checked stuff).

I have argued before that the phenomena of self-censorship and traditional censorship compromise the quality of reporting in Oman’s several state-controlled publications, but my interviewee noted that the handful of supposedly independent newspapers suffer from some of the same quality-control issues:

• Recycling new stories from other sources instead of encouraging original reporting

• Repeating the same, conventional viewpoints instead of seeking out alternative perspectives

• Fixating on international dilemmas like the “Zionist conspiracy,” instead of investigating local concerns like rising unemployment and the steady depletion of natural resources like oil and water.

• Prioritizing entertainment at the expense of hard news

In theory, privately run media outlets have more freedom than government-sponsored ones, so why are they running up against all of the same pitfalls?  In 2004, the Private Radio and Television Companies Law allowed for the licensing of private broadcast media, and for the first time in Oman’s history, a few independent stations went on the air.  Unfortunately, these private stations appear even less committed to serious journalism than their state-run counterparts, and devote the majority of their programming to entertainment and music.

Despite the apparent stagnation of this country’s old media establishment, my interviewee was optimistic that the rising popularity of online forums and other new media applications will force the traditional media outlets to improve the quality of their content, unless they want to see their audiences migrate to internet sources.  Oman’s most prominent Arabic internet forums — Farrq, Sabla and Hara — feature discussions on a range of pressing local issues that traditional media outlets tend to ignore.  Last week, I recorded the top local news stories covered in Al Watan, a privately owned but government-friendly newspaper, and compared those headlines to the most popular posts on the Hara forum.  No surprise here: Al Watan‘s coverage of local events was limited to self-congratulatory and overwhelmingly positive stories lauding government initiatives, while the Hara posts honed in on social and economic problems, called on public officials to implement remedies, and even criticized the performance of certain ministries.  Reading the headlines, it’s hard to believe that the the two websites are talking about the same country.  Here’s a sample of the local news stories covered by Al Watan on April 3:

• “Opening of the Aal al-Bayt Mosque in Madinat Qaboos”

• “Mahada municipality implements awareness campaigns to promote personal hygiene”

• “The Al Awabi fort reopens after the completion of restoration”

• “Maintenance work completed on the main road to Ra’as al Had”

• “Planting of more than 75 tree and installation of awareness bulletins on highways”

As you can see, these stories all highlight paternalistic initiatives aimed at improving the quality of life for citizens (the provision of public services is essential to maintaining the legitimacy of welfare states like Oman).  But compare this list to the following sample of most popular posts on Hara for the same day (April 3), and you’ll notice a substantial gap between the stories covered in the conventional media and the stories that Omanis (or the subset of Omanis who read the Hara forum) want to talk about:

• “Are the police doing their job in the Sultanate?”

• “The Omani people always waiting for royal orders … for how long?” (The post criticizes the bureaucratic paralysis of government ministries)

• “Lack of adequate parking space in the commercial district of Ruwi!”

• “Years of abuses and bribes for drivers licenses show lack of oversight in ministries”

• “What happened to the petition for a constitution?”

• “What happened in Mayzona??” (The post contains an accusation of police violence against a citizen)

Note that several items on the second list are framed as questions, and are directly inviting discussion of controversial issues like the inefficiency and even illegitimacy of government institutions.  These are issues that the conventional, government-friendly media won’t touch with a ten foot pole, for the time being.  But my interviewee suggested that the situation might change, as readers/listeners/viewers start fleeing conventional media for internet forums and other new media sources that are willing to push the envelope a little more.  If the conventional newspapers, radio and television stations don’t start addressing the issues discussed on Hara and other forums, their audiences will lose interest and move on to the greener pastures of new media.  When that starts happening, we may see the discrepancy between lists 1 and 2 start to narrow a little — and that would be a good thing, in my opinion.

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