Abeer Najjar (PhD)

Assistant Professor

Dept. of Mass Communication-American University of Sharjah

Arab Youth And Social Media

Grouping and ClassificationIs there Arab youth?

1. Geography 2.Culture 3. Socioeconomic 4.Consumption 5.Education (literacy, bilingual, …)

a fantasy or empowerment according to media theories what are the possible changes on the youth behavior regarding social/ political / cultural and consumer activism functions and purposes /liability to be influenced room for proactiveness when it comes to their own lives how does this translate when it comes to real life as in relation to 

the pleasure they can get online (space, function, lack of accountability and choice) comparing to their lives where they have to live within the boundaries of accepted behavior and  social appropriateness 

The sky is the limit Users are empowered to

create and add a large number of applications express their opinions without being liable for accountabilitymake connections that are not monitored by family & friends construct a desired self image (unattainable in life)explore options and self potentials 

Arab Social Sites Arab company The Social Media it mimics Language Country of Origin No. of Posts/comments/ hits Possible Marketing Applications

WatWetStarted 2007

Twitter- 12,266 members in the Arab world

Arabic Jordan 25,000 users mostly in Jordan with a growth rate of 25% since March.

It allows you to link your account to twitter+fb+receive smses

NaqaTube2009

YouTube Arabic Saudi Arabia 5,000 to 6,000 posts within the first two months according to the site's

moderator

Politically and socially clean version of youtube

TamTem2009

Fmylife.com Arabic Jordan Daily Pageview-5963; Daily Ads Revenue-$17.89;daily

Wizards ProductionsMarch 2009

MMOG-Online gaming Arabic Jordan 94,400 registered player over 30 million page views and 500,000

visits

Games are freePrepaid cards for upgrade

Viral marketing through giving points to players once they invite their friends

Shop Gates Ebay ArabicSouq.com

2005Ecommerce English UAE and sells to

Saudi and Jordan45,000 users the Gold ‘UAE Web Award’ in the ‘Best e-

commerce website’ category

NahelJuly 09

Ebay B2C selling English Dubai,UAE not enough information not enough information

CashUJuly 02

Online credit card payments

English UAE cashU is now available in 28 countries around the world

not enough information

Azharna Order flowers online English Jordan not enough information not enough information

Shawshara09

community project documenting Arabic music lyrics. Anyone can edit this

information

English + Arabic Palestinian based in USA

51,000 hits Use of advertisements on website

Rose Desert‐Facebook

Khaliha Tsaddi (Leave it to Rust)

Saudi  youngmenIt was against a decision by car agents in KSA to raise the car prices by 12% at the beginning of the finacial crisisjournalist Muhammad bin Abdellatif al Sheikh asked the Saudi customers to stop car purchasing and delay it for 6 months  The slogan of the campaign is (Khaliha tsadi)The campaign was taken to face book 

Khaliha t3anes campaign‐Spinster  

Oral to visual culture 

Religiosity to social liberation  

Role models and loyalty 

Twitter 12,266 members in the Arab world (Spot PR 09)Iranian elections Metro Dubai Users are focused in the GCC especially UAE where 40% of the Arab users reside

Watwet‐the Arab Twitter   

Tamtem‐the Arabic copy of Fmylife 

Naqa Tube‐ the religious version of You Tube 

Blogsphere 

Diary style‐personalLocal news‐criticism against leadersInternational news‐negative One topic of focus significance across countries is Palestine (Israel war on Gaza)Differences across nationalityArab bloggers are generally, young and male Arab blogsphere is organized around countries 

Arab bloggers (Egypt, KSA & Kuwait)English Bridge (Levant & Iraq)Maghrib/French Bridge (relevant to religion focused group)Islam focus (various countries) 

Trends‐ Arab users of social media Male biased users (i.e., twitter, face book, social media production, blogging)Empowerment in expression and creating impression Conservatism, religiosity Politically oriented (alsheikh al Shatri) fans of al skeikh / marawaa sherbini case  (june 09)More political courage than social : anonymity and power  things happening on social media are not communicated in realityLanguage and ideology