Media Release for “How the Middle East Used Social Media in 2020” a new report (free to download) out now in English and Arabic.

Report Highlights

• Over 200 sources of information were curated for this report
• 79% of Arab Youth consider social media a primary news source, with a 25% increase from 2015
• 65% increase for TikTok GCC influencers’ fanbase between February and August 2020
• 5 hours a day is the average time spent on Social Media by users in the Middle East
• UAE users have over 10 accounts on social media platforms
• Egypt is the 9th largest market for Facebook in the world with 44 million users
• Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Egypt are among the 13 largest markets for Snapchat worldwide
• Google, WhatsApp and YouTube…

The impact of COVID-19 on newsrooms was as rapid as it was sudden. As Hannah Storm, Director of the Ethical Journalism Network pointed out during the earlier stages of the pandemic: “News organisations had to reinvent decades of working practices in days.”

“Nothing compares with the events of recent weeks in terms of the global impact on media around the world of COVID-19 and the unprecedented scale of the story, and the demands it is making on our journalism and on us as journalists.”

Not surprisingly, given the all-encompassing nature of the pandemic, it has left an indelible mark on…

This is an extract from a new report on The Impact of COVID-19 on Journalism in Emerging Economies and the Global South, published by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

COVID-19 is a generation-defining pandemic, impacting families and communities in every country on the planet. In this report, we explore the consequences of the COVID crisis on journalism in developing economies and the Global South.

To help us do this, 55 alumni of training programmes run by the Thomson Reuters Foundation (TRF) shared their experiences about living — and working — in the COVID era. …

Google “What is Clubhouse?” and you’ll find a flurry of articles written in the past few weeks about this fast-growing social network. It’s not yet a year old, and much of the buzz stems from the fact that Clubhouse is invite-only, bringing with it an element of exclusivity.

Clubhouse’s key attribute is its medium: audio, which sets it apart from established social media and messaging services like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp and YouTube that use text, photos, video or a mix. Clubhouse combines the structure of old-school text chatrooms with the immediacy and emotion of the human voice.

The social…

“Newsgathering has been hit by unprecedented challenges at a time when the whole news media info system was already under significant pressure,” says Antonio Zappulla, CEO of the Thomson Reuters Foundation (TRF). “Quite simply we are living in a different world than we were exactly 12 months ago.”

Zappulla’s remarks were made at an event to launch TRF’s new report on The Impact of COVID-19 on Journalism in Emerging Economies and the Global South, a study which explores the challenges faced by journalists around the world and how they’re navigating the difficulties of reporting in the COVID-era.

At the heart…

eSports is one of the world’s fastest growing tech and entertainment industries, with audiences and revenues alike on the rise. Although COVID-19 has inevitably had an impact, the global eSports market is expected to be worth nearly $1.6 billion in 2023 up from $776 million in 2018, according to researchers.

And although much of the growth is driven by major markets like North America and China, the Middle East is also playing a role in the eSports boom.

“The Middle East is a fast-growing gaming market, evolving from casual gaming to virtual reality games and competitive sports. With a growing…

Will Church, Head of Journalism and Media Programmes at the Thomson Reuters Foundation (TRF), and I, joined Ian Williams of the Foreign Press Association USA to discuss the new TRF report on The impact of COVID-19 on Journalism in Emerging Economies and the Global South.

Across the world, the virus has affected media as well as the health of journalists. The pandemic has driven fake news and evoked a surge of threats against the media in emerging economies.

Sent out to cover the epidemic, hundreds of our colleagues have died, others have been threatened by governments and proprietors for reporting…

The MENA region is in the middle of a digital transformation, which 2020 and COVID-19 has only accelerated. I asked five experts to share the tech trends they see influencing the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) this year, with digital payments, greater investment in AI and mobile, coupled with the need for greater focus on cybersecurity, all getting a mention.

A look into big projects ahead

Among the things to look out for on the Middle East tech scene in 2021 is the Expo 2020 event, which is due to take place in Dubai in the UAE for six months starting from October says Matthew…