Using Social Media in the Bahraini 2014 Elections “A Study on a Sample of Young People”

Social media is considered one of the important instruments professionally employed in the elections in various countries around the world; as social media represents an important space for social communication, cultural exchange, and political debate among young people. The young believe that this default space provides a great deal of information, and perhaps this is the most important reason which leads them to love it. This use of space developed from being a mere tool for entertainment and building friendships to rather include various walks of life. The political issue, however, was not the exception on which the young depended on social media as an important source for their information.The fourth social media report issued by the Government Administration College  in Dubai in 2014  indicated that the percentage of users of the most important social media networks in Bahrain reached as high as (410. 000 ) users of Twitter and  (360. 000 )users of  Facebook in a small country of not more than  one million people.This study attempts to shed light on some facts associated with the Bahraini youth use of social media in the parliamentary and municipal elections which were held on November 25, 2014 in Bahrain. This study also aimed to identify the degree of young people reliance on social media as a source of information about the candidates and their election programs. Keywords: Bahraini youth, Social media, Diffusion of Innovations theory, Elections, public sphere theory

Gulf Elites’ dependence on international press in times of crisis : the US-Iran crisis 2019-2020

International press coverage is often considered a legitimate source of informed opinion, especially during a political conflict such as the US-Iran crisis in 2019-2020. The international press coverage needs an in-depth understanding of such socio-political relationships to understand direct media effects and media dependability. Most studies have examined the intersection of international relations with communication and media studies and failed to consider the effects of emotional, cognitive and behavioural media on other non-state actors involved in the conflict. This study attempts to identify the degree to which the Gulf Elites – powerful non-state actors – depend and prefer the international press (newspapers) for following news coverage of the crisis, their news coverage professionalism, and news sources. An online survey was conducted with a snowball sampling technique which resulted in more than 200 Gulf Elites (following Al-Din Hassan’s classification) in five Gulf countries: Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, UAE, and Kuwait. The research indicated that, overall, these newspapers were followed/read to some extent, with a preference for accessing them online, confirming the ease of online accessibility in the region. The two UK newspapers were highly preferred compared to the two US and French newspapers. However, the news coverage of the crisis was described as lacking professionalism, and respondents showed a lack of interest in following such coverage, highlighting the emergence of Pan-Arab media