Trusted News Sources’ Measures and their Relationships to Social and Public Attitudes: An Analysis of the First Annual Omnibus Survey of Life in Qatar

Abstract

An overwhelming majority (77 percent) of Qatari Nationals reported television as their most trusted local news source (87 percent for Arab/regional news and 89 percent for international news), and 80 percent rated the state-owned Aljazeera Network as “very objective” in its news coverage. With such a broad appeal, television news has the potential to shape the social, political and economic beliefs of Qatari citizens. Using data from the first Omnibus Survey of Life in Qatar, this study examined the most and least trusted news sources among Qataris as well as the country’s resident expatriates. The relationship between preferred news sources and attitudes toward social and public issues are explored, and the implications of television as a trusted news source is discussed.