Accolades for NU-Q study on Arab women in social media Thursday, 15 July 2010 05:23

DOHA: Social media use among young Arab women is creative and innovative, according to a first-of-its-kind study conducted by researchers at Northwestern University in Qatar (NU-Q).

The study revealed young Arab women have a deep respect for the community and the family. They are also more discerning when it comes to controlling information available in public, which leads to a high level of creativity in their use of social media.

Ivana Chalmers, NU-Q’s risk assessment specialist, and former faculty member Rodda Leage teamed up to conduct the research, which focused on social media use among women undergraduates at Education City, Doha.

According to Chalmers, the fact that the girls achieve this while respecting cultural norms reveals a tendency to engage with social media trends like Facebook in socially intelligent ways. “What is really admirable is they didn’t want to compromise their culture and their background. Instead, they found unique and interesting ways to express themselves.”

Asked what the study meant for Qatar and the region, Chalmers said, “It’s an important topic to consider. How do we fit, how we communicate into our lives, priorities and beliefs? We’re seeing that technology doesn’t have to compromise culture or belief systems. Instead, young Arab women are proving that social media can be used in a different way to the West.”

The study team interviewed a total of 42 students, aged 18 to 22, to explore the ways in which social media offer new and unfamiliar avenues to express identity.

Titled ‘Degrees of Caution: Arab Girls Unveil on Facebook’, the study was received with acclaim in the academic community and has been included as a chapter in the book Girl Wide Web 2.0: Revisiting Girls, the Internet, and the Negotiation of Identity.

It will also receive the distinction of Top Paper in its category when it is presented at the 96th Annual Convention of the National Communication Association (NCA), a US organisation dedicated to advancing all forms of human communication, later this year. It is the first time NU-Q has received such an accolade.

Hamid Naficy, Professor of Radio-Television-Film and Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani Professor in Communication at NU-Q, described the research as exciting and important.

“This is a great honour received by our NU-Q pioneers, including a current member of our community and a former member of our faculty. We congratulate them on their accomplishment.”

The accolade underlines Northwestern University’s strong tradition of interdisciplinary research and its collaborative spirit. “NU-Q is a university with many years of research behind it,” Chalmers explained.

“And, there is a lot of opportunity on the Qatar campus for collaboration. To have staff and faculty working together on a research project is a real testament to the creativity and energy of this place”.

The Peninsula

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