Arab Youth Survey
The 8th May 2018 marked the 10th Annual Arab Youth Survey, presenting the evidence, insights and opinions of the Arab youth in the MENA region. With youth unemployment in the region now above 25%, the need for this research is central to find out the issues being faced. A comprehensive interview process, conducting 3,500 face to face interviews with Country Nationals established some fascinating results.
Point 9 of the findings discussed in the session found that “while young Arabs increasingly turn to social media for their news, they see CNN as the most trusted news network, with Al Jazeera coming in the least most trusted news outlook.” Newspapers continue to face the challenge of engaging young Arabs as their popularity declined, from 22% to just 18%. When asked “compared with a year ago, would you say you use Facebook more, less, or about the same” 61% of young Arabs answered more with only 5% quoting less, showing online platforms are the way to reach this audience. Facebook’s influence among Arab youth continues to grow, with half now saying they get their news on Facebook daily.
This key section of research highlighted the increasing use of social media as the main platform of news for today’s youth. For the first time, more young Arabs cited they are getting their news on social media, not TV, marking a major shift since 2015. This dramatic change in the way media is consumed by this age group is a key finding for the sector. Brands looking to target this age group need to have an approach focused on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram to influence and target this market effectively.
