Currently, there are more
than 85 million social media users in the Arab world. For example, we can all
make a quick guess on the Arab country having the largest number of Facebook users
as we all have fresh memories on how the Arab spring had started. There are 20
million Facebook users in Egypt. But when it comes to the percentage of
Facebook users in the total population, then Qatar is at the top with 62.9 %.
The Governance and
Innovation Programme at the Mohammad Bin Rashid School of Government (MBRSG)
and the Dubai Press Club cooperatively conducted an interesting research on
social media use in the region. Three thousand people participated in the study
“2014 UAE Social Media Outlook; Increasing Connectivity Between Government and
Citizen”.
Some highlighted results
of the study will be mentioned below. Besides, the whole report can be seen
from the link: mbrsg
Internet search engines
are more popular method to reach information as 37 % of the participants
reported that they prefer doing so when they need a governmental information.
The second most favored method was surfing on the official governmental webpage
(30 %). However, only 4 % of the respondents stated social media as their
preferred method. Nonetheless, the participants favoring mobile applications
was only 2 %.
The main reason that the
UAE wants to use social media as a communication method with governmental
agencies is to make citizens more involved in the decision making process of
the government. In the foreword of the
study it is stated by Dr Ali Sebaa Al Marri, Executive President of MBRSG, that
“Today, citizens and residents in the UAE are not just passive recipients of
government services but are active partners in the development of these
services.”, however, the results of the research suggest that citizens use
social media to seek governmental information rather than interacting with
governmental bodies. According to the Director of the Program, Racha Mourtada,
people still do not feel themselves comfortable when they are sharing their personal
information. But she says this is normal for a new way of communication and
people will be more trustful within time. (gulfnews)
For example, people were asked if they have ever
provided a feedback to the government on service delivery. As it can be seen in
the figure below (retrieved from the report), 44.7% of the respondents never
left a feedback. Dr. Al Marri points out the importance of the feedback and he
says there should be more public awareness on this issue. Respondents favored
the answer ‘training and capacity building for government employees’ when they
are asked about increasing the role of social media in citizen engagement.
“Have you ever
provided feedback to the government on service delivery?”
In the final part of the report, there is a
brainstorming case. In December, 2013 a brainstorming session via Twitter was
initiated by the Vice President and Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum to get
citizens’ opinions on education and healthcare issues. He announced from his
Twitter account that they want to hear citizens’ opinions on the issues they
are facing with on the aforementioned areas. At the end of a few days long
brainstorming session, over 82 thousand of suggestions were received via
Twitter under the hashtag of #uabrainstorm or emails to brainstorm@uaepm.ae. In the report it is stated that the results
were promising for more public participation in UAE’s future. Such an integration
will help government activities to be more transparent and encourage citizens
to communicate more with the government with using technology.
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