Citizen Journalism on Twitter in Saudi Arabia

The next ICA speaker is Aljawhara Almutarie, whose focus is on citizen journalism via Twitter in Saudi Arabia. Twitter has become an important space for such citizen journalism in the country, in part in response to the economic crisis in the country that followed the 2014 collapse in oil prices.

Aljawhara interviewed both professional and citizen journalists for this study, and on the citizen journalism side these are largely focussing on hyper local matters. For them, Twitter serves as a kind of unofficial ‘Saudi Parliament’, where citizens are able to discuss current issues and make their voices heard. This has transformed government decision-making from royal fiat into a more dialogic process, and the Crown Prince recently invited some online influencers to participate in symposia to envisage a future for Saudi Arabia.

Twitter is therefore also a barometer for public opinion, and professional journalists are drawing on it for impromptu opinion polling. Major trending hashtags are sometimes pushing the mainstream media to cover certain issues they had ignored.

But at the same time Twitter is also a platform for rumours and ‘fake news’, and officials are sometimes inflating their follower numbers or using social media in other inappropriate ways. There have also been some disruptive campaigns from sources outside of Saudi Arabia, seeking to create misunderstanding, disrupt security, and engender civil unrest. Fingers have been pointed at Iran as a likely culprit in this.

Nonetheless, Saudis are comparatively heavy Twitter users, and the Arab nation using Twitter most enthusiastically. Twitter controversies have led to the dismissal of ministers and other officials in the country.