The Attitude of Arab Elites towards whose Media Discourse during the Coronavirus Pandemic

اتجاهات النُخب العربية نحو الخطاب الإعلامي لمنظمة الصحة العالمية خلال جائحة "كورونا"

Abstract

This study tackled the World Health Organization’s media discourse during the Coronavirus pandemic. It aimed mainly at monitoring the attitude of Arab elites towards the inducements used in the discourse whether it be emotional, rational or intimidation. It also aimed at determining the most prominent media followed by the elites for receiving information about the pandemic, and knowing to what extent are they exposed to such media. The study is based on the survey method. The survey included purposive samples, where the questionnaire instrument was used to collect data from 725 individuals representing academic and media elites from different parts of the Arab world.

The study concluded that most of the individuals of Arab elites are exposed to the discourse via social media platforms, followed by television. Results showed that they agreed that the discourse is loaded with emotional stimulants, intriguing and confusing, exaggerates with warning and intimidation, promotes anger and hatred towards the organization, includes preferential wordings that favor certain ideas, displays facts, and based on herd instinct, cites real information and events, builds results based on data, and they disagreed on the point that it provides precise numbers and statistics.