English abstract
This study aims at shedding light on the social issues discussed in those channels and identifying its features. This study is descriptive in which the researcher analyzed and described the content of the private Omani YouTube channels. In order to know more about those channels and how they were created, the researcher conducted un structured interviews with four owners of private channels during the period from 17/7/2016 to 20/7/2016. The study sample included 65 episodes which were selected based on a purposive sample during the period from 15/9/2015 to 12/15/2015.
The most important findings show that the private Omani YouTube channels have not been established during the same period of time. They also differed in terms of the way they presented and produced their episodes; however, they shared a common goal which is discussing the wide-spread social issues specifically in the Omani society. Another essential finding is that the content of the Omani YouTube channels were not updated regularly or/and the episodes and programs were not broadcasted periodically. That depended on the availability of funding to create new programs and episodes. They were also influenced by how much free time the owners of those channels had to produce and broadcast their programs.
The results showed that the Omani YouTube channels can be categorized based on their content into personal, blogs, comedy, entertainment, and educational channels. The two first categories are the most common ones among the Omani YouTube channels. In addition, the programs which ranked first were the social and educational programs and the ones that raised the awareness of people about specific issues. On the other hand, the Omani YouTube channels lacked interest in discussing issues such as economy, documentary, technicality, religions, health and entertainment.
The researcher also found that the majority of the episodes of the Omani YouTube channels focused only on one issue in each episode. In contrast, there were a few number of episodes that involved two or more issues depending on the type of the
topic discussed and its aim whether broadcasting news, criticism, education, learning skills or entertainment. The owners of YouTube's channels mostly showed their negative attitudes towards the topics discussed. The target groups they criticized in their channels were mainly the government officials, followed by the college and school students, and then the publics.
Furthermore, the study found that all the programs were presented by males , expect one program that was presented by both a male and female. Moreover, the Omani colloquial Arabic was used in most programs, while standard Arabic was used very little. The researcher also found that there was diversity in the way that the owners of YouTube's channels presented the issues. They depended mostly on using direct talk, comedy style and drama. Finally, all the Omani channels rarely displayed advertisements.
