English abstract
The aim of this study is to describe and analyze the characteristics of The Omani daily Arabic newspapers' accounts on Twitter through identifying the most frequently used journalistic arts on Twitter accounts, the quality of the published topics and their functions, the type of interaction on these accounts, as well as other characteristics.
The study seeks to answer three main questions to determine the general characteristics of the newspapers' accounts - the study sample - and the content characteristics of each of these accounts, and the challenges facing Omani newspapers to use social media, and other sub-questions in order to achieve the study objectives.
The study uses the survey method to collect data and information through the content analysis tool. The study depends on a random sample that covers the period from January 1, 2018 until March 31, 2018. During this period, the total number of newspapers' tweets reached (2324) tweets.
The study concluded with a number of results, the most important of which are the following: Omani newspapers realized the importance of Twitter and established verified accounts on different dates from 2009 until 2015. Tweets of all newspapers reached more than 25000 in total until the end of the study period. Newspapers' accounts also have about (483.000) followers.
The study found that newspapers' accounts are active on working days (Sunday - Thursday), while their activity is significantly reduced during weekly leaves (Friday - Saturday). Some newspapers under study adopt the policy of re-tweeting from other accounts. The accounts of government institutions are the most common sources from which newspapers re-tweet the news, and the study showed that some newspapers' accounts include repeated tweets.
The study revealed the superiority of news as the main form of publishing in the accounts of the Omani newspapers, followed by articles. The economic issues ranked first in the category of topics transmitted by the tweets. The media function has emerged as the most prominent function of published topics, and in the interaction categories, the study showed that the highest number was in the "likes" interactions.
The study confirmed the superiority of the Arabic language as the first language of the tweets, with the superiority of newspapers' hash tags as well, and the availability of hyperlinks that take the reader back to the site of the newspaper as the most common type of links used. The local issues were found out to be the most tweeted topics.
In line with these findings, the study recommends that newspapers should establish special departments specialized in social media and employ qualified and specialized cadres. The newspapers should put a strategy to use social media that includes a clear plan about the purpose to use these networks, the content they want to present, the mechanisms to manage their accounts, and the plan to develop special media content for their social media accounts which might be different from the paper copy. The study further recommends to focus on the quality of the content presented on these accounts, by adopting structured and purposeful tweets, and avoiding random tweeting that seeks to increase the number of tweets only without considering the diversity of their content.
