English abstract
The study aims at describing the content of investigative reports published in the Arabic Omani newspapers in the year 2013, in order to identify their characteristics, types, functions, sources and the geographic locations they focus on, in addition to holding comparisons between the Omani newspapers subject to the study on their interest levels in investigative reporting in terms of editing and designing. The study used the content analysis tool to gather and analyze data in the context of media survey methodology. The study used comprehensive inventory on a sample of five arabic Omani newspapers during the year 2013 as follows: "Oman" newspaper with (59) investigative reports, "Al-Watan" newspaper with (38) investigative reports, "Al Shabeeba" newspaper with (45) investigative reports, "Al-Zaman" with (109) investigative reports and "Al-Roya" newspaper with (40) investigative reports. The study concluded that there is little interest from arabic Omani newspapers in the art of investigative reporting compared to other forms of journalism. The study also revealed that arabic Omani newspapers focus on publishing investigations on public affairs, lacking interest in the term "investigation" and using various terms, and concentrate on publishing investigative reports at the local level in a number of Governorates. The informative function of investigative reporting predominated other functions. The newspapers under study depended on personal sources in gathering information for investigative reports, rather than archives. Moreover, the study pointed out to the shared dependency on reporters and editors at newspapers in writing investigative reports and not on external reporters or the Omani News Agency. The study showed growing interest in descriptive titles and using the upright pyramid style (based on descriptive analysis) and conclusion-free investigative reporting.
