A recent survey conducted by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI) had a variable response from the respondents regarding their source of reliable media.
Most of the respondents were in favour of television, radio, newspapers, and other mainstream media for their reliability of news.
The Sultanate of Oman, like many other countries, is assessing the role of media in conveying the right message and emerging as the right choice of information while meeting the aspirations of the beneficiaries.
Within the framework of cooperation between the NCSI and the Ministry of Information, the former surveyed the quality of local media content and asked for suggestions to improve media content in general.
The survey sample size was 1,739 citizens and residents in the Sultanate of Oman in the age group of 18 years and over, who were selected according to the simple random sampling method.
The sample included males and females from all governorates of the Sultanate of Oman, from different educational levels and age groups. The sample size allowed estimates of most of the indicators obtained from the survey at the overall level in the Sultanate of Oman.
The Sultanate of Oman's Oman TV witnessed a high percentage of viewers (70 per cent), of whom 86 per cent watched Oman TV channels through the TV set, and 27 per cent watched it through social media. The public channel of the Sultanate of Oman ranked as the most watched local TV channel by Omanis with a rate of 48 per cent of the total viewers of the Sultanate of Oman TV channels, followed by Oman Sports Channel with a rate of 15 per cent.
For radio, there was 74 per cent response in its favour of which 97 per cent listen on radio and 7 per cent through social media. 33 per cent listened to Youth Radio out of the total listeners of local radio channels, which is the most listened to a local radio channel by Omanis.
As for newspapers, 70 per cent of Omanis do not read newspapers at all, while only 30 per cent of them read newspapers. Among them, 13 per cent preferred to read Oman Daily Newspaper, which is the highest percentage compared to other newspapers, while 4 per cent chose to read hard copy newspapers, and 44 per cent electronic newspapers.
It has been observed during the past years that the social networks of media organisations are among the media outlets that the Omani public is most exposed to and relies on to obtain information on societal issues and follow up on current events in the country.
The survey aimed to find out the opinions of Omanis about the media content provided by the local audio-visual and print media institutions, in addition to studying the rates of listening, viewing and reading among the public in what these institutions broadcast and publish.
Today, a number of media outlets from the Sultanate of Oman broadcast their various materials, whether they are visual, audio or print. This is an opportunity for the diversity of media outlets, which generates honest competition for media professionals in a manner that does not contradict the regulations and the law.
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