Media monitoring summary report – Lebanon : providing facts in the struggle for evidence-based development

Abstract

This report is based on media observation and monitoring executed by the Gender, Communication and Global Mobility Studies (GCGM) unit at the Faculty of Law and Political Science (FLPS) at Notre Dame University – Louaize (NDU). The monitoring and data collection took over two months from 1 July until 31 August 2021. The overall objective of this summary report is to understand and analyze qualitatively how news reports in Arabic digital media are portraying stories related to internal security including feature articles or opinion pieces related to keeping peace and stability within Lebanon, articles which cover threats to national security, the humanitarian, economic and political crisis. One of the primary goals of the monitoring of the news coverage is to test three main hypotheses, i.e. that the media coverage/article illustrates journalism which challenges negative perceptions between diverse groups such as refugees/host communities/political parties; the media coverage/article illustrates journalism which reinforces negative perceptions between diverse groups such as refugees/host communities/political parties; the media coverage/article illustrates how events such as the Beirut blast, economic crisis and political protests are impacting internal security. From the 1 July until the 31 August the monitoring team conducted a preliminary news gathering which was based on reading and collecting articles published in Arabic, online and tackling national stories happening in Lebanon. The original surveyed sample consisted of 186 articles gathered from numerous media outlets at the rate of three articles per day as a first phase. The second phase consisted of identifying, reviewing and selecting the articles in an in depth qualitative analysis. As a result, the final sample included 14 different online media outlets.