Create A Virtual World

An online gender gap exists in social media in the area with fewer ladies online, according to a study which refuses to throw up any major surprises.The 3rd Arab Social Media Report states social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are main mediums to raise awareness, spread news and mobilise the community where regimes have fallen in many nations.The Dubai School of Government’s (DSG) Governance and Innovation Programme’s report was performed with the Gender and Public Plan Programme.Just one 3rd of Facebook consumers in the Arab area are females in stark comparison to ladies being around half of the consumers globally, states the report. The research found that the amount of Facebook consumers in the Arab planet reached 36 million, registering an increase of 68 per cent since the beginning of 2011. While the percentage of woman consumers increased from 32 per cent at the finish of 2010 to 33.5 per cent at the finish of 2011, it stayed static throughout the previous 2 quarters.

Fadi Salem, Director of the Governance and Innovation Programme at DSG and co-author of the report, said: “There are greatly fewer Arab ladies utilizing social media. However, 70 per cent of the active social media consumers in the Arab globe are young females and guys, which points out a important mass of young Arabs have embraced social media with the objective to effect change. The positive views shown in our study combined with the shift towards utilizing social media in activism during the Arab popular movements, recommend that social media can additionally play an important part in better empowering Arab females in the near future.”

Racha Mourtada, Research Associate with the Governance and Innovation Programme at DSG and lead writer of the report, said: “It is promising a majority of guy and woman respondents perceive social media as an enabler for ladies s empowerment. However, the prevailing gap in Arab ladies s use of social media compared to guys and to the worldwide average is basically an outcome of perceived societal and cultural constraints Arab ladies continue to face in real existence.”Even though social media is mostly viewed as a tool for empowerment that will give ladies access to and help them to engage in entrepreneurial solutions, social change, and civic and political action, 40 per cent of the respondents asserted that it might additionally present unique concerns for females s civic involvement.On the positive side, the report indicates that social media itself can be enjoyed as a ‘gender equaliser’ in the Arab globe as responses of man and woman social media consumers were generally synonymous across the board.

Dr May Al Dabbagh, Director of the Gender and Public Plan Programme at DSG, said: “It is important to recognise and address the gender gap in access to chances and resources in the Arab globe. Towards this end, the report marks an important contribution to our learning of Arab females s engagement with technological advances of our globalised globe.”Based on the report, the Arab uprisings are the main discussions on Twitter. For example, Bahrain, Egypt and Syria were the best 3 most well known trending ‘hashtags’ on Twitter across the Arab area in September.Almost 652,333 active Twitter consumers in the Arab area are estimated to have produced close to 37 million tweets at the finish of September 2011. Furthermore, the report revealed that Bahrain and Kuwait lead the method with around 3.5 per cent Twitter penetration in both nations, with Qatar, the UAE and Saudi Arabia taking the remaining top slots.However, Egypt leads the method in the amount of active Twitter consumers at 129,711, while Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE and Bahrain produced 70 per cent of the tweets in September 2011.