Digital youth in Qatar: Negotiating culture and national identity through social media networks

Abstract

The expanding digital media environment in Qatar is arguably affecting the construction of young people’s identities and the various expressions of who they are. The multiplicity of online digital spaces allows the youth nowadays to easily commute between multiple platforms and consume a multitude of media content in a manner not possible at any point before them. Through the implementation of ten focus group discussions among a sample of Qatari youths between 19 and 35 years of age, as well as 27 semi-structured in-depth interviews with social media activists, media experts, academics and policymakers in Qatar, this article attempts to analyse the complex media consumption environment that the Qatari youth engage with as well as the impact of that consumption on the formation of their identity. It looks at the extent to which their choices of various media genres on social media platforms allow them to negotiate and develop their own hybridized cultural identity. This study also considers how the Qatari youth capitalize on online spaces to reconstruct and represent their own personas and consolidate their thoughts and perceptions about the world around them. The findings show great affinity to social media networks. Online spaces such as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and WhatsApp appear as key sources of news, information gathering, communication and entertainment. The study also reveals a significant impact of the content of social media networks along with opinion leaders like role models and influencers in prompting the consumption behaviour, opinion-making and personal choices in terms of fashion and style among the Qatari youth.