The Egyptian Audience’s Exposure to News Shows’ Coverage of the Gaza war and its Relationship to Their Decision to Boycott Foreign Products

Al-Ebiary, Omar

doi:10.21608/jkom.2024.395351

The Egyptian Audience’s Exposure to News Shows’ Coverage of the Gaza war and its Relationship to Their Decision to Boycott Foreign Products

Author

Omar Al-Ebiary

Department of Digital Media and Communication ,Effat College of Humanities, Effat University, KSA

10.21608/jkom.2024.395351

Abstract

This study examines the Egyptian audience's exposure to news shows' coverage in Arab satellite channels of the Gaza war and its relationship to their decision to boycott foreign products, and explores the reasons for watching, their impact, the audience's level of trust in their credibility, and their dependency on them for information and decision-making. Survey methodology and a purposive sample of 400 respondents of the Egyptian audiences who watch such shows were used. Findings conclude that the respondents watch such coverages occasionally (49.60%), because they provide in-depth analyses that help understand the developments of events (91.21%). The respondents are concerned about monitoring the extent of the destruction and the number of casualties in those shows (58.25%), depend on them for information to some extent (69.03%), and trust their credibility as a public sphere for expression to some extent (68.68%). They decided to boycott foreign products during the Gaza war as a result of the exposure (70.65%), and they believe that evoking a sense of anxiety about the crisis in Gaza is one of the most significant effects of exposure to that coverage (91.77%). There is a statistically significant correlation between the audience's extent of exposure, level of dependency on them for information and decision-making, and level of trust in their credibility on one side, and their decision to boycott on the other side. There are statistically significant differences among the respondents relative to their dependency for information and decision-making according to their age and job.

Keywords

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