The Impact of Electronic Communications on Qatari Family Values

Abstract

Abstract Background: Our research investigates the impact of the sudden profusion of internet media and other forms of global communications on family values in Qatar. The majority of mass communications and sociological research has focused on examining the media content and the audience of the media in the United States and Europe. However, documentation on the societal consequences of the dissemination of internet media and other forms of mass communication on Arab, and in particular Gulf countries such as Qatar, remains scarce. The particular placement of Qatar at the heart of the crosscurrents of globalization affords a unique opportunity to examine this phenomenon. Objective: This paper attempts to gauge to what degree global communications are driving individualism a modern sense of citizenship and national identity, and to what degree the weakening of family solidarities may have adverse consequences for communal identities and the fabric of households and the nation as a whole. Methodology: The c...