In 2015 during the
Shiite pilgrimages of Arabeen to the shrine city of Karbala a group of
researches from the Massachusetts Institute for Technology (MIT) interviewed 1,668 Iranians and 2,410 Iraqis. One of the things they were asked
about was where they got their news from, and how it affected their views. The
vast majority of Iraqis, 89.7% got their news from TV. 69.9% said they received
their information from friends and family. 48.5% read the Internet, 27.2%
received it from their mosque, 9.5% read newspapers and magazines, and 8.4%
listened to the radio. Social media and Internet calling and texting services
were also important with 53% using Facebook, 49% using Skype, Viber, and Whatsapp,
43% using YouTube, and 26% emailing.
The survey found
that those that got their news from traditional sources such as the TV,
newspapers and radio were more pro-government. Those that had more access to
media than conventional ones had more varied friends of other sects and less
traditional views. Finally, people who only got their news from the Internet
were not only more conservative, but also more sectarian to. It seemed that
rather using the Internet to search out information, Iraqis instead used it to
find sources that supported their established views and reinforced their
sectarian opinions.
SOURCES
Christia, Fotini,
Dekeyser, Elizabeth, Knox, Dean, “To Karbala: Surveying Religious Shi’a from
Iran and Iraq,” Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 10/20/16
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