The Role of Satellite TV Channels as News Sources in Libya: A study of University Students

The Libyan media has dramatically changed in recent years. This has been most prominently manifest in the introduction of new satellite television news services. This thesis was designed to investigate two elements – patterns of news media consumption and news credibility in Libya. It examined the patterns of major local and international TV news services operating across different media, broadcast and print, and associations between Libyan students’ consumption of different news media platforms. In this context, it investigated the news consumption habits of young people, with special attention paid to their consumption of pan-Arab news services broadcast via satellite television. It looked at the perception of gratifications students obtained from these news services. It also reported findings on students’ perceptions of the credibility of two local, Al Jamahiriya and Al Libiya TV, and two pan-Arab TV news services, Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya. In order to address the thesis research questions, a survey was administered to a sample of 400 undergraduate students at Al-Fateh University using a stratified random sampling approach, with the sampling strata set by demographic variables. The study found that the new TV news services played an important role in attracting young Libyans with information they desire. The spread of new news media sources (television, radio and print) in Libya has created a new type of customer that transcends national boundaries. Statistical analyses indicated that there are distinct news consumption demographic differences defined in part by news platform (TV versus radio versus print) and in part by the type of news provider (local versus non-local TV news services). The findings were discussed in relation to the growing impact of international satellite broadcast news services and the need for local TV news services to find methods of making themselves distinctive in a way that provides an alternative but still relevant and valued news sources. With regard to news credibility, in general Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya were given higher credibility scores than Al Jamahiriya and Al Libiya news services. Higher credibility ratings, however, were significantly correlated with an increased likelihood of reported watching of both local TV news services, but only one of the pan-Arab TV news services (Al Jazeera).