SAMPLE PAPER

SEPTEMPER SEMESTER 2021

Doctor Of Philosophy in Communication
POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY (RESM7901)

(ASSIGNMENT 1)

Student Name ID

Hajar Hammdan Khalfan Al Saidi 212922769

LECTURER: Prof. Dr. Faridah Ibrahim MARKS

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Title: Assessing the public sphere role of social media for social
accountability among youth in Oman

RQs:

 How significant is the role of social media in Oman in providing a public sphere for
social accountability for youth?
 Does social accountability in social media help in sustaining the performance of the
governmental entities in Oman?
 Is there an obvious role for social accountability in social media in protecting the ethical
values of the Omani culture?
 What is the most powerful social media application that act as the main virtual public
sphere for social accountability?

ROs:
 To explore how significant is the role of social media in Oman in providing a public
sphere for social accountability for youth.
 To measure the effect of social accountability in social media in sustaining the
performance of the governmental entities in Oman.
 To investigate the role of social accountability in social media in protecting the ethical
values of the Omani culture.
 To identify the most powerful social media application that act as the main virtual public
sphere for social accountability

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Problem Statement:
Social accountability is a necessity for the development of any country today. As a medium for
social accountability, social media has arguably democratized the social accountability process
(Neu et al., 2019).

Social media in Oman plays a crucial role in providing the youth with a virtual public sphere for
social accountability, which gives them a chance for their opinions to be valued and their ideas to
be heard so they can be a part of the decision-making process in the country

The three major indicators to measure the impact of the internet on political and social
development are access to information, reciprocity of communication, and commercialisation of
online space (Papacharissi,2009).

That is why Papacharissi (2009) also raises the concern that social media can create a “sense of
activity” which promotes the illusion of civic involvement, rather than actual societal
engagement, since “access to information does not guarantee that information will be accessed.

How real is this virtual public sphere created by social media for social accountability and how
real is the civic involvement of youth are the main concerns of this research. The research aims
to provide a descriptive data about practicing social accountability in social media platforms
among Omani youth. This kind of data will help in raising the awareness of the nature of social
accountability practiced on the internet and measuring the effect of the virtual social
accountability in the real life and as a result testing the validity of social media platforms as a
real public sphere.

References:

Neu, D., Saxton, G., Rahaman, A., & Everett, J. (2019). Twitter and social accountability:
Reactions to the Panama Papers. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 61, 38-53.

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Papacharissi, Z.(2009). “The Virtual Sphere 2.0: The Internet, the Public Sphere and Beyond.” In
Andrew Chadwick and Philip Howard (ed). Routledge Handbook of Internet Politics,, pp 230-
245. Abingdon. New York: Routledge.

Hypotheses:

- Social media in Oman plays an important role in providing the Omani youth with
a public sphere that allow them to practice social accountability in the Omani
society.
- Social accountability practiced by youth via social media is very effective in
making the change for the good of the Omani society.

Null Hypotheses:

- Social Media in Oman can’t provide a real public sphere for Omani youth to
practice social accountability.
- Social accountability practiced by youth via social media doesn’t have much
effect on decision making process.