State of the Media Industry in the Middle East

Determining the core themes and metrics for the study would follow three general steps: 1. Reviewing existing literature and available data, gathering suggestions from DFI, select experts, and NU-Q faculty on the subjects they would recommend and find most unique and useful in such a study: the wide range of possible subject areas could include under-studied but crucial topics such as ownership structures of legacy and emerging production companies, revenue models for region-wide content distribution by medium, laws and legislations controlling content production or the percentage of specific genres available in movies, newspapers and digital platforms. This would largely be a replication of the process established and generally considered successful in formulating the 2014 survey. 2. Synthesizing all input into an RFP that includes the overarching goals of the study, a “wish list” of specific types of data, and references to other model studies (e.g. “Pew’s State of the News Media” annual report). The RFP would be designed partially to test which types of information in our “wish list” possible external contributors would claim is possible to produce. 3. Issuing the RFP to a select number of top-tier research firms and making a selection based on their proposed scope/deliverables and an assessment of their ability to gather quality information within that scope.