General trends in Arab post-COVID-19 journalism: Digitalisation, practices and job instability

COVID-19 has led to multifaceted consequences for journalists in the Arab region, who experienced socio-political, institutional and personal issues during the crisis. Many Arab countries have imposed restrictions on pandemic reporting, often leading to inaccurate information about the virus. While several regional media outlets have cut journalists’ wages to cope with the economic deficits caused by the virus, many journalists have turned to freelancing, feeding into the non-institutionalisation of journalism—the rise of involvement in media production apart from structured institutions. Moreover, the pandemic has speeded up the digitalisation in media organisations, with Arab journalists using Zoom for meetings, Google Docs for teamwork and WhatsApp for coordination. Despite being used in journalism long before the pandemic, the crisis has lent media organisations enough momentum to produce and manage content remotely without physical presence. Analysing the general trends that shaped journalism practices in the Arab region due to COVID-19, we use the concepts, research methodologies and theoretical frames designed and developed by the Global Risk Journalism Hub (GRJH) to explain the risks and uncertainties of journalism amid a global pandemic. We also use Bourdieu’s field theory to understand how traditional journalists absorb and adopt news innovation into journalism and how it has altered the journalism field, affecting its workflow, norms and practices.