ENGAGING OMANI AUDIENCES ONLINE

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 03 MUSCAT 000028 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR IIP DBENCHENER, NEA/PPD/DBENZE, NEA/ARP/NFRANCESCHI DUBAI PLEASE PASS TO MPELLETIER E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/20/2016 TAGS: ECPS KPAO KISL OIIP PTER MU SUBJECT: ENGAGING OMANI AUDIENCES ONLINE REF: A. 2006 STATE 193666 ¶B. 2006 MUSCAT 1627 ¶C. 2006 MUSCAT 1684 Classified By: Ambassador Gary A. Grappo for Reasons 1.4 (b,d) ¶1. (SBU) In response to Ref A, Embassy Oman provides the following information on trends and patterns in Internet usage in Oman. In the general absence of reliable official statistics on the subjects requested, the information is based on extensive surfing by Embassy staff and on information gathered from contacts in recent months in the course of other business. Information is keyed to Paragraph 4 of Ref A. ¶2. (SBU) A. Audience profile of Internet users -- AGE: Approximately 60 percent of Omanis are under the age of 19. Internet usage in the Sultanate is likely correspondingly youthful. The English-language "Daily Observer" reported on December 10, 2006 that the total number of Internet subscribers in the Sultanate had passed 92,000, with demand for ADSL lines (currently estimated at 12-15,000 accounts) growing for both home and business use. Most users are probably in the 16-35 age range, with older subscribers primarily internationally-minded business/academic/government elites. -- GENDER: The percentage of men vs. women using the Internet is likely to be nearly equal. Previous obstacles to Omani women's use of the Internet have largely vanished, which has contributed to greater equality in Internet usage. More Omanis are taking advantage of home Internet access, reducing the impact of cultural taboos against women venturing out to cafes alone. Muscat, if not other cities, also has several women-only Internet cafes. In addition, access is free at both public and private colleges and universities, where enrollment is dominated by women. -- INCOME: While local usage probably reflects international trends favoring elites, economic status alone is not a barrier to Internet access in Oman, given the free access at institutions of higher education and low Internet cafe prices (approximately USD .50 per hour). -- EDUCATION: The need for some English language ability for basic navigation means that most users have at least some secondary-level education. Those whose English is not fluent are correspondingly confined to the comparatively limited amount of Arabic information online. -- URBAN VS. RURAL: Omani users are likely to be more urban than rural, but authorities are making special efforts to extend Internet coverage to interior regions of the country. Starting at the grade level that corresponds to U.S. junior high school (age 14-15) and extending through university, Omani students are now required to do some research on the Internet as part of their educational curriculum, so there is at least limited connectivity in schools throughout the country. ¶3. (C) B. General Web Activity -- INTERNET FEATURES: Most features of the Internet are at least somewhat popular with Omanis, with the exception of gambling, which violates Islamic dictates, and VOIP, which the government bans (although some services, including Skype, are intermittently available). Messaging, especially through MSN and Yahoo Messenger, is especially popular, as are bulletin boards and chatrooms. Blogs do not yet have the dramatic impact on Internet usage seen in the U.S.; podcasting seems even more limited. -- POPULAR SITES: Following the shutdown of popular forum Al-Sablah (www.omania.net) in late November 2006 (Ref B), no single site has replicated its intense discussion of local politics and regional issues. Ref C discusses some alternatives that have emerged for online conversation on local issues. Discussion is primarily social, focusing on music, television, and youth culture in general. Religious discussion often focuses on how best to apply Islamic principles in everyday life, and how Islamic practices compare to those of other religions. -- INTERNET GAMES: Post has not observed any trends in Internet-based gaming; top U.S. names such as Second Life and World of Warcraft appear to have extremely limited audiences locally. MUSCAT 00000028 002 OF 003 -- GAME ACCESS: Those who do access games likely do so as they do with other usages, i.e., through home or cafe connections. Limited unsupervised time at schools makes use of games there unlikely, and Post sees no widespread evidence of Internet game-use via cellphones. -- ATTRACTING VISITORS: Game and other sites are likely most publicized by word of mouth and on discussion fora. -- AUDIENCE ACCEPTANCE: The Omani audience likely uses the Internet mostly for interpersonal communication, news, recreation, and research, and to a lesser extent for business. E-commerce has had limited impact, in part because of the lack of postal home delivery and (compared to the U.S. market) limited credit-card use. -- NEWS SITES: Users rely on non-Omani news sites for broader and deeper coverage of both local and regional news than is available through the Sultanate's state-dominated traditional media. Popular news sites include pan-Arab ones such as Al-Jazeera.net, Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, Al-Arabiyya, as well as BBC Arabic. For entertainment and information on holiday destinations, many Omanis turn to Omannews.com. Ref C provides additional popular discussion forum sites. -- LIMITATIONS: Strong demand for the Sultanate's limited bandwidth is one obstacle to greater Internet use; heavy traffic often slows down the network for the majority of Omanis who rely on dial-up rather than ADSL. Based on Post's own outreach and training programming, effective Internet use may also be challenged by inadequate knowledge of how to use search engines. Poor English skills limit the breadth of information that is available to many users, since the amount of Arabic-language information online is comparatively small. Finally, official censoring restricts the content available to local users, with the filters in use blocking both sexually-oriented sites and, especially in Arabic, political ones. Filtering would present users seeking information on topics such as homosexuality with real obstacles (social/political advocacy sites are frequently blocked),while too-broad filtering sometimes encompasses sites discussing, for example, breast cancer. Worth noting is that while some users chafe against such restrictions, others are equally eloquent in praising them as safeguards of morality and local culture. Self-censorship is rampant, especially in regard to local politics. --CELL PHONES: Omanis' use of cell phones versus online tools (e-mail, text messaging) to communicate is a function of geographical distance. Omanis will tend to call their friends who are in-country, but use the Internet to contact friends abroad. Domestically, SMS is extremely popular, with public settings from restaurants to movie theaters filled with the tones that indicate received messages. Internet access via cellphone seems limited. ¶4. (SBU) C. Audience Internet Behavior -- WHERE: The most popular place to access the Internet is at home, followed by work, school, and Internet cafes. -- WHEN: Internet traffic is heaviest in the mid-afternoon, when most Omanis are at home during the mid-day break. Late morning is another peak, reflecting use in offices and schools. Usage levels are down on the weekends since for many Omanis, especially youth, access is not as readily available at home as it is in schools or the workplace. Postings for the most popular Internet discussion fora, for example, peak during the week, with less discussion during the weekend. ¶5. (S) D. Target Audience Opinion and Behavior -- SOURCES: Omanis tend to trust local sites such as discussion forums. The general level of trust in official content (such as the regular warnings that the Royal Omani Police publish regarding Internet hoaxes) is also high. Even the perception of local media online is relatively positive, with users feeling that reports are incomplete rather than misleading. -- INTERNET INFLUENCERS: Key Internet influencers in Omani eyes are Omantel, the government telecommunications company and sole Internet provider, and the administrators of discussion boards. In terms of individuals, former Al-Sablah webmaster Said Al-Rashdi (Ref B) was popular because of his willingness to identify himself as the MUSCAT 00000028 003 OF 003 site's founder. In general, local site administrators and moderators seem to have a much more prominent, and respected, role than is the case in discussion fora in the U.S. A common response to content that breaches local taboos is "how can the moderators allow this?" Similarly, users often thank moderators for dealing swiftly with troublesome users or inappropriate material. -- U.S. INFORMATION: Many Omanis likely get their online information about the U.S. by searching for various topics via search engines like Google or through reading pan-Arab news sites. Non-Arab news sources, such as CNN, are said to be less popular. The most regular stream of information about the U.S. most likely comes from local and regional Arabic-language sites - essentially the online equivalent of hearing through the grapevine. -- OVERT U.S. COMMUNICATION: As discussed in Ref C, Omanis would probably not respond favorably to overt Internet communications from the U.S. government. Their doubts would stem not so much from negative perceptions of U.S. policy (which certainly exist) as from uncertainty over what Omani government boundaries would be for participating in such discussions. In general, the government is highly restrictive of the type of foreign affairs reporting that may appear in the local media. And even on that, there is virtually no public interaction or commentary. Therefore, Omanis are almost instinctively reticent to comment on or engage in discussions of foreign policy in an open setting. Moreover, even if such an online facility were provided to them, we could not be certain that the government would not block it. -- MAKING CONTENT APPEALING: Given the largely youthful audience, content needs to be presented in a youth-culture context. Dispelling prevalent myths about the U.S. (including stereotypes of the United States as violent, immoral, or anti-Muslim) would be extremely useful, but nearly equally difficult to accomplish credibly. To appeal to local Internet users, content should also reflect subjects that Omanis care deeply about. Despite prevailing Arab antipathy toward U.S. policy in the Middle East, the topics of educational opportunities in the U.S. and the rationale for U.S. stances on regional issues (whether believed or not),are especially of interest to Omanis. -- LOCAL FACTORS IN MAKING CONTENT EFFECTIVE: To communicate effectively with local Internet audiences, content should be presented in ways that do not directly challenge local cultural norms, with which most audiences here express strong satisfaction, or government policies. For example, while women hold increasingly prominent positions in Omani public life, they do so in the context of official support, not as activists against a system. The same is true of developments in other areas of civil society; to date at least, the most effective changes seem to be coming from within. To that end, U.S. policy information should reflect local comfort levels and be sensitive to local limits on expression in areas such as democratic and political reforms. Finally, to be most effective, content needs to be presented in Arabic and made widely and easily available -- limited familiarity with Internet searching and navigating means that audiences are far more likely to consume what is presented to them than to actively seek things out. Users in a discussion forum, for example, will ask "what's your source?" for a given quote, rather than go and search for it. GRAPPO