Lebanon - Lead Research Consultant for a media and information landscape Analysis

Background and Rationale 

For decades, Lebanon had been one of the only countries in the Middle East where the protection of human rights, access to information and freedom of speech has been widely supported by most parties from across the political spectrum. Since the last quarter of 2019, Lebanon has been grappling with multiple overlapping crises: a serious economic and financial crisis, social unrest, political turmoil, COVID-19 pandemic and the deadly Beirut Blast- back in the 4th of august 2020. Amidst these multiple and overlapping crises, there are growing fears of shrinking spaces for freedom of expression in the country, especially with the increased use of the ‘defamation against public officials’ law which threatens to stifle freedom of expression around the ongoing crises.

During this period of uncertainty and transition, independent and truthful media is more important than ever to enable the Lebanese people to hold those in power accountable. However, it is remarked that the mainstream Lebanese media - owned, funded, or backed by politicians and businessmen who promote their own narratives and emphasize their political position -, are highly politicized and sectarian in nature and not capable or willing to really hold the government to account. In addition to that, the media is highly centralized, with all major newspapers, TV and radio stations based in the capital, Beirut. All of this has further deepened the gap between Lebanese citizens- especially Lebanese women and youth- and traditional media outlets. In fact, during the recent protests, one of the slogans was “Stop watching TV”, as more and more citizens grew dissatisfied with the dominant and self-serving narratives pushed by almost all the major television stations in Lebanon. Young people are increasingly turning to alternative media sources for news, debate, analysis and public service information that have started to emerge over the past year and in particular during the recent protests. While becoming increasingly important voices, specially from locations outside of the capital, many alternative media platforms are operated solely by volunteers with no or little journalistic background who donate their time and effort to ensure coverage of protests and the underlying socio-economic and political problems.

Reliable and unbiased information is a powerful accountability tool. Lack of information, at any stage of a conflict or crisis, makes people vulnerable, easy to manipulate and susceptible to negative stereotypes, fear or hate. Peoples ability to make informed and tolerant decisions strengthens societies and fosters democratic structures and optimism about the future. This is of a particular importance ahead of the 2022 elections, as it is crucial that alternative media content is created and existing alternative media is supported and its capacity is strengthened to produce accurate and reliable information, to support accountability and provide space for independent actors, including women, as well as data and evidence-based journalism.

Audience and use of findings

The Media and Information landscape study will be used as a formative study, which Internews and its implementing partners will use to inform the design and implementation of its project activities, including but not limited to:

1. Listening Posts: They allow community members to come together to share their thoughts, concerns, needs, and wants in their own words. The information collected through the Listening Posts and the MILA will be used to inform future media outputs and bridge the link between media practitioners, their audiences and information needs.
2. Tailored capacity building support: the MILA would help in identifying already existing media initiatives and local information providers and their needs.
3. Basic journalism workshops for women and youth from under-served communities: in addition to identifying the main needs of already existing local media initiatives and information sources, the MILA would also help in identifying participants interested and eligible to join the workshop. Moreover, it will inform the training content and topics of discussion, with the aim of enabling participants to produce community-driven, non-partisan media content that sheds light on under-reported local issues.
4. New media festival in Beirut : insights from the MILA could contribute to the theme(s) and highlighted topics of Internews’ Media Festival in Beirut.

Key findings and insights from the MILA will be shared internally and externally with stakeholders, including publishing the final deliverable online. In addition to that, findings will be used to inform Internews media development strategy in country and learnings shared across its MENA portfolio.

Research Objectives

The overall research objective is to understand the information dynamics; flow, gaps, needs, evaluation of trust levels of different information sources. The research is to focus on Lebanese women and youth in particular geographical locations including Mount Lebanon, Beqaa, South and North Beirut.

Specific research objectives:

1. To better understand the target audience in target communities around information and media consumption, their needs, concerns, topics of interest and information gaps.
2. To explore how women and youth in identified areas receive and consume information and their relationship with traditional and local media outlets.
3. To identify local potential and talent of local information providers and/or content producers and identifying their topics of interest in a participatory way.
4. To dig deep into the perceptions of key issues related to freedom of expression and media diversity in general, and particularly in identified areas.
5. To better understand the media landscape in identified areas, through looking at traditional media and grassroots community media initiatives and social media.
6. To identify key challenges faced by media outlets in general, and particularly by local media outlets and the repercussions for the communities they serve. 

Research Questions

• Based available literature, what are the existing media outlets (TVs, newspapers, radio stations and digital outlets) in Lebanon? Platforms and languages that they use? Their affiliations? Their coverage, audience reach and main target audience?
• What are the existing local media sources of information in Mount Lebanon, Beqaa, South, North, and Beirut suburbs? What is the range of their coverage and audience reach and which audiences do they target? Their affiliations? Their funding and operations?
• What are the main challenges faced by media outlets in Lebanon, in general, and particularly by local media outlets and grassroots media initiatives? How do local media outlets perceive their audiences? What are the different barriers they face to access information? What do they propose as effective measures to combat mis/disinformation, awareness, regulations, tools, media literacy when it comes to elections and political processes? To what extent are media outlets able and willing to combat mis/disinformation in times of crisis- taking COVID-19 as a case study? Is there any difference between the perspectives and propositions of traditional media and alternative media?
• What is the reality of the media market in Lebanon (brief market analysis): what is the degree of rivalry between media outlets? How easy/ hard it is to enter the market, especially on legal, human and financial resources levels? What are the existing media business models? How profitable are they? What challenges do they face? How much are women and youth openness to change and willing to support new media alternatives?
• What is the media content and format/type to which women and youth are most engaged with? What is their main source of information and media platforms (i.e. TV, newspapers, Facebook, formal and non-media sources, etc.) and how accessible are they?
• Which information sources are mostly followed and trusted by target groups and why?
• What or who influences women and youth’s choices and decisions, especially those related to socio-economic and political debates?
• How do target groups perceive media in general, and particularly local media? To what extent do they feel authentically represented by the media?
• According to women and youth, and particularly those affiliated in grassroots activist’s groups, what are existing information gaps? How can they be addressed?
• What suggestions were provided to improve the quality of journalism to better reflect local voices and community needs?

Research Methodology

The research methodology should adopt an iterative, action-oriented, design-thinking based, do no harm approach and the data collection process should be ethical.

The methodology should entail quantitative and qualitative research methods including the below suggestions. It is also important to note that creative, less traditional research methods are welcomed.

Desk Research: several studies and landscapes have been conducted in country and it is important not to duplicate efforts.  

Quantitative surveys: household surveys of samples representative of the target demographic and target geographical areas.

Qualitative interviews and/or FGDs or any other qualitative method that gives in-depth reasoning behind the numbers resulting from the quantitative findings.

Consultants are expected to oversee, lead, and manage the whole research process including screening, identifying respondents, data collection, cleaning, analysis, and reporting. They are also expected to have the necessary permits to gather data. However, a researcher from Maharat Foundation will be deployed to support the lead researcher, task distribution would be agreed upon at the inception phase.

Deliverables 

1. Deliverable 1 : inception report aimed at (1) Refining the scope of the study, (2) Defining a clear methodology for data collection and analysis including relevant tools submission, (3) Drafting a detailed work-plan plan for conducting research activities.

2. Deliverable 2: Mid-point findings. Ten slide PowerPoint presentation highlighting main findings to date.

3. Deliverable 3: Raw data. Delivering all raw data from interviews, including video and audio files of all meetings conducted online + Table of content and structure for final report. One-to-two-page outline word document.

4. Deliverable 4: First draft of final report (around 30 pages’ length- word document, excluding pictures, graphs, illustrations, annexes, cover page).

5. Deliverable 5: Final report (around 30 pages’ length- word document, excluding pictures, graphs, illustrations, annexes, cover page). Fully designed.

6. Deliverable 6: Debriefing session to Internews and Maharat Foundation: A PowerPoint deck to be prepared and facilitated by the consultant (in person or remotely, depending on location) with key Internews and Maharat staff.  If applicable, any documents/ppt presentations prepared for this workshop will be shared as part of the final deliverable.

Ethics and Risk

Applicants should express the necessary practices they would adopt to ensure there is no harm done to any of the stakeholders involved in this research process. Respect of respondents, their personal privacy and autonomy to choose not to respond to any of the research questions is very important to Internews, in addition to consideration of local and cultural sensitivities.

Any restrictions due to COVID-19 measures will be strictly followed and respected.

All the documents produced are highly sensitive and confidential. It is strictly prohibited to share any documents or information without written authorization from Internews.

Research Management

The Lebanon Project Manager, Internews MENA Regional Impact and Learning Manager and Senior Program Officer and will be overseeing this research project.

Documentation of Research

Documentation of the whole research process is paramount to the credibility and trustworthiness of this research, for example processes around documenting consent whether as forms or oral consent. In addition to clear communication of the research and its purposes before primary data collection. Proper documentation and storage of surveys, interview and/or focus group recordings or transcripts that includes documented consent whether forms or oral consent. Internews has a no tolerance to plagiarism and should be easily able to back track any quotes or quantitative findings in the final research deliverable.

Budget and Duration

The duration of this research is from March 20th, 2021 till May 15th, 2021.

This research duration is set for 35 working days.