DOHA: There are more people in Qatar who get their news online than some countries in the Middle East according to a six-nation survey conducted by Northwestern University in Qatar (NU-Q) in partnership with Doha Film Institute (DFI).

The study on media use in the Middle East released on Wednesday found that more people are getting their news online than in print.

Qatar leads in reading news online daily (42 percent) followed by Saudi Arabia (39 percent). Daily newspaper readership in Qatar is 32 percent and 25 percent in the UAE.

The study sheds new light on the shift from TV to online video. Daily TV viewing dropped in Egypt by seven percentage points Saudi Arabia (16) and Qatar (21) but television remains the platform of choice in the Middle East for watching films — 90 percent say they watch films on TV while most in the region now watch film and video online and fewer than five percent have paid money to do so in the past year.

Amid concerns about online privacy social media use in the Middle East is shifting from Twitter and Facebook to direct-messaging platforms such as Snapchat and WhatsApp. The study found video-centric Snapchat is among the most popular platforms in the high-bandwidth Gulf countries.

The region is divided on whose responsibility it is to block objectionable content. More nationals in Egypt Qatar and Saudi Arabia believe it is the responsibility of governments to block objectionable content while majorities in the UAE Lebanon and Tunisia believe it is the responsibility of the individual to avoid such content.

The most evenly divided country is Saudi Arabia where 50 percent believe responsibility lies with the government and 43 percent believe it lies with the individual. The biggest disparity is in Egypt where 30 percent believe it is the responsibility of the individual compared to 66 percent who believe it is the responsibility of the government to block objectionable content. Use of Instagram in the region increased by 24 percentage points between 2013 and 2016 and Facebook’s popularity has declined in the past three years by six percentage points.

Twitter shows the biggest decline over the past three years — 17 percentage points — with a 12 percentage point drop from one year ago. Three-quarters of Egyptian Internet users say concerns about privacy have changed the way they use social media second only to 89 percent of Saudis who agree.

While Internet penetration levels are up in the region Internet and smartphone penetration are significantly higher in the GCC than other countries included in the survey.

The UAE has the highest rate of Internet penetration with most nationals saying they are being connected to the Internet this year. Closely following are Qatar and Saudi Arabia both at 93 percent Internet penetration followed by Lebanon (84 percent ). The lowest levels of Internet penetration is recorded in Egypt and Tunisia at 59 percent and 49 percent respectively.

However Internet penetration in these countries is up since last year — by 14 percentage points in Egypt and five points in Tunisia.

Smartphone penetration is highest in the UAE (99) Qatar (95) Saudi Arabia (95) and Lebanon (90) and lowest in Egypt (61) and Tunisia (43).

TV is the most used platform for listening to music (65 percent of all nationals) compared to the Internet and radio (41 and 35 percent).

The Middle Eastern music is proving significantly more popular than American music across the region.

Similar to the trends in film viewing younger people are more likely to listen to non-Arabic music (one-quarter of those between 18 and 24 years old listen to American music compared to only four percent of those above 45) but are also more likely to listen to music from their own country than older people.

Younger adults (18-24) are also nearly twice as likely to listen to music online than on the radio (56 percent compared to 31 percent) but only six percent say they have paid to do so in the past year.

The comprehensive annual survey examines the use of and attitudes toward media among 6058 adults (4529 nationals) in Egypt Lebanon Qatar Saudi Arabia Tunisia and the UAE.

The Peninsula