A taxonomy for business news audiences in MENA: a step in reducing information asymmetries

The paper investigates how categorizing MENA audiences for business and financial news can help reduce information asymmetries in a region marked by significant inequalities in literacy, internet access, and income. It situates the problem within the need for informed citizenry and highlights the uneven access to financial information and media literacy across the Middle East and North Africa. The study asks: How do people access and engage with business/financial news? Why do they consume it? Do they trust it? How do they use it in daily life and decision-making? Against a backdrop of co-opted media systems, low financial literacy, and widening digital divides, the research explores whether a taxonomy of users can better guide policies and interventions to improve equitable information access.

The review outlines major shifts in news consumption in MENA mirroring global trends: the rise of social media via mobile as primary news sources among younger audiences, increased news avoidance, and declining trust in legacy media. It emphasizes inequalities in literacy and internet penetration across and within countries, noting that access quality varies by socioeconomic status and migrant status. Financial and business news engagement is typically restricted to a small, privileged audience (investors, analysts, regulators) with access to specialized tools (e.g., Bloomberg, Reuters), creating information dominance and advantages in markets. The broader public often lacks financial literacy and media skills, limiting their capacity to use publicly available data. Prior work ties low financial inclusion and literacy to greater societal disparities. The paper proposes a taxonomy of four audience categories—common, procedural, functional, and predictive users—reflecting gradations in financial knowledge and ability to act on information.

Qualitative design using eight online focus groups (two per country) conducted via Zoom in Egypt, Kuwait, Qatar, and Lebanon. Group size was typically five participants (one group had four), totaling 39 participants aged 20–56, including both women and men. Recruitment used snowball sampling, with stratification by gender, economic activity, and to a lesser extent nationality to ensure diversity. Sessions lasted ~1 hour, were conducted in Arabic (some participants bilingual), scheduled between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Mecca time. Discussions were recorded with written consent, translated from Arabic to English using Alugha software, and transcribed in English via Otter.ai. The researcher served as facilitator and note-taker. Ethical procedures included anonymization and the right to withdraw. The analytic goal was theoretical saturation to test and refine the proposed taxonomy (Table 1). A task asked participants to read two Arabic business news articles (housing market and stock market), summarize, and discuss to assess comprehension and relevance.

- Participants generally reported low engagement with business/financial news yet claimed awareness via news exposure; most struggled to recall specifics (e.g., inflation rates, mortgage changes), except a few in banking/finance/investment. - High salience topics: interest rates, housing prices, and inflation; housing market stories were more comprehensible and engaging than stock market stories. - Evidence of news avoidance, often tied to negativity, stress, and a perceived lack of relevance; business news frequently described as “unrelatable/not for me.” - Emotional engagement matters; participants found business coverage “boring” unless directly relevant (e.g., local store openings) or tied to exciting technology developments (e.g., Apple, innovations like solar cars). - Primary access channel is social media on mobile phones; users rely on links shared by contacts/influencers but recognize that social feeds can miss important regulatory or economic information. - A small subset (investors/entrepreneurs) uses specialized sources (Bloomberg terminals), pays for outlets like Financial Times and The Economist, follows expert accounts on platforms (e.g., Twitter/X), and better articulates current affairs—indicative of information advantages. - All participants used at least one social media platform; some still browse legacy media but largely through social feeds/aggregators. - The taxonomy is observable: a distinct ‘predictive users’ group engages quickly, uses both social media and paid specialized sources, and better discerns information quality; distinctions between ‘common’ and ‘procedural’ users are less sharp; ‘functional’ users may transition to ‘predictive’ with sufficient capital. - Overall, MENA business news audiences appear two-tiered: a small, highly literate and engaged segment versus a large group with low functional literacy and limited engagement. - Study scope: 8 focus groups, 39 participants, ages 20–56, across 4 countries.

Findings affirm that MENA audiences have largely shifted to social media for news, with growing avoidance and disengagement from traditional formats, particularly for business/financial content. The observed two-tier structure aligns with literature on information asymmetry: specialized, well-resourced users leverage diverse sources and expertise to act on information, while the broader public lacks the financial literacy, perceived relevance, and trust to translate news into decisions. The taxonomy helps clarify gradations in capability and engagement and suggests targeted strategies for each group. It also highlights journalists’ continued role as cultural intermediaries in environments with state co-option and low trust—translating complex financial information, improving relevance, and countering overload and misinformation. However, despite social media’s potential to broaden access, it does not automatically resolve asymmetries, as algorithms and social graphs may omit critical information, and many users still find business news unrelatable or overwhelming.

The study proposes and empirically grounds a taxonomy of MENA business news audiences—common, procedural, functional, and predictive users—demonstrating a markedly two-tiered landscape. While social media and mobile access create opportunities to reduce information asymmetries, engagement and functional use of business news remain concentrated among a small, highly literate ‘predictive’ segment. Mainstream media maintain business/finance sections less for mass traffic than for influence and high-value audiences. The research contributes a conceptual framework to guide policies and newsroom strategies aimed at improving relevance, literacy, and actionable comprehension for broader publics. Future work should deploy large-scale surveys to quantify category sizes, test transitions between categories (e.g., enabling functional to become predictive), and experiment with interventions (e.g., tailored formats, explanatory journalism, influencer partnerships) that incentivize engagement and support equitable financial decision-making.

- Qualitative focus groups limit generalizability; the sample was not statistically representative and used snowball recruitment, introducing selection bias. - Conducted in four countries only (Egypt, Kuwait, Qatar, Lebanon), which may not capture the full diversity of MENA contexts. - Online (Zoom) format and time-window constraints could affect participation dynamics and inclusivity. - Translation (Alugha) and transcription (Otter.ai) steps may introduce interpretive nuances despite careful procedures. - Self-reported behaviors and recall are subject to bias; participants’ media use may differ from actual usage analytics. - Taxonomy validation is exploratory; requires quantitative testing and longitudinal assessment to establish stability and transitions across categories.