Arab News Sources and Practices in Times Crisis: Challenges and Opportunities for Sociology of News Research

ABSTRACT

The relationship between journalists and news source has been challenged by new digital technologies, the crisis in public communication and the multiplication of sources of information and news, and the COVID-19 pandemic, which has transformed journalistic routines and audience behaviour. Existing research on news sources has contributed to our understanding of which voices dominate the news agenda in normal conditions, but there remains little research on the news sources and journalists' relationship during crisis, particularly in non-Western contexts. In this paper, we seek to partially address the lacuna, drawing on semi-structured interviews with selected journalists from across the Arab world to address the effect of COVID-19 on journalists' relationship with their news sources and what we call source cultivation practices in a region where traditional forms of personal networking as well as cultural norms have defined the relationship between journalists and news sources in the legacy media. In addressing these issues, this paper contributes to research on news sources during crises while drawing attention to the theoretical and methodological gaps in news sources research in the region as well as the continued dominance of Western- and media-centric paradigms in the broad field of the sociology of news production. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journalism Studies is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)