SUMMARY
Background and objectives
To date, few surveys have undertaken a broad analysis of the information needs, channels, and barriers faced by Syrians in accessing social media platforms inside Syria. There is little knowledge of the differences between the use of communication platforms in different geographical locations and demographic groups. REACH has conducted a thematic assessment of social media use, and the channels used in Syria, in order to fill information gaps and better inform the humanitarian community on the ways in which social media is utilised by various Syrian population groups inside Syria, as well as to facilitate better analysis of social media posts.
Methodology
This assessment was rolled out in two phases, with Phase I being a qualitative approach focusing on identifying features of social media use, to then be measured more broadly in Phase II. Phase I was conducted with semistructured questionnaires and focus group discussions with participants in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq. Phase II was administered along with the Area of Origin (AoO) June data collection tool.
Data in this report reflect the situation in Syria in June 2015 and was gathered during one round of a monthly data collection exercise that uses the ‘Area of Origin’ methodology.1 Following this methodology, Syrian refugee participants in Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon collect data through key pre-identified informants who still live in their sub-district of origin, in Syria. Key informants inside Syria are also contacted directly from Turkey.
It should be noted that data collected through this remote methodology rely heavily on the perception of participants regarding the sector-specific situation in their area of origin. In addition information is only collected from areas where participants can be identified and can thus only be considered indicative of the overall situation in Syria.
Key findings
Prevalent use of internet based applications was reported in the communities assessed. WhatsApp2 was the most reported application used to communicate with people outside Syria followed by, in order of most reported, traditional voice calling and Facebook.
Internet was reported to be used every day in the majority of communities assessed on smart phones, computers and laptops. In the case of major electricity cuts inside Syria, batteries and internet cafes were reported to be the most common strategies used to access internet when electricity was not available in the community.
High costs was an additional barrier to internet access and phone communication, reported throughout the governorates assessed. Key informants reported spending more on cell phone communication (including text and calls) than on internet communication.
11 per cent of key informants reported not using any social media platform to contact their family and friends, but rather relying only on phone calls to contact their relatives.
Protection concerns were reported concerning the reliability of both privacy settings of a personal account and information published. However, a large majority of key informants reported trusting the information published on social media platforms on the current events inside Syria.