The role of social media in promoting civic engagement in Oman

To date, most research on digital identity construction has highlighted the impact social media platforms have had on political activism, in (and outside) the Middle East (Sinatora 2019). This project is one of the few research studies that examines the understudied role social media (e.g. Twitter and Instagram) can play in enhancing civic engagement, defined as individual or collective actions designed to identify and addresses social issues of public concerns (i.e. civic engagement refers to public participation in community building). Through integrating quantitative and qualitative discourse research methods and multimodal analytical frameworks, this project aims to fill in the current gap in digital discourse by examining the role social media can play in promoting civic engagement in the Omani community, including fostering healthy public-government relationships, strengthening the values of the Omani society, and implementing the government of Oman Vision 2040. The project posits the following general and specific research questions: 1. What is the impact of social media on civic engagement in Oman? In other words, what is the role that Twitter and Instagram play in building positive communities in Oman and cementing Omani national identity? 2. What are the forms and functions of such types of civic engagement? In other words, what are the types of social media actions (e.g. digital volunteering) that Omanis perform online to help the government in Oman achieve its policies of peace and prosperity for the general public? To a lesser degree the project also aims to answer the following two questions: 1. Are there any new forms of Omani cultural identity created by Omanis on social media? 2. What can the government in Oman learn from such digital actions by Omanis to build better connections with the public they serve? The project therefore has academic and pragmatic contributions: As aforementioned, it examines an underexplored facet of digital identity construction by investigating the "social" in social media. Through examining the digital actions of the Omani public, the project in addition contributes to cementing the Omani cultural experience as part of the larger cultural and academic discourses on the agency and creativity of social media users. Theoretically, by analyzing new types of social media actions (data), the project no doubt will add to multimodal analytical frameworks, especially those that deal with the interaction of text and image. Most importantly, the project has practical contributions as one of its aims is to devise a plan for the government in Oman on how best to connect with the public and foster collaboration based on the actions and suggestions of the Omani public.