Facebook

More popular than Arab newspapers

Discussion

 Do you use social networking sites like
Facebook?
 Which is the best social networking site?
 What do you use these sites for?
 Are sites like these a waste of time?
 Can these sites be used in positive ways?
Give examples
 What other kinds of thing do you read and
write? How much? How often?

Vocabulary
 The survey confirms what the researchers
thought.

◦ proves, supports

 Facebook has more subscribers in the
Middle East than newspapers.

◦ People who sign up to use or receive a service


◦
◦
Vocabulary
 The circulation of Arab newspapers is
decreasing.


◦ The number of sales of a newspaper or

magazine


 While sales of weekly newspapers are

remaining steady, sales of the dailies are
much lower than a few years ago.


◦ A newspaper which is published daily/everyday

Vocabulary
 Young people embrace change more
quickly than old people.


◦ Accept, start using/doing something because

you like it
◦
 People don’t have time to meet new friends,
so they have resorted to using Facebook.


◦ Start using/doing something because there is no

better way
Sentence completion
 People in the Arab world are starting to use Facebook
to ___________________ information.

 Saudi Arabia has the _____________________ number of
subscribers to Facebook after Egypt.

 In the Arab region _________________ is increasing
because the majority of people are young.

 Facebook is a very useful tool for ____________________
who want to reach a large group of customers.

Numbers
 1/3 300,000,000 14,000,000
 15,000,000 3,500,000
 How many people in the Arab world
subscribe to Facebook?
 How many Arabic, English and French
newspapers are sold in the region?
 How many people in Egypt use Facebook?
 What is the population of the region?
 What proportion of the population in the
UAE use Facebook?



Matching headings –
Paragraph 1
 There are now more Facebook users in the
Arab world than newspaper readers, a survey
suggests. The research by Spot On Public
Relations, a Dubai-based agency, says there
are more than 15 million subscribers to the
social network. The total number of
newspaper copies in Arabic, English and
French is just under 14 million. The findings
seem to confirm the increasing popularity of
the social interaction platforms in the region.

Matching headings –
Paragraph 1
 Facebook can be used by for different
reasons
 Facebook is the most popular social
networking site
 Research shows social networking is
increasing in popularity
 The trend seems to be the same in all Arab
countries
 There are advantages and disadvantages to
using Facebook

Matching headings –
Paragraph 2
 Spot On Public Relations, a marketing and
communications agency, says the figures show
that such platforms are beginning to define how
Arabs discover and share information. In Egypt
alone, there are 3.5 million users, which is way
beyond the circulation of any of the biggest
dailies. Even in conservative Saudi Arabia,
people have been quick to embrace Facebook. It
is the country with the second-largest
membership after Egypt. One-third of the
population in the United Arab Emirates are said
to be on Facebook.

Matching headings –
Paragraph 2
 Facebook can be used by for different
reasons
 Facebook is the most popular social
networking site
 Research shows social networking is
increasing in popularity
 The trend seems to be the same in all
Arab countries
 There are advantages and disadvantages to
using Facebook

Matching headings –
Paragraph 3
 The findings should come as no surprise. The
majority of the region's more than 300 million
people is young, and internet use is on the rise.
In societies where political freedoms are severely
limited, many have also resorted to Facebook as
an alternative to the public sphere. But the
survey does not provide a detailed breakdown of
how it is used in Arab countries - for example
how much of it is for chatting and making friends
and how much is for political and social
campaigning. But it contains valuable
information for advertisers who want to reach
the largest possible number of people.
Matching headings –
Paragraph 3
 Facebook can be used by for different
reasons
 Facebook is the most popular social
networking site
 Research shows social networking is
increasing in popularity
 The trend seems to be the same in all Arab
countries
 There are advantages and disadvantages to
using Facebook

Sentence completion
 People in the Arab world are starting to use Facebook
to discover and share information.

 Saudi Arabia has the second-largest number of
subscribers to Facebook after Egypt.

 In the Arab region internet use is increasing because
the majority of people are young.

 Facebook is a very useful tool for advertisers who want
to reach a large group of customers.

True / False / Not Given
 There are almost 14 million English
language newspapers sold in the Arab
region.
◦ False
◦
 Egypt has the most Facebook users in the
region.
◦ True
◦
 There are 300 million young people in the
Arab world.
◦ False

True / False / Not Given
 Facebook has more information than
newspapers about politics in the region.
◦ Not Given
◦
 People use Facebook more for chatting than
they do for social campaigning.
◦ Not Given
◦
 Facebook is a useful business tool.
◦ True

Ideas for writing -
Brainstorm
 Social networking sites like Facebook
have changed the way we communicate
and find out information. To what extent
have these changes been positive?


◦ Positive changes?
◦
◦ Negative changes?
