What kinds of sentiments are expressed by Arab Facebook users commenting on the news articles? ask Ahmed Al-Rawi, of Concordia University and Erasmus University. Study examines the online public comments and the hundred most commented on news stories on the Facebook pages of Al-Jazeera Arabic and Al-Arabiya. Over 620,000 comments were studied.

The study shows that there are some opposing sentiments expressed on the Facebook pages, but some are more dominant than others. Internal politics, and conflict news which deals with one country attracted most of the online public’s comments.

Article Assessing public sentiments and news preferences on Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya is published online before print by International Communication Gazette. It is available here (abstract public)

Picture: Facebook app by Eduardo Woo, licence: CC BY-SA 2.0