Problems and issues with social media influencers performing science news reporting in the Arab world

Increasingly, governments across the Middle East and North Africa have re-allocated access and resources from traditional news media outlets and journalists towards Social Media Influencers. Consequently, the already precarious position of the legacy media and news reporters have been further exacerbated. Indeed, Social Media Influencers have become Interlopers who have come to exercise functions traditionally performed by journalists and occupy spaces allocated in the past to the legacy. Nowhere is this truer than in science journalism in its role of promoting public understanding of science. In this study, it has been explored the reasons and consequences of this phenomenon, by using mix-methods to show the distinctive practices exhibited by both actors as well as the nature of their content. The data suggest that despite the limitations in terms of constraints to professional autonomy and operating in settings in which the media is mostly co-opted, traditional journalists still offer a significant contribution and added value as cultural intermediaries and gatekeepers.