Doha: The Ibn Khaldon Centre for Humanities and Social Sciences held a symposium on Sunday to discuss the results of a study conducted by the center about Qatari society's perceptions and practices towards the application "Ehteraz", which was launched by the Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in order to support healthcare workers in monitoring the spread of the virus.
The center explained that the study was funded by the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF).
The study aimed at exploring the perceptions Qataris have of "
" through analyzing their experiences and daily interactions with it, as well as analyzing the extent to which the application contributed to the recovery of a healthy society in their view.
The symposium reviewed three working papers included in the study: the first focused on providing an ethical, legal and religious approach to the application; the second dealt with the perceptions of Qatari society on "Ehteraz" through analyzing tweets about the application. As for the third paper, it addresses social perceptions about "Ehteraz" using free association.
The working paper that analyzed tweets showed that the Qatar News Agency (QNA) was among the institutions most mentioned with the hashtag (#Ehteraz) in the period between May 14 and May 22, 2020, which is the same period during which "Ehteraz" was launched as part of Qatar's efforts to combat the pandemic.
In this context, Dr. Asma Hussein Malkawi, a researcher at the Ibn Khaldun Center and a member of the study team, stated that the news agency's contribution went hand in hand with the efforts of other governmental bodies, such as the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Public Health, the Government Communications Office (GCO), and the Qatar Media Corporation, to provide accurate information about "Ehteraz" and to address people's fears and concerns about the application. Malkawi noted that these governmental bodies played a crucial role in disseminating accurate news from reliable sources, and that the use of the "Ehteraz" hashtag played a role in the agency's emergence as a primary source of information on Twitter social networks and the hashtag.
The Associate Professor heading the study, Dr. Badran Benlahcene, said that the research team put a lot of effort into achieving the objectives of the study, completing three scientific papers that will be published in prestigious scientific journals. He noted that this symposium was held in order to present the study results to stakeholders due to the importance of this project and the significant theoretical and practical results it led to.
The study concluded with several results; most notably, the important role "Ehteraz" played, besides other measures, in limiting the Corona virus spread. The study called on the concerned authorities to further develop the application in order to achieve its desired goals.
