*Wail A. Barry, Abdu Mohamed Dawood Hafiz

Abstract:

Communication scholars in the Arab countries have started to address new fields of scholarly literature in the public relations discipline over the last decade. The crucial change induced by the Arab Spring in many Arab countries has propelled public relations scholars to investigate the type of changes that affect scholarly research methods in the genre of communication at large, and public relations in particular. In the current study, the meta-analysis method was utilised to examine a total of 61 scholarly work (2012 to 2022), from seven Arab countries (Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Jordan and Sudan). The sample included 23 master’s theses and 38 PhD dissertations. The criteria for evaluation mainly addressed methods, interdisciplinary approaches, topics and contextual variables. The results reveal that first, the majority of the sample studies depended on quantitative methods. Second, interdisciplinary approaches were evident and included fields of marketing, political communication and social media research.

Keywords: Public relations methods, the Arab world, governance, meta-research, social movements