As part of the Kingdom of Netherland-funded Advancing Diverse Voices in Lebanon, Internews and Maharat Foundation conducted a Media and Information Landscape Assessment (MILA) to explore the media habits and preferences of women and youth in underserved areas and capture the role of new media outlets in the country.

Through a combination of qualitative in-depth interviews with alternative media outlets, quantitative audience surveys involving over 1500 respondents, and focus-group discussions with women and youth civil society actors, this MILA evaluates the level of trust towards different information sources and explores the information flow, dynamics, gaps, and needs experienced by vulnerable groups in marginalized areas.

The findings detail gaps between alternative media outlets’ objectives and its organizational structure or capacity needed to achieve its vision, legal and regulatory constraints that limit the accurate sharing of information with audiences, and the detrimental impact of Lebanon’s economic hardships on media financing. The report thus analyzes the information needs of women and youth in marginalized areas, explores linkages between alternative media outlets and civil society actors, and offers recommendations to strengthen media outlet’s capacity to delivery quality news and scale up their reach.