This article focuses on the emerging online

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Sunni-Shia relations have become a topic of significant media attention; this attention is largely due to the tendency of these groups to engage in sectarian strife as well as the Islamic Shia sect's influential rise in world politics. The inter-Islamic sectarian relations are part of extensive reporting on upheaval events currently taking place in the Greater Middle East in the post 9/11 decade. This study analyses ten years of news coverage of the Sunni-Shia relations in the Canadian Globe and Mail and the US-based Washington Post. Results indicate that rather than contextualizing sectarian tensions between Sunni and Shia Islam, this media coverage overwhelmingly frames the tensions from the 'war on terrorism' perspective. This article argues that 'neo-Orientalist' discourses and propagandist perspectives have become routinized and more prevalent in the manner in which Western media represents Islam, privileging dominant discourses and 'war on terrorism' frames.

This study focuses on the trepidations, concerns and pitfalls audience researchers face when carrying out fieldwork studies in the Arab world. Based on extrapolations and detailed observations from field research projects, combining surveys, focus groups and interviews, this article has outlined five main challenges in the process of audience research in the region: (1) recruitment strategies, (2) time issues, (3) group dynamics, (4) gender issues in interviews and (5) the significance of culture. In dealing with regional media audiences, researchers confront challenges ranging from hostile attitudes, suspicions of researchers' motives and even outright distrust to overzealous collaboration. Beyond these political/cultural factors, socio-economic considerations, such as literacy rates, not only affect respondents' self-reports and response rates, but may fundamentally skew the recruitment process. While some of these challenges are rooted in the practice of audience research irrespective of cultural setting, sociocultural and political realities create challenges specific to the region.

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