Losing Their Connections: Syrian Refugees and Their Information Needs

• In Event: Social Media and Cultural Adaptation

Abstract

This paper studied the information practices of Syrian refugees in the country of Jordan, a culturally similar neighbor with a shared ethnicity, language and dominant religion. Interviews with refugees living in and around the country’s capital of Amman suggest that these cultural similarities appear not to have made it any easier to establish meaningful connections with Jordanians, leaving the refugees in the same position as their fellow Syrian diaspora now scattered across Europe and beyond: often information-isolated and dependent on family and other Syrians rather than local information sources.

Authors

• Melissa A. Wall, California State U - Northridge

• Dana Janbek, Lasell College

• Madeline Campbell, Worcester State U