Social Media Use and Media Literacy as Predictors of Citizens’ Digital Attitudes in the MENA Region: A Quantitative Cross-Sectional Study

The rapid proliferation of social media has transformed political communication, public diplomacy, and citizens’ digital attitudes across the MENA region—a context marked by hybrid political systems, intensive disinformation, and accelerating digital transformation. This study examines how social media use and media literacy are associated with five key constructs—institutional trust, trust in media and digital sources, attitudes toward political narratives, attitudes toward digital diplomacy, and security and disinformation perceptions—among 250 citizens of Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia, and Kuwait, alongside generational and educational differences across all constructs. Using a quantitative cross-sectional design, data were collected via an online questionnaire between January and March 2025 and analyzed through simple linear regression (H1–H10) and Kruskal–Wallis tests (H11–H24). Twenty-one of twenty-four hypotheses were confirmed. Social media use was a strong negative predictor of institutional trust (β = −0.750, R2 = 0.562) and a strong positive predictor of political narrative awareness, digital diplomacy attitudes, and security perceptions; media literacy showed a parallel pattern. Educational level was the strongest differentiating factor in media literacy competencies (χ2 = 175.874), far exceeding generational effects. Notably, trust in media and digital sources showed no significant association with either predictor or demographic variable across four independent tests, suggesting that—unlike the other constructs examined—media trust in the MENA region is shaped less by individual competencies or behaviors and more by structural and political factors. These findings support extending formal, curriculum-based media literacy education and point to the need for media trust research grounded in non-Western political contexts.