International Journal of Arts & Sciences, CD-ROM. ISSN: 1944-6934 :: 08(03):483–496 (2015)  FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION IN THE OMANI SOCIAL MEDIA: COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS BETWEEN PRIVATE AND GOVERNMENT- OWNED MEDIA ON FACEBOOK Yousuf Khalfan Al-Shamsi Nizwa College of Applied Sciences, Oman Scope of freedom of speech and expression in social media is an overarching debated issue that raises concern in Oman. Growth in the number of social media users in Oman recently made it possible for alternative media messages to engage in political discussions, increasing their opportunities of political expression and creating public opinions. This paper argues that, despite government’s consolidated control of media outlets, social media and Facebook in particular have increasingly provided an arena for Omanis not only in exercising their right in expressing ‘political opinions’, but also in providing space for ‘alternative journalism’ in counter response to government-controlled media. Social networking sites growth, as a public sphere, in Oman was a manifestation of what became recently known as the “ Arab Spring”. Omani SNS users, influenced by the Arab spring wave, found in Facebook a wide influential platform to express and influence public opinions and facilitate organizing political activities on ground. The ever-increasing online presence enabled many social and political activists to log-in to Facebook, shifting their activism from writing in forums and blogs to exploit the new highly interactive features associated with Facebook and forming a counter alternative media. Keywords: Public sphere, Freedom of speech, e-journalism, Alternative media. Introduction Public sphere is considered one of the critical concepts in understanding the interrelated yet symbiotic relationship between democracy, public opinions, and power. The notion ‘public sphere’ evolved in line with other concepts related to the social, economic, technological and political transformation of the bourgeoisie strata in Western Europe in the 17 th century onward (Habermas, 1991, p. 1). It is the arena where normal citizens are able to engage in critical debates; criticizing, negotiating and discussing issues of public interest away from government surveillance, authority and control. Historically, elite people controlled this arena in Europe in the 17 th century, but the German philosopher and researcher Jürgen Habermas in his book ‘The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere’ (1962), stressed on the role of mass media, such as newspapers in the 18 th century, in replacing and transforming the public sphere that was previously controlled by the elite (Calhoun, 1992; Sen, 2012). However, the rise of the Internet and the development of new technologies converging various mass media platforms have led to another transformation on the manifestations of ‘public sphere’. The increased extensity and intensity of communication resulted in high transfer and exchange of information that provided a great opportunity for owners of alternative media to present their views and 483