First youth-run panel in AMF

By: Fatma Bujsaim

Image from Moaza Al Muheiri

For the first time in its history, the 10^th Arab Media Forum held a panel discussion that included university students only. The discussion was titled “Arab Youth create their own media platform” was moderated by a young anchor on Sama Dubai Channel, Nour Eldein Al Youssef, who succeeded in getting the audience involved in the discussion.

The four students were from different universities in the country. The discussion started off by asking the participants different questions that will give the audience the level of the participants understanding when it comes to social media and its power.

Abdulla, one of the participants from the American University of Sharjah, said that traditional media and social media can reach a point where they do not compete in terms of content, but when it comes to speed and influence, social media will still be stronger. He also added that students have different taste and that social media gave the youth the chance to skip the news that they are not interested in. Abdulla also suggested that social media allowed the youth to participate in important events and state their opinion on social/political issues.

On that note, Yasser Al Neyadi, a student from the United Arab Emirates University, pointed out that with that sort of freedom, the youth should be aware of media-ethics. He said that social media is like directing a film, you give the audience what they want and you can argue and discuss any issue you want, as long as you present it in a good way that isn’t offending or aggressive, “people need to know that they have the power but they have to understand what personal responsibility is”.

The older people from the audience looked surprised by the level of intelligence and the sense of ethics those students showed. Waleed Al- Helali, director of the PR department in Saudi Aramco, expressed his delight by saying, “I’m impressed, and I’m very glad that the forum started involving students.”

Not only that, but the discussion witnessed a huge crowd where many people had to stand at the back. The discussion ended with the participants concluding that they do understand the power of social media and they will not stop using it any time soon.

Video:
Video of panel

Audio:
Participant speaking