Mazen Nahawi sharing his findings

By Sara Abdulla

Mazen Nahawi, the owner of Twitter account SocialEyez, visited recently Zayed University and shared his experience in research methods and analyzing social media in the Middle East, and his recent finding the trends about Egypt protests. One of his interesting finding is, in March, 85 million Arab are in facebook  more than published newspaper in all around the Arab world.

This is Sara reporting about the event.

Mazen Nahawi was very delighted about meeting the CCMS students and research analyzing class, over 100 girls came to attended this meeting, he was very pleased and he wanted a conversation and sharing ideas with the girls rather than just a lecture. He basically talked about how powerful the social media is and how social media allowed us to have new consciences. Also that Arabic language is the fastest growing language in facebook. This is Sara Abdulla, reporting for Zayed radio.

He also shared his knowledge where in the past people were badly informed or not at all and sometimes had no access to the right information and mentioning the past to compare it with what social media did and its power to get that point without newspapers or other old type of media to misinform people of what happening around them. 

Sultan Al Qassemi trusted by many

By Sara Abdulla

Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi, the fantastic government policy expert and twitter communicator, came on ZU Dubai campus and talked about many subjects like his articles and his story with twitter, saying he wasn’t expecting to be followed by over 68,000 people. he also talked about the Egypt event and because he know much about the country that was the reason why people trusted him .

This is Sara reporting about the event.

Sultan Al Qassemi was very passionate about meeting the CCMS students, over 80 girls who came to attended this meeting, were very pleased with his lecture. he basically talked about how powerful the media is and how he wanted to be the voice of the Gulf as he encouraged the girls to be too. This is Sara Abdulla, reporting for Zayed radio.

Sultan Al Qassemi also mentioned he is going to study investigating journalism.

Be passionate to success

By Sara Abdulla

Susan Macaulay, the founder of Amazing Women Rock moderated panel about Opportunities for Professional Advancement in the Middle East. The event was host by Mubadalah in Abu Dhabi  hosted an event celebrating 100 years of women`s leadership. It was about opportunities are limitless for women in the region, and women need to believe in themselves. Because opportunities are out there, women need to take the steps of finding their passion, the benefit they will get from it and marketing themselves to get what they want.

Susan lived and worked in Dubai for more than 18 years. She said in the interview that to get what you want is by take small steps, starting by focusing how it important to you, get people to understand why you want it and understand other people’s view too. One of her great quote is “Every woman is amazing, and has the capacity for greatness”.

Why media don’t cross red lines?

By: Mana

Dr.Nabil Al Khatib

l Abdullah

Taleb Kanaan the senior presenter and anchor at Al Arabiya channel asked for the panel’s opinion about some media people who says:” I prefer not to affect the politics, I am traditional”. That was specifically at the panel of Alarabiya channel under the title “Media in a shifting Arab world”, at the Arab Media Forum,2011.

Dr. Nabil Al Khatib who has been the Executive Editor of Al-Arabiya News Channel for the last seven years answered saying that he don’t think that the media should cross the red lines which are the society’s taboos and what media can’t talk about like religion, government and culture in some societies. He continued saying that media should not start talking about everything happening without limits and considerations of anything. Because, at the end of each month, there are people who are waiting for their salaries.  

His honest declaration made the crowd clap their hands for him. He added that, the owner of the media organization can risk his organization in different levels. However, the owner have his own benefits at the end that he would be thinking about. Therefore, there should be a balance between risking and sticking to the limits.

Traditional media and new media are partners!

 By: Manal Abdullah  



Alarabiya panel , AMF2011



 The moderator Taleb Kanaan started saying that the Arab world’s revolution didn’t need newspapers, TVs’ or magazines to start. A small invitation in one of the social networking websites was enough to start a revolution. This fact made the traditional media struggle to dominate. That was at a debate on how the new media affected Arab world between important media people at Alarabiya panel in the Arab Media Forum ,2011 under the title “Media in a shifting Arab world”.

 Oktavia Nasr the founder of Bridges Media Consulting and Editor of OctaviaNasr.com, disagreed saying that the partnership between new media and traditional media is obvious and undeniable. She added that new media have to work with traditional media  in order to deliver credible news to the audience. news spreads through new media is not always correct and not reliable as the traditional media’s news is ,and it needs a huge effort to make sure whether the news is correct or not in order to publish it.

Oktavia Nasr continued saying that the journalist have to know the politics, culture and the geography of the country before taking news from people and publish it. Publishing a credible news and mentioning the source shows respect to the receiver. Therefore, new media and traditional media are in need of each other and should work together.

Audio of Octavia explaining the relationship between traditional and new media octavia-audio

Red lines are moral values

George Kordahi

By Hanan Mohammed

Some of the entertainment channels in the Middle East have crossed the red lines, by offering content that directly conflicts with traditional community values and customs.

George Kordahi, Anchor in MBC Group said, there is a competition between the stations and channels because of the entertainment programs. He said, 70% are entertainment programs like celebrity news,music and health in the channels.

Al Kordahi added, entertainment programs are  like infections, and most of TV channels copy these programs from the West like Moment of truth, Star Academy and Arab Got Talent.

 He said, these channels continue to challenge the moral values, social norms and religious beliefs of Arab societies. He added, the channels, the official authorities and the audience  has the responsibility about entertainment programs. For example, the channels should choose the best for their audience and be aware about their values and beliefs. The official authorities, there must be laws to reduce these programs. Also, he said the audience play the key role to choose the best for them and their children, and they should respect themselves and don’t be affected by these programs .

 

Media Revolution in the Arab World

 

Nabil Al Katibe

By Hanan Mohammed




Traditional media such as television and newspapers still exist and play the key role in the Arab World, although social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are used more.

Nabil Al Katibe, executive editor in Al Arabiya News Channel said, today we have "Facebook Revolution " and social networking sites have contributed to political change and the arrival of events moment by moment through the pictures and videos. But television has a major role in the transfer although  there are differences in events and coverage.

 He added, people watch traditional media for 5 to 6 hours each day in the Arab countries. Also, “ In the traditional media researchers can’t see the numbers but in social networking sites, they can see the numbers of users and viewers”. In addition, one of the advantages of the new media is self-expression,  but traditional media in the same time prevented in some areas because of political systems so people turn to social networking sites.  

However, he saw in the media there is no credibility sometime, there are many images and videos that are published because they represent a specific event, but after the event, people know that it  is represents other events. For example, some channels took  pictures of the sites they represent Syria, but later found it from Lebanon.  He said,  must be measures to confirm the news such as the use and alternative ways to get the news and check the authenticity of correspondents, such as communication persons of the same area to make sure the information is correct.