Arab Media Forum Announces Details of Three Workshops on Opening Day of 9th Edition
Wednesday, 14 April 2010
Dubai: 14 April, 2010- Dubai Press Club today announced details of the three main workshops that will headline the first day’s agenda of the Arab Media Forum 2010.
Titled ‘Citizen Journalism…Challenging the Unnamed Source!’, ‘Kuwaiti Media: Progress and Expansion: Reminiscent of the Pioneering Days’ and ‘Natural Disaster Mass Communications in the Arab World…No Comment!’, the workshops will kick off with the opening of the ninth Arab Media Forum at 9:00am, and welcome participants who have completed their registration process through the website www.arabmediaforum.ae.
Arab Media Forum 2010 will be held from 12-13 May at The Atlantis Palm and bring together over 70 speakers and more than 800 media members and experts from around the region and the world.
The first workshop ‘Citizen Journalism…Challenging the Unnamed Source!’ will spotlight the growing trend of citizen journalism. It will also underline the opportunities and challenges that exist in competing with other traditional media with all the technological creative solutions. Panelists will additionally analyse the proliferation of the online social media platform that is pushing the media to consider it as a source of information, despite the absence of a specific practice to check its credibility.
This workshop will address many questions on the nature of relationship between bloggers and traditional media personnel, and if citizen journalism has contributed to enhancing the freedom of the press. The possibility of finding new ways to leverage the credibility of blogs, and ways to enhance Arab bloggers’ performance and develop their qualifications will also be explored.
Moderated by TV presenter Malek Maktabi, speakers at this workshop will include Ahmed Ashour, Manager of “Al Jazeera Talk” , Anwar El-Hawari, Editor-in-Chief of Al-Ahram El Eqtisadi, Dr. Ali Karni, Director – Al Jazirah Newspaper Chair for International Journalism, King Saud University, Abdullah Alagla, CEO of the Saudi Media Association, and the Syrian blogger Mohammed Kayyali.
The second workshop ‘Kuwaiti Media: Progress and Expansion: Reminiscent of the Pioneering Days’ will highlight the Kuwaiti media scene, which witnessed phenomenal development during the last two years across TV channels, newspapers, magazines, news agencies, periodicals in print and web portals, which appears to be establishing a new phase in the GCC media arena.
In addition to discussing the reality, approaches and ownerships in the Kuwaiti media, and the reason behind the relatively large number of newspapers and TV channels, the session will also aim to identify the Kuwaiti media’s concerns and priorities.
The workshop will be moderated by the Kuwaiti journalist Yousef Abd Al Hameed Al Jassim, and will feature speakers such as Dr. Sulaiman Al-Askari, Editor-in-Chief, Al-Arabi magazine, Dr. Abdullah Al-Shayji, Head of Political Science Department, Kuwait University, Dr. Anas Al Rasheed, former Kuwaiti Information Minister, Adnan Al Rashed, Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Al Anbaa newspaper.
The third workshop ‘Natural Disaster Mass Communications in the Arab World…No Comment!’ will discuss a topic that is rarely talked about and identify ways to develop it in the Arab world. It will also study international efforts to initiate programmes for motivating media members to contribute to increasing general safety standards while covering natural disasters.
The session will bring up many topics about the role required from the media in disasters and crises and highlight recent international experiences. It will also address the media’s ability to sensitive issues involving humanitarian and financial aspects of the disaster, and the value of the local media and citizen journalism in crises, and how online media can play a role in dealing with rumours and unreliable news sources on disasters.
The workshop will be moderated by Dr. Khalifa Al Sowaidi from Abu Dhabi TV, and witness the participation of Astrid Zweyner, Deputy Editor, Reuters AlertNet, Thomson Reuters, Hussin Al Ghtany, Spokesman, Presidency of Metrology and Environment, Khaled Khalifa, Head of Middle East/Asia Bureau, the UN’s IRIN News Service-Dubai, Randa Fouad, President, Arab Media Forum for Environment and Development, and Abdul Rahman Al Tenaiji, Head of Media and PR, UAE Red Crescent.
Further details on the workshops and speakers at the Arab Media Forum 2010 will be uploaded on www.arabmediaforum.ae and disseminated across local newspapers, news portal and agencies.
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