‘Media must keep up with changes’

In a context of rapid changes in media technology and fierce competition, we are in dire need to keep up with such transformations efficiently, said Mona Al-Marri, director general of the Government of Dubai Media Office, on Tuesday. She was addressing the Arab Media Forum.
“Further, we need to improve performance standards in line with content and be able to interact with the new players of the digital media” she added.
Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, interim Egyptian Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab and many other top officials and ministers attended the opening session of the forum. This year’s theme is “The Future of Media Starts Today.”
Over 1800 media leaders, key writers and industry specialists from around 27 countries from the Arab region and beyond have been attending the two-day event which will discuss the current challenges facing the media industry and means to overcome them toward enhancing the media output.
In a session, titled Media Reality Following the Arab ‘Autumn,’ Sky News Arabia anchor, Fadila Al Souissi, appealed to media professionals to commit to ethical values which have been “hugely compromised” due to political affiliations and undisclosed sources of funding.
The scholars concurred that instability in some Arab countries has made a significant contribution to ethical abuse, mentioning TV coverage of the Egyptian political crisis.
Moutaz Kokash, an expert on cyber warfare in the Arab World, told delegates cyber attack is a global phenomenon. “It transcends across all borders. It’s faceless and unknown. The effects could be lethal.”
The session pointed out that the new world war where faceless enemies are out to destroy societies, values, cultures and morale using the Internet and social media, is gaining momentum with more than 18 attacks taking place per second globally and costing the US a whopping $250 billion a year alone.
John Danisjewski, vice-president and senior managing editor for International News at the Associated Press, said that the social media is not a threat to the traditional media, but offers great opportunity for media outlets to gather information.
“The Middle East is more than bullets, bombs and oil price,” he said, when asked to comment on the region. “There is the other side to the Middle East society which needs to be explored.