Journalists who participated in the Asia Media Summit 2014 in Jeddah said the social media has achieved a wider reach than the print media in society in Asian countries while the Web content has also improved through the use of strong tools.

Workshops leading to the six-day summit, which began on May 3, discussed several issues.

Thirteen journalists and media experts discussed social media and TV programs on the second day of the workshop.

The Eurovision Academy collaborated with AIBAD and China Central Television (CCTV) to give their master presentations of social media and TV programs. This workshop discussed the relationship between social media and broadcasting.

The participants discussed what it means for a broadcaster to build a meaningful social relationship with the audience both on and offline.

Justin Kings, a British media expert associated with Eurovision Academy, told Arab News: “Our goal is to share our experience with journalists from different countries to help them solve the challenges of how to develop media content.”

The Asian journalists participating in the workshop also related their experiences and discussed the challenges of developing the content of social media.

The summit, which is being organized under the aegis of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, also tries to define the media’s role in elections and furthering dialogue.

Malaysian Saqib Sheikh, working with Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting and Development, said there will be four more workshops to discuss several topics on the media.

The conference provides an opportunity for broadcasters in the region to share their thoughts on information and broadcasting. Decision-makers, media professionals, scholars and stakeholders of news and programming from Asia, Pacific, Africa, Europe, the Middle East and North America attended the annual conference.

One of the highlights of the summit was the launch of the AIBD/FES publication “Media Ethics in the Age of Social Media.” This publication is intended to serve as a guide to deal with some of the challenges faced by broadcasters and media professionals while dealing with situations that involve ethical dilemmas in their journalistic careers.

It presents different models of media regulation and cites journalistic codes of ethics from around the world. In doing so, the publication puts the debate about media ethics in a broader context and adds a new dimension to it.

The AIBD publication is authored by Venkat Iyer, a legal academic based in the United Kingdom.