The fourth edition of the News Agencies World Congress (NAWC), the largest gathering of international media, will kick start here on Sunday highlighting the importance of information dissemination and the active role that media plays at all levels.

The theme of NAWC is “reinventing the news agency in the 21st century” and the media congress will brainstorm on how to reshape the news agency in the 21st century, to carry out its news missions benefiting from the development of information technology and the revolutionary changes in the mode of communication.

This year, Saudi Press Agency (SPA), the state-run news agency, will chair the congress, which will run through Nov. 21 with heads of news agencies and officials of satellite channels and newspapers participating from around the world, official sources said.

The sources said that more than 30 speakers representing news agencies, newspapers and television channels will take part in the congress. Officials from major information technology companies such as Yahoo and Google have also been invited as news agencies realize the importance of input from experts on e-papers, mobile services and how to make profits on the Internet.

“It is necessary to know the importance of these technologies and their exploitations by news agencies,” an SPA statement said.

During the five-day congress, the participants will discuss several aspects of print and electronic media including new products and services in the market, social media, digital news platforms, views of newscasters in Arabic about the news agencies, exploitation of new opportunities and how the news agencies can support the future needs of the newspapers, an NAWC statement said.