The role of traditional media verses social media when it comes to covering political events in the Arab world was the topic of discussion of a panel discussion on Thursday held as part of the cultural program of the Sharjah International Book Fair. The panel discussion was moderated by Emirati Poet Sheikha Al Mutairi and included two media personalities from the Arab world: Sudanese journalist and university lecturer Faisal Mohammed Saleh and Lebanese poet and cultural editor of the international daily Al Hayat newspaper, Abdo Wazen. Saleh started out by saying that the traditional, governmental media in the Arab world is in a state of crisis. “This is due to the control of the state over the media, the existence of several red lines and the weakness of the content. All these things led to the loss of credibility and hence the trust of the audience,” said Faisal.
Initially, due to the lack of freedom that traditional media have, the public gravitated towards pan-Arab media that didn’t belong to a specific state such as Al Sharq Al Awsat and Al Hayat newspaper as well as Al Jazeera and Al Arabya TV channels, he said. “The positive sides to these kinds of media were that they were economically stronger, they enjoyed better freedom and they were also known for being models for professionalism,” explained Faisal.But, according to Faisal, while the political crises in the Arab world, namely the Arab Spring, was the peak of this media, it also marked its decline as it began to be overshadowed by the start of even further conflicts in the Arab world and by social media and citizen journalism. “Social media posed a threat to traditional media because it had several advantages such as the ease of reporting and covering events as they unfolded, mobility, complete freedom of individuals without any formal authority or censorship, the speed of covering events using affordable equipment,” he said.
He added that social media went beyond covering the news to making the news as it contributed towards the Arab spring. “There was a lack of authority and so it established the concept of having an alternative media which broke the centralized politics, it was also used to focus on the marginalized and forgotten and the most important aspect is that it is interactive,” said Faisal. However, he said that the problem with social media - the issue with having no authority or editor that reviews – have led to individualism, lack of credibility, the trend towards sensationalism, lack of the sense of social responsibility, breach of privacy, plagiarism and the lack of using credible sources.He said that the fact that many traditional media outlets have introduced social media breaks the barrier between the two worlds. “It has the best of both worlds, the professionalism of media corporations and the fast-paced nature of social media. This is where I see the future,” he said.
Speaking on the matter Wazen said that traditional, governmental media are no longer effective. “This becomes clear if we compare governmental media to satellite channels that are owned by private companies. The viewership is much lower for governmental media even though it is funded by the state,” he said. He added that in Lebanon there are many several private TV channels but that each station belongs to a particular political party and is hence the mouthpiece of that party’s political agenda. “I don’t define social media as media but they are simply means of communications that play an important role in the political scene such as the Arab Spring revolution. But I can’t trust it. I can’t say that they are free media either, even social media are biased,” said Wazen.