October 21, 2020
Media National Youth Programme workshops discuss how digital media has changed the face of journalism
The Dubai Press Club (DPC) organised a series of virtual sessions that explored how the explosion of technology has changed journalism. The sessions, which formed part of the third edition of the Media National Youth Programme (MNYP), also discussed how digital tools can be used to create impactful stories.
The largest programme of its kind in the region, the MNYP is a joint initiative of DPC and Watani Al Emarat Foundation. The initiative seeks to equip young media students and professionals in the UAE with the latest tools and skills needed to excel in the industry.
Maitha Buhumaid, Director of DPC, expressed her appreciation to the speakers and media organisations that shared insights on the growing impact of social media on journalism at the virtual sessions.
Buhumaid stressed that DPC is keen to empower young media professionals by honing their skills and providing them with the tools that enable them to achieve the highest levels of excellence in the industry.
Riad Hamade, Global Head of Internships at Bloomberg News and Ziad Daoud, Chief Emerging Markets Economist, Bloomberg, spoke about the current state of the global economy and its repercussions on the region at a session titled ‘The Impact of the Pandemic on the Global Economy’. The session included a detailed presentation about Bloomberg’s news coverage and the role of media in raising awareness about the pandemic.
A session titled ‘Tweet to Influence - How to Build your Presence and Stay Safe’, led by Kinda Ibrahim, Director of Media Partnerships, MENA, Twitter and George Salama, Head of Government Relations and Public Policy, MENA, Twitter, was focused on empowering young media professionals to break impactful stories by embracing the latest Twitter trends.
Ibrahim highlighted how Twitter is introducing enhancements to better organise and surface the topics and interests that bring people to the platform. These include Twitter’s latest Lists feature and Arabic Topics. Media professionals can leverage the enhanced Lists feature to monitor accounts within specified groups, while the Topics feature can be used to follow conversations about a topic in the same way that one would follow an individual Twitter account.
Salama discussed ways in which young professionals in the UAE can find credible information and feel safe participating in a Twitter conversation. He explained that Twitter is constantly improving its rules, processes, technology and tools to enable people to participate in public conversations freely.
Participants also learned about the technology that Twitter uses to proactively detect and flag tweets that break the platform’s rules before people need to report them.
Lisa Gibbs, Director of News Partnerships Automation and AI Co-Lead, Associated Press, shared her insights on how today’s news organisations are using AI to improve news gathering and production and grow their audience base in a session named ‘Practical Experiments with AI in News’.
“Automation and artificial intelligence technologies hold much promise for news organisations, but we must use them responsibly. There is an extraordinary amount of cooperation happening globally on projects that seek to identify best practices for AI in journalism,” Gibbs said.
Matt Cooke, Google News Lab, Head of Partnerships & Training, held a session named ‘Digital Storytelling’ which explored a range of tools that help strengthen journalists’ research and newsgathering. The session also explained how data journalism and maps can be used to visualise storytelling.
Dr Mohammed Al Nughaimish, Journalist and Author, used theoretical and practical examples to show how news writers can develop powerful Arabic content for various mediums that attracts the interest of readers in a session titled ‘The Power of the Word in Media’.
In another session titled ‘Launching National Media Platforms: the Story of Diwan Al Mulla’, Kuwaiti anchor Mohammed Al Mulla, shed light on how the Diwan Al Mulla internet TV show hosted by him developed into a respected social media programme. Al Mulla explained how youth can take advantage of social media tools to develop a credible platform for promoting development and communicating positive messages to Arab communities.
Running until 15 October, the MNYP provides a comprehensive platform for young Emirati students and media professionals to enhance their knowledge, expertise and skills. The Programme features a series of virtual training workshops delivered in collaboration with industry experts and leading local and international media institutions.
