Dubai: The new challenges facing newspapers and the need to rethink how media content that should be presented to readers was discussed at the Emirates Media Forum held in Dubai on Wednesday.
The first session of the second edition of the Emirates Media Forum also included an intense discussion on the level of freedom that Arabic and English language newspapers have, and ways to build a culture of acceptance among readers in the UAE, who are the reason behind the constraints being faced by some newspapers who want to tackle sensitive issues.
The session ‘Media Content: Future Stakes’ focused on local media content in general and the challenges faces on all levels with the emergence of new media trends. This includes the ability of newspapers to meet their readers’ needs.
Led by Aisha Sultan, an Emirati writer, the panel included Mohammad Al Otaiba, Editor-in-Chief of The National, Daen Shaheen, Editor-in-Chief of Al Bayan, Mohammad Al Hammadi, Editor-in-Chief of Al Ittihad newspaper and Aisha Omran Taryam, Editor-in-Chief of Gulf Today.
According to Shaheen, the way media is being distributed has changed and the way traditional media has dealt with the changes has resulted in audiences’ huge acceptance of this transformation.
“Newspapers have been faced by challenges, but have quickly adapted and looked at new options to deal with those challenges. It is always necessary for us to focus on different platforms and take different directions to reach readers, and what’s more important is to present media content differently on each medium,” he said.
Al Hammadi shared the same opinion about how media content is being dealt with by newspapers and said cutting down on details in a story and incorporating videos, photos and big headlines as part of the content was part of the transformation.
As they switched to the level of freedom in local newspapers, the issue mainly involved receivers who sometimes end up criticising the paper for the content or issues it has tackled.
Taryam said that the level of freedom is the same among Arabic and English newspapers and are based on certain principles, “but English newspapers are braver because they tackle issues which are not usually tackled in Arabic newspapers”.
Shaheen said the problem has to do with the readers. “Our audience is more sensitive and they immediately criticise the piece they read while with English newspapers, their content and issues presented are different and are positively received by their audience.”
The panellists agreed that this sensitivity should change, and that newspapers should not live by such constraints. They proposed building a culture of acceptance among readers by taking brave steps and getting readers used to dealing with various topics. This way, they said, local media content will keep up with the country’s developmental aspirations.
