Category Archives: In the Media

Arab Women Beat Men on Twitter: Sayyidati

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Arab women are making great strides in their use of social media, often outrunning their male counterparts on Twitter, according to studies.

The shift from traditional to digital, social and interactive media is a natural for women, notably in the Arab world where conservative societies have been slow to accept females in high visibility roles, Media Unlimited director Magda Abu-Fadil said.

“Thanks to such media, you feel women have a presence, are speaking out more, communicating more, interacting more with their societies, and perhaps with people they don’t even know, and have proved themselves,” she told Maysaa Al Amoudi on the Rotana satellite channel show “Sayyidati” (My Lady).

Women have been able to reach far wider audiences than they would through traditional media, she explained, adding that they have to develop by mastering different social media tools and platforms.

Abu-Fadil on “Hewar Al Arab”: Twitter is key

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Media Unlimited director Magda Abu-Fadil urged critics to reconsider their reluctance to use Twitter and better engage audiences through this social medium, given its growing importance in the Arab world.

She argued in favor of young tweeps and journalists, despite misuses of the platform, adding that Twitter had become a source of news and information that should not be ignored.

Magda Abu-Fadil on "Hewar Al Arab"

Abu-Fadil noted Arab journalists’ increased use of Twitter in the last couple of years but said they were still hesitant to capitalize on it as a news resource.

She said international news organizations had initiated codes of conduct for social media uses in addition to their traditional media guidelines for good journalistic practice.

Her views were aired on Al Arabiya satellite channel’s show “Hewar Al Arab” in an episode dedicated to “Twitter Communities.”

The program, hosted by Muntaha Al Ramahi, grouped tweeps Abdallah Shaalan and Moulouk Al Sheikh as well as academic Sadek Al Hamami.

MU Speaks Out on Need for Better Journalism Teaching/Training at Dubai’s 11th Arab Media Forum

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Media Unlimited director Magda Abu-Fadil told participants at an Arab Media Forum (AMF) 2012 workshop that academics must get up to speed and not deride the importance of social media.

Some panelists and members of the audience said online media users could not be described as journalists since they don’t have the requisite academic and professional qualifications.

Magda Abu-Fadil (second from right) during AMF2012 workshop on instinctive online journalists (Courtesy of DPC)

But, Abu-Fadil argued, many Arab journalism schools lacked resources and because of their poor curricula were turning out functional illiterates by not providing students with the knowledge base and skills for today’s exploding media market.

Additionally, faculty members were often below par and incapable of keeping up with the times, hence their aversion to digital advances, social media, and inability to incorporate them in their programs.

Media Unlimited featured at Arab Media Forum 2012 in Dubai (Courtesy of DPC)

The workshop — which preceded the two-day event’s official opening — focused on whether social and online media users had become journalists by instinct.

Talk show host Zeina Yazigi (Twitter @zyazigi) of Dubai TV interviewed Abu-Fadil on her show “Al Shari’ Al Arabi” (The Arab Street) to discuss the impact of online and social media on Arabs in the wake of revolutions gripping the region and whether citizen journalists posed serious competition to traditional media.

Read details of the 11th Arab Media Forum organized by the Dubai Press Club May 8-9, 2012.

 

Magda Abu-Fadil: Tunisia’s Social Media, Slip in Freedom on Al Hurra TV

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Tunisian activists fear post-revolution gains may be slipping due to pressures and threats from hardline Islamists and supporters of the ruling Annahda Party, Media Unlimited director Magda Abu-Fadil told Washington-based Al Hurra TV in an interview from Beirut.

Abu-Fadil had referred to activists like Slim Amamou in a Huffington Post piece and reiterated his and others’ concerns about restrictive controls on traditional and online media.

Magda Abu-Fadil interviewed by Al Hurra TV

Asked how Annahda could fight social media when the party was using such tools to disseminate its message, Abu-Fadil replied: “Attacks or piracy are often used by regimes to counter adversaries.”

She added that oppressive governments often resorted to various measures to promote their ideas and attack opponents such as bloggers, activists and journalists who seek a wider margin of freedom in their countries.

“Social media are a necessity for all,” Abu-Fadil said on B-Link, a segment of the Al Hurra show “Al Youm.”

MU on Aljazeera’s Listening Post – “Tunisia’s Multiplying Media”

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UNESCO and various organizations marked World Press Freedom Day (May 3) 2012 in Tunisia, where the “Arab Spring” began and has led to uprisings in other Middle Eastern/North African countries.

Media Unlimited director Magda Abu-Fadil appeared in a segment of the Aljazeera English program Listening Post entitled “Tunisia’s multiplying media” to discuss journalists’, bloggers’ and activists’ fears that post-revolution media freedom is endangered by the tug-of-war between liberal secularists on the one hand, and the ruling Annahda Party and Islamist/Salafist hardliners on the other.

Magda Abu-Fadil on Aljazeera's Listening Post