{"id":5350,"date":"2018-04-04T05:05:07","date_gmt":"2018-04-04T05:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/middleeastevents.com\/blog\/?p=5350"},"modified":"2018-04-04T05:05:07","modified_gmt":"2018-04-04T05:05:07","slug":"arab-media-is-facing-an-identity-crisis-says-hussein-shobokshi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/arab-media-is-facing-an-identity-crisis-says-hussein-shobokshi\/","title":{"rendered":"Arab Media Is Facing An Identity Crisis, Says Hussein Shobokshi"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Arab media is facing a serious identity crises, said columnist Hussein Shobokshi at a session titled \u2018Arab Media Crises\u2019 at the 17th edition of the Arab Media Forum (AMF), which commenced today in Dubai.<\/p>\n<p>Held under the patronage of Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, AMF 2018 is being held at Madinat Jumeirah from 3-4 April.<\/p>\n<p>Shobokshi said that Arab media tried to follow the US media, especially after the Watergate scandal that led to the impeachment of President Richard Nixon. He said that advertising companies have contributed to the notion of \u2018Pan Arab Media\u2019. \u201cThere is nothing called Arab media, it\u2019s a big lie,\u201d Shobokshi said. \u201cThe idea of a Pan Arab Media was created by adverting firms to reach the maximum number of Arabic speakers to promote their products,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Shobokshi also said that freedom of press in the Arab world is similar to an \u201caccordion\u201d. \u201cFreedom of press in the Arab world is very limited and it is like an accordion, and its expansion depends on heat,\u201d he added. \u201cArab journalists are always required to explain what they mean by their stories, headlines, and expressions,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was invited by a Japanese institute to deliver a speech following the so called Arab Spring, and Japanese officials asked me why Arab media always talk about wars, a war against terrorism, a war against fanatics etc.,\u201d he said. Japanese officials asked him \u201chow do you attract investments while your media always talk about wars.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The 17<sup>th<\/sup> edition of the AMF has brought together more than 3,000 prominent regional and international media figures and thoughts leaders. Apart from high-profile local speakers, the two-day event features 50 speakers representing 20 countries from across the Arab region and the world. Under the theme \u2018Impactful Media Trends\u2019, prominent media personalities, writers, influencers and academics are sharing their views on diverse issues at the Forum with the aim of forging a new vision for the media.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-5351 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/MEL5413.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/MEL5413.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/MEL5413-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/MEL5413-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/MEL5413-1024x683.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arab media is facing a serious identity crises, said columnist Hussein Shobokshi at a session titled \u2018Arab Media Crises\u2019 at the 17th edition of the Arab Media Forum (AMF), which commenced today in Dubai. Held under the patronage of Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai His Highness Sheikh Mohammed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5352,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5350"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5353,"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5350\/revisions\/5353"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}