Huffington Post’s Faisal Abbas: Social media will help us in developing a real media industry

“The notion that there is a competition between traditional media and social media is inaccurate; but if it were true, you would be up against a website like Facebook which has over 500 million users” said Faisal J. Abbas - a London based journalist, blogger and social commentator - at the 10^th annual Arab Media Forum which was inaugurated in Dubai this morning.

Abbas, who writes extensively for influential American blog "The Huffington Post", said that traditional media outlets such as newspapers and television channels should look at social media as an opportunity to strengthen their brand and develop a better understanding of what audiences want, “social media not only allows to reach out to wider audiences but it also makes content more relevant and engaging”, Abbas commented.

Speaking at the Forum’s ‘Media Content: More personal… More interactive’ workshop, Abbas said that the surge of user-generated content on social media websites has made each person effectively able to compete with traditional media outlets, especially in the Middle East where the absence of freedom has actually handicapped the development of an actual Arab media industry.

“We have 600 Arab Satellite channels - How many of them are actually making money? In fact how many of them are actually in the business for making money?” he asked while adding that “under the current state-owned/state-controlled status which dominates the Arab media scene, audience wants aren’t relevant, because the channel’s purpose is to please the owner or the political figure it is affiliated to – thus, advertising comes in for political/affiliation reasons and due to audience ratings”.

The Arab Media Forum is organized by the Dubai Press Club which also serves as the body overseeing the prestigious Arab Journalism Awards which will be the concluding ceremony of this event.