SQU meet on impacts of social media on Arab World from Oct 30

MUSCAT: Sultan Qaboos University (SQU), represented by the College of Arts and Social Sciences/Media Department, will organise the second international conference “The Arab Society and Social Networking in a Changing World” from October 30 to November 2, with the participation of some 120 researchers from the Sultanate and abroad.

The conference looks at four sub-phenomena related to these networks, such as citizen journalism, and blog journalism and analyses the reality of their use in the Arab world by intensifying the spotlight on social networking users who have managed to transform these networks into a new type of journalism, that is based on the collection of those interested persons in groups for acquaintance, exchange of news and reports and publish what they want to publish, where some active groups on the networks work as integrated newspapers provide news, opinion, image and caricatures.

The conference comes in line with the growing interest in social networks in the Arab world and the wide scope of its impact.

It looks forward to creating an arena for exchanging the visions and experiences of many researchers in their various specialties, including media, educational, social and humanities from the Arab countries and some western countries.

The conference is receiving great care and attention from the Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) Administration, the Ministry of Information, the Omani Journalists Association and the various media outlets that have been invited to participate in the conference, in the interest of the employees of these media institutions, colleges and media departments, teachers and students in the Sultanate and abroad.