Tomorrow’s media,
▶ Editor-in-Chief announces plans to chart the course for the future in a region where breaking stories can shape the rest of the world
Journalists in the UAE have a unique chance to observe and share some of the most important stories shaping our world, Mina Al-Oraibi, Editor-in-Chief of The National, said in a discussion on the future of news at the closing session of paper’s Future Forum
“One of the things that stand out is that you can talk about global trends. They are quite often being either shaped here or shaped by people with connections here,” Al-Oraibi said.
“That gives us an opportunity when we are talking about the future. This is definitely a country of the future and so we have an edge in covering it.”
The session included important announcements about how
The National will cover news and its relationship with readers.
Working with the Emirates Youth Council, six fellows have been appointed “to think about all the issues of importance for the UAE, the region and world when it comes to the future,” Al-Oraibi said.
There will also be a global Future of Journalism competition for those aged between 16 and 21 so they can “tell us what they think the future of journalism is going to be like”.
In a regional first, the newspaper will also appoint a Future Editor and commission “deep dives” into subjects The
National wants to examine in greater detail through articles, podcasts and video.
In the panel discussion before the announcements, senior media figures discussed some of the most pressing issues for journalism today, such as the danger of fake news and competition from social media platforms like Twitter.
Christian Broughton, editor of The Independent in London, said it was impossible to ignore Twitter as a news source.
“When you have the President of the US issuing pretty important statements on Twitter you have to take this platform seriously,” Broughton said. “That doesn’t mean you repeat everything but it is certainly a valid platform for live news.”
He questioned the credentials of some citizen journalists. “We wouldn’t be excited by the term citizen surgeon or citizen banker,” Broughton said. “You wouldn’t trust that.”
The most effective strategy, he said, was to work with influencers and bloggers to make sure they meet the standards of a newspaper.
“They find it interesting to work with us because they learn and everyone benefits,” Broughton said.
Al-Oraibi said the only way to fight fake news was “to show that trusted brands and trusted outlets are accurate and do their fact-checking and put their hands up when they get something wrong”.
“However, these days people also trust their friends and what their friends are sharing, which leads to people re-sharing posts even though they have no idea where it’s come from.
“We have to redefine what is news and what we own and what we’re responsible for.”
Raju Narisetti, former chief executive of Gizmodo Media, said the digital age had brought benefits to all, including ”the amount of resources devoted to fact-checking”.
“We tend to associate a lot of negativity with speed,” he said. “But one of the benefits of social media and speed is our ability to correct mistakes has become a lot faster.”
Tom Thomson, former Asia editor for Reuters, said that in the early days of new websites, news was “given away like toothpaste, thinking the money would come”.
Thomson said that subscriptions would soon play a key role.
“What has become clearer is that people are willing to pay for trusted news,” he said.