GCC needs digital platforms to dispel negative impact of foreign platforms on youth

Gulf countries need to come up with digital platforms where young Arabs can interact, as foreign platforms are having a negative impact on Arab youth, said senior editors of regional Arabic newspapers on Tuesday.

While speaking on the first day of the 20th edition of the Arab Media Forum, the editors called for bridging the gap in the digital domains which is controlled by Western companies.

“In the past few years, we saw many crises including Arab Spring, the Gulf crisis, coronavirus and now the Russia-Ukraine crisis. There are foreign platforms that impacted the youth (negatively) because we don’t have Gulf or Arab platforms that can feed the Arab youth,” said Muna Busamra, editor-in-chief of Dubai-based Arabic daily Al Bayan.

She highlighted that there are certain topics such as culture and religion that bring the Gulf and Arab media together.

Busamra also called on GCC media houses to bring young cadres in order to develop regional media in line with the new developments taking place in the technology sector.

“There are challenges but if we train and attract the young, we will give Gulf media an identity. We don’t have the necessary personnel needed, so we need to focus on the need to attract youth so that they stay away from crises and feed optimism to them. There is also a need to make positive content,” she said during the panel discussion.