Abu Dhabi (WAM)
The Higher Organising Committee for the Global Media Congress, to be held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Vice President, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Presidential Court, from 14th to 16th November 2023, at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Center (ADNEC), announced the organisation of four specialist roundtables on the sidelines of the global event to facilitate substantive conversations on some of the most pressing subjects related to the media industry.

The four sessions will bring together media experts and specialists to discuss the latest challenges and prospects for the industry, regionally and globally.

The first roundtable is dedicated to unions and associations of international news agencies. It will discuss the role that these entities play in disseminating news and information around the world, as one of the most important sources of news stories that other media, governments, and societies rely on. The challenges they face in the age of technology and the spread of social media, as well as the proliferation of fake news, will be thoroughly discussed.

Participants in the first roundtable will address the increasing pressures that agencies are exposed to in order to adapt to the evolving media landscape while maintaining high accuracy, neutrality, and credibility. They will also discuss some international relations strategies to address challenges, and the best ways to bring together news agencies, their unions, and their associations for fruitful cooperation to address their common issues effectively.

This discussion session, which will be held on 15th November 2023, will be chaired by Mohammed Jalal Al Rayssi, Director-General of the Emirates News Agency (WAM) and Chairman of the Higher Organising Committee for the Global Media Congress. It will be attended by President of the European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA) Alexandro Gipoy; President of Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) Ltd, Kora Nou; Head of Federation of Arab News Agencies (FANA) Dr. Fahd bin Hassan Al Aqran; Acting Director-General of the Union of OIC News Agencies (UNA) Mohammed Abd Rabbo Al Yami; Director-General of Maghreb Arabe Press (MAP) Dr. Fouad Arif; Director-General – Bulgarian News Agency (BTA), Secretary of Balkan Union Kril Valchev; and Deputy – Director-General of TASS – News Agencies Alliance of the Commonwealth Independent States (CIS) Mikhael Gusman.

On 14th November, a roundtable, titled "TV Broadcasting: New Horizons", will address a number of issues of interest to institutions working in the field of radio and television. These include technological development and innovative and creative tools for delivering the media message and producing written and visual materials, as well as artificial intelligence technologies and automation of the media process.

The session will discuss new concepts in the field of radio and television to keep pace with technological development, the future of digital radio and television broadcasting, electronic media between opportunities and challenges, the ethics of radio and television broadcasting across multiple platforms, and the challenges of financing radio and television broadcasting.

The session will be attended by Ahmed Nadeem, Secretary-General and Executive Director of the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU); Gregoire Ndjaka, CEO-African Broadcasting Union (AUB); Simon Spanswick, CEO-Association of International Broadcasters (AIB); Nicolas Schonfeld, Executive Director at RED TAL, (TAL) Latin America; Claire Cordelia Grant, President of Caribbean Broadcasting Union; and Dr. Ridha Najar, ASBU Academy Manager at Arab States Broadcasting Union.

On 16th November, two roundtables will be held. The first will run under the title “Production Streaming: New Opportunities". It will discuss several topics, including the future of streaming and production companies in the light of technological development, opportunities for cooperation with multinational partners, and the current challenges facing the streaming and production industry.

This session, to be moderated by Caroline Faraj, VP of Arabic services, CNN, will be attended by a number of heads of streaming and production institutions and companies, will also discuss the impact of the contribution of these companies on creative industries, and the impact of digital media on them.

The list of speakers at the second roundtable discussion includes Dan Hu, Vice President of Tencent Cloud International for the Middle East, and Africa; Fathi Azouz, Head of Production, VIU (Asia); Michael Barnes, Entertainment Attorney, Film Director, Media Investor; Richard Alan Reid, Head of Studio, and Executive Vice President of Global Content, Buzzfeed Inc; Mansoor Al Dhahiri, Film Producer, Director, Writer; Kia Jam, C.E.O. / Producer, K.JAM MEDIA; and Antoine Saab - SVP Content Strategic Partnership, Starz Play.

The second roundtable will be dedicated for media academics. It will run over two sessions and address modern technologies in the media sector, including artificial intelligence and social media, which have imposed a new pattern and established a different approach to dealing with information, its treatment, and the way it is presented to the public. This has led to the decline of some communication media and the dawn of others.

The first session, titled “Artificial Intelligence and the Transformation of Media: Opportunities and Challenges”, will discuss several issues, including creativity and storytelling based on artificial intelligence, ethics and accountability in media generated by artificial intelligence, challenges in keeping pace with rapid technological changes, and teaching new media materials in academic curricula.

This session will be moderated by Dr. Khalaf Al Tahat from the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU). It will feature Prof. Abdullah bin Khamis Al-Kindi, Head of Media Department – Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat; Prof. Dr. Amjad Bader Mansour Al-Kadi, Dean of the Faculty of Mass Communication In Yarmouk University; and Dr. Ahmed bin Ali Alzahrani, Head of Journalism Department in King Abdulaziz University – Jeddah.

The second session, titled “Building Bridges between the Academic and Industry Environments”, will address several issues as well, including Collaborative Initiatives for Media Education Research; Industry-Academic Partnerships: A two-way exchange; Impact of Industry Contributions on Academic Research; Rethinking Research Methodologies for Digital Media Studies; and Interdisciplinary Approaches: and Integrating Media Studies with other Sciences.

The session will be moderated by Dr. Ahmed Al Jowdi from the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU), and will feature Prof. Jairo Lugo-Ocando-Dean of the College of Communication -Sharjah University; Dr. Wei Lu. Dean Professor - College Media and International Culture, Zhejiang University, China; Professor Charlie Beckett, Professor of Practice, Director of Polis and the Polis/LSE Journalism AI project in London School of Economics and Political Science; Prof. Hussein Amin, Professor of Journalism and Mass Communication at the American University in Cairo, President of the Kamal Adham Center for Television and Digital Journalism.