Political participation in its “extreme” Middle Eastern context | PAVE

Third session of the "Political participation in its “extreme” Middle Eastern context" webinar, organised by the FMSH and Ifpo for the PAVE project. Interventions by Hassan Abbas and Ayman Mhanna

The Arab Spring revolutions ... Has the alternative media missed an opportunity that is difficult to repeat?

The Arab Spring revolutions and the climates they generated provided a tremendous opportunity for the emergence and spread of an alternative media to traditional media that could not express the spirit of change. Indeed, many experiences emerged that succeeded in introducing many basic positive things to the media scene in the Arabic-speaking region. But was the opportunity used properly? Or could it have been better? This intervention assumes that the opportunity could have been used better, and discusses this hypothesis by trying to answer several questions: What are the main failures that alternative media have fallen into? Has it turned into a media arm for a group of society? What are the objective factors that played against this type of media?

Hassan Abbas, Co-Editor in Chief of www.raseef22.com

The interaction of Arab youth with media communication and the formation of public opinion

This lecture is based on field studies conducted by the Samir Kassir Foundation in Lebanon, Iraq, Tunisia and Morocco.

Ayman Mhanna, Executive Director, Samir Kassir Foundation www.skeyesmedia.org