"Your brother made my day!"
— Shabina Khatri upon learning that my brother’s friends in school read Doha News. (via yassermasood)
UNESCO interviewed me ahead of World Press Freedom Day about the biggest challenges facing media in the next few decades.
Here’s what I had to say (briefly).
Thoughts?
"The lack of breaking news and the lack of people being able to have a conversation (in the local media) are why Doha News has become so popular – it fills a void."
—
Shabina S. Khatri, co-founder and executive editor of Doha News, in an article by Doha Centre for Media Freedom’s Peter Townson entitled “Doha News and the growth of online media in Qatar.”
Khatri and Omar Chatriwala - the couple behind Doha News - were recently interviewed by DCMF about the growth of online media in Qatar.
In it, they share their views on why online media sources like Doha News have become so popular in recent years.
“We know there is not a lot of real time information shared by the traditional news sources here, and that is something you can get for better or for worse on social media,” says Chatriwala. “Being able to have your opinion heard and sharing information - I think that is leading the embrace of social media and making it grow so rapidly here – its news and views.”
The pair say that there isn’t any issue they won’t cover on Doha News, providing that they can check that the story is true.
However, Chatriwala says that this can often be a difficult task :
“We just wish that people (in Qatar) understood the way media works and that denial isn’t always the best way to go about things – transparency would help,” he says. “We aren’t going to cover it unless we can journalistically back it up with multiple sources, even if they are not necessarily official sources. If we can back it up with legitimate sources then that is when we will cover something.”
Doha News has nearly 26,000 followers on Facebook and more than 20,000 on Twitter.
What do you think about the media scene here in Qatar? Does social media tell you things traditional sources do not?
Credit: Photo courtesy of Joe Grimm
(via dohanews)
Where do you live?
- Haha, I do this too sometimes. Pure laziness.
- Person: Where do you live?
- Me: Doha
- Person: Where's that?
- Me (what I want to say): The host of the FIFA 2022 World Cup, the hosts of the Asian Games in 2006, they OWN the football team Barcelona, THEY OWN THEM - and now they own David Beckham, it's the richest country in the world, it has the highest obesity rate in the world, it has the highest CO2 emissions in the world, Janet Jackson is getting married here, Doha owns London, literally it owns everything there, e.g. Harrods, The Shard (Tallest building in Europe), Sainsburys, and many many more...
- Me (what I actually say): It's next to Dubai.
Doha News editor Shabina Khatri was one of the featured speakers at INET Qatar conference a week and a half ago. With the single-day program focusing on “The Rise of the Arab Information Society,” Shabina spoke on the role local media play in an open information society.
In the video above, Scheherazade Safla, a contributor to the local tech blog TFour.me, catches up with Shabina afterward and puts a few questions to her about online journalism in Qatar.
Other interviewees include Internet Society Qatar chairman Fadel al-Enazi and and ISOC public policy director Constance Bommelaer.
To see Shabina’s presentation, check out the full panel below - she comes in at around the 20 minute mark.
Videos from the rest of the event are also available on ISOC’s website.
Thoughts?
“I don’t want to hate being a girl”
Photo by Maged Tawfiles, used with permission.
See more photos of a protest against sexual harassment held in Cairo.
Driving down Al Luqta Street toward Slope Roundabout about a half hour ago, this Chevy/GMC Suburban was very much on fire!
Police urged cars off the road, and told us it was probably caused by an engine fault. Civil defence firefighters were on the scene in minutes.
It’s likely cleaned up by now, but if you got stuck in some unpleasant traffic, now you know why.
Credit: Photos by Omar Chatriwala
Berenstain Bears co-creator Jan Berenstain dies
Jan Berenstain, who with her husband Stan created the Berenstain Bears books that have charmed preschoolers and their parents for 50 years, has died. She was 88.
Mike Berenstain says his mother suffered a severe stroke on Thursday and died Friday without regaining consciousness. She was a longtime resident of Solebury in southeastern Pennsylvania.
The Berestains’ gentle stories of Mama Bear, Papa Bear, Brother Bear and Sister Bear address childhood subjects like coping with new siblings, summer camp and peer pressure.
Stan and Jan Berenstain, both Philadelphia natives, were 18 when they met on their first day at art school in 1941. Stan Berenstain died in 2005.
The first Berenstain Bears book, “The Big Honey Hunt,” was published in 1962. More than 300 titles have been released in 23 languages.
I love these books. Sad.
Part of my childhood has died
As an artist in Saudi Arabia, Manal AlDowayan has never had the privilege of government endowments or a robust art industry to support her.
“Our art scene is not funded by the government in the sense of, you don’t have museums, and galleries are all privately owned,” AlDowayan says. “Nobody is asking anybody to do this, but it’s just happening naturally.”
As a woman in the kingdom, she has witnessed cycles of discrimination and conservatism seeking to keep her gender out of the public sphere; some men in the kingdom now even find mentioning a wife’s or mother’s name publicly to be a source of shame.
But she’s also witnessed a public discourse on the role women should hold in society, with King Abdullah and other vocal members of society (herself included) championing the female cause.
That push and pull in society, as well as her own experiences growing up in the kingdom, have been a great source of inspiration for AlDowayan’s works. And it’s in that space that she seeks to rewrite the Saudi female narrative.
Although she says her artwork has never been censored in the kingdom, and she’s won the support of the local press, it’s still an uphill battle to change perceptions of who and what women should be in a modern Saudi society.
“There’s a push from different sides. Of course, there’s a stronger push against a lot of change. And change is very scary for a lot of people. But change will happen,” she says.
A solo exhibition of her works is on at Katara Galleries (Building 19) for another week, highlighting works she’s developed over the last decade.
Credit: Photos by Omar Chatriwala, artwork by Manal AlDowayan
The third Doha Taste and Fun Festival opened to the public at the Doha Exhibition Center yesterday evening, offering trimmed-down portions of food from restaurants and hotels across Qatar for prices between 5-15 QAR.
The family-friendly food festival runs through February 11, opening at 12pm today and Saturday, and starting an hour later at 1pm on Friday.
Festivities draw to a close nightly at 10:30pm, and include cooking demonstrations at the Japanese Embassy booth, a play area for kids, and a stage that will feature musical performances.
Cuisines on offer range from Indian, Greek, Mexican, American and Turkish. Most major hotels in Doha are participating, featuring bite-size portions from their high-end restaurants. And there’s even a few restaurants making the trek from the Industrial Area.
Have you been, or are you going? What do you think of this third round?
Credit: Photos by Omar Chatriwala
