“Your brother made my day!” — Shabina Khatri upon learning that my brother’s friends in school read Doha News. (via yassermasood)
[video]
“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)
[video]
“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.
[video]
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
[video]
[video]