Arab Media Forum launches 'Digital Studio' initiative

Dubai Press Club, organisers of the Arab Media Forum, yesterday announced the launch of the "Digital Studio" initiative at the 12th Arab Media Forum (AMF), running from 14th to 15th May, in participation of a multitude of young media persons. Managers of key sessions at the "Digital Studio" will provide a platform of interaction for social media audience and sessions' speakers who will touch on important issues and debatable topics staged on social media. Moderating discussions at the "Digital Studio", for the first time, will be Hamed bin Karam from Dubai Media Incorporated (DMI), Mahira Abdulaziz from Al Arabiya Channel and TV anchor Badr Alzidane. The initiative aims to increase interaction and enrich dialogue amongst social media users at regional and international levels, giving the chance to interested but unable to attend to engage in discussions digitally; thus, reaching a greater number of audience participating and interacting live at this year's Forum, themed "Arab Media: Transitional Phase...Transitional Media". This comes following the success of the "Digital Reporter" initiative launched for the first time at the 11th edition of the 2012 Arab Media Forum, where live sessions were broadcast on Dubai Press Club Official YouTube Channel; hence, enabling more than 40,000 viewers to follow-up the event. Moreover, the Arab Media Forum' and its hash tag #AMF' remained the top trending topics on Twitter across the UAE and the region during the two-day event last year. Additionally, the hash tag #AMF', which generated 10,432 tweets over two days, reached an audience of more than 11 million users. Live Twitter coverage of the sessions and workshops enabled non-attendants to follow the proceedings in real time.