It is already a proven fact that a focused strategy to develop the sporting sector has created more employment opportunities and that such activities can be integrated within business lines. The same approach can work in the field of media, by twinning it with state-of-the-art technology and develop it into an integral part of the economy.
The success of such approaches comes under specific conditions, most notably the availability of capital and a commitment to professionalism that will offer quality services attracting investors and consumers alike. This is what distinguishes media activity in developed economies, and contrary to the situation in most developing countries that lack such a vital link.
Recently, the Dubai Press Club, which has a fine track record in the development of Arab media professionals, has gone on record in saying the Arab media lacks qualified professionals, which explains why many activities within the industry has become unfeasible.
This is the concern the Press Club has addressed by launching a project targetted at the media and allied sectors in collaboration with Mohammad Bin Rashid School for Communication at the American University in Dubai. Mona Al Merri, Secretary-General of the Arab Journalism Award, said this experience will include other countries in the region.
Ali Jaber, dean of the school, said the annual operating expenses of visual media in the region was valued at $7 billion (Dh25.7 billion) with 900,000 employees. But only 10 per cent of this are academically qualified - a fact that greatly reduces the professionalism standards expected. This affects the feasibility of Arab media organisations as characterised by poor revenues. Of course, there are exceptions as in the case of profitable and extremely professional privately owned media institutions.
The Dubai Press Club has decided to publish a book written by previous winners of the Arab Journalism Award, and which could be extended to media institutions and colleges. This approach will be immediately implemented, according to Mona Bu Samra, director of the award.
Since the project applies to both the media and academic field, the private sector, which has been active in both aspects, can contribute significantly by developing it further.
Best of technology
The private sector can also contribute to raising professionalism benchmarks in the Arab media across all branches, thus transforming media institutions into projects that integrate the best of technology into business operations. They can thus emerge an effective partner in the sector’s development and in the recruitment of manpower, thus increasing its share of the non-oil economy.
Definitely, this is not going to be easy and requires huge investments and immense efforts. This is because the global media has started to deploy multilingual capabilities, including in the Arabic language, the fourth most popular language in the world. However, a start is a must and the right one has comes from the Dubai Press Club, which is looking to expand its role in raising professionalism in Arab media.
Such an approach could also contribute to increasing the competitiveness in the sector, which is facing strong competition from the Arabic language operations of foreign-owned media outlets. The latter, in addition to their political and cultural impact, are achieving significant revenues thanks to their high professionalism which lands them handsome advertising contracts.
Sure, integrating all the components will need some time to be implemented. But merging media work with professionalism and acute business sense reflects an approach that would contribute to making a paradigm shift for Arab media, which cannot keep pace with its global counterparts without it.
Dr Mohammad Al Asoomi is a UAE economic expert and specialist in economic and social development in the UAE and the GCC countries.