The Culture Dispatch: DEBATE: Social Media is Good for Journalism

Social media’s exponential growth in the past decade has made it an integral part of our daily lives, and in turn has tremendously expanded the scope of content exchange and dissemination across the world.

Platforms like Instagram or Twitter have emerged as key sources of news for the public at large and are an important tool for journalists to reach wider audiences and boost interaction. But has this been damaging to the journalistic profession?

Some might argue that the widespread availability of information online makes it more and more difficult to discern a professional journalist’s work, bound by integrity and ethics, from an influencer’s partisan opinions. Social media has enabled ordinary citizens to produce their own news content and has become an instrumental conduit for the telling of diverse stories from our own backyards to the most remote parts of the world. Has the race for content put a dent in the Journalist’s Creed? Is social media good for journalism?

FOR THE MOTION

Ahmed Shihab Eldin
Emmy nominated former Senior Presenter AJ+ 

Amena Bakr
Deputy Bureau Chief & Chief OPEC Correspondent

MODERATOR

Hadley Gamble
CNBC News Anchor & International Correspondent

AGAINST THE MOTION

Faisal J. Abbas
Editor in Chief of Arab News

Julien Hawari
CEO – Special Edition

Special thanks to all involved and to those at the club who made this debut debate possible.