Gaza, 29/04/2017--- In cooperation with Social Media Café, Social Media Club, Media Youth Center, Palestinian Club for Social Media, and Gaza Online Network, Press House-Palestine implemented its annual conference entitled " The role of Social Media Tools in Uniting the Palestinian Speech", on the occasion of the International Day of Press, which issues on 3rd May.
Tens of male and female journalists and media activists, as well as university lecturers attended the conference.
Belal Jadallah, Chairman of Press House, welcomed the attendees and guests, showing that this conference came on the occasion of the International Day of Press, aiming at getting the audience briefed with freedom of expression violations and reminding them of the brave journalists who made sacrifices for providing people with news.
Jadallah thanked all people who contributed to conference success, and everyone who's working on uniting efforts especially in media which is severely in need for union.
Jadallah said; " All of you are aware of the difficult situation we are passing by, we are upon a painful reality that we cannot overcome but by union. Without a real national union based on real cooperation and acceptance, nothing could succeed."
Jadallah asserted that nobody could deny the role of media especially social media tools in affecting the general opinion and daily issues, noting that the ethical and professional duty forces us to follow a mutual and clear strategy with united media speech away from hurting, accusing, and talking against each other, with one language that keeps human privacy through making sure of the written massages and news.
He also explained that four worksheets will be presented during the conference for different social media networks, in presence of big number of tweeters. " Technical information and essential recommendations will be spread, trying as much as possible to achieve them." He added.
In his turn, the Head of Governmental Media Office Salama Maa'rouf, thanked Press House for holding the conference, hoping that it will get recommendations that find the gap in the Palestinian speech on social media and set solutions for the users.
Ma'rouf added;" we'll take the recommendations of the conference and try to implement it with the support of the governmental media office."
He confirmed that the office will provide all required possibilities to support this conference and its recommendation for the interest of the Palestinian speech union.
Ma'rouf thanked all participants in the conference who present worksheets and recommendations for the objective of the conference.
In his turn, the vise president Dr.Tahseen Al-Astal stressed on the importance of giving a room for the social media activists to express their opinions without prior conditions, as these conditions will be a barrier against achieving the goals.
Al-Astal confirmed the importance of holding such a conference within the situations the Palestinian nation is living, and the great role that social media plays.
He said;" We as a journalist syndicate, defend for the journalists and freedom of expression and never accept any pressure on the journalists whatever it is.
Rabab Al-Haj, media activist, talked about the importance of social media for individuals and its great influence on the world and Arab nation.
She noted that it's important that social media activists must be aware when publishing updates and stories.
The first session:-
The first session was led by the journalist Nedaa Mdoukh, where Ali Bkheet, Head of Social Media Club, presented a sheet on politicians and decision makers role in uniting the Palestinian speech on social media as it's a connecting key between them and their society.
Bkheet asked to assign a team of experts of different field ( social, psychological, and political) to admin their pages.
He stressed on the importance of paying attention to what's published by the Palestinians as it's a mirror reflecting what's going on in the society, and uniting the speech on social media in regards with the national topics.
Bkheet also called on the importance of uniting the efforts of the youth groups by the politicians and decision makers as they have a vital experience in the field.
The coordinator for the Social Media Café' Soltan Nasser, presented a sheet on developing the Palestinian speech on social media for the interest of the Palestinian cause.
Nasser added that the effectiveness of social media is not limited by interacting options, rather it allows to exchange communication between sender and receiver. He also said that social media made a turning point in the multimedia communication.
" These tools become effective channels that provides people with golden opportunities that they never got before to express their opinions and promote their cause." He added
Nasser Added;" The big space left by social media for the Palestinians forces us to unite our speech in order to guarantee achieving national goals in a way that we could get the Arab and international support which passively affect the Palestinians wherever they go."
He also explained that the Palestinian cause has witnessed difficult incidents due to the absence of the united Palestinian speech on the traditional and social media, which negatively affected the Palestinian case situation.
Nasser called to unite the speech on the social media in the purpose of enhancing the Palestinian cause situation and facing the Israeli propaganda as well as avoiding incitement at all levels.
The second session
During the second session was led by Safaa Al-Habeel, Khaled Safy, social media trainer and advisor and Media Youth Center Representative, presented a sheet on " how to create campaigns and analyze its impact on the attitudes.
Safy asserted that social media networks play a great role in providing information, and have become the focus for a big number of people. They also can get the sympathy of the abroad opinion through exchanging opinions about the daily updates.
He explained that 35% of the Palestinian inhabitants use social media, where 2 million are using these tools in Gaza and the West Bank. Regarding the motives of using them were as follows: connecting with friends 82%, following news and updates 75%.
Safy confirmed that the Palestinian youth greatly count on the social media tools and follow news and upadates, trying to participate in public opinion creation, although a third of users think that these tools increase problems.
He followed;" The youth groups previously volunteered to participate in campaigns that support the Palestinian cause, where these campaigns shed the light on effective points. The room to make use of these groups is still available at the moment.
He noted that the different patterns of twitters are not only a norm created by activists for having fun, but it's an comprehensive plan that aims at increasing the awareness toward a specific cause, in a purpose of making a positive change by biggest number of people.
Safy added that measuring the impact of the campaigns on the social media indicates effective results, which can change the attitudes of the public opinion towards the issues, and cooperate with the supporters of the campaign to easily know their places.
Mahmoud Al-Zant, Head of Gaza online, presented a sheet on " Empowering the role of media groups in social media and invest them to unite the Palestinian speech".
He confirmed that there are three kinds of media groups; youth groups of civil organizations, youth group of political movements, and self-employed groups.
Al-Zant presented the most essential challenges that the media youth group faces on social media which are as follows:-
The absence of organizations' role in supporting such youth groups.
Limits on freedoms at the local level.
Some activists are imposed to abuse by the security men in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
The lack of modern possibilities to develop the capacities of youth.
Poor internet services.
Lack of internet in the far places.
Electricity crisis.
Recommendations:
- Setting a comprehensive media strategy that aims at shedding the light on the important societal issues, and activating youth participation in the societal and national issues on the social media networks through facilitating direct connection between the officers and decision makers to be lobby groups for following the important issues.
- Creating close and open pages and groups that present various information about the social, political, cultural and other issues in the society, in order to support and advocate for the Palestinian societal issues as social media outlets are most used by youth.
- Increasing the interest in the societal issues on the social media according to quality and quantity and using various methods in presenting them, where various subjects must attract the users for effective participation.
-Promoting coordination between the youth groups and social media activists to guarantee efforts' unity and invest it.
Improving coordination by the official bodies with the social media young activists as they have a great influence on the content.
- Developing the skills and knowledge of the social media youth in uniting the societal and political terms.
- Establishing Palestinian places to develop the capacities of social media activist.
- Improving the civil sector role in presenting capacity building programs and knowedge development.
- Developing the capacities of the youth in creating content in English for better communication with the abroad.
- Providing Law protection to face the violation and security abuse in Palestine against the Israeli violation.
- Improving cooperation at Arab and international level in relevance with the subject.
- widening the networks used in campaigns and activities on social media networks to access new groups locally and internationally.
- The importance of paying attention by the decision makers and politicians to social media networks in dealing with the political and social issues.
- Assigning a team of experts of social, psychology and social media to admin their pages for achieving goals.
- Paying attention to people's stories on social media and considering it as a mirror that reflects what's going on in society.
- Uniting the Palestinian speech on social media outlets especially in regards with the national issues.
- Uniting the efforts of the youth groups and working with them by the opinion leaders as they have an experience in the field.
- Making use of the big Palestinian participation on social media to advocate for our issues and talk to the international community with multi languages.
- Building a media strategy that espouses the national media speech, along with " a crisis management" team to face the Israeli propaganda.
- Developing the media speech that supports the higher national interests.
-Training the local journalists on refuting the Israeli propaganda, psychological war and rumors.
- Calling on the universities, institutions and media colleges to develop the study plans for Palestinian cause promotion and psychological war.
- Providing training projects for media graduates and social media activists in regards with the media message creation mechanisms and creating an appropriate content for the audience.
- Never using the shocking photos and videos to get sympathy especially on a network that gets different nationalities and religions continuously.
- Attracting the near Arab organizations through improving the system of speech and not interfering in their internal affairs.
- Enhancing the positive and societal issues on social media, and getting away from political conflict.
- Uniting the content of the media message based on the reality of the general situation.
- Providing tweeters a good room to express their opinions and considering social media as a five authority that has a big influence on the audience.
- Providing a fair room for the campaigns regarding societal issues on social media.
- Enriching the Arab content with an effective Palestinian content through effective media campaigns.
- Enhancing cooperation between the official media organizations and tweeters and social media activists when launching unity campaigns.
At the end of the conference, Press House awarded the participating social media networks souvenirs for their participation and contribution in the conference success.
