On Friday, 25 November 2022, a seminar entitled “The role of media and social networking sites in highlighting cultures” was held on the main stage in Darb Al-Saai, as part of the program of cultural seminars accompanying the events and celebrations, at which each of doctors spoke.

Whereas Mrs. Maryam Yassin Al-Hammadi, Director of Culture, Arts and Heritage Department, Ministry of Culture, Media Associate Dr. Abdullah Faraj, and Hassan Al-Mohammadi, managing editor of Al-Arab newspaper, participated in the seminar.

Mrs. Maryam Yassin Al-Hammadi addressed during her intervention the role of the Ministry of Culture in linking between culture and media, stressing the keenness of the Ministry to transmit culture beyond the limits of seminars, salons, elite cafes, or brief dialogues no more than tens in best cases , to broader and more influential spaces, namely: the horizontal space which is reached by  millions across the world, and vertical space  documenting the cultural events through the television to give those cultural moments a vibrant eternity.

Al Hammadi added that the Ministry of Culture supported the transfer of culture to media as memory is remained. The media worked hard in radio and television programs, YouTube, journalism, writing, authoring, printing and publishing. Activists moved in the fields of culture and worked on documentation through its accounts and worked with various organizations and institutions.

Al Hammadi noted the interrelated relation between culture and media, stressing that both media and social culture affect each other as media can affect the society and its prevailing culture, therefore there is a need to the media to protect the society and its culture through a front protecting and assisting the enhancement of its values and principles.

Mrs. Maryam Yassin Al-Hammadi said, culture   has a significant role in media where its accelerated and increasing development contributes to an interactive impact relationship. It is worth noting that the cultural diversity has led to the emergence of new media as a result of different cultural needs and the diversity of cultures that have contributed to the dissemination of ideas, multilingual and specialized channels.

Modern media had influenced ways of communicating and exchanging cultures between human beings. Initially, the media was written, such as newspapers and magazines it had a significant impact on societies, and then the emergence of modern and digital media, which had the greatest impact on the process of cultural communication.

She continued by saying that Social media had facilitated access to any kind of information anywhere and anytime, saving time, effort, and the cost of accessing it, thus intellectuals worked to invest it and open many cultural channels in YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and others.

Al-Hammadi asserted that the rapid development of the media had led to a decline in traditional cultures, the availability of books and information electronically resulted in a reduction in the number of people using dictionaries, magazines and bookshops, as well as in the promotion of the cultural economy, its access to targets and the recovery of the culture market.

During his intervention in the seminar, Dr. Abdullah Faraj said that culture and media are two sides of the same coin, and culture has its own sources and media has its own sources describing social media platforms with all its types as a modern media academy that has both pros and cons serving and destructing and we have to choose the road which we take while dealing with these means according to our human thoughts and goals.

Dr. Abdullah Faraj discussed the impact of social media on the Arabic language and the culture of society, explaining that the Arabic language has dialects even in the same region, and these dialects, for example do not negatively affect the Arabic language. He noted that the language of social media has become understood among all people, and that there is no worry about the Arabic language, especially when there are laws protecting it, such as the laws that preserve the Arabic language enacted by the State of Qatar.

Dr. Abdullah Faraj pointed out that we are living in a state of a cultural, scientific, and technical revolution that is extremely advanced. This calls for intellectuals to have their role on social media means in order to convey a wonderful and honorable image of the State of Qatar.

Managing editor of Al-Arab newspaper Hassan Al Mohammadi talked about the close connection between cultures and media in his intervention in the seminar, as culture cannot grow, evolve, or are transmitted from one generation to another without interacting with the social environment in the past centuries. For centuries, the cultural product whether songs, popular proverbs, poetry, and even traditional games and sports have been transferred from fathers to sons verbally. Al Mohammadi noted that the development of the media and the information revolution in the past two decades imposed new challenges and responsibilities on the media, most importantly spreading culture and preserving heritage.

He said: we cannot imagine culture and arts without tools and means that support its efforts, reveal its content, spread its ideas, and deliver its message to an audience who eagerly awaits it.

In addition, he pointed out that the role of media and spreading thoughtful culture and purposeful human creativity that stimulates and mobilizes the energies of society, refuting the destructive ideas, and confronts stray intellectual currents by transmitting the demeanor knowledge production.

Mr. Hassan Abdullah Al-Mohammadi concluded his intervention by saying that the development of technology contributed to a massive change in the media and affected it through the emergence of digital media and social media platforms, which contributed greatly to cultural promotion and its delivery to the faster and wider world.