No. 5, Fall/Winter2000

Special Issue:
The Arab World

continued: 'Egypt in the Information Age' Debated at Cairo Festival
Report on the Sixth International Cairo Radio and Television Festival , July 11-15, 200
by Dalia Mabrouk
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The second panel discussion was titled "Internet and Television: Integration and Competition." This timely panel brought together an impressive selection of speakers who shape various aspects of Egyptian media. Undeniably, the Internet and information technology are now integral features of life. It is virtually impossible to find any field of work, or any everyday gadgetry, that does not have computer technology, in one form or another, as its backbone. New media is no different. The basis of this panel discussion was to take a critical look at the impact of this phenomenon on Arab media. As an area often slow to accept or adapt to change, the Middle East is clamoring to find its place in the new information society. Enthusiastically in some countries, begrudgingly in others, the Middle East has undergone much change in its media. Moderating this panel was Gawad Maraqa, president of the Union of Arab Producers.

"We are now in an age of cooperation between nations," Hisham El Sherif, chairman of the Internet Society and of Nile Online, told the audience, "and this cooperation could be either objective or subjective. More importantly, we are at the crossroads of an information revolution, and in order for Egypt to develop, we must actively pursue our goals." In the information age, he said, information is development, portrayed through services, technology and a skilled labor force. El Sherif then put forward a long list of IT goals that need to be met for Egypt to catch up, let alone be able enter the information age as an active participant.

For Egypt to keep up on the information highway, El Sherif stressed that "it is not enough to be a passive consumer; we must also play a decisive role in the sophisticated technology of today's world." Despite the negative and seemingly unattainable figures, El Sherif's tone was optimistic, and his prediction for Egypt's future is positive.

Ra'fat Radwan, head of the Information Decision and Support Center, described Egypt's development into the information age, saying that Egypt has had to work very hard to keep up with the international pace. Radwan distinguished the Internet from past human inventions in that unlike other inventions, this one deals exclusively with the human intellect instead of the body. He added that "the Internet is the tool of the future, and has fully become an intrinsic part of all aspects of our everyday life, whether private or professional." Today's global community, he said, is no longer inhibited by language limitations and knows no boundaries. Radwan cited predictions that by 2047, there would be four billion Internet users globally.

Nabil Osman, head of Egypt's State Information Service, discussed the political angle of the information revolution and man's ability to cope with the rapid advancement of development. Osman maintained that in the past two centuries, superiority was established through three consecutive phases. During the first phase, a nation's superiority was founded on their military might. This era ended with World War II. The second phase was founded on the economic might of a nation. Power was generated at a grassroots level and was based on the economic needs of the individual. The third and current phase is based on the premise of intellectual confrontation; hence the information revolution, which Osman considers to be a form of Western cultural imperialism. He stated that "the government's role in media is receding as a natural outcome of the evolution of the information age."

Hussein Amin, board member of ERTU and a professor of journalism and mass communication at the American University in Cairo, said that new media have gone through three phases that underscore the difference between traditional media and new media. Phase one consisted of an "initial apprehension or suspicion of this new media." Phase two comprised a "breaking down of barriers and a familiarity between the two forms of media." Phase three, which began in the 1990s, involved a reconciliation and working together of the two forms of media.

Amin said that although several newspapers in the Arab world have gone online, they have not modified their content to suit an "Internet model of journalism." However, a few forward-looking Arab newspapers, such as the Egyptian Al-Ahram, the Saudi Jazeera, and the Kuwaiti Al-Siyassah, have tried to make their online papers more interactive. An telltale sign of Arab progress into the information arena, according to Amin, is that prior to the 1990s, Arab media were obliged to give their information to foreign media to distribute at their discretion. With new media, information can be disseminated directly to Arab emigres throughout the western world and beyond via the Internet. Consequently, media practitioners will have to rethink the notion that the viewer is merely a passive recipient of news and not an active participant.

Media today cannot survive without new technology, said Amin, and hence all the recent mergers between IT and media corporations such as the deal between AOL and Time Warner. Closer to home, "collaboration between Arabsat and Nilesat has led to a new understanding of Arab national identity." An outcome of this cooperation has been a decisive improvement in the quality of programming, Amin noted; there are now 24-hour Arab news channels such as ANN and Al-Jazeera.

Hassan Hamed, head of Nilesat Thematic Channels, said that although he was in agreement with the other speakers in their opinions, he had nonetheless initially distrusted the Internet and accused it of "stealing minds," but that he's since rethought these impressions. Hamed remarked that before the onset of the information revolution and the Internet explosion, any problems or concerns of a particular country were confined to that country. Now, a problem in a small developing country in Africa, for example, becomes a topic of concern for the global community.

An interesting contrast drawn by Hamed was that in the old days of occupation, such as with the Roman occupation of Egypt, the invader would build roads for transport in the occupied territories. Now, Hamed said, we are no longer concerned with actual roads but the virtual ones that make up the world's information superhighway. He emphasized that "if Egypt does not want to be left far behind in the information revolution, she must immediately start building her own information superhighways."

Running concurrently with the panel discussions was an exhibition, which provided a meeting point for video, audio, lighting, computing, telecommunication, and multimedia companies from all over the world. One of the highlights of the exhibition was its close look at the latest digital technology applications for both radio and television. Much of the exhibit was concerned with the display of the latest in television and film communication technology. Twenty-nine local and international companies set up booths throughout the exhibition hall, among them Sony, JVC, Kemet, IBM and Fuji, displaying both hardware and state-of-the-art software, such as the latest in edit suites and effects software. Sony proudly showed off three of the latest DVCAM digital cameras, the only ones of their kind currently available in the Middle East.

Sony, in addition to the typical demonstrations, offered visitors a chance to test the equipment, with the help of the demonstrators. Sony also provided students and graduates of the Adham Center for Television Journalism with a course in the use of the latest digital camera technology, held a competition for the students, and presented the winner with a DVCAM digital camera.

Broadcasters also took part in the exhibition, including various regional satellite television channels, Nilesat, video production houses, radio stations, and Egyptian Media Production City. TBS