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In his 1995 book, Being Digital,Nicholas Negroponte predicted thatin the future, online news would givereaders the ability to choose only thetopics theyre interested in. The Daily

Me, as Negroponte called it, worried manyguardians of traditional journalism, but hissuggestion that seemed both cutting-edge andalmost impossible fteen years ago, is nowcoming true.

More and more websites are offeringreaders a degree of personalisation on the

front pages of their sites not only that,but the role of journalists as the gatekeeperof content is threatened by not just newtechnology and competitors, but by the veryaudience they serve.

Armed with web publishing tools, constantonline connectivity and increasinglypowerful mobile devices, the onlineaudience is becoming an active participantin the creation and dissemination of onlinecontent. This content, however, is not onlytext-based, we are seeing an increasingnumber of contributions of audio, video andphotographs.

In this issue, Variety Arabia looks at veplayers who are shaping the digital contentin the Arab world. In choosing them, ourtwo rules were that they must have a strongconnection to the region including beingbased here and that we are measuring theirinuence today, rather than historically.

Over the next pages well look into theregions content-shapers, people that youhave probably seen around the media-sphere at times, or have heard about theiraccomplishments in a variety of elds aswell as others who you might just be hearingabout for the rst time. We must note, though,that choosing content-shapers to proledepended on their reach and inuence, nottheir nationality. Whilst we have tried tokeep the list as diverse as possible, three ofour content-shapers are actually Egyptian there are 80 million Egyptian out there, sowe couldnt help it! Ok, without further ado,Variety Arabias online content-shapers are:

Sultan Al Qassemi has become a twitter

star by broadcasting Arab media coverageof the Arab Spring revolutions; his quicktranslation of Arab language news intoEnglish has won him a global audience. Whatis interesting, though, is that some of the

journalists who were trying to follow the fast-moving events in the region began retweetingAl Qassemi's efforts, causing many others tofollow.

At only 23-years old, MohamedNanabhay is the head of Online at Al JazeeraEnglish. During the Arab revolutions of 2011

he led the team that produced Al Jazeera'sacclaimed online coverage of the Arabuprising. He won numerous awards in theprocess, including best coverage of a newsevent at the Online News Association annualawards.

Reem Al-Masri is one of the people behindthe establishment of 7iber.com, Jordans mostpopular website for alternative news andanalysis. Apart from discussing controversialsubjects and opening the door to fruitfuldiscussion, 7iber is creating a quite a stir inthe Jordanian media, by publishing contentthat isnt published by any other website ornewspaper.

Hossam El-Sokkari, formally head ofBBC Arabic and now the Head of Audience,Yahoo! Middle East, is a strong believer inthe need to develop a stronger tie betweenmedia and community channels. He workswith various Yahoo! teams to build a portfoliothat is stronger, and richer in content.

While working at the BBC, El-Sokkaricreated media offerings that included user-generated content as an integral part of BBCArabic programming. His show, NoqtatHewar, has developed over the years into amultimedia interactive programme, and hasbecome a model that has been adopted inother parts of the BBC.

Abe Nage, the online business manager atMBC Group, is the person responsible forthe groups digital products including MBC.net, Shahid.net, Actionha and MBC3.net, inaddition to mobile applications, services, anddigital content syndication.

Whos shaping digital content in the

Middle East?

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As Variety Arabia hits thestands, it's very likely that@SultanAlQassemi willhave over 100,000 Twitterfollowers.

Meet Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi, popularindependent Arab commentator and shaper

of online content in the region. Relativelynew to the Twitterverse he rst tweetedand blogged in 2009 Al Qassemi saysthat he has adapted with ease.

A blogger whose words and opinions areoft quoted across the region, Al Qassemi,unlike many armchair commentators, isoften at the scene of the action, but heinsists he does maintain objectivity.

I rarely include opinions in my tweetsbecause I don't feel I have the ability topass judgment on an issue a few secondsor minutes after the event, he says.

He believes that the goal and agendaof the content he broadcasts is to spreadawareness about the issues that are rarelyhighlighted in the Gulf media. He speaksabout tribalism, the Muslim Brotherhoodwhose senior leaders he met during a recentvisit to Egypt, and from where he did this

interview the role of public intellectuals,and the rights of minorities in the region.

His followers include journalists,politicians, and people with an interest inthe Middle East. As my focus has shiftedmostly to Egypt and then Saudi Arabia,two largely inuential countries in theregion, I have gained and lost followers,which is expected, he points out.

A quick scan of his followers showanother strong segment young Arabswho wish to access news and analysis thatare neither tainted by Western interests or

Arab biases.

Al Qassemi has, by design or otherwise,become one of the alternative voices to thetraditional Arab media.

Unfortunately, Arab media for the mostpart has not adapted to social media andthe opportunities and threats it offers.No regional paper that I know of has ablogging section, for instance. The adsare either intrusive or unimaginative. Iexpect this decade to be decisive for oldArabic media outlets; either they adapt orthey will see their market share dwindle.Either way, many of the media players inthe region will not survive the end of thisdecade, Al Qassemi says.

When speaking of delivering newswithout bias or a thinly-veiled agenda,he says: It is expected that when oneis covering monumental and emotional

TWEETING FOR CHANGE

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events such as the Arab uprisings that journalists personal feelings may play apart. The role of the media outlet editorialboard is to make sure that these emotionsonly nd their way into the Op Ed pagesand not the news pages, he adds.

I am against barring media personnelfrom having their own social mediapresence; they should be able to expresstheir feelings on third party outlets so longas they maintain objectivity in the paper,radio channel or TV station. Obviously,Al Qassemi is derisive of censorship.

After all, isn't user-generated contentcoupled with a net-savvy youngergeneration neutralising censorship allacross the world?

Against all these odds the creation of

content continues.Al Qassemi goes on to explain: The

Arab regimes still think they can censorwebsites; this is expected from a regionwhere the leaders are disconnected fromtheir populations. There are dozens of waysto circumvent censorship whether throughproxies or mirroring sites. I also do my bitand email articles to people in Arab stateswhere certain websites are censored. I

don't see this changing until these regimesthemselves change, he says.

Some countries have a link on censoredwebsites that allow users to request theunblocking of that website. I have nevercome across an instance where that wasdone, but I do know of many where thereport offending website option was

immediately attended to. Sadly, in someArab states, reform in all its shapes issimply unattainable.

Al Qassemi notes that when you are avoice to contend with, it's not just youropinions that are subject to analysis, butalso the content you endorse, by way ofretweets, sharing links or linking to blogs.So how does he manage to separate thechaff from the grain?

I have become savvy in scanningarticles before posting them, for contentand quality, he says.

I have pre-dened elements such as thesource, the author, the publishing outletand if the person who wrote the piecesought third party commentary and fromwhom. I spend several hours a day reading

about Egypt, which is the country I aminterested in most, so I am aware of all themajor writers and commentators on thatcountry whether Egyptian or foreign. Thismakes it easier for me to identify goodpieces,Al Qassemi concludes.

What intrigues us most about this 34-year-old Emirati is the proclivity withwhich he tweets, and that he manages afull night's sleep.

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System access; the ability to own and maintain onesidentity while participating in a Web

Social Media as a Need?

Humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow believed that people are motivated by the urge to satisfy needs ranging from basicsurvival to self-fullment, and that they dont fullll the higher-level needs until the lower level ones are satised.

Amy Jo Kims book, Community Building on the Web, uses Maslows hierarchy to clarify the goals and needs of onlinecommunity participants.

Food, clothing, shelter, healthPhysiological

Online CommunitiesOfine (Maslow)

Source: Amy Jo Kim s Community Building on the Web (Peachpit, 2000)

Ofine (Maslow)

Protection from hacking and personal attacks; the

sense of having a level playing eld; ability tomaintain varying levels of privacy

Protection from crimes and war; the sense of living

in a fair and just society

Security & Safety

Belonging to the community as a whole, and tosubgroups within the community

The ability to give and receive love; the feeling ofbelonging to a group

Social

The ability to contribute to the community, and berecognised for those contributions

Self-Esteem/ Self-respect; the ability to earn therespect of others and contribute to society

Self-Esteem

The ability to take on a community role that developskills and opens up new opportunities

The ability to develop skills and fulll onespotential

Self-Actualisation

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