The Qatari Media Centre of the Ministry of Culture held a panel discussion under the theme of leveraging the social media for encouraging the reading habit within the centre's participation in the 2nd edition of the Qatar University (QU) Book Fair, alongside a host of researchers, academics, and media professionals.
Members of the QU's teaching staff the writer Dr Khalifa al-Hazaa, Dr Asma Hussein Malkawi and the media professional Amal Arab also participated in the discussion.
Moderated by the media professional Buthaina Abdul Jalil, the panel highlighted the role played by social media platforms in encouraging the reading habit, ways to take advantage of the potential offered by these platforms in consolidating the reading habit as a practice for the community.
In remarks, Dr Malkawi echoed the adverse effect of social media platforms that virtually kept the public away from reading, based on numerous studies and research conducted in this field, pointing out that the digital space and the potential it offers could be active and positive in the community, such as encouraging the individuals to read.
For his part, Dr al-Hazaa tackled the cultural and literal contents of digital platforms and their impact on the community, especially that there are myriad cultural and literal platforms that have been omnipresent in the community. He talked about the cultural and literal digital platforms funded by sober institutions.
For her part, media professional Amal Arab talked about the potential offered by social media platforms and how they contribute to spreading numerous knowledge, chiefly the linguistic ones, noting her experience in presenting the linguistic material more expeditiously on social media platforms, along with the extend of public reaction to them.
