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As the United Arab Emirates accelerates its diversification distant from oil, media, culture and exertion are emerging as a strategical frontier. That ambition was connected show earlier this period erstwhile Abu Dhabi hosted the BRIDGE Summit betwixt December 8 and 10, positioning it arsenic the “largest debut media lawsuit successful the world”.
Held by the backstage BRIDGE Alliance, but nether the aegis of the Government of the UAE, the three-day acme brought unneurotic voices from journalism, cinema, music, technology and communications to deliberate connected issues ranging from misinformation and spot deficits to the increasing power of artificial quality connected planetary media ecosystems.
“We realised there was nary Davos for media,” said H.E. Dr. Jamal Mohammed Obaid Al Kaabi, Director-General, UAE National Media Office and Vice-Chairman, BRIDGE Alliance, speaking to The Hindu on the sidelines of the event. “There are planetary platforms for economics, energy, defence and technology, but media — contempt facing akin challenges everyplace — did not person a abstraction wherever the satellite could travel unneurotic and talk.”
Dr. Al Kaabi said the thought for BRIDGE emerged from the increasing fragmentation of media conversations adjacent arsenic the pressures confronting the assemblage person go progressively shared. “Misinformation is disturbing societies, fact-checking has go a regular struggle, and radical are unsure wherever the information lies,” helium said. “These are not problems of 1 state oregon 1 newsroom.”
What began arsenic a summit, however, soon expanded successful ambition. “We realised content contiguous is not lone journalism,” Dr. Al Kaabi said. “It is film, music, gaming, storytelling across platforms. If you privation to speech earnestly astir the aboriginal of media, you cannot bounds that speech to newsrooms alone.”
That realisation led to the instauration of BRIDGE Alliance as a institution alternatively than a authorities department. “From time one, we were clear this should not relation arsenic a authorities initiative,” helium said. “It is simply a level for the world’s media — a location for media. People should consciousness they tin measurement in, participate and belong.”
Abu Dhabi volition stay the imperishable location of the yearly summit, but BRIDGE volition besides big pop-up engagements crossed regions including the U.S., Europe, Asia and Africa. The idea, Dr. Al Kaabi said, is to guarantee continuity. “Challenges don’t disappear due to the fact that you hosted a conference. The conversation has to continue done the year.”
The governance of BRIDGE reflects this planetary ambition. Its committee includes Princess Lamia Al Saud (a subordinate of the Saudi royal household and a UN ambassador focusing connected women’s empowerment), Jessica Sibley (CEO, Time), Macky Sall (former President, Senegal) and Richard Attias (former Executive Producer, World Economic Forum). “Media contiguous cannot beryllium shaped by 1 assemblage oregon 1 geography,” Dr. Al Kaabi said. “We wanted radical who recognize culture, power, storytelling and planetary dialog from antithetic perspectives.”
Personalities from the movie satellite specified as Idris Elba and Priyanka Chopra, Reddit co-founder and spouse of tennis subordinate Serena Williams, Alexis Ohanian, Time magazine’s Executive Editor Nikhil Kumar, and respective executives from platforms specified arsenic Meta and LinkedIn participated at the event. Conspicuously absent, however, were planetary media brands specified arsenic the BBC, The New York Times, The Hindu and Al Jazeera — the Qatar-based broadcaster that was astatine the centre of past determination diplomatic tensions during the 2017 Gulf crisis, adjacent though ties betwixt the UAE and Qatar person since been restored.
Beyond convening media professionals, BRIDGE besides reflects a deeper ambition: reclaiming ownership implicit narratives and expanding the UAE’s taste influence. For decades, West Asia has mostly been a user of planetary media. Dr. Al Kaabi said, “We each grew up with the aforesaid superheroes and the aforesaid stories,” helium said. “But each civilization has its ain heroes, its ain narratives. The occupation has ne'er been a deficiency of stories — it has been a deficiency of systems that assistance those stories travel.”
By creating an ecosystem that links creators, financiers, technologists and platforms, BRIDGE aims to alteration storytelling from the portion — not simply arsenic filming locations, but as centres of communicative production. That, Dr. Al Kaabi acknowledged, besides feeds into the UAE’s soft-power strategy. “When radical travel here, interact, make and spell backmost with experiences, that shapes however countries are perceived,” helium said.
A recurring taxable astatine the acme was the hostility betwixt planetary media flows and profoundly rooted taste identities, peculiarly successful the property of artificial intelligence. Dr. Al Kaabi emphasised the request to anchor technological alteration successful morals and values. “If values are profoundly rooted, exertion — nevertheless precocious — tin beryllium guided,” helium said, adding that BRIDGE indispensable besides span generational divides arsenic younger creators prosecute with exertion successful fundamentally different ways.
Beyond culture, BRIDGE besides aligns with the UAE’s economical recalibration. “Media is not conscionable civilization — it is an economy,” Dr. Al Kaabi said, noting that portion the UAE ranks highly connected planetary competitiveness indices, the media sector remains an country with country to grow. For him, the task is besides personal. Trained arsenic a doc and having worked extensively successful wellness communication, helium said the COVID-19 pandemic underscored the powerfulness of connection successful shaping spot and behaviour.
“Media connects societies,” helium said. “BRIDGE is thing we are gathering unneurotic — and past volition determine what it becomes.”
(The writer was successful Abu Dhabi astatine the invitation of BRIDGE Alliance)
