Event
Shifting Powers: Opportunities and Challenge for the Media
ABOUT 2000 personalities around the world gathered at the World Conference Center Bonn, Germany on the 27th and 28th May 2019 for Global Media Forum 2019. There were professionals, experts, professors, media practitioners, digital engineers, UN representatives, EU representatives, human right activists, freedom of expression advocates, animators, scientists, webmasters, writers, cartoonists, consultants, gender activists, musicians, political analysts, etc. The event was organised by Deutsche Welle Media Company (DW).
This three-day annual event consisted of 6 plenary sessions as well as 32 side events involving 200 speakers from around the world. With "Shifting Powers" as the theme, it focused on the impact of shifting power structures on the international media landscape, and evaluated opportunities and challenges arising from digitization. The impact of the digital era of information, particularly the social media had split the views of participants as well as speakers. Many raised concerns about the influence of social media which has created negative impacts to the traditional media industry. However, some argued that we should welcome the digital technology in positive ways, as mentioned by keynote speaker, Jaron Lanier, a Computer Scientist. Agreeing with that, however, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier during an opening speech stressed that since social media is an open platform, every account holder has to have a clear responsibility. Still, the question mark remains on what mechanism should be used to control it? Does this also mean curbing the freedom of expression of the account holders? Facebook representatives informed the conference that the giant social media company had removed thousands of anonymous accounts on daily basis, based on reports from the public.
Meanwhile, side events continued with broader topics of media, freedom and technology which affect every corners of the world.
Other sessions had also taken place simultaneously in small rooms with topics like “Is The Arab Spring Walking Up Again?”, “How Can The Africa Journalists Shape Up Their Image, Film And Media Development”, “Shifting Power To The Younger Generations”, “Can AI Be Truly Creative” and “Fake News - The Science Behind False Information”. Other topics include Shifting powers and democratic responsibility, social media killing critical media landscape, defending online media spaces, digital revolution, adapting media business to new realities and silencing digital expression in the name of security
Global Media Forum 2019 by DW is a perfect event to exchange views, debates, gather information, explore latest technologies as well as do networking.