The panel discussion, which brought together a group of academic experts and media practitioners, was moderated by Prof. Dr. Ashraf Galal, Professor at the Department of Radio and Television at the Faculty of Mass Communication, Cairo University,
who in turn welcomed the guests of the workshop from the professional and academic practitioners, pointing out that influencers have become the field of research in media faculties as a media phenomenon. The biggest alternative of all at present, especially the shift in the public’s divergence from following traditional media, and the presence of the media of social media platforms to the forefront of the masses’ attention.
In his speech, Prof. Dr. Hassan Imad Makkawi, a professor at the Department of Radio and Television and a speaker at the panel discussion, said that the media in the era of metaverse transformations imposed on the state authorities the necessity of making information and its sources available to media professionals and providing them with information and knowledge, indicating that the Egyptian local media is now suffering in the context of freedom of opinion, expression and the media. , especially the media owned by the Egyptian state, where the state media suffers from a state of decline; This is due to the presence of more than one entity that manages this media for the state, as well as the private media suffering from a state of lack of diversity and distinction for the institutions and businessmen who run it, and it contributed to resorting to the media of social media platforms, and the influencers became the ones who lead the digital media environment and were able to pull the rug from the media , as he put it.
In her turn, Prof. Dr. Heba Al-Semary, Dean of the Faculty of Mass Communication at Al-Nahda University, gave a presentation entitled "Influencers in Social Media... Limits of Influence", noting that influencers have become the talk of the world every year, as this term has been transformed into influencers in the field of social media platforms. Among them are the influencers in the field of education for the deaf and dumb and in the field of employment as positive models for the influencers on the social media platforms, noting at the same time that there are bad models.
El Semary indicated that the goals of following influencers are their influence in simple language in their media discourse, as well as their abilities in the field of marketing, where they were able to discuss various issues and respond to citizens and their ability to build trust between them and the public and the public`s consideration of them. In her concluding speech, Al-Semari recommended the need for public awareness of trust factors, verification of the content circulating through social media platforms for influencers, and the distinction between good and bad content for them.
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During her speech at the panel discussion, Dr. Heba Shaheen, Dean of the Faculty of Mass Communication, Ain Shams, said that the phenomenon of influencers is no longer related to media only, but has also affected the field of marketing, politics, communication, psychology and sociology. The influence of the media was not vertical, as states and presidents own it and direct information and influence the public from top to bottom, but today we are facing a reverse media in which communication comes from the bottom up.
The Dean of Ain Shams University recommended that it is necessary for the state to search for professional content makers, and to invest in them by providing them with technological and material capabilities. To counter influencers who provide spam content.
For his part, Dr. Hassan Ali, Professor of Radio and Television and Head of the Media Department at Minia and Suez University, said that scientific research in Egypt deals with the phenomenon of influencers through outdated theories, as he put it, and is no longer valid to be applied to the media. The traditional, as well as its application to the new, so researchers are in dire need of new theories that keep pace with this phenomenon and reconsideration of these phenomena with new visions; In order for us to be realistically aware of this phenomenon and to be able to deal with it scientifically, he said.
During her speech, Dr.. Rabab Abdel Rahman, Professor of Radio and Television at the Faculty of Arts, Helwan University, points out that the negative social effects of influencers appear in influencing social values and customs, and the determinants of social control, customs and traditions, example Yasmine Ezz, and how they affect marital life and increase divorce cases.
During her speech, the "Professor at the Faculty of Arts, Helwan University" proposed a number of controls to confront the crisis of the phenomenon of influencers, including the launch of pages on communication sites through which the state presents information on all issues to counter rumors, that religious institutions discuss the phenomenon of influencers, and the introduction of teaching a special course on media development in schools. .
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In her intervention in the panel discussion via the Zoom platform, Ms. Maysoon Azzam, the presenter on Al-Arabiya channel, for the need to focus on the human aspect in the content presented to the audience, in order to influence the masses; To confront the effects of electronic platforms and new influencers, noting that the human media imposed itself on the media scene.
During his participation in the panel discussion, as one of the practitioners and influencers in the field of social communication, Ahmed Salama, the presenter of the “As the Book Does Say” program, noted during his speech that information is not always useful, but may result in heavy losses, explaining that impartiality is not real; Recommending the need for media awareness of the masses to investigate the sources of information and for the public to know the ways to search for the correct information regarding any topic raised, especially those topics touched upon by influencers.
The speech of Mahmoud Mahdi, a content creator and critic, touched on the experiences of content creators and how many of them are diligent, warning that the general tendency to demonize influencers is unrealistic, despite their transgression of the ethics of content production sometimes, realizing that many Some of them provide useful and creative content, indicating that the mental image of content makers in general suffers from a kind of extremism.
Through his electronic intervention in the panel discussion, Lutfi Al-Zoubi, head of the sports department at Al-Mashhad Sports Channel, hinted that many influencers provide distinctive content, and that this forced traditional media to present new topics, and to have a different imprint, to withstand the advance of new influencers, with Bearing in mind that not everything that appears on social media is real, and the need to verify and not believe what appears on social media platforms.
Dr. Sarah Fawzy, a lecturer at the Faculty of Mass Communication, Cairo University, who spoke for the panel discussion, reviewed part of the statistics related to the phenomenon of influencers and content production, explaining that influencers contributed to an increase in the volume of marketing for them to 22 billion dollars, and that their influence on youth and adolescents exceeds 50%, whether positive or negative. She explained the necessity of directing the public to learn the skills of using search engines to verify news, photos and videos, from children to adolescents, and the need to create dramatic content directed at adolescents about the lives of influencers; To protect them from the negative effects.
At the end of the speeches of the platform, Prof. Dr. Mona El-Hadidi, a professor at the Department of Radio and Television emphasized the importance of what was presented by the session, and the extent of the impact of influencers on society, revealing that the National Council for Women, in cooperation with UNICEF, will soon issue a decision regarding the extent to which influencers influence social responsibility on upon them.
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At the end of the panel discussion, Prof. Dr. Wissam Nasr, Secretary General of the Conference, honored the guests of the ninth session of the speakers, expressing her gratitude for the interventions and comments mentioned by the participants, which recommended many aspects that were exposed to the phenomenon of influencers and the ethics of creating media content through their platforms.