On the relationship of youth and the media

The Youth and Media Forum: "A love-hate relationship?” was an occasion that brought together youth from the Maghreb and the Mashrek, to hold exchanges about one of the major challenges faced in the region: the relation between young people and the media.

What caught my attention right away was the significant presence of members NET-MED Youth members. Canal France International, convened many young people working in the field of media in the region, including those who constitute NET-MED Youth. Thus, the forum was also a moment for us to realize the strength of the network we are building, that has become a point of reference in the area of youth and media.

The exchanges were interesting in many ways, and the interactive format of the Forum played a major role!

Indeed, we observed that the situation is the same in all countries in the region:

- Young people are not represented, and do not recognize themselves in the traditional media,

- An active youth, committed and bearer of alternatives for change has been recognized since the democratic spring,

- Young people have appropriated the new media, and have become an important driver of the political and social changes to which they aspire.

Based on the efforts put in place by young people in each different country, what in my opinion constituted the strength of the forum was that beyond the sharing of common critical observations, participants exchanged and discussed successful experiences or those that are still at a preparatory stage, thus contributing to show trends in the development of information societies in the Arab world, which no longer follow a classic pattern but rather a globalized one, recognizing that the whole informational process now tends toward a model where the receiver has become an actor.

Traditional media must reinvent themselves to reposition in an open, plural and, above all, participative media landscape.

Written by Imane Bounjara