DUBAI — The Emirates Airlines Literary Festival saw a successful finish on Saturday. Over 30,000 people are said to have attended the event, with participation from 125 authors.

The festival ended with a session called ‘Capturing the Past on the Silver Screen’ by broadcaster Maha Gargash and poet Khalid Al Budoor.

Authors who took part in the festival this year included Chetan Bhagat, Nicholas Sparks and Riz Khan among other notable personalities.

With new players like Facebook, Youtube and Twitter changing the reporting style of conventional news, varsities are struggling to figure out a new curriculum for students of journalism, opined veteran American journalist and two-time Pulitzer Award winner, Steve Coll.

He went on to say that digital technology has brought about a profound change in what we know as journalism today.

Coll spoke on the ‘Future of Newspapers and Journalism’ at a session organised by the UAE Journalists Association in conjunction with the US Consulate 
General and Emirates Airline 
Festival of Literature.

Coll is the president of the New America Foundation, and a contributor at The New Yorker magazine.

He said: “With the collapse of old business models in the media industry, anyone can run a business in journalism sitting in their basement. This raises a completely new question on two grounds — one the impact of such a revolution on society at large, and second with regard to the career of a journalist.”

Coll added that with the easy flow in information, national borders matter very little. Even though social media platforms do not create news, they distribute it to a very wide market.

“There are certain ethos of old journalism models that must survive despite the current changes,” he added. He said that the current biggest issue is on how media organisations can manage and protect participation of citizens into news journalism.

“Scoops matter a lot less than they used to,” said Coll. On the subject of teaching journalism, Coll said: “Young people want to create, consume and live in a world around media, and teaching to an appetite like that has become increasingly difficult for journalism schools.”

Sir Wogan delights

Broadcaster, writer and presenter, Sir Terry Wogan, shared his magic at the Opening Night of the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature on Wednesday.

He captivated an audience of over 700 with anecdotes and insights from his life in the public eye and his homeland, Ireland. Everyone was left longing for more.

The readings began with performances from four international poets — Imtiaz Dharkar, John Agard, Yang Lian and Daljit Nagra who were introduced by poet Paul Blezard. John Agard chose the evening to share a world debut of poem called ‘The Battle Between Water and Wine’.

Emirati poet Abdulla Al Hadayya thrilled the audience with his 
stirring recital of a patriotic 
poem, which was translated into English by Firas Al Shaer and subsequently recited in English by Blezard.

news@khaleejtimes.com

• UAE