Editor-in-Chief, Gus Anderson: You’ve worked in the UAE, but you’ve also worked in Qatar at the Qatar Foundation for several years?
Obviously, most media outlets I mean, there’s quite a few Qatari outlets, such as The Middle East Eye and The New Arab, but most media outlets are based in the UAE or Saudi generally… as a trend at the least.
How is the UAE a MENA Media Hub?
Former Editor-in-Chief and Political Commentator, Michael Jabri-Pickett: When you’re talking about it in the world of media and the PR world, if you have somebody on television in the West, on the BBC, and they something say something outrageous about the UAE, for the most part, there will be no official UAE response to that.
That’s true, I think, for most countries in the GCC.
Instead of challenging everybody at every turn who says anything bad about Dubai or Abu Dhabi, I think what the Emirates are doing is trying to tell their own story about the Gulf's development onto the global stage.
The UAE is carving out their own space to tell their own story of development, diversification, and renewal at the centre of media, trade, and diplomacy with Vision 2031.
The best way to do that is to create your own media organisation; let that media organisation speak independently for what it is that’s going on in that emirate.
I was the first person that was hired by the Editor-in-Chief when we launched the national newspaper. I was hired in 2007 and we launched later by 2008.
The UAE is More than Dubai, Abu Dhabi’s Claim to Fame in the 2000s
The reason we launched and at the time, it was because Abu Dhabi was prepared to step onto the global stage.
I think there was a sentiment that Abu Dhabi wanted the world to recognise that Dubai is not the entire country.
Abu Dhabi was prepared to tell its own story of development to the world.
You know, if you look at it, Abu Dhabi represents 89% of the land mass of the UAE. All the oil and natural gas is in Abu Dhabi. The seat of the federal government is in Abu Dhabi.
What better way to tell your story than to create… a newspaper? I do think we dropped the ball a little bit.
We should have been more digitally focused at that time, but we were still very focused on the paper product at The National.
I think that that was the main reason.
Telling Abu Dhabi’s Story, One Step at a Time
I’m gonna come back to your question.
I think what the Emirates, in particular, are comfortable doing is telling their own stories; that is why I think that there are so many different media brands you know, there’s everything from Love in Dubai and Love in Abu Dhabi.
Everything that Richard Fitzgerald has done at Augustus Media to where I used to work, which is The Khaleej Times.
KT was and remains the UAE’s first english-speaking language newspaper, and that was set up in 1978.
You have this long history of having so many English and Arabic newspapers in this part of the world.
I think that most people who will come to the UAE will recognise in a very short period of time that the biggest opportunities they have are the people who live here.
You know, I certainly am able to look at the good, the bad, and the ugly of living outside my own country, but I think that the good far outweighs any of the negatives.
I then I become that sort of soft power influence by being able to talk about what it’s like really to live in the UAE.
In the end, the story is a truly positive one to tell and the government recognises that.
Vision 2031 is driving change; the UAE’s place as a centre of international trade, diplomacy, and mediation is at the heart of this message.
Stay Up to Date with the Earlier Parts of this Episode.
Journalism in the Gulf: Getting Started and Storytelling (Part 1)
It’s All Change in North America, the Canadian Election (Part 2)
