Google CEO Comments on Arab Media and IT
According to the CEO of Google, Dr. Eric Schmidt, “top priorities for the Arab world today are health, education, training and creation of job opportunities.� Schmidt is also the Co-Chair of the 4th Arab Strategy Forum (ASF), which serves to strategize for a better future for the Arab world. Schmidt believes “the Information Technology industry could act as a great enabler in assisting the Arab World to better integrate with the global economy, “thus improving both the regional and individual qualities of life. The Internet is an extremely useful and productive means for the region's progress. Schmidt highlights that only 26 million Arabs are online, from a total Arab population of over 290 million, though that number is expected to exceed to 50 million by 2009. Information technology could provide small businesses with broader markets.

“For example, sellers in Morocco can find buyers in the UAE and vice versa. The Internet can become the ‘great equalizer' for small and medium enterprises giving them marketing and sales tools previously available only to large corporations,� says Schmidt.

The main obstacles in the way of flourishing IT in the Arab world, determined the ASF, is the “lack of significant research and development funding� which would strengthen and provide the industry with a solid base from which to expand.

On a different note, Dr. Majed Bin-Muhammad Al-Majed, professor at King Saud University in Kuwait, advocates the importance of ameliorating and strengthening “the relationship between the media, the message and principles of the nation.� Although IT is becoming more widespread throughout the Arab Middle East, many stress the importance of what is appropriate for the media being made available to the Arab youth.

“Young Arabs are facing a wave of western mass media messages, intended to control their minds, passions and conduct. They turn to the western mass media, partly due to lack of a competitive local media,� Al-Majed writes in a study he recently published on the effects of media on youth in the Arab world.

Among the most important influences upon the general public is the Internet, which as other such outlets, argues Al-Majed, must focus more on education and not as much on entertainment. For instance, the majority of cartoons imported to and screened throughout the Arab world are “infested with violent scenes that had a negative effect on children,� according to a study conducted by the Media Department at Kuwait University. Such negative images and influences also affect the general quality of religion, education and society amongst the youth