Middle Eastern journalists and bloggers have been meeting to discuss the role of social media in their countries. Tunisian and Palestinian journalists and bloggers have had discussions and their Egyptian counterparts are due to meet next week. This article on Internews says young Palestinians have more trust in social media than in traditional media. The post also discusses the development and importance of social media courses in Palestinian universities.

A week earlier [before the Tunis gathering], more than 40 Palestinian journalists gathered for a roundtable on the changes in social media and its impacts on society and journalism.

Several of those present said that young people turn to social media because mass media has failed to play its watchdog role. “Youth don’t trust the media in Palestine. It does not relate to them, it does not give a voice to the people. We trust information on Facebook more because it comes from real people,” said journalist Ameed Shihata.