SOCIAL MEDIA EDUCATION IN THE ARAB WORLD: REALITY AND CHALLENGES

Despite the rapid development of communication technologies which has sparked the creative incorporation of social media into current pedagogical processes, the issue of social media, in the Arab World, has not been subject to extensive pedagogical research, and has not been offered till today as a complete and independent program in Arab media colleges.Moreover, it has not been included as courses in many media programs.This paper explores the status-quo of integrating social media into Arab media programs, investigates to what extent, it becomes part of their curricula, the attitudes toward social media as an educational tool, the obstacles which hinder offering social media in Arab Universities, either as a program or courses or to be integrated into the conventional media courses.The paper aims at proposing a model of integrating social media into media programs to make the curricula more responsive to changing societal, cultural, workplace values and practices and to prepare students for careers in digital and social media.It assumes that overall student learning can increase when educators incorporate social media into academic course content.It also assumes that social media can be separate and unique courses which should be integrated into the curricula of media programs and it could be a program by itself such as journalism and public relations specializations.The paper analyzed the study plans of several media programs in the Arab world, conducted meta-analysis and interviews with some Arab media faculty to examine the reality and challenges facing social media education in the Arab World.The paper illustrated that there is a great absence of information about the ongoing experimentations of using different instructional approaches to the curricula that prepare students for technological and cultural shifts in the media industry world in the Arab Universities, the ongoing process for integrating social media into media programs, and how media faculty and students are reacting towards the new paradigms to integrate social media into media education.The paper stated that the use of social media is not noticeable to some extent, especially in academic matters.Most Ar ab media colleges are using traditional ways in teaching media courses, without using social media as an educational tool.No Arab media colleges are offering social media as a program by itself, few Arab media faculty are integrating social media into their courses, and there are few studies which dealt with social media as an educational tool.Many indications show that media educators and practitioners' efforts are still far behind the theoretical and practical criteria, on how we can integrate social media into journalism and media programs in the Arab media colleges and media outlets.The study concluded that despite the growing demand for digitally competent employees in the news media industry, Arab media programs are cautiously integrating social media courses into their curriculum and most students are graduating without being endowed with the required skills to work in social media departments in news organizations or in the government communication entities.The paper outlined a proposal for initiating social media programs in the Arab Universities, suggesting that the curricula should emphasis on ethics, technical skills, and the potential for career development.The paper recommended of initiating new programs for social media, reconstructing the curricula of the conventional media courses to be taught through social media platforms and to integrate topics related to social media into these courses.The program should deal with the communication, historical, technical, economic, cultural, and legal aspects of social media, in addition to the impacts, and uses of social media in news, media, communication, marketing, public relations, advertising, government communication and how we can measure and analyses its performance digitally.