NU-Q to host global symposium on digital media and shifting power
<p>The Peninsula</p> <p>DOHA: Northwestern University in Qatar (NU-Q) will host Fresh Global Media Players: Disrupting the Digital Ecosystem? on October 29, 2026, bringing together international scholars and media industry leaders to examine how emerging platforms, business models, and regional industries are disrupting the digital media ecosystem and challenging established structures of global…
Northwestern University in Qatar (NU-Q) will host an international symposium on October 29, 2026, titled Fresh Global Media Players: Disrupting the Digital Ecosystem? The event will bring together scholars and industry leaders to explore how emerging platforms, business models, and regional industries are challenging the digital media landscape and the traditional structures of global communication power.
The symposium revisits questions raised at NU-Q's inaugural Fresh Global Media Players symposium in 2015, specifically whether new players are transforming established media hierarchies or reinforcing existing inequalities. The program consists of three research sessions: Geopolitics of Digital Media, Monetization and Business Models, and A Regional Outlook.
The first session will feature Dani Madrid-Morales, Myrtle Ziwei Zeng, and Joan Letting, who will examine news flows on YouTube, platform migration, digital belonging, and independent investigative media in East Africa. The second session will focus on asymmetrical media networks, Chinese investment in global digital games, and India's independent digital-first music sector.
Finally, the final session will address the Middle Eastern and North African esports ecosystem, considering Netflix's influence on Kuwaiti television cultures and the role of tradition and cultural barriers in esports participation.
NU-Q Dean and CEO Marwan M. Kraidy emphasized that the symposium is not just an academic inquiry but has real-world implications for the audiences worldwide who consume, share, and believe in the information presented to them. The event builds on NU-Q's 2015 Fresh Global Media Players symposium, which led to a special section in the International Journal of Communication. Organizers plan to propose a second special section featuring research developed through the 2026 symposium.
Written by urgent.news from The Peninsula Qatar's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
