By Adam Cohen, Thomson Reuters

The session that kicked off the Washington Ideas Forum was titled, “What Role is Media Playing in the Arab Spring.” It featured a panel with Stephen Adler, our own editor in chief of Reuters News, Marwan Muasher and Dr. Anne-Marie Slaughter and was moderated by Patty Culhane.

05 Oct 2011Thomson Reuters

The panelists jumped right into the impact that social media had on the Arab Spring. In fact, the impact of social media was essentially the main topic of the entire session. The panelists had no problem recognizing the important role that social media played, but made it clear that freedom movements had been brewing for years. The panel emphasized social media more predominantly as a facilitator of change, rather that the main element. Dr. Anne-Marie Slaughter suggested that, “the real drivers are the people in the street, willing to face the bullets.”

Stephen Adler talked about Reuters’ changing relationship with social media. As a mainstream news organization, he talked about “becoming partners with social media and citizen journalism.” Marwan Muasher, however, was quick to dispel the notion that, since the movement spread so quickly across the web, the same would be true of democracy. He made sure to emphasize the fact that this process will be measured in decades, not days, months or even years.

Culhane then took the conversation in a different direction, asking the panelists to grade how President Obama and the U.S. handled the situations in the Middle East. All three panelists were reluctant to give a concrete answer, for a variety of different reasons. Stephen Adler stressed the global perspective of Reuters as a news organization. He said that the correspondents on the ground in the Middle East were more concerned with reporting the facts as well as ensuring their own safety. Dr. Slaughter said that she’s “not going to grade the US, [she] will save her grades for her Princeton students.”

The session was a great start to the Forum, especially because it spent so much time on a topic (social media) that was featured throughout the day. What role do YOU think the media played in the Arab Spring?

The Washington Ideas Forum will continue through tomorrow. You can follow the conversation on Twitter at hashtag #IdeasForum.