journalism is rapidly becoming a cornerstone in the media industry today, it poses a threat to traditional paper journalism, said three media experts Wednesday during a workshop titled “Arts and skills of e-journalism,” organized by Shoua'a Media Network in cooperation with Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Traditional paper journalism needs to identify new ways of doing business to cope with heated competition of universal access, multimedia, broader coverage of a story, and interactivity from e-journalism, they said. E-journalism has the advantage of delivering the news faster and using technology to the best of its use, said Saud Kateb, professor of media technology at Riyadh's King Saud University. Amid this economic crisis and uncertain times, traditional newspapers need to adopt new methods of gathering and delivering the news if they want to survive the competition, he said. Newspapers are now caught between growing readership and strong competition from e-papers and blogs, he said. Amar Bakar, Editor of Alarabiya.net, the official website of the pan-Arab satellite channel Al-Arabiya, spoke highly of the good margin of freedom of speech in e-papers and blogs as they are still away from heavy censorship. But e-papers and blogs are at disadvantage when it comes to authenticity and credibility of news, he said. Traditional publishers of newspapers have laws in place to pin down any credibility issues or violations committed by their reporters and editors, said Abdullah Bin Mahfouz, deputy chairman of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Journalists need to be aware that the law would pursue them if the ethics of the profession are violated, including authenticity and credibility of news, he said. “There are no laws yet governing e
