PESHAWAR - Participants at a seminar said that social media has played a tremendous role in bringing revolution (Arab Spring) in Arab countries like Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and now in Syria.
That’s why people dub it as Facebook or social media revolution, said speakers in a one-day seminar on the changing role of social media in Muslim countries, held here at the University of Peshawar. The seminar was organised by Department of Political Science, University of Peshawar, in collaboration with Erfurt University Germany.
Dr Noman Sattar, Director Area Study Centre, North and South America Quaid-e-Azam University Islamabad, Vice Chancellor University of Peshawar Prof Dr Qibla Ayaz and other distinguished were present on the occasion. “It was really interesting that some months back a news service broadcasted exchanges of Tweets in between a NATO official and Taliban spokesman in Afghanistan, said Rehmanullah, a journalist. The ratings of the stories and aired programmes on the radio and television are predominantly done on the basis of social media, which describes its importance for the journalist community, he added.  The US President, Barrack Obama used the social media to win the White House for his first term, said Dr Noman Sattar. He added presently there are around six million users of Facebook and Twitter in Pakistan and there number is ever increasing. Most of the parties leaders especially the newly political parties on scene have made social media as their major tool of campaign and electioneering. In the growing law and order situation in Pakistan it seems the social media, be that face book, twitter or mobile phones would get more importance, he maintained.
On this occasion, the University of Peshawar VC Prof Dr Qibla Ayaz said that though there were many cases of creation of misinformation through social media, but this does not meant the medium of communication is bad. In fact the system is very good for youth of the world to interact amongst each other, he added.  The Vice Chancellor further said that the sate of communication studies in Pakistan needs due attention for setting a direction.
The University of Peshawar and Erfurt University Germany is working jointly in this regard and a proper functional Memorandum of Understanding has been signed already, the VC informed.
Besides, Chairman Department of Political Science Department Prof Dr A-Z Hilali, and Dr Zubair, Dr Amir Raza along with scores of students from the Department of Political Science, International Relations and History were also present on the occasion and shared their views and experiences about the topic.