Over three days in November 2022, nearly 14,000 media professionals, experts, specialists, and visitors came together at the inaugural Global Media Congress in Abu Dhabi, hosted by the Emirates News Agency (WAM) and ADNEC Group. With 193 media brands involved and more than 140 different countries represented, it was a rare and truly global gathering of the media industry. 

Across dozens of panel events, keynote speeches, interactive workshops, future labs, and debates, participants discussed how they can work together to shape the future of the media industry. A number of key themes emerged, not least the rise of artificial intelligence, the impact of disruptive new technologies, the demands of Gen Z consumers, and the role of the burgeoning metaverse. These are analysed at various points in this White Paper. 

This White Paper presents eight different perspectives on these fundamental questions around news organisations’ resilience in the age of disinformation. These perspectives are based on the anonymised contributions and insights of dozens of participants at last year’s Global Media Congress. Many of these individuals – who include newsroom editors, veteran correspondents, CEOs of global news organisations, academics specialising in the field of news media, futurists, and many more – have been generous enough to expand on their verbal contributions through written submissions. Four of these expert insights are published with the authors’ permission in full in this White Paper.