The Omani media has played a prominent role in preserving heritage in the past decades, said Asim al Shidi, a journalist at Oman newspaper.
In his paper presented at a seminar on ‘Role of the Press in preserving heritage’, on Wednesday, he said: “We can understand this through the information we have gathered from Zanzibar. The press focused greatly on Oman, its history, culture, literature and material and intangible achievements.”
Al Shidi said the local press followed the directives of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos who stressed in his first speech the necessity of “combining authenticity and modernity”.
Although His Majesty called for the construction of a modern state, he did not neglect the importance of heritage.
The Press has stressed the need to pay more attention to myth and consider it an “intellectual legacy produced by creativity”.
The Press has also highlighted the necessity of preserving old forts and castles, which are one of the best archaeological sites in the Sultanate.
Al Shidi questioned whether it was possible to preserve heritage under the circumstances of war and conflict, and whether it could be accomplished through individual or group efforts.
It obviously requires a clear-cut strategy to face these challenges
and efforts from all sections of society to “wage a war to preserve this heritage”.
In his paper, “The role of new media in spreading cultural heritage’, Dr Hosni Nasr said: “Social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Flicker should be used as cultural platforms to involve societies in the process of preserving heritage and culture by updating the public of the restoration projects, exhibitions and issues related to heritage.”
Dr Nasr, citing the example of ‘Commons of Flickrs’, founded in 2008, said it aims to share hidden treasures from the world’s public photography archives. This has helped organisers collect more historical photographs from the people.
The user can tag the photo and add more information, adding more value to the pictures.
The seminar was organised by the National Committee for Education, Science and Culture of the Ministry of Education, and a part of the World Heritage Day celebrations.
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