Marriyum for effective use of digital media to promote Pakistan’s positive image across globe

ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage Marriyum Aurangzeb stressed the need for effective use of digital media to promote and project Pakistan's narrative and image as soft, moderate and democratic country across the globe.

The minister stressed this point while chairing a high-level meeting here on Wednesday. In this regard, she directed all the relevant departments of the Ministry of Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage to work in a more integrated and cohesive manner to make the best use of social media, which is one of the greatest technological advancements of this era.

The minister said that restructuring and overhauling of social media wings of Ministry of Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage was imperative to align them with pace, precision and trends of the modern day digital media.

She asked the concerned officials to chalk out a detailed plan and a robust strategy for the training of officials of the ministry and their exposure to new social media trends as they had successfully replaced the old paradigm of communication.

Marriyum said that social media—from blogging to tweeting and posting of videos on Facebook and other mediums—had indeed opened new, faster and cheaper avenues of communication to promote a particular thought, or a narrative by engaging greater number of people with more time at your disposal and costing a lot less than traditional forms of communication.

The minister said that it was also an easier task to locate the targeted audience through social media tools like various interest-focused Facebook groups, Twitter searches, etc. Marriyum Aurangzeb directed all the relevant departments to establish an effective liaison and close coordination to streamline and centralise the process of content generation to highlight the steps taken by the present democratic government for the welfare of the people.

The meeting was attended by Secretary of the Ministry of Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage, Director General of the Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation, Director General of the External Publicity Wing, Director General of the Internal Publicity Wing,  Principal Information Officer of the Press Information Department, Managing Director of the APP, Director General of the Pakistan National Council of Arts, Director General of the Cyber Wing and other senior officials of Ministry of Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage.