Since its inception, Al Jazeera Media Network has given great importance to the influential role that the internet plays in our contemporary world as a means of communication and interaction with the masses. As part of the network’s effort to bridge the gap between peoples and cultures, Al Jazeera Net launched a website that teaches Arabic in November 2013. It is the first to be launched by an Arab media network.
Interaction via websites will be one of the main points in the discussion sessions that will be held within the 9th Al Jazeera Forum which the Al Jazeera Network is to hold from 4-6 May in Doha, and which is considered a platform that the network has launched to brainstorm and build bridges of dialogue among participants of all directions and perspectives.
Mohammed Al Mokhtar, manager of Al Jazeera Net, maintained that interaction with the public was one of the features that distinguished the site even before the launch of the Arabic teaching website, adding that the site has begun testing automatic transcription to reach instant online translation. Al Jazeera Net's session during this year's forum will discuss interaction and education via the internet and the obstacles of teaching the Arabic language.
The session will also discuss the "Converting Speech to Text" feature which Al Jazeera Net launched recently in collaboration with a specialised centre in Qatar to provide site visitors subtitles for videos by pressing a particular button that allows for the hearing impaired and deaf to read text while watching without the help of a sign language interpreter. The feature is also beneficial to those who wish to watch Al Jazeera programmes in places where the volume must be kept down such as hospitals and patient rooms.
Ranked sixth among research centres in the Middle East, Al Jazeera Centre for Studies organizes and holds annual forums in conjunction with various networks and will broadcast its sessions live on this website as well as Al Jazeera Mubasher.
