The Potential Effects of Metaverse Technology on the Arab Media: Media Experts’ Perspective

Abstract

The director of formerly Facebook announced in October 2021 a plan to develop Metaverse technology that combines virtual reality on the Internet, allowing any user to communicate virtually with people and things far away as if they were standing next to him/her.The opinions of media specialists about this issue were divided between supporters and opponents even though this technology needs ten years at least to be mass distributed, according to experts from the company and its founder. Arab media is not far from being impacted by this technology, considering the rapid digital transformation. Therefore, this prospective study determines the expected effects of this technology on the Arab media, through an opinion survey of 400 experts and media specialists in the Arab world. According to the findings, most experts anticipate positive effects of new technology on Arab media and content, media professionals, and media administrations, as well as negative effects on society and users. Keywords: Media and Atificial inteligence, Arab Media, Smart media and Arab society, Atificial inteligence impact.