Waleed went on to state that there are no short-term solutions but rather a long-term compositional change of newsrooms is required to achieve a change of media ‘frame'. “Firing off an angry letter won’t change anything in the long term; the most effective way is to actually get involved if one cares enough in order to affect the composition of news rooms”
Finally Waleed concluded with some career advice where he explains that he did not set out to be a journalist, “rather it was a journey discovering through various experiences.” Waleed joked that he began his professional career as a lawyer after studying Engineering and law a field that has little in common with journalism. He went on to highlight that ‘the reason it happened I think, was being at the right place at the right time and someone somewhere liked what they saw”. Waleed emphasized how a point of difference in a world constantly hampered with commonality can be extremely powerful.
Waleed then took questions from the floor around a number of topics including influences of the media on community, democracy - modernity and the Middle East, Facebook and social media as well as a question on how Waleed could possibly support Richmond in the AFL
As a token of appreciation, The Crescent Institute presented Mr Waleed Aly with a $500 donation to a charity of choice.
Check out the video interview below from Waleed Aly