Ahmed Fakhoury breaks stereotypes in “Trends”

About eight years ago, Syrian journalist Ahmed Fakhoury suddenly disappeared from the Syrian television screen, after rejecting the official screen policy of covering protests that have erupted in the country since 2011. Fakhoury was investigated and banned from traveling, and he remained in hiding for several months, after which he announced that he could have left the country, moved between Egypt and Turkey and eventually settled in the UK, where he began presenting news and dialogue on the BBC’s Arabic screen in London.

The paradigm shift was for the son of the Syrian province of Hama in 2017, when he began to present the program “Trending” on the BBC, which is concerned with showing the content of social networks, along with his colleague Rania Al-Attar , with a work team that monitors the most controversial issues in the virtual world. .
Thus, “Trending” broke the stereotypes and routines of the old and sober screen, formed an unconventional newsletter that presents the event from a different angle, discussed the reflection of the news in the virtual space and followed the hashtags, tweets, comments and answers. And “Trending” provided a future model for newscasts in the era of smartphones and the postmodern world.
Despite the existence of hundreds of satellite channels that provide social media, “Trending” remained at the forefront, garnering millions of views and comments through YouTube.
In three years, Ahmed Fakhoury (1978) caught his eye in “Trending,” through his acting, clever commentary, his wit, his master Arabic language and distinctive voice, his seamless transition between dialects and coloring in tone. of the voice, which is evidenced through the comments of the followers who praise. On Fakhoury’s spontaneous performance when presenting this type of program.
Fakhoury navigates gracefully through the comments on a large interactive screen, drawing on her past experiences in radio work, television interviews, and commentary on documentaries.
In addition to his work on “Trending”, he is active on “YouTube”, and through this platform he interacts with his followers in standard Arabic, in a way that mixes seriousness and humor, and answers their questions. Fakhoury reveals through his channel the scenes of his program and provides videos on Arabic poetry that stands out in its interpretation, themes and advice of general culture and the art of voice-over, as well as short videos about his diaries and his family in London.
Social media platforms were imposed on traditional media and those who work in them, and the issue turned into a fierce struggle between the new and old media, and the approach of satellite channels to the issues of social networks seems to be just an attempt to accommodate new media, which in turn imposed new formulas, templates and working methods on traditional media, at a time when In it, the audience is only a passive receiver, but its direct presence in the media material has become and even his hero.