On Sunday 14 January 2024, the Syriac Library of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s General Directorate of Syriac Culture and Arts hosted Iraqi researcher and reader Hussein Saadoun, in a dialogue session on the reading crisis in the age of digitisation, in the hall of the Syriac Heritage Museum in Ankawa.
The session was moderated by artist Imad Sobeih. During it, researcher Hussein Saadoun discussed a number of obstacles facing reading nowadays, with the entry of social networking sites into most aspects of life and the gradual shift toward technology and digitisation, indicating that authors and writers must keep pace with this transformation to prevent the loss of their intellectual and literary productions to their readers and followers.
Saadoun stressed that social media has greatly affected paper printing, pointing out that the reader at present does not want long books and novels, as the reader’s mood is accustomed to short posts on social media in the virtual world.
At the dialogue session’s conclusion, the floor was opened to the attendees, and the lecturer interacted with them, answering their inquiries and questions.
The session was attended by the Regional Government’s Transport and Communication Minister Anu Jawhar Abdoka, the Regional Government’s Director General of Syriac Culture and Arts Kaldo Ramzi Oghanna, in addition to a group of those interested in culture and literature.
