ISLAMABAD: Marriyum Aurangzeb, state minister for information, on Wednesday stressed the need for an effective use of digital media to promote and project Pakistan’s narrative and image as soft, moderate and democratic country. Addressing a meeting, she directed all the attached departments of her ministry to work in a more integrated and cohesive manner to make the best use of social media, which is one of the greatest technological advancement of the recent age. She said that restructuring and overhauling of social media wings of the ministry were imperative to align them with pace, precision and trends of modern digital media. She asked the officials to chalk out a plan and robust strategy for training of officials and their exposure to new social media trends as they had successfully replaced the old paradigm of communication. She said that social media from blogging to tweeting and posting of videos on Facebook and other mediums has indeed opened new, faster and cheaper avenues of communication to promote a particular thought, or a narrative by engaging greater number of people with more time at your disposal and costing less money. The minister said that it was also an easier task to locate the targeted audience through social media tools like various interest focused Facebook groups and Twitter searches. Marriyum directed all the relevant departments to establish an effective liaison and close coordination to streamline and centralise the process of content generation to highlight the steps taken by the government for the welfare of the people and spotlighting softer image of the country. The meeting was attended by Information secretary, Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation DG, principal information officer, APP managing director, Pakistan National Council of Arts DG and Cyber Wing DG.