Ali Shwel Al-Karni was recently appointed a member of the Shoura Council by royal decree.

King Salman appointed 150 members to the council for a period of four years and named Abdullah bin Mohammed Al-Asheikh as its head. 

Al-Karni also holds the position of adviser and chair of the media and communications department and supervisor of Afaq Newspaper at King Khalid University.

Al-Karni has held several senior positions during his long career in the field of media and communication. He was an adviser in the media office of the late Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz from 2005 to 2011 and has chaired the board of the Saudi Association for Media and Communication three times.

Al-Karni also founded and chaired the media and communication department at King Khalid University and is the supervisor of the Al-Jazirah Newspaper Journalism Chair at King Saud University.

Aside from being a columnist at a number of dailies including Al-Jazirah, Al-Riyadh, Okaz, and the UAE-based Al-Bayan, Al-Karni supervises MA theses and Ph.D. dissertations at King Saud University, Imam Muhammad bin Saud Islamic University, King Abdul Aziz University and several Gulf universities.

He has also authored a number of books, including “Everything is False” and “New Media: From Traditional Journalism to New Media and Citizen Journalism.”

He earned his Ph.D. in international communication from the University of Minnesota, his MA in journalism from Ohio University, and a BA in journalism from King Saud University.