29 students attended news workshop in Palestine
Amani Abdulrahman (left) discussing her work with fellow students and workshop participants, Masa Faleh and Reem Marie (right). (Photo Mathias Falch)
This week JMIC arranged a workshop on news journalism in Nablus in co-operation with An-Najah National University.
The 29 participants were sent out in the field as journalists. They were given three days to find an idea, gather sources and write a news story.
They were students of both the Department of Communication & Digital Media and Radio & Television at An-NajahNational University.
JMIC’s Elsebeth Frey and Mathias Falch together with local teachers Dr. Farid Abudheir and Dr. Amal Al-Qasem supervised and guided the students throughout the process, before all stories were printed and presented orally on the last day.
Frey and Falch also held lectures on topics such as interviewing, sources and news photography, and they conducted a debate about the future of news journalism.
Became a better journalist
– The workshop has been very useful. I learned a lot about news, and the skills needed to find and present them, Amani Abdulrahman, a 4th year student who attended the workshop, said.
– News should be shorter than the reports and reportages I have written before. I enjoyed working on my own, and I believe this training made me produce a professional news story, Abdulrahman continued.
JMIC member Frey thought Abdulrahman and the other participants did very well, and she praised their curiosity and creativity.
– The students came up with a lot of good ideas from a broad spectre of topics. They wrote news stories about everything from polluted water to an autistic boy who was thrown out of his school. They wrote about the completion of an awaited road, students being arrested, as well as news about recent happenings at the university, Frey said.
– I am impressed by the students’ use of several sources in their stories, she added.
Proud of his students
Dr. Farid Abudheir was equally impressed. He found the workshop both good and important.
– In Palestine, we tend to prefer a more poetical and metaphorical language in our stories, but this workshop has helped our students to remember the importance of focusing on the new in the news, Dr. Farid Abudheir said.
The professor was proud of his students, and he underlined how much he enjoyed working with both them and his Norwegian colleagues. – Everyone contributed to the creation of a friendly working environment, and by doing so, I think we made it easier for the students to succeed and to write better stories.
Looking forward to the Rig
This week’s news training was conducted as preparations for the Rig on press freedom, a workshop set to be held in Nablus later this year.
– A lot of my friends participated the last time the Rig was arranged in Nablus, in 2017, and they told me that it was a great experience. That is why I wanted to join this year, Abdulrahman said.
The Rig aims to let students learn about the importance of press freedom through writing news stories about the condition of the press in other countries than their own.
It was developed by Frey more than ten years ago, and besides being a yearly happening for OsloMet’s first year students, it has also been exported to Cannes, Kampala and Nablus.
– When we meet again, I expect that I will have to challenge myself during the work, but I look forward to it, Abdulrahman said. (By Mathias Falch).
Workshop members and teachers giving thumbs up on the last day of the workshop.(Photo: Elsebeth Frey)
Dr. Farid Abudheir (left) giving information to the students.(Photo: Elsebeth Frey)