Journalists wishing to hone their skills on the issues of migration, refugees and human trafficking may take Media Unlimited director Magda Abu-Fadil’s online Open Media Hub course in English and Arabic.

Open Media Hub course sign-up page

The free, self-paced interactive “Reporting on Migration” course is divided into an introduction, three modules, and a wrap-up.

Module 1 focuses on migration terminology, key international organizations and NGOs involved in the issue. There’s a section on international and national legislation on migration. Participants are tested on what they’ve learned.

In module 2, participants learn the key steps to covering the migration story: research, data analysis, interviews, choosing visuals, the economics of migration, and, are shown case studies of good and bad reporting. They’re tested on what they’ve learned at the end of the module.

OMH “Reporting on Migration” course structure

Module 3 aims at ethics in reporting on migration with an emphasis on humanizing the story. Participants are taught the importance of verification and contextualization, the ethical use of photos and videos and their impact, obtaining consent before using people’s information and visuals, covering celebrities, and activism. Participants are tested on what they’ve learned at the end of the module.

The wrap-up consists of a final knowledge quiz, a summary and a list of further reading.

Open Media Hub falls under the Thomson Foundation umbrella and is funded by the European Union.