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Becoming a journalist today requires a modified skill set to the one needed decades ago, but the principles of news gathering, fact checking, story telling and ethics remain the same, Media Unlimited director Magda Abu-Fadil told students in Doha.

Magda Abu-Fadil on journalism today

She addressed Georgetown University School of Foreign Service students and faculty members in October in Qatar on the evolution of journalism, on becoming a foreign correspondent, on politics, and on media ethics.

Informal lunch talk with Georgetown-Qatar students and faculty

Abu-Fadil showed her audience how she had evolved as a reporter whose local and foreign assignments meant excellent preparations for stories through constant learning and knowledge as well as what was then available as tools of the trade.

Evolution of a journalist

The tools included notebooks, pens, recorders, batteries, cameras, lenses, filters, flashlights, tripods, and typewriters.

Mobile journalists, or mojos, including herself, using mobile, portable, connected devices have mostly replaced those earlier items, although several remain staples for reporters and photographers, she said.

Today’s mojos need fewer encumbering tools

The informal lunch gathering included students from Northwestern University’s Qatar campus who attend joint media classes at Georgetown.

Questions on whether it’s worth becoming a journalist

In another meeting with Georgetown students, Abu-Fadil spoke on media, culture and politics in the Middle East, focusing primarily on ethics (or the lack thereof) in print, broadcast, online and social media.

A series of countrywide workshops introduced Lebanese journalists to women’s economic empowerment in rural areas in a bid to improve media coverage of the often-neglected topic.

Magda Abu-Fadil with Tripoli journalists

Print, online and broadcast journalists based in various regions of Lebanon learned how to define women’s economic empowerment, how to enter the terminology in their media lexicon and how to cover topics related to promoting gender equality.

Abu-Fadil with Bekaa-based journalists

MU director Magda Abu-Fadil conducted a series of mini-courses in the Bekaa Valley city of Zahle, the northern port city of Tripoli and the southern city of Tyre where reporters, correspondents, cameramen and photographers became better acquainted with agriculture-based cooperatives that help women become financially independent.

The sessions included knowledge about existing impediments to empowerment.

Abu-Fadil also discussed how advocacy through traditional and social media can enhance women’s economic empowerment, and reviewed case studies of successful initiatives.

The three two-day workshops in February and March organized by the Collective for Research and Training on Development – Action (CRTDA) brought together reporters and civil society representatives from various towns and cities in Lebanon.

They followed an initial course aimed at journalists in the Lebanese capital Beirut.

Abu-Fadil and CRTDA’s Hayat Mershad with Beirut journalists

A session focused on women in the Lebanese economy, how gender equality translates into smart economics, and, how the CRTDA has helped rural women set up cooperatives and their economic impact.

Trainees in Tyre

Trainees were given examples of cooperatives in the country’s Bekaa, South and Akkar regions aimed at building women’s productive and leadership skills, facilitating their access to local and international markets and supporting participatory governance and leadership.

A session by journalist Saada Allaw featured results of a media audit on coverage of women’s economic empowerment and gender equality issues.

Saada Allaw shares media study results with Tyre journalists

Participants were then tasked with writing a piece for publication in their respective media, which will be reviewed and edited on a third training day weeks after the initial workshop.

The best coverage from workshops across the country will be awarded and will be published on CRTDA’s website.

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MU Trains Lebanese Journos to Cover Women’s Economic Empowerment