Journalism 101 for Arab News Recruits

Today’s journalists must work holistically across digital platforms but shouldn’t forget the basics of getting the story right and building their knowledge base, Arab News recruits learned in a virtual workshop.

Journalism 101 for recruits

Media Unlimited director Magda Abu-Fadil put a group of newly-minted reporters at the Saudi daily through the paces by first testing their grasp of geography, history, basic economics, verification skills, writing copy, headlines and captions as well as note taking and observation by turning video content into a story.

Geography test

The three-day workshop in September 2021 included basics in grammar, errors writers often make, redundancies in copy, and punctuation that journalists often take for granted.

Abu-Fadil said news writing wasn’t literature or poetry and provided a detailed explanation of what constituted news.

What’s the story?

She stressed the importance of fact checking in a bid to mitigate the damage from mis-, dis- and mal-information, adding that journalism is an interdisciplinary field requiring extensive reading and research.

She also urged the trainees not to fall for superficial social media messages.

The journalists were introduced to the basic structure of a news story, the essence of news, writing effective leads, the importance of context in the nut graf, proper use of quotations and the ability to distinguish between American and British English journalistic writing styles.

 

How to use quotes

The training’s other key elements included numbers, hype, oxymorons, jargon, clichés and the use of visuals.

Abu-Fadil spoke of media ethics, the use of anonymous sources, and focused on the skills needed to conduct effective interviews, in person and virtually.

She also stressed the importance of establishing interview ground rules and differentiating between attribution terminology in American and British English.

Let’s edit

On the final day, the recruits demonstrated what they learned through rigorous writing and editing exercises that included turning bland official news releases into actual stories with adequate context, proper attribution, well placed quotes, research and strong active verb leads to draw readers into the rest of the article.

 

The importance of fact checking

They viewed a video to test their sense of observation and news judgment and a short film on fact checking.

MU Media Literacy Features at I.C. Workshop

Should parents or nursery school teachers use an iPad as a pacifier to ease a toddler into school or a playgroup?

How do schools integrate technology, social media and other forms of engagement in their curricula?

Media Unlimited director Magda Abu-Fadil answered those and other questions at a workshop on Media and Information Literacy (MIL) for schoolteachers at Lebanon’s International College Ain Aar campus.

Abu-Fadil shows video on how iPads affect children

Abu-Fadil shows video on how iPads affect children

She drew on UNESCO’s MIL Curriculum for Teachers that combines two distinct areas – media literacy and information literacy – under one umbrella.

Media and Information Literacy Curriculum for Teachers

Media and Information Literacy Curriculum for Teachers

Abu-Fadil underscored the importance of digital literacy and deconstructed it during the workshop in May 2014 using case studies and videos to illustrate the point.

She reviewed key competencies needed for MIL such as knowledge and understanding of media and information for democratic discourses and social participation, evaluation of media texts and information sources, and, production and use of media and information.

Teachers at IC's Ain Aar campus learn about media literacy

Teachers at IC’s Ain Aar campus learn about media literacy

The training also centered on how to engage with students in a multimedia environment and across various platforms.

Abu-Fadil demonstrated how social media tools such as Twitter have become an integral part of the teaching and learning process.

MU director conducts workshop on media and information literacy at Lebanon's International College

MU director conducts workshop on media and information literacy at Lebanon’s International College

The discussion also touched on accessing information in an effective and affective way, the importance of critical thinking, and methods of evaluating media-related information.