The Media Development Center continues its mission of modernizing the Palestinian media landscape
The Media Development Center at Birzeit University concluded three specialized training courses for government officials, journalists, and media experts, on Wednesday, April 18, 2018.
Media Spokesperson Skills
At its Birzeit University headquarters, the center celebrated the graduation of its Media Spokesperson course, which was attended by Palestinian customs police officers, as well as public relations and media employees.
The 18-hour course, held from April 16-18 and led by Emad Alasfr, Saleh Masharqeh, Khalid Saleem, and Said Abu Mualla, introduced officials to the skills needed in their line of work, such as radio interview skills, proper news writing techniques and methods, and videography skills.
Nibal Thawabteh, director of the center, said that the course is part of a series of training sessions and courses done together with official organizations and civil society institutions.
“This is a specially-crafted program that meets the needs of officials and staff members at public organizations. Our series of training courses aim to fuse excellent, knowledge-based journalism theories with practical skills,” said Thawabteh.
Loay Bani Odeh, director of public relations and media at the Palestinian Customs Police Force, highlighted the benefits of holding such joint training courses and sessions, saying that they support the Palestinian police forces in “keeping abreast of modern media developments.”
Certificates of attendance were handed out to participants at the end of the course, which was funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency.
Investigative Journalism
The center also concluded a three-day training course on investigative journalism, which was attended by nine media specialists from local Palestinian news agencies.
The course, part of a project implemented in cooperation with the Danish House in Palestine and International Media Support and builds the capacities of Palestinian journalists in investigative journalism methodology and analytical story publishing.
The course – the second of three courses – introduced attendees to producing multimedia content that better fits within the wave of digital media currently sweeping the media landscape.
Leading the course were International and local media experts, such as Louise Voller, Danwatch editor in chief, and Fadi Sulaiman, an expert on mobile media.
The third course, which will cover storytelling on various media platforms – including digital platforms - is set to be held in July.
TV Production
Finally, the center wrapped-up its TV Broadcast Production training course, which was held in its Gaza headquarters, on April 18, 2018. The course was led by award-winning news journalist Zakaria Abu Harbid.
Attending the course were 24 media graduates and media specialists, who were introduced to video production skills and basics, interview skills, and interview lighting techniques.
The six-day, 30-hour course, funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, was mostly based on practical training and outdoor video capturing, and concluded with the distribution of certificates to attendees.
