Dates: 8 – 10 December 2013
Country: Egypt, Ain Sokna
Egyptian journalism students, who are producing and editing a website Ahna Keda (The Way We Are), participated in the workshop organised by the Media Diversity Institute (MDI). The purpose of the training in Ain Sokna on 8 – 10 December 2013 was to improve the quality of the articles and re-evaluate the content commissioning processes, as well as to explore the concept of inclusive, critical non-partisan and unbiased political journalism.
The participants discussed the topics of how to write the top news stories, what are the most reliable newsgathering sources, how to provide a suitable photograph and/or video clip for their webzine, but also how to overcome technical issues such as uploading a content.
MDI trainers, Dr Ahmad Samir Hammad from Al-Azhar University in Cairo and Marc Wadsworth, the founder of The-Latest.Com, helped the webzine team to explore the possibilities of using the social media sites for news gathering as well as for the promotion of Ahna Keda.
Fifteen journalism students from six Egyptian universities are responsible for writing articles for the website, as well as for editing of the content and management of all aspects of the site. This webzine created by the journalism students from Egypt aims to expresses the need for citizens to be heard and seen by the media regardless of their political, social and cultural background.
“These passionate and eager to learn young people are very keen to use journalism as a positive force for change in a deeply divided society in Egypt”, said one of the MDI trainers. By promoting diversity and responsible journalism, they are convinced that their webzine Ahna Keda could become an important platform for all of Egypt’s young people, regardless of their religion or politics.
The training course in Ain Sokna and all the support for the website are part of the project “Inclusive Parliament: Building citizens’ participation in the political process in Egypt through better media, parliamentary and civil society interaction”, funded by the UK Embassy in Cairo.