Fall 2017 Covering an Event Assignment at AUC

Some basic tools for covering an event as a journalist.

For Fall 2017, students in the Multimedia Writing course covered many events on The American University in Cairo (AUC) campus.

This is a required course for all majors in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication (JRMC).

For this assignment the students worked in small groups to produce

• live tweets with photos and video
• an article
• photo essay
• short video
• audio clips and interviews

We used Adobe Spark to produce the web pages.

Here is the list of the events covered:

On Sunday, October 22, 2017

• Conference in AUC Reveals How Social Media Shapes Politics
• The Future of Traditional Journalism in Egypt

On Sunday, October 29, 2017

• Chi-La-I-Li Wa-Chi-Wi Brings Native American Culture to Cairo
• Tips for Inclusive Teaching
• The Future of Graduates in the World of Tech-based Corporations

On Monday, October 30, 2017

• Discussion with La Totfea El Shams Cast

On Monday, November 6, 2017

• Seeking Change Through Promoting Global Citizenship Education
• Global Citizenship and Its Importance in Promoting Education for an Entire Generation

Spring 2017 Covering an Event Assignment

Some basic tools for covering an event as a journalist.

For Spring 2017, students in the Multimedia Writing course covered many events on The American University in Cairo (AUC) campus.

This is a required course for all majors in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication (JRMC).

We used Adobe Spark to produce the web pages.

Here is the list of the events covered:

On Wednesday, March, 22, 2017
Ambassador of South Korea Discusses Relationship with Middle East In a Visit to AUC Campus
By Hanah Gemei, Selim Abo Mosallam and Emily John

On Thursday, March 23, 2017
Stepping Into The Future: Using Social Media In The Classroom
By Malak Abdelnabi, Nada Gabra and Nour Assil

On Wednesday, March 29, 2017
The 2011 Egyptian Revolution: A Step Forward for Women?
By Alaa Mahmoud, Mariam Elhouchy and Samar Ahmed

On Wednesday, March 29, 2017
Next Generation Egyptian Journalists Urge Action to Tackle Egypt's Biggest Issues
By Nada El Damaty, Nada Nour and Yassin Montasser

On Thursday, March 30, 2017
A Lecture on Occupation Sparks a Heated Debate Between the Attendees and Lecturer
By Menna Eid, Yousef Eissa and Sara Omar

On Sunday, April 2, 2017
Documentary Screening and Discussion of the State of Autistic Children and Their Mothers in Egypt
By Maged Mekawy and Merhan El Aramany

On Monday, April 3, 2017
Five Novel Writing No-Nos
By Nada Maswouf, Hanan Rashawn and Karam Fakhouri

Egyptian TV presenter, Ramy Radwan: I’ll quit if I’m ever forced to give up my principles!

By Farah Zalat and Hussein Shaker

(Cairo, Egypt) - Ramy Radwan, TV presenter of El Beit Beitak and alumnus of The American University in Cairo (AUC), spoke at AUC about the challenges facing young media professionals on Monday, November 2, 2015.

Radwan was the guest speaker and around 50 people attended, ranging from current AUC students and faculty to AUC alumni. It was planned by The AUC Alumni Association, which strives to connect the AUC alumni with one another as well as with the university.

After a brief introduction of Radwan by Dr. Naila Hamdy, associate professor and chair of the Journalism and Mass Communication Department (JRMC), he began his speech by clarifying how he was choosing to speak in Arabic because his respect for his native language has significantly grown lately. He jokingly, yet informatively, mentioned some of the challenges he has faced in the field.

He reassured the audience by using a personal example that making a mistake will not be as severe if you take the right measures to correct it and apologize. He also talked about how hard it is now to stay grounded ethically, stating how this problem has become increasingly evident in the Egyptian media.

In 2015, The Guardian published an article focusing on the increasing number of Egyptian media professionals who are becoming “mouthpieces for the government.” Which further proves Radwan’s point about the ethics in Egyptian media.

Rawan Lasheen, a JRMC graduate who attended the event; stated, “The government restrictions they put on the media. To say this and say that, don’t say this and don’t say that,” is the biggest problem she is personally facing in the field.

During the interview with Radwan after the event, he advised, “If you stick to your own beliefs, you will always gain more than just doing like a chameleon” to further emphasize the importance of principles in media.

Radwan is on El Beit Beitak on TEN TV at 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. every Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday. Tune in to watch him apply his personal ethics as a TV presenter.

Photo Slideshow: The Chocolate Devil Cake

Produced by Sarah Hassan

Hello there chocolate lovers! Finally the weekend is here to bake my father's favorite dessert dish; chocolate cake covered up all over with chocolate frosting, namely, The Chocolate Devil Cake.

I've always loved to bake this cake ever since my grandma taught me when I was a kid. Its chocolate temptation makes you just want to keep eating it. So I decided to share my grandma's recipe with you!

Can E- Governance Reduce Corruption?

By: Haidy Abdrabou, Nouri Hassabalh and Mohamed Soliman.  
 Cairo, Egypt--On Sunday April 2nd , 2014, at the American University in Cairo (AUC). Dr.  Shahjahan Bhuiyan, professor at School of Global Affairs and Public Policy in AUC talked about E-governance, how it functions and how successful it is in many developing countries like Kazakhstan and others.

Dr. Bhuiyan talked about e-governance, he mentioned that it is one of the "ambitious projects" in the developing countries. He talked about it in a way of the vending machine theory, which is providing services for the people. The need of e-governance in order to provide the customer, it works by customer focused effect, easy to use services for citizens and businesses. One of many pros of e-governance were it would reduce financial crises, as it would save a lot of money for governments to take care of other problems.

One prominent problem was corruption, e-governance reduces corruption. E-governance is all about the technology and internet connections, it reduces human contact, so as a result it would reduce many forms of corruptions for instance bribes, blackmailing and other problems. Corruption kills the capacities for governments to work and function.  E- Governance would make everything easier for the citizens; it has been applied in many countries like, India and Kazakhstan.

Most people have access to all of the information; this means people would be aware of what their governments are doing, throughout the lecture Dr. Bhuiyan showed many statistics about how successful e-governance in India since 2008, till 2013, and it showed a huge decrease in the index of minimizing the corruption phenomena.

During the interview, Dr. Bhuiyan mentioned that e-governance in Egypt was working, before the January 25th revolution, adding it to the list of countries that, he discussed in the lecture, which were India, Kazakhstan and Pakistan. It was working well, but people could not feel it from the amounts of corruption that was existing during that time. As people of Egypt didn't have the access to all of the information and that most of it were falsified, in a way, they were not reflecting the truth.
Lastly, Dr. Bhuiyan added that, e-governance won’t work out unless, the society demands it, as it has to be the people's wish to have a system like this, “civil society have to be empowered to make such system accountable.” One of the attendees, Dr. Khaled Abdelhalim, assistant professor of Urban policy, PPAD. He added in his interview that e-governance would only be efficient, when there is "public awareness and societal will."

Study Abroad in Denmark: Journalism Students Share their Experience

By Youmna Hashem, Hana Koueider and Rowaida Khidre. 

CAIRO, Egypt – On Sunday, three journalism students at the American University in Cairo shared their Danish study abroad experience with their peers and faculty. The panel discussion was an hour long and took place in the Mary Cross Hall.

     Ola Noureldin, Nour El Afandi and Yara Enany took turns introducing themselves and telling the audience about their experiences in a land foreign to them. They spoke candidly about their fall 2013 semester abroad at the Danish School of Media and Journalism in Aarhus, Denmark.

     Nour, the first to take the floor, explained that Aarhus, the city in which the three young women stayed, is a student city that is rich in cultural and ethnic diversity. “You’re going to become open minded,” she said. “You’re going to deal with people who are completely different to you,” Nour added. She went on to say that, although she felt homesick at first, she adapted quickly and began enjoying everything her courses had to offer.

     Yara, the first graduate student to go on this study abroad programme, spoke about the challenges she faced during registration. She explained that, although she initially had some issues finding accredited courses for her master's degree, it worked out to be a “brilliant experience.” Being the only graduate student, Yara’s time at DSMJ was slightly different to her undergraduate counterparts. She was given the opportunity to carry out “risk reporting” in collaboration with the United Nations and the EU.

     Ola, a senior, spoke about the teaching approach adopted by her professors at DSMJ. “The teachers don’t spoon feed you the information. They want you to figure out the right way on your own,” she said. She explained that the main difference between education there and education at AUC was the practical application of knowledge. In a post-interview, Ola said she would "advise (students) interested in study abroad to go for it. It's very enriching."

     We spoke with audience member Malak Assad, a journalism student planning on going to DMSJ next fall. When asked what her overall impression was, Malak said, "I see how much (the students) grew there... I'm really looking forward to seeing it."

How Will AUC Survive the $9.7 Million Budget Deficit?

By: Sarah Yousri, Nermeen Abdel Fattah, Menna Al Malky and Radwa Magdy.

CAIRO, Egypt – A forum discussing the $9.7 million budget deficit took place at The American University in Cairo (AUC) on Sunday November 24^th and was held by the University’s President Lisa Anderson and Executive Vice President for Administration and Finance Brian MacDougall.

The purpose of the forum was to generate suggestions and proposals from the AUC community in an effort to overcome the steep financial gap the university is facing. MacDougall stated that AUC is considering different strategies in order to overcome the gap.

According to MacDougall, the main reason for the deficit is a significant drop in enrollment due to a fall in the number of international students by more than 300, adding that revenue is also affected by the 50 percent cut in donations.

"On a positive note, the signing of the Greek Campus lease is starting to bring revenue to the university," he says.

MacDougall discussed two direct strategies the administration is considering implementing, namely, raising the current cost of residence fees for students as well as the implementation of a new parking payment system. As for the faculty and staff, changes in hiring, salaries, benefits and overtime policies were among the proposals made.  

Anderson says admitting more students is out of the question since the university will not be able to provide them with the quality of education they are paying for in response to an attendee who raised  concern over how AUC will be able to maintain quality after reducing their budget. 

Additionally, the decline in the number of international students is not due to a decrease in the quality of education offered at AUC, it is due to the travel ban imposed by the US government, Anderson said.

In a personal interview, MacDougall says: “We want to solve it in a way that’s fair and reasonable to everybody.”

MacDougall has not come to any solution and will consult the AUC community before implementing any strategy.

An additional university-wide forum was also held in Arabic.

Welcome to the JRMC Multimedia Writing Blog

Welcome to the JRMC Multimedia Writing Blog!

This course is taught each semester at The American University in Cairo (AUC). Professor Kim Fox usually teaches a section of the course in the Journalism and Mass Communication (JRMC) department.

Students enrolled in the course learn a variety of media writing styles. They also produce several multimedia projects.

We hope that you enjoy their work.
~Professor Kim Fox