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

Fall 2016 Covering an Event Assignment

For Fall 2016, students in the Multimedia Writing course covered many events on The American University in Cairo (AUC) campus.

We used Adobe Spark to produce the web pages.

Here is the list of the events covered:

On Tuesday, Nov. 1
Makeup Workshop in AUC Reveals Beauty Tips
By Danah AlAnsari, Farida Kamal, Haidy Haitham and Yomna Abdelnasser

On Monday, Nov. 7
Directing Askar wa-Harameyya: A Professor's Experience
By Doaa Abdelghany, Mayar Magdy and Rania Yehia

On Wednesday, Nov. 9
The University Forum on Student Tuition
By Mariam Seif, Reem Mohamed and Hanien Gaballah

On Saturday, Nov. 12
Heated Discussion Breaks Out at Cairo Streets and Stories Event
By Lama Ibrahim, Kareem Ragheb and Kirillos Samuel

On Wednesday, Nov. 16
Egyptian Superheroes That No Longer Need to Fly
By Leila Nassar, Yasmine Ayoub and Yara El-Fayoumi

On Sunday, Nov. 20
Bridging the Gap Between Media Education and the Industry
By Mayar El Zanty, Jackline Said and Farha Tomoum

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.

Multimedia Writing Project Portfolios

Multimedia Writing Project Portfolios

Students in JRMC 2202 Multimedia Writing at The American University in Cairo were required to produce digital portfolios of the work they completed in the course.

Each portfolio should have at least the following components:

• Home page
• Computer Assisted Reporting (CAR)
• Twitter Scavenger Hunt (TSH)
• Interview
• Photo Essay

In the near future, some of the students will also create and post an infographic.

There were other assignments/projects in the course including the Covering an Events assignment, but these are the components that will be featured on their portfolios.

In the past I had used Epsilen, a platform utilized by the university. However, Epsilen has not kept up with the digital times and it's a bit chunky.

After some research, I determined that Weebly was the best platform for this task. This decision was reached after watching a few introductory videos and the ease of use in building a website via the Weebly platform. The drag and drop component is super simple. The best part is that the end result has the potential to be organized and professional.

Students were given some time in class to work on the portfolios. They were also given detailed feedback after they posted a 'draft' of the portfolio.

The goal of the portfolio:

It should be error free because it is a showcase of their work to share for prospective internship or job opportunities.

Students should also be proud to display their body of work from the course in a public platform and in a professional manner.

This semester I taught three sections of this course. Here are the students' digital portfolios:

Multimedia Writing Section 1:
Nouri
Haidy
Yara Al K.
Mireille
Yomna D.
Nora
Yara El.
Youmna El.
Nushka
Karima
Mohamed
Yasmine


Multimedia Writing Section 2:
Salma B.
Hania
Salma R.
Nour
Youmna
Sarah
Hanan
Rowaida
Hana
Mayar
Yehia
Norhan


Multimedia Writing Section 3:
Haneen
Farah A.
Hannah
Nadine
Passant
Alaa
Noha
Farrah
Zeina
Rawan
Amira
Nourhan
Eshraka
Farah T.

Congratulations to the students for their efforts. And good luck in to their future careers in the media.