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.

A2K4D Discusses Research, Advocacy and Policy at AUC

Thursday, June 19, 2014

By Nourhan Abdel Hamid, Tarek Beltagy, Nora Seweify and Mahmoud Elsaeid

 

 
   Cairo, Egypt - On Monday, June 16, 2014, three diverse scholars discussed Research, Advocacy and Policy during Access to Knowledge for Development’s (A2K4D) fourth Annual Workshop. The workshop was held at the American University in Cairo’s Moataz El-Alfi Hall, and consisted of five sessions.

    
The fifth and final session of the workshop included three speakers who each gave their own insights about the topic. The three speakers were: Heba Ghannam, a community outreach manager at Tahrir Academy, Pranesh Prakash, an Access to Knowledge Fellow at the Yale Information Society Project and Tobias Schonwetter, director of the Intellectual Property Law and Policy Unit at the University of Cape Town's law faculty.

 Schonwetter mentioned during the session, “Policy makers don’t necessarily come from the same area,” and seeing how diverse the panel at this session was; his point was proven right.

 The three critical thinkers spoke about the importance of research and what each of them are doing or aim to do in order to reach their initiative. All the speakers adopted different techniques and had diverse approaches towards their research; however they each made compelling arguments.

 Prakash mentioned how he believes that his approach is much more research oriented; not to say that advocacy is not important. However, he explained that achieving thorough research is the main aspect in his point of view.

 “Our dream is to have a new Egyptian generation of critical thinkers,” Ghannam said. She then went on to discuss how she wants her project to influence every child in the country, as one can’t expect to have new innovators if the material being taught to them is outdated. Her initiative has adopted new and fun ways of teaching kids, which have enabled children to learn in diverse ways.

 Another important point was one raised by Schonwetter, which was “Don’t preach to the choir.” This point was emphasized throughout the entire conference, seeing as what good would it make if one addresses people who already have an idea.

 Schonwetter also mentioned how fixing instead of solving is the main aim that should be achieved. Throughout this session, there were several questions, such as; does the law have to change before research is done? How can these scholars influence the government? And how long will it take for an actual change to happen? These questions were certainly answered by the panel with emphasis on research, advocacy and policy.

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!

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.

Translation for Bigots: The Art of Translating Arabic Literature into English

By: Nehal El-Sayed and Eman Sarkes

(Photos by: Eman Sarkes)

CAIRO, Egypt – Adam Talib, assistant professor of Arabic Literature at The American University in Cairo (AUC) gave a lecture titled “Translation for Bigots” on Sunday.

As part of an interdisciplinary series organized by the AUC Center for Translation Studies, Talib discussed his anecdotal experience with translating modern Arabic literature for English readers.

“When you’re translating into English, you’re translating for a world,” said Talib as he emphasized on the English language being global. Talib stated that when he translates, he has a fair amount of discretion, in terms of what to emphasize or de-emphasize.

Talib talked about his experience with translating modern Arabic literature and trying to make his translations readable. “I often do things to the original text to make them approachable,” he said.

He related bigotry to the differences in cultures and discussed how it affects the literary translation. He showed examples of Google automatic search engines such as, “Do Arab women marry black men?” Talib believes that this is not evidence for bigotry, yet “an evidence for the cultural gap between the specialist translator who knows his environment well and his audience”.

A discussion question was raised on what translators should do in the use of language to correctly represent the situation. He stated his experience saying, “A lot of times, you translate what’s on the page, and the reviewers find it peculiar”.

Talib stated that translators only care about the translation not the political questions surrounding it. He gave an example of a translation by a French translator who ignored translating a scene about Jews for a specific legal reason that they have a law about Holocaust denial.

In response to the question about the role of translator, Yosra Ali, political science and history sophomore, said, “I believe that translators should not change anything of the authentic text, but at the same time they may provide comments as footnotes to clarify the meaning”.

In a personal interview with Professor Talib, he said, “the better a reader the translator is, the better translation he’s going to produce.”

Egypt: A Country Lost Between the Generals and Islamists

By: Sarah Yousri, Menna Al Malky and Karima Aly

CAIRO, Egypt -- Sharif Abdel Koddous discussed Egypt's continuing struggle since the 25^th of January revolution at The American University in Cairo (AUC) on Wednesday.

The lecture was hosted by the Middle East Studies Center (MESC) and the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication (JRMC).

Koddous started the lecture by stating that it has only been 1000 days since the first revolution. He then continued that the problems that have initially sparked the first revolution have not yet been solved such as the fair distribution of wealth and freedom among citizens.

“The military is firmly in control," said Kouddous. The military is using the constitution to establish it's political and economic power as well as seeking to ensure it's supremacy in the country.

The current political crisis is a result of the power struggle between the military and the Muslim Brotherhood according to Koddous. Both parties played a "zero-sum game," which demands choosing between the two powers.

Koddous went deeper into the struggle between the two powers by adding that both only seek their own political and economic concerns over that of the public's. He also added that both powers are defined by hierarchy, secrecy and superiority.

Nine-thousand strikes took place throughout ex-president Mohamed Morsy's year in power after he used harsh tactics against the opposition encouraging a brutal security sector in addition to restricting citizen's rights to protesting in the draft law. 

Morsy's opponents mainly consisted of Human Rights advocates, revolutionary activists, business elites and the Coptic Church.

Koddous then talked about Tamarod, a genuine movement appearing in early May 2013, and how the military managed to successfully co-opt with the movement to regain power. 

The military managed to gain publicity through liberal figures. But managed to demonize Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei, also a liberal figure, for disagreeing with it's violence against the Islamists.

Koddous' audience reacted positively towards his lecture. Mai Mekawy, a finance major student at AUC, believed that Koddous summed-up the situation in a balanced way.

In an interview, when asked whether or not he thinks that Abdel Fattah El-Sisi will be running for presidency, Koddous said that Sisi will want "to be the real power of the country but not to be the face of the government."