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After traveling to the Middle East and Gulf in recent
years, I have become acutely aware that the image of this region
among my journalist colleagues and the portrayal of the region in
American media do not match the understanding of the region that
I have experienced. In addition, formal academic studies of Arab
and American media frequently reveal the tendency in media reports
for stereotyping and superficial presentations of complex issues.
It is often hard to recognize each other's country in such press
reports.
Since journalism plays such an important role in shaping pubic
opinion, we are proposing a series of workshops and study tours
for Arab and American journalists and journalism educators in
the Middle East and Gulf regions and in the United States.
There are two goals for these workshops:
- · To give each group firsthand experience with the people,
culture and issues of the other region and
- · To build personal relationships among professional colleagues
from the other region.
I am writing to ask that you help us refine the concept for
and details of such an exchange program. When that planning is
completed, we would ask that you consider providing financial
support for the first set of workshops to test this concept.
I believe that given your deep interest in the impact of media
and leading role in projects in this field, such a pioneering
project must not be deprived of your valuable input.
Permit me to offer some background from which this proposal
grows.
The Missouri School of Journalism is the first school of journalism
in the world, founded in 1908. Over the years, we have undertaken
many pioneering international journalism projects. From its first
days, the school has enjoyed extensive involvement with international
journalism issues. Students from other countries were in its first
graduating classes. Our founding dean traveled extensively around
the world to meet journalists from other countries. Our school
was an active participant in a series world press congresses in
the first half of this century. On the 25th anniversary of its
founding, the school helped university faculty in China establish
journalism education there.
Today, we have more graduate students from outside the United
States than we have from our home state of Missouri. The school
publishes the quarterly magazine of the International Press Institute,
headquartered in Vienna. Our faculty now travel to many parts
of the world for workshops and consultation. Our faculty helped
establish a journalism program and the American University in
Bulgaria. We were a partner with the faculty of Birzeit University,
West Bank, in expanding its journalism program in the mid 1990s.
Last year, a faculty colleague at Lebanese American University
in Beirut and I edited the stories of each other's students using
the World Wide Web and e-mail. This year we are working cooperatively
with faculty at Lebanese University and Birzeit University to
explore the interests and motivations of our students to study
journalism.
At the Missouri School of Journalism we have used this workshop
format successfully on improve the practice of journalism in many
specialties.
Here are some of the benefits that have grown from Missouri
workshops:
- How newspapers cover issues related to families,
- How journalists report about business,
- How photographers tell stories with pictures,
- How broadcast managers supervise their newsrooms,
- How managers diversify their news staffs to include more
women and minorities in their work forces, and
- How reporters use computers and other advanced tools to find
and writer better stories.
We believe the same benefit can come from workshops that deal
with developing personal experiences and relationships among Arab
and American journalists and journalism educators.
While the American government often sponsors exchange visits as
part of its foreign relations program, we have found that our workshops
have been most successful when they are financed by private resources
rather that sponsored by a government organization. This financial
independence gives our partners and us greater freedom to develop
the projects toward our own goals.
The basic features of the workshop series might include these
elements:
- Joint coordination of the workshops by Missouri and Arab
universities in the Middle East and Gulf States.
- Visits of at least two weeks and perhaps as long a one month.
- Time split between orientation programs at a host university
and visits to the countryside and cities in the host country.
- Presentations from academic experts in a variety of topics
--culture, economy, public policy, environment, health, education,
human rights, geography, etc.
- Visiting reporters and educators could be paired with host
journalists and educators to develop stories on issues of particular
interest to the individual reporters.
- Visiting reporters and educators would become hosts when
the workshop came to their region.
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