Workshop for Young Journalists

Details

While the Omani media sector has made great strides towards professionalization over the last few years, the potential for increased original reporting and investigative work still remains particularly large in the Sultanate. Consequently, this year’s workshop for young journalists, set to take place March 13-18, 2014, in Muscat, will focus on the theory and practice of investigative reporting as well as the increasing importance of social media and e-publishing for the field.

The media workshop aims in equipping young Omani journalists with the toolkit to independently conduct investigative research and produce original stories through hands-on training with experienced professionals from the field: Ms. Anne Allmeling, journalist at the ARD studio in Rabat, Morocco, and alumna of the KAS Scholarship Programme for Young German Journalists (JONA), as well as Mr. Turki Al Balushi, founder and editor-in-chief of Al Balad, Oman’s first online newspaper.

As part of the workshop, the participants will also produce first investigative features on local issues, which will be published in Al Balad. In addition to practical training with experienced reporters, the workshop will be complemented by external events, such as field trips to local news outlets, and a lecture on social media reporting at the Cultural Club.

With the workshop, KAS aims at contributing to the establishment of professional journalistic standards and a participatory civil society in the Gulf States. Comparable workshops have also taken place in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.