Students from 21 high schools got a glimpse of life in the media industry this week at Northwestern University in Qatar (NUQ)’s Summer Media Institute.
iloveqatar.net founder Haroun speaking to the high school students at the NUQ Summer Media Institute
With a fortnight of samplers from the media and academic worlds, the students got a taste of what it would be like to work as a producer, entrepreneur, journalist, editor, and filmmaker.
NUQ dean and chief executive Everette Dennis said that the institute aims “to give students a taste of university life and media professionalism, as well as to contribute to the overall development of Qatar’s next generation by teaching 21st century skills”.
“At NU-Q, we believe that media literacy is a crucial element in the success of tomorrow’s leaders, whatever field they choose to pursue,” she added.
A “Media-Makers” series introduced the students to potential careers in the field through a line-up of speakers from established media institutions in Qatar.
The speakers described how they found their own paths in the competitive field of communications through trial and error, innovation, and epiphanies about what it means to be a media professional.
Khalifa Haroun, founder of “iloveqatar.net” and head of innovation at Vodafone Qatar, left investment banking to devote his time to creating a guide about Qatar that “gives its people a voice and shares information” about the country.
Haroun’s enthusiasm for breaking new ground with media was echoed by Bilal Randaree, founder of Doha Tweetups and Al Jazeera International’s online editor.
“The atmosphere in Al Jazeera’s newsroom when (the Egyptian president Hosni) Mubarak was toppled was as electric as it was in Tahrir Square,” Randaree told the students. “Now is the most exciting time to be in the media.”
Other “Media Maker” speakers included filmmaker Waheed Khan of the Doha Film Institute and Roula Ayoub, creative director at Firefly Media.
When they weren’t hearing from Qatar’s media professionals, the Northwestern Summer Media Institute students were participating in field trips and courses led by NU-Q faculty on understanding media, photography, curating content, critical analysis of media, and media technology, with the ultimate goal of creating their own news broadcast.
The final product, with segments covering local issues from the medical effects of shisha to pet centre conditions in Qatar and the perspective of a watch mender in the souq, was presented at a closing ceremony on July 12, which also launched a website for sharing the broadcast with wider audiences.
The website is accessible at http://mi2012.qatar.northwestern.edu/.