Media Office at IUG Public Relations celebrated the conclusion of the first media program in English at the VIP Hall on Wednesday 11 of December, 2019.
“Media Marketing for Universities in English” is the first of its kind in Islamic University that targets English language speakers of IUG students to acquire them a plenty of journalistic and media skills that enable them to publish and produce university materials in English.
IUG President Prof. Nasser Farahat said in the ceremony: “We cherish the outstanding achievement of the IUG Media Office. We are proud of our students who take a step forward to reach out the University message among the western society”.
Mr. Rami Ruhmi, Head of Media Office at Public Relations, attributes kicking off the program to the need of forming a “Foreign Media Team” that is capable of addressing the western academic community and exposing the university context to the foreign partner and non-partner universities.
Mr. Ruhmi asserted that: “this program is more concerned with the practical side than the theoretical for the sake of training students on the labor market”.
The program was included a number of distinguished academics who participated in the program: Prof. Ahmad Yousef lectured on “The basics of understanding western community and foreign media”, prof. Mosheer Amer talked about “Media Marketing and Media Influence Strategies”, Mr. Husam Ayesh gave two sessions on “Methodology of Writing Press Releases and journalistic introductions”, Prof. Refaat Alareer lectured on “Writing Feature Stories/Leads”, Mr. Rami Ruhmi, gave a lecture on “Skills of choosing Picture for Press Releases and Social Media”; finally, and Dr. Omar Hammad lectured on “Presentation Skills in English”. Many field visits were conducted to Foreign and local media agencies such as Al-Jazeera, Associated Press and Al- Quran Broadcasting. All of the visits’ aim was to strengthening the communication and networking with media agencies and the local community.
Prof. Ahmed Yousef, Head of House of Wisdom Institute, congratulated the university on such a unique program and expressed his amazement of the participating students’ performance and their English fluency, highlighting that Languages are the main factor of success and reaching western communities.
Dr. Yousef narrated his experience in dealing with against and Pro-Palestinian western societies, asserting that he couldn’t have understood them except by mastering their language and living among them. He made clear that Palestinians need to bring to light a strong narrative of their cause, not only for appealing to westerns empathy, but to unravel the falsehood and reveal the truth in a humanitarian, contemporary way using English language.
Malak Zaqout, a trainee in the program, said that she hasn’t been interested in the Media field before, but now she is. She reported that now she can write a press release, news stories and feature stories, pointing out that she lately wrote a news story on the “Hult Prize” which she is engaged in, it was also published on the University’s website.
Omar Albalawi, another trainee in the program, added: “I’ve learned a lot in this program and have written a success story in English about a student with disability who made his way towards success with determination and dedication. The story was published on Twitter and the University’s website under the Success Stories category.”
