Prof. Amen Wafi, a faculty member in the Journalism and Media Department, the Faculty of Arts at the Islamic University of Gaza, participated in the activities of the first international conference “Media between university education outcomes and labor market requirements”, organized by the Faculty of Media at the Middle East University in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in the period 20–21 September 2022, with the participation of the Arab Association for Communication Sciences, Jordanian and Arab media personalities, experts and academics from Arab higher education institutions, including: Lebanon, Morocco, Sudan, Palestine, Iraq, Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Yemen and Saudi Arabia.
Prof. Wafi’s participation came by presenting a scientific study entitled “Media students’ trends towards using digital freelance platforms as an alternative to traditional work in the media and the achieved gratifications: a field study.”
During the conference, 36 research papers were discussed, including: “Aiding skills to employ media college graduates in the labor market”, “digital media: the convergence of electronic platforms is in confrontation or in partnership with traditional media in the era of the knowledge economy?”, “The effectiveness of field training in qualifying Jordanian media college students for the labor market”, “media academic structure and its implications on professional practice”, “the specificity of media and communication sciences and their intellectual trends”, and “the effectiveness of media training programs for communicators in Jordanian media institutions and their repercussions on professional practice”.
The conference participants recommended the necessity of bridging the digital content gap permanently, establishing research centers in media colleges, providing the studies needed by society and directing pioneering projects towards them, developing curricula for media colleges and making creativity and innovation a basis in them, introducing new courses for people with disabilities and other courses in Arabic and English, urging media institutions and associations to prepare training courses for their media professionals, and establishing a code of conduct that regulates the work of free media that does not conflict with the system.
