Training Description

The training workshop is designed to equip professors with the knowledge and tools to teach the basics of investigative journalism to students doing their Bachelor’s or Masters programmes in Media as a 3-credit hours course. The course is part of the first ARIJ curriculum for assisting university professors teach “in-depth reporting” and has been written by Dr. Mark Lee Hunter.

The curriculum has been successfully tested in Arab universities, including the Lebanese American University (LAU), Rafik Hariri University and Ahram Canadian University.

A training manual, which is available in Arabic, will be used in the training. The trainer will start by finding out what the professors know and provide them with new materials and methods to equip their students with the needed skills to conduct investigative reports. The methods are a novel application of qualitative research, strongly influenced by scientific concepts. The materials are strongly based on practice, because that is what students are hungry for. We furnish some of the teaching materials and participants create some which also allows them to gather research for their own academic publications.

The curriculum has been designed at the request of over 100 Arab media professors who have attended various ARIJ functions and annual conferences in the past decade. They cited a lack of actual experience in being investigative journalists as one of the main reasons why they shy away from introducing this course as well as the difficulties in changing curriculum at most universities, especially state-run.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this workshop, professors will be able to learn new approaches to teaching IJ to media students. They will be able to teach the importance of IJ for society as part of the Fourth Estate. They will also be able to teach the ethics and basics of IJ, the basics of conducting investigations by using a hypothesis that can be verified or changed. And they will put students on the right track to start and manage an investigation. The curriculum has been designed at the request of over 100 Arab media professors who have attended various ARIJ functions and annual conferences in the past decade and cited lack of actual experience in being investigative journalists as one of the main reasons why they shy away from introducing this course in addition to the difficulties in changing curriculum at most universities, especially state-run.

Target Audience
Media professors in Arab Universities.

ARIJ Training Solutions are tailored to your training needs, for further information and a quote, contact ARIJ Business Development Specialist, Yazan Abu Al Rous, yazan.rous@arij.net