Institute for Media Training and Research
Previous activities
May 2010: Journalism workshop for Iraqi journalists from Northern Iraq
The IMTR hosted a journalism workshop for 11 veteran journalists from Northern Iraq. Participants attended lectures on various subjects ranging from press freedom to newsroom management and digital media. They shared meals with prominent local journalists and visited newspapers and television studios, including Assafir newspaper and Future TV.
November 2010: Lecture by veteran journalist Octavia Nasr
The IMTR hosted a lecture by Octavia Nasr on new media and their contribution to journalism, press freedom and an enhanced democracy. Nasr is an LAU Communication Arts graduate. She was the CNN Middle East correspondent for over 20 years.
December 2010: Expert exchange during closed lecture on intercultural communication education, in cooperation with the Netherlands Institute for Academic Studies in Damascus (NIASD)
The IMTR hosted a lecture, “Intercultural Communication and Intercultural Communicative Competence,” by Dr. Marie-Christine Kok-Escalle of Utrecht University (the Netherlands). The lecture came as part of an effort to foster scholarly exchange in the study of communication across Lebanese universities as well as with European academic institutions –or the Netherlands’ in this case. The lecture addressed intercultural communication as a field of study and research. It provided an overview of the core elements in the discipline as well as some examples of cases and materials of intercultural communication programs. Scholars from LAU, the Lebanese University and St Joseph University attended.
November 2010: Journalism workshop for Iraqi journalists from Muthanna, Iraq
The IMTR hosted a week-long workshop for thirteen journalists who flew in from Muthanna in Iraq. Subjects included newsroom management, political and social talk shows and interviews, media law and its effect on press freedom, new media and organizational communication in news organizations. Trainees also had a roundtable discussion with around 12 journalists from various Lebanese media to exchange insights on the two countries’ media systems.
February-August 2011: Research on the Lebanese youth reception of the Egyptian revolt
IMTR researchers planned and executed a longitudinal survey analyzing the reception of the Egyptian revolt among 400 Lebanese university students. The study examined media consumption patterns among the study population and the effect of these patterns on students' perception of the revolt in terms of framing and narrative construction. Documenting the effect of the first fully-mediated revolution in an environment where media production and consumption patterns are changing as we speak, the survey revealed three different frames of the event –mainly mediated by social identification: the social, the religious and the media-related. It also suggested a relationship between the first and those who watched Arab news channels and the last and those who followed the news on YouTube.
April 2011: Training session in media and gender for female Iraqi journalists, in cooperation with the Institute for Women Studies in the Arab World (IWSAW)
The IMTR and the Institute for Women Studies in the Arab World hosted a week-long media and gender training program designed to empower ten female journalists from Ninewa, providing them with intensive courses in journalism and gender relations. Gender scholars and renowned media professionals trained participants about journalistic practices and technology in Lebanon and helped assist them in coping with the challenges of working in a largely male-dominated field. Topics included investigative journalism, interviewing skills, ethics, cultural journalism, new media, gender representation on television and the challenges faced by women in the field.