Every day, readers absorb press messages and images without stopping to ask who produced them, why, and what impact they are meant to have — a gap this Arab British Fellowship Training Academy training course sets out to close by teaching participants how to properly receive, question and analyse information from printed and electronic sources alike.

At the centre of the course is the journalistic story, an unconventional form of writing where the journalist draws on skill and instinct to bring an event to life for the reader rather than just report it, often in service of humanitarian issues such as unemployment, war, disaster, poverty and health. The course also covers portrait writing, where a journalist profiling a public figure has to work through articles, interviews and direct contact with people close to that figure — a family member or friend — to build an accurate picture.

Who Should Attend

• Journalists, politicians and press reporters, plus new staff entering the press industry.
• Anyone who wants to learn the basics of press and media analysis.

Course Objectives

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Identify the theories, trends, processes and models used in media and communications.
• Discuss the different aspects of mass media, including its historical development and its economic and social impact on public culture.
• Analyse how mass media shapes individual and public awareness, and collect, identify and interpret both explicit and implicit media messages.
• Build strategies for interpreting and evaluating the impact of media on daily life.

Module 1: Understanding Mass Media

• The significance, forms, major trends, economics, theories and operations of mass media.

Module 2: Printed and Electronic Media

• Printed media (books, magazines and newspapers): their history, influence, and the challenges they face, plus how clusters, globalisation and restructuring have changed the industry.
• Electronic media (audio, television and film): their history, importance, technological development, and role in news and entertainment broadcasting in the computer age.

Module 3: Journalism, Advertising and Public Relations

• The rules and customs of press media and current press trends.
• The importance of advertising, public relations, research, psychology and media relations.

Module 4: Media and Society

• Studies on media roles and impacts, including how violence is portrayed through the media.
• Media's relationship with cultural composition and diversity, social upbringing, privacy and intrusion.