DUBAI, MAY 14, 2017 – A group of senior journalism students at Canadian University Dubai held a panel discussion and assessment session in April in order to present their senior projects. The projects presented were fully fledged magazines consisting of themes, articles and pictures designed by the students individually or as part of a team effort.
The judges for the assessment and panel included two professional journalists, Mervat Abdulhameed from Al Bayan newspaper and Riaz Agha from Gulf Today newspaper, as well as Associate Professor Dr. Abdalla Abu Libdeh and Assistant Professor, Dr. Ghada Mostafa Abaido, from the University’s Faculty of Communications and Media Studies who also acted as the students supervisor for their senior projects.
Some of the ideas shown to the panel included a magazine titled 2117, which looked at Dubai one hundred years in the future and featured interviews with local innovators and leaders in the science and technology fields. Another magazine, called Ella, explored the world of beauty and fashion, while a third, titled Bash, focused on tourism in the UAE.
“The panel was very impressed with the magazine ideas pitched by the students,” said Dr. Ghada. “They weren’t expecting the level of quality or professionalism our students displayed. All of the students put a great deal of effort and hard work into their projects and the end result were highly engaging and thought provoking magazines that you’d be proud to see displayed on any magazine rack in the world.”
2117, created by Iman Dawod, Afraee Mohammad, Ghazad Hawash and Hong Yen Xhu, received the highest praise from the judges. Speaking about the challenges of creating, designing and producing their own magazine, Iman Dawod, said, “At first it was a little difficult learning to write about topics that we don’t have a background in, like robotics and bio-technology, but as we kept doing more interviews and explored different topics, it became easier, and we were really proud of the final project.”
In addition to advice and suggestions for the future, the invited journalists from Al Bayan and Gulf Today also published articles in their own publications about the event.
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