Speech Text

[In Arabic: In the name of Allah most merciful, peace be upon you.]

Your Excellencies, President Schapiro, Dean Dennis, members of faculty, parents and graduates: on behalf of the joint advisory board, congratulations, very well deserved.

It is a pleasure and an honor for me to stand here in front of you to share with you this very important milestone of your life.

There is a lot of celebration happening here. The biggest celebration is to see one of the biggest visions here: to build an education city that will have the best and brightest to be educated and to graduate, and we can see here one graduation after the other happening year after year. Not a long time ago it was just a vision of His Highness the Emir and Her Highness Sheikha Moza and we see this vision now realized and expanding even more.

More congratulations to you graduates—very well deserved. After years of study and exams and hard times it’s your day today. It’s your celebration, congratulations. But, I’m afraid I have some bad news for you and I want to break it now: The hard work begins now.

Let me talk to you about the field I come from. I come from media as all of you or most of you know, and media is still facing a lot of challenges. Freedom of press and freedom of expression have been well challenged over the last decades. Many countries don’t have freedom of press, or freedom of expression. Some other countries who do have them, don’t practice them very well, as they claim.

Talking about media and the challenges, why is media important anyway? We all know that media is something that changes people’s lives for the better, that’s what media should do. Is media doing this now? I don’t believe so.

Many, not all of them, but many have lost track. I’ll tell you why I’m telling you this now. Some media become biased, the others become commercialized. Those that become biased are biased because they work for commercial reasons. So if you want to work for commercial reasons, just be biased and it will work because it’s all about viewership, right? Some of them become an entertainer when I’m talking about news where the real news is lost in this world.

But, let me talk to you since we’re talking about the world. The world is facing a lot of challenges, as most of you know—poverty, war, climate change and many things. People die everywhere for no reason, innocent people. And what do we want for that? One of the biggest change agents is unbiased media. I believe that is a very real commodity right now in this day.

I’ll take an example from where I come from—Al Jazeera, when Al Jazeera started here in the Arab world. You know of the Big Bang theory? The theory that started the whole world? I believe Al Jazeera is the big bang of the Arab world. It started the whole free press in the Arab world. I always and often said to some people that you will not appreciate what Al Jazeera did for us or for the Arab world unless you are someone who lives in this world.

I believe you see a lot of changes happening now in the Arab world; free press certainly has a big role to play.

Now that’s only the Arab world? What about the world? The world is not facing some of these challenges? I believe there are a lot of challenges in the world. I used to be optimistic, but I believe that the war is yet come, and for that we do really want a free press.

Why am I telling you this graduates? Because the next coming decades are yours, it’s your time. I explained for you just in brief the importance of free press. Now is your time to shape your vision and, in fact it’s not only your vision, but the world’s vision and what you want to do if you work in media.

It is very important, very crucial, for a free strong press to tell the truth.

Ten years ago during the Iraq war, Al Jazeera was criticized. Ten years later the same people who said that Al Jazeera lied said that “we’re glad you’re doing what you’re doing.” Same people, same individuals. Because eventually the truth will prevail. But, at the time it is very difficult. It takes big courage to tell the truth.

Ask yourself this question, what is your role? What is your vision? What do you want to do? Remember that your pen, your keyboard and your word are stronger than any weapon you imagine. Take this from someone who works in media, because you are talking to people’s minds. That’s how powerful you can be. And that’s what you can play—that’s what your role can be. It’s not just a job; it’s something that can reshape the world. Ask yourself before you walk out from here, what is your vision? What do you want to do? What is your role? How can I make the world better by doing what I’m doing better?

I wish you all the best. I just shared some of the experiences or some of the challenges that you might face. As I told you I have for you bad news that the challenge is really ahead of you. If you know about Al Jazeera we lost a lot of journalists because they are seeking the truth. They are not in the crossfire. They were targeted because they want to tell the truth, targeted, most of them, in fact all of them are targeted because they want to tell the truth. They paid the ultimate price, the price of freedom press.

I wish you all the best and maybe we’ll see some of you walking in the corridor at Al Jazeera and welcome you again there.

My gratitude to the organizers of this conference for inviting me to join you here today. My interest in and respect for public relations and public communication is deep and long standing. Of course, I represent a university that proudly offers instruction in public relations and is devoted to public communication in the broadest sense.

Everette E. Dennis speaks at the International Public Relations Association’s Public Relations Regional Conference

My first professional job was as a communications director for a public agency in Chicago, Illinois. One of my first teaching assignments in a university was teaching public opinion and public information methods. I subsequently wrote a widely used mass communication text that for three decades included material that tracked and analyzed this field, in the context of media and public communication.

Along the way, I came to know leaders in the public relations field, both in the U.S. and internationally. This includes being a client of some of the world’s leading public relations firms. Over the years and of special significance to me was a longstanding relationship with one of public relations’ founders, the legendary Edward L. Bernays,  and even spoke at his memorial service when he died at the age of 103. As you perhaps know, he was the first to use the term “counsel on public relations” and established a successful firm.

He had a profound impact on the field, transforming it from publicity and press agentry to public relations, teaching the first university course in the subject and serving as advisor to chiefs of state, captains of industry and institutional leaders. He promoted ethical public relations based on mutual self-interest between the field of public relations and its clients as well as the public at large. Some say he was “the father of spin,” but I can tell you he was much more than that—truly an intellectual and organizational leader for this field for many decades, setting a high standard for performance and achievement.

Harnessing public relations to communicate a national vision would seem at first to be a straightforward proposition. To the extent that a national vision is stated—as is the case in Qatar and a few other countries—a public communications program aimed at articulation, explanation and understanding is not difficult to imagine, conceptualize and implement. But it is more complicated than that. In a recent conversation with a communications director for the new government of Libya, it was easy enough for her to state the government’s goals and urgent priorities. So too is developing a strategy and plan for expressing them can also be set out in short order. Indeed, the entire exercise can be accomplished in a few minutes, but making it happen is quite another matter as one considers the myriad of impediments to communication and understanding, let alone acceptance.

In any nation there are voices that challenge change ranging from opposition forces to various stakeholders who don’t always or perhaps ever agree. This has been true from ancient times forward, but in the modern and post-modern digital age it is even more complex—and troubling. A straightforward message from the government, a business enterprise or a social leader can appear on a variety of media and communications platforms, reinforcing its purpose and meaning, but at the same time encountering the daunting disruption of social media where many voices join the dialogue, adding facts and fictions, sometimes promoting and publicizing, sometimes impairing and misinterpreting.

Well-conceived strategies for public communication and public relations tactics now must consider not only the multiple audiences, constituencies and interests, but also the alternate means of communication, the receptivity of actual individuals, not just groups, as well as such  matters as attention span, whether the message is credible, believable, validated—and even “cool.”

Only a few countries of the world have what a Yale University seminar calls “a grand strategy,” where a national vision is tied to developmental pillars and specific plans for implementation. Drawing on masterworks by Thucydides, Sun Tzu, Machiavelli and others, the course tries to map national aspirations in the abstract and link them to policy solutions. In the Middle East and especially the Gulf region, some countries have well-stated and precisely honed national goals and objectives, tied to national resources and a vision for the future. That is the case here in Qatar where the National Vision 2030 imagines a time when extractive industries, the present source of the nation’s wealth, will be at first supplemented and then subsumed by knowledge-based industries.

This worthy and likely necessary goal benefits greatly, I believe, from three key factors, those being (1) a genuine belief in a sense of destiny, restoring and extending the importance to the region that existed in earlier times, (2) an openness to outsiders as befits a global society and (3) the resources and wherewithal to accomplish the goals of the grand strategy. As the plan’s preamble states, the nation “aims to be an advanced society capable of sustaining its development and providing a high standard of living for all of its people.” This National Vision is linked to four pillars that define and encourage:

• economic development
• human development
• social development and
• environmental development

Drilling down there are specific and evolving strategies and development plans intent on realizing and fulfilling a dream—and hopefully a reality. Both the overall plan and each of its specific areas of implementation cries out for a rigorous communications strategy to achieve its goals.

Inasmuch as public communication requires considerable background and the best intelligence, the Qatar plan which is harnessed to a National Research Strategy backed by a commitment to devote 2.8% of the GDP to that end is especially heartening. That opens the door for specific support for programs of public communication in each of the arenas designated to:

• develop the capabilities of Qatar’s people and institutions;
• build and maintain a competitive and diversified economy;
• improve health and social wellbeing of Qatar’s population;
• support Qatar’s distinctive culture and security of its people; and preserve and improve the national and built environment.

The challenge for public communication in each of these areas—and others—is to:

• Create a communications program beginning with a conceptual map that scopes out the territory from the National Vision to each of its development pillars, sometimes in great and finite detail;
• Promote and insist on greater transparency in all sectors than presently exists since transparency is the linchpin to trust and effective acceptance of communication in all forms;
• Find ways of project creativity and imaginative images and messages that capture and describe in human terms the goals and purposes as well as their implications for the nation, specific communities of interest and ultimate stakeholders;
• Fashion and implement a public communications general plan tied to continuity of messages and specific campaigns where useful and necessary;
• Identify communications media and platforms appropriate to the message to be communicated and the audience to be reached, ranging from traditional media to digital platforms, including social media;
• Invite feedback and engage a national dialogue between individuals and institutions while also testing the effectiveness of messages through quantitative and qualitative means—as well as demonstrating that the feedback is being heard, considered and used where appropriate;
• Reconsider, refresh and update the communication plan and strategy based on regular assessment and evaluation by demonstrating that no national vision or strategy succeeds without continuous public understanding and support; and
• Conduct research to assess communications programs while developing new models to improve upon initial efforts.

To my knowledge Qatar’s National Vision does not yet have a well-articulated public communications program. This can be accomplished by convening a confederation of the various communications efforts already at work at the Qatar Foundation, in ministries of government, leading businesses, universities and other enterprises. This would benefit by having national leadership blending public and private sector interests. This is better done by collaboration between and among the parties, rather than a centralized authority, which often hampers communication and diminishes trust. That trust can only be achieved by a transparent and well understood communications effort that is guided by principles of ethics and accountability. No matter what form of governance a country wishes to follow, its communications strategy needs to speak to and for its people. Thus each of the communicating entities ought to have considerable autonomy to pursue the interests of their enterprise and its stakeholders, but conscious of the national and public interest.

In few places in the world is pace of growth and development more robust than in the Gulf region—and ultimately, I believe its sustainability will be tied to its capacity to communicate to its own people, across the region and to the global community.

Arabic translation

 PDF | DOC : اضغط هنا للتحميل بالعربية

Speech Text

Qatar is a place of magical thinking. And this is that rarest of rare moments in time where big—yellow—words like “DREAM” and “INNOVATE” and “ACHIEVE” have tangible, practical outcomes in a real world of our design. They are words repeated so often that it is easy to forget their power. Remember them when things get tough. They came in handy when it came time to write this keynote.

Traditionally, the graduation speech is a very well composed list of very worthy advice from very wise and amazing humans who are very experienced at speaking to large groups of people. So my apologies dear graduating class of 2013, I’m afraid I have none of those credentials.

Full disclosure: I’m not much older than you. Therefore I think it stands to reason that I’m not much wiser either. I do however like to think about the future. A lot. So today I’m here to talk about yours. And to give you advice that I wish I had when I went blinking out into the bright, glaring light of post-graduate life.

It is tempting to encourage you in the typical way by conjuring images of you all as successful young CEOs in hard hats pointing into the rising sun over grand architectural plans but that image isn’t going to help you navigate that which is coming.

So to avoid sounding like an inspirational investment bank advertisement or a cheesy kitten hanging in there poster: the following notes are practical advice for daily life in the unexplored world of your potential. They won’t teach you how to treat a snake bite, or forage for edible plants (I recommend seeing a survival guide for that)—but you can think of them as a sort of travel guide. After all, you never know when your GPS might fail.

The first bit of advice is this: You have to know the past to understand the present just as you have to know the present to plan for the future. If you still can, spend time with your parents and elders. Learn about their lives. Our world is changing fast and their knowledge is precious. Anyway, they’ll be able to give you much better advice than I am about to.

The next thing to know is that the axis of this world is changing. And if you choose to stay in Doha you will find yourself increasingly at its center. See this as an advantage, but remember that it is also a responsibility. These shifts will make you the captains of tomorrow. However even the most weathered navigators cannot know when the wind might change so as you lead and steer, do so with intelligence and compassion.

Advice #3: Never allow yourself to get too comfortable. Especially here in Doha where the temptation is great. Watch out for a feeling called complacency. When you stop caring, it’s time for a change.

#4: Don’t torment yourself about mistakes. You will make them. Some of them will be embarrassing. Move along.

#5: Know that people will assume things about you based on where you are from. Prove them wrong.

#6: Consume with care. You know better than to subsist on nothing but Redbull and Chips Oman so why glut your brain on a haze of BBM and TMZ?

#7: Be open to chance and ready for change. In the words of my favorite pop scientist Carl Sagan, “Keep an open mind, but not so open your brains fall out.”

#8: On that note, digest as much quality information as you are able. Make a syllabus for yourself out of Netflix and newspapers. Read everything from Darwish’s poetry to Majid comics. Search YouTube, watch Yojimbo. This is only the very beginning of your life’s education; your mind is going to need the energy so feed it with the richest knowledge resource humans have ever known: the Internet.

#9: Speaking of the Internet: Do not—I repeat—do not feed the trolls! They will always be lurking in the shadows of your success both online and in real life. Ignore them or risk turning into one. And another thing, avoid Googling yourself. Trust me. No good can come of it.

#10: You are steward of your surroundings so my next advice is simple: Be aware—environmentally aware, politically aware and culturally aware. It is your duty to keep your environment as healthy and balanced as you can. Whether something as small as the feng shui of your home to something as urgent as fighting to protect our local mangrove ecosystem. Take the time to observe and care. Notice details. Use your intuition.

#11: Question why you want to make or do what you want to do. If it’s for money, think twice. If you want to start a TK or become a kung fu instructor or up and move to Mumbai to become a Bollywood star because those things give you strength, then it’s important you take those urges seriously even if no one around you does.

#12: Do the work no one else wants to, even if it’s taking out the garbage. If it’s a new experience for you, no matter what your education might be, you aren’t above it.

#13: When things get too overwhelming and you feel like you can’t cope, just break it down into bits and deal with the problem one PIECE at a time.

As graduates of Northwestern University in Qatar, you will be big fish in a small pond here [in Qatar]. There is a dazzling array of possibilities before you, many of them depicted in all those soaring camera and soft-focus banking commercials for the future I mentioned before. And while I have to warn you that life after graduation probably won’t involve being served sparkling water with a twist while slow motion reclining in your business class seat to Hong Kong, conventional ideas of success are still far more within reach to you than most of the world’s population.

Consider this fact: By the time we are our parents’ age we will be nearing 10 billion humans on this planet with scant resources. If our generation doesn’t take those big yellow words like “INNOVATE” and “CHANGE” seriously, they will fade and disappear from our vocabulary in the not too distant future.

It’s a brave new world out there—for everyone. A good vantage point to pragmatically observe your reality cannot be underestimated. I mention this because it will be very easy to lose the perspective your education has given you. Protect it and honor it.

Like any transition, the coming months and possibly even years will be bumpy. There will be career decisions that need making and personal barriers that need breaking before you find your place on the planet. The turbulence will pass and ultimately it will make you stronger. Having traveled this way just a few light years before you, the one thing I do know for certain is that there is much to be learned and everything to be wondered at.

Arabic translation

 PDF | DOC : اضغط هنا للتحميل بالعربية

Both Al Jazeera Director General and Renowned Qatari Author of ‘The Girl Who Fell to Earth’ Give Ceremonial Addresses

Northwestern University in Qatar celebrated Sunday its second graduating class, made up of 33 graduates, at the Qatar National Convention Center.

The Class of 2013, among them 15 Qataris, received bachelors of science degrees in journalism (16) and communication (17). Several graduated with minors in public relations, business studies and, for the first time, certificates in Middle East studies. Nine seniors graduated with academic honors: three summa cum laude, three magna cum laude, three cum laude.

Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim Al Thani, director general of Al Jazeera Media Network and member of NU-Q’s Joint Advisory Board

According to Everette E. Dennis, dean and CEO of NU-Q, 24 of the 33 graduating seniors made the Dean’s List at least once, having achieved a grade point average of 3.75 for communication and 3.7 for journalism.

“This graduating class has accomplished an incredible amount in their four years at NU-Q. Our seniors have produced, filmed, animated, edited, directed, researched, written, reported and broadcast no less than 500 works during their time at university,” stated Dean Dennis.

“Through their contributions to numerous publications, film festivals and even the Qatari theater and sports realms, our graduates have already begun shaping the knowledge and creative industries in Qatar and the region, and I can only imagine what they will accomplish once they are fully engaged in professional spheres.”

Speaking at NU-Q’s 2013 Graduation Ceremony were H.E. Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim Mohammed Al Thani, director general of Al Jazeera and a member of NU-Q’s Joint Advisory Board, as well as Northwestern University President Morton Schapiro and Dean Dennis.

Special awards were given to outstanding seniors for their special academic achievements at the NU-Q President’s Lunch on Saturday. In his opening remarks, Schapiro expressed his pride in what the Qatar campus has achieved, saying, “I am always proud to say that this not a branch campus; along with our campuses in Chicago and Evanston, this is one of the three Northwestern University campuses, and our students and faculty here are every bit as good as our students and faculty in the U.S.”

Dana Atrach was announced as the Class of 2013 Valedictorian as well as recipient of the Communication Award and Student Leadership Award.

In a speech before President Schapiro and the graduating class, Atrach said: “Our past four years have seen us as the stars of theater performances, award-winning filmmakers and journalists, speakers at international conferences, and so much more. As journalists, we have breached the borders of different countries to report on numerous political and social issues. As filmmakers, we have braved inconvenient/inopportune locations and as media students, we have learned how to think on our feet and to critically analyze.”

“Most importantly, we have learned how to apply the fullest extent of ourselves and become selfless as we chase the stories or ideas that we care about, because we know they will impact and make a change in our world,” she continued.

In addition, the recipients of the Dean’s Award were announced to be Jassim Kunji and Motasem Kalaji, while the Liberal Arts Award and the Journalism Award were received by Shahd Dauleh and Sidra Ayub respectively.
 
Inspiring Keynote Speaker

Sophia Al-Maria speaks at NU-Q graduation. Read the text of her speech.

The graduation ceremony also featured a keynote speech by Qatari writer and film-maker Sophia Al-Maria, author of the critically acclaimed The Girl Who Fell to Earth.

Born to an American mother from Puyallup, near Seattle, and to a Bedouin Qatari father, Al-Maria spent her childhood between the Pacific Northwest and Doha. Today she is an author and film-maker who researches “Gulf Futurism”—a term she coined to describe the glorifying of speedy urban development in the GCC.

“I think young people in the Gulf in particular are at the center of this question of being some of the most traveled, educated and culturally eclectic people in the world and yet are expected to live in an increasingly mono-cultural environment,” she says of the young graduates.

NU-Q has some 16 nationalities on its campus, and many of its Qatari and Arab students have grown up around the world and are now graduating from an institution that brings over 150 years of intellectual evidence, largely from its home campus in Evanston.

Will the multiple identities help them or hinder them in their task? “My greatest hope is that Gulf-born journalists will bring rigor and intelligence to their task of observing the truth about this place and that they do it for the benefit of people here and not just for the show,” she responds.

“Western media is deeply affected by the region’s PR. By that I mean, they come here to report events they are invited to report about. That leads to an easy ‘in’ for Western journalists to poke at the facade and not take us seriously,” added Al-Maria.

Al-Maria, who received a B.A. in comparative literature at the American University in Cairo, and a master’s degree in aural and visual cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London, will also be NU-Q’s “One Book” speaker next fall and will deliver a series of workshops and seminars.

More than an author, Al-Maria has followed inspiration in its various creative forms. In 2009 she won an award at the Doha Tribeca Film Festival for her one-minute short, “The Racer,” the story of a truck-driver who died as a result of speeding, told through a montage of cars racing on the streets of Doha juxtaposed with mounds of wrecked cars.

“At NU-Q we work with our students to foster media talent that can lead Qatar’s knowledge-based industries—and in large part that means shaping the media and creative industries,” said NU-Q Dean Dennis. “We are fortunate to have Sophia—as someone who has shaped her own creative career and is very much a benchmark in the industry—speak to the graduating class about her experience and inspire them to be unique thought-leaders in their own right.”

Arabic translation

DOC : اضغط هنا للتحميل بالعربية

The Society of Professional Journalists announced the winners of its 2012 Mark of Excellence Awards on Wednesday, with three NU-Q student entries named first-place winners in the regional competition and finalists in the U.S. national competition.

Usama Alony Hamad was selected a national finalist in the Online News Reporting (Small School Division) category for his “Villaggio Fire” video, published on The National’s website.

Abir Bouguerra, Angel Polacco and Sara Al-Darwish’s entry “Maid Abuse: A Growing Problem in Qatar,” published in Doha News, was selected as a national finalist in the Online Feature Reporting (Small School Division) category.

An NU-Q field reporting project conducted in the United States was named a national finalist in the Online In-Depth Reporting (Small School Division) category. The project, “Arab Amereeka 2012,” examined the importance of the Arab-American vote in the 2012 congressional and presidential elections. The students cited for their work are: Abir Bouguerra, Angel Polacco, Alanna Alexander, Jaimee Haddad, Penny Yi Wang, Saba Sharmi, Farida Zahran, Ghina El Aker and Marium Saeed. Project instructors were Jennifer Koons, Anne Sobel and Sean Burns.

The 2012 contest, honoring the best of collegiate journalism, received more than 4,600 entries. The NU-Q entries competed and placed first in Region 5: Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Qatar. The entries were then judged by a national panel of experienced journalists who selected the national finalists from among the 12 regional winners.

View the complete list of award winners and finalists.

NU-Q: You’re best known for your impressions of “Gulf Futurism”—a term you coined. What do you think Qatar’s future journalists and storytellers need to look out for when they’re telling Qatar’s stories? 

Sophia Al-Maria is the author of The Girl Who Fell to Earth.

Sophia Al-Maria: Take the time to observe. Use your intuition. Keep your standards high. You need to be particularly careful not to fall into the trap of manufacturing empty content for the Web. So that means: Dig deeper than the surface of obvious stories; get to know the situation you are covering or writing about. That’s especially true if it’s fiction because if you don’t know what you’re writing about it will really show.

NU-Q: The New York Times referred to your multiculturalism as one of the “conflicts” that shapes your memoir The Girl Who Fell to Earth. How do you see the Qataris and Arabs who have grown up around the world and are now graduating from an American university in Qatar? Are they held back by lack of a singular identity or do they have the advantage of multiple perspectives? 

Sophia Al-Maria: Humans are polymorphous; we go through a flood of emotions a day and many different versions of ourselves over the course of a lifetime. So I believe the concept of singular identity is a false one. To create some kind of unified “people” by virtue of nationality, language, religion or race is an increasingly outdated (and dangerous) way of looking at a human experience that defies that kind of definition. I think young people in the Gulf in particular are at the center of this question of being some of the most traveled and educated and culturally eclectic people in the world and yet are expected to live in an increasingly mono-cultural environment. There is no word for us yet really, but we’re legion.

NU-Q: What, in your view, are the biggest Western misconceptions around the Gulf and what do you see Gulf-born journalists with Western training doing to reverse these misconceptions?

Sophia Al-Maria: Western media is deeply affected by the region’s PR. By that I mean they come here to report events they are invited to report about. That leads to an easy “in” for Western journalists to poke at the facade and not take us seriously. So my greatest hope is that Gulf-born journalists will bring rigor and intelligence to their task of observing the truth about this place and that they do it for the benefit of people here and not just for the show.

NU-Q: What is your charge to graduates who are equipped to grow the creative field in Qatar?  

Sophia Al-Maria: As graduates of NU-Q you will be big fish in a small pond in Qatar. You can probably do just about anything you want if you cultivate the connections and the skills. But most of all I encourage you to go outside of the mainstream for your inspiration. Dig deep into the Internet. Educate yourselves about the field. Above all, question why you want to make or do what you want to do.  If it’s for money, don’t bother. But if you want to make films because when you watch your favorite scene the hair stands up on the back of your neck, or you want to be an artist because the feeling of touching paint to your canvas gives you strength – then it’s important you take those urges seriously.

“Big fish in a small pond,” is how Sophia Al-Maria, author of the critically acclaimed The Girl Who Fell to Earth, describes prospective journalism and communication graduates of Northwestern University in Qatar. The American-born Qatari will be the keynote speaker at the NU-Q graduation ceremony on Sunday where 33 students will receive their degrees and begin their new lives as leaders in the region’s communication field.

Sophia Al-Maria is the author of The Girl Who Fell to Earth.

In a country where many institutions, including the educational ones, have grown faster than its media industries, the work of a journalist or any creative professional is not as well-defined. That comes with uncertainty, and wide-open possibilities. Al-Maria believes that those graduating in only a few days can and should create their own destiny.

“Most of all I encourage you to go outside of the mainstream for inspiration. Dig deep into the internet. Educate yourselves about the field. Above all, question why you want to make or do what you want to do.”

Born to an American mother from Puyallup, near Seattle, and to a Bedouin Qatari father, Al-Maria spent her childhood between the Pacific Northwest and Doha. Today she is an author and film-maker who researches ‘Gulf Futurism’ — a term she coined to describe the glorifying of speedy urban development in the GCC.

“I think young people in the Gulf in particular are at the center of this question of being some of the most traveled, educated and culturally eclectic people in the world and yet are expected to live in an increasingly mono-cultural environment,” she says of the young graduates. NU-Q has some 16 nationalities on its campus, and many of its Qatari and Arab students have grown up around the world and are now graduating from an institution that brings over 150 years of intellectual excellence.

Will the multiple identities help them or hinder them in their task? “My greatest hope is that Gulf-born journalists will bring rigor and intelligence to their task of observing the truth about this place and that they do it for the benefit of people here and not just for the show,” she says.

“Western media is deeply affected by the region’s PR. By that I mean, they come here to report events they are invited to report about. That leads to an easy ‘in’ for western journalists to poke at the facade and not take us seriously,” added Al-Maria.

Al-Maria, who received a B.A. in comparative literature at the American University in Cairo, and a master’s degree in aural and visual cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London, will also be NU-Q’s “One Book” speaker next fall and will conduct a series of workshops and seminars with students.

Al-Maria has expressed her inspiration in various creative forms. In 2009 she won an award at the Doha Tribeca Film Festival for her one-minute short, “The Racer,” the story of a truck driver who died as a result of speeding told through a montage of cars racing on the streets of Doha juxtaposed with mounds of wrecked cars.

“You can probably do just about anything you want if you cultivate the connections and the skills,” she advises. “If it’s for the money, don’t bother. But if you want to make films because when you watch your favorite scene the hair stands up on the back of your neck, or you want to be an artist because the feeling of touching paint to your canvas gives you strength – then it’s important you take those urges seriously.”

“At NU-Q we encourage our students to develop their own unique voices that will shape the media and creative industries of this region,” said NU-Q dean and CEO Everette Dennis. “We are fortunate to have Sophia—someone who has shaped her own creative career and is very much a benchmark in the industry—as a speaker to the graduating class, our featured ‘One Book’ author and an example to our students of how, with passion and hard work, one can be a thought-leader on their own terms.”

Also speaking at NU-Q’s 2013 graduation ceremony will be H.E. Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim bin Mohammed Al Thani, director general of Al Jazeera and a member of NU-Q’s Joint Advisory Board, as well as Northwestern University President Morton Schapiro.

View the interactive infographic and explore the findings at http://menamediasurvey.northwestern.edu

Northwestern University in Qatar has released preliminary findings from a Pan-Arab survey showing that although web users in the Middle East support the freedom to express opinions online, they also believe the Internet should be more tightly regulated.

Researchers surveyed 9,693 adults in eight Arab countries—Egypt, Qatar, Tunisia, Bahrain, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and the UAE—shedding light on how people in the region use media, and whether they trust their sources of information.

Everette E. Dennis, Dean and CEO of NU-Q, said, “This study considers how people’s use of media is closely connected to what they think about media—particularly the news media following the so-called Arab Spring that began in 2011 – and how important various outlets are to them in their daily lives. We hope this study benefits news consumers and decision-makers, and contributes to the general understanding in the media of this fast-changing region.”

The research showed a large majority of adults in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates believe their news media are credible (74%, 67% and 63%, respectively). Meanwhile, only approximately one in four of those surveyed in Egypt, Lebanon and Tunisia believe the news media in their countries are credible. “This is a particularly interesting phenomenon in Lebanon, as this is thought to be a country with ‘free press,’” commented Dennis.

Among other findings, the research shows:

• Respondents were far more likely to agree than disagree that the quality of news reporting in the Arab world has improved in the past two years. Among all respondents, 61% agreed, 14% disagreed.
• Participants who use social media, almost all use Facebook (94%). Twitter attracts 52%, just ahead of Google Plus at 46%. 14% of social media users report using Instagram, the majority of which are in Bahrain.
• Television is considered to be the most reliable source of information except in Bahrain, the country with the highest overall media use, where the internet is thought to be the most reliable source of information.

According to Dennis, the methodology used to collect results makes this a “watershed survey for researchers looking at media and internet use in the Arab world. We used face-to-face interviews rather than the conventional web surveys, as well as phone interviews where the respondents were selected by random selection from a directory of listed telephone numbers as well as a sample of mobile numbers,” he explained.

“This ensures that we have comprehensive and genuine data that can be trusted by observers and policy makers in Qatar and in a region that is reshaping the role of the media.”

The study was conducted in collaboration with Harris Interactive, one of the world’s leading polling organizations. Humphrey Taylor, Chairman of The Harris Poll, said “this survey breaks new ground in both quality and content, as it explores issues not often studied in the region. And, it is one of the only studies of its kind made available to the public.”

menamediasurvey.northwestern.edu, an interactive website produced by NU-Q to make the data available and accessible to both professionals and general news consumers alike, features dynamic data displays that allow users to make their own comparisons between different countries, as well as between different demographics surveyed within each country, including gender, age, and the juxtaposition of nationals, Arab expats, Asian expats and other expatriates.

While the questionnaire, designed by NU-Q, places a large emphasis on digital news consumption, it also includes items from the World Internet Project, in which NU-Q is a participating institution.

NU-Q and WIP signed an agreement earlier in the year, providing a global platform for the current research. The findings will be shared with the World Internet Project, which regularly compiles data on digital media use in 37 countries.

The findings were presented during the second session of the Qatar Media Industries Forum, an initiative of NU-Q that brings together senior officials of media enterprises in Qatar. The Forum provides participants with a neutral platform to explore key issues of Qatari and regional media industries.

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Jeremy Cohen

Northwestern University in Qatar has become the editorial home for Pennsylvania State University Press’ Journal of General Education after Jeremy Cohen, NU-Q’s newly appointed associate dean for academic affairs, was made the editor of the journal.

Housing the journal, which has been re-launched under the name Journal of General Education: A Curricular Commons of the Humanities and Sciences, will allow for Qatar and Education City to feature more prominently in the educational and scholarly worlds.

Faculty from NU-Q – liberal arts director Sandra Richards and lecturer in residence Sean Burns – will join members from schools such as University of Michigan, Harvard College, University of Southern California, Portland State University and The Pennsylvania State University on the journal’s advisory board.

According to Cohen, the journal is preparing for a special issue on educating students in a global society, where Education City will be placed at the center of the question: What is a global education? This and other aspects of the journal’s move “put Qatar on the map of the education world, and will help dispel misconceptions that Education City is a cultural bubble,” he said.

“Making Qatar the home of this journal will help explain not only how important education is in Qatar, but how important Qatar’s investment in education is to the rest of the world,” he added.

The journal, which is set apart by its readership of both faculty and students, aims to provide its audience with the tools to contextualize coursework.

“Undergraduate education is crucial because it helps graduates get jobs, but also because it helps them understand where the ideas that form communities, societies, economies and religious groups came from,” said Cohen. “Regardless what profession a student chooses, this aspect of education is what helps them make an impact on their field and become a leader in their community.”

Cohen, who was appointed as associate dean for academic affairs in January, also serves as the school’s chief academic officer and has been working with students and faculty to enhance course content and place coursework into a context that gives it meaning. He oversees the development of new certificates and minors at NU-Q, such as the recently announced certificate in Middle East studies, as well as talks with other branch campuses at Hamad bin Khalifa University to develop collaborative post-graduate degrees.

“The faculty available between various campuses at HBKU gives us unparalleled resources in political science, philosophy, anthropology and fine arts to strengthen our foundations and develop special programs to complement NU-Q’s journalism and communication programs,” he said.

Cohen comes from a high level post at Penn State University where he was associate vice president for undergraduate education, senior associate dean and professor of communication.  He was previously a tenured associate professor of communication at Stanford University and is a noted media law scholar. He is also an expert on media law and freedom of expression, and has served as editor of Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, for which he received the AEJMC 2006 Outstanding Service Award.

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Best Picture winner Suleima Alhaj Abed with NU-Q Dean & CEO Everette Dennis. Photo: Raviv C Photography 2012. View additional photos from the event.

NU-Q and THIMUN Qatar award high school filmmakers for documentaries on child labor, Palestine, and road safety at second international film festival

Young filmmakers from six different countries competed for recognition at the 2013 THIMUN Qatar Northwestern Film Festival this weekend.

The three-day annual festival is sponsored by Northwestern University in Qatar and THIMUN Qatar, a partnership between Qatar Academy and The Hague International Model United Nations Foundation.  The event was created to encourage high school students to use film as a tool to advocate for social change and development.

In its second international edition, the festival convened student directors from six countries around the world to attend workshops and take part in skill-building exercises including a 24-hour team challenge to develop the best short film in one day.  On April 13, the festival culminated in an Oscar-style gala awards ceremony, where judges announced winners across a number of categories, based upon their critical assessment of the 15 films submitted.

Suleima Alhaj Abed of Doha College won the award for Best Picture, which came with a 10,000QR prize. “I became involved in film because, as a director, you have the chance to make your voice heard,” she said.

Her short documentary “Yaqeen” features a Palestinian woman and man sharing their stories about growing up under occupation. It was inspired by her family’s own experience dealing with issues of displacement and difficulties with education. “I rediscovered my own identity through the film,” added Ms. Alhaj Abed, who spent ten days filming in Palestine for the documentary.

Everette E. Dennis, dean and CEO of NU-Q, presented the Best Picture award, noting that effective storytelling is the key element in producing award-winning documentaries at any level. “This program introduces students to the world of film and communication more broadly, all of which is partly art, partly science, and very much about social impact. The experience benefits students regardless of whether they pursue and filmmaking as a career path.” he said. “Our support for this film festival is part of Northwestern’s general commitment to educating young women in the field of media and communication.”

NU-Q faculty and staff served as expert judges and led interactive filmmaking workshops for the students, including Sue Pak, Kirsten Pike, Chris Adamescu, Justin Martin, Anne Sobel, Christina Paschyn, and Tim Wilkerson.

THIMUN Film Institute Coordinator and Qatar Academy student Noor Al-Thani reiterated the power of film in effecting social change, saying, “I was previously involved in debate, but I find film much more compelling because you are able to transmit emotion through the screen, and if you can create empathy through your film, you can activate a wider audience for change.”

Mohammad Loqman of Aitchison College in Pakistan took Runner Up for the Best Picture award for his film on child labor in his country. This and the awards for Best Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Sound, Best Story, and Best Junior Film – a new category for filmmakers aged 15 years or younger – were accompanied by a 2,000QR prize.

The Best National Film award went to Qatari student Amal Al-Muftah for her film “Split Second.” The film, which focuses on Qatar’s struggle with road safety and examines fatal car accidents and their effect on individuals, was presented by Al Jazeera Media Network.

Held from April 11-13, the second annual THIMUN Qatar Northwestern Film Festival brought together student directors from Ecuador, The Netherlands, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar and the United States.

The gala awards ceremony, which took place on the festival’s final day, was held at the St. Regis Doha Hotel and also included a People’s Choice Award, based on audience voting.

“This festival is important not only because it gives students a chance to contribute to dialogue on critical issues for society; it also helps create students who want to be active national and global citizens,” commented Cameron Janzen, Head of THIMUN Qatar, who noted that the film festival itself is driven by student involvement.

Many of the nominated films from the 2013 THIMUN Qatar Northwestern Film Festival are posted on the THIMUN Qatar YouTube channel: THIMUNQatarFilmFest.

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