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14 Jun 2015
10 June 2015<br />
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Students from Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia visited the Jordan Media Institute and exchanged views with students there on regional media and political issues.<br />
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The students’ trip to Jordan is part of a course they’re taking called Foreign Correspondent which aims to help them learn about journalism in other countries and interact with Arab journalists.<br />
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The two groups discussed differences in cultures and prevailing stereotypes. They also talked about press freedoms and the positive and negative role of social media in spreading news.<br />
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JMI students briefed their younger counterparts from Australia about the training programs at JMI and the academic trips they made to Sweden and Norway. They also stressed the importance of such exchanges in expanding the skills and knowledge of journalists. <br />
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Swinburne University student, Stephen Jones described the session as fun and eye-opening. It was really good to talk to journalists who are already working in the region and have a lot of experiences, he added. <br />
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The team is accompanied by Dr. Saba Bebawi who is Jordanian and currently lectures at Swinburne’s Faculty of Health, Arts and Design. Bebawi said the trip was a useful opportunity for the students to interact with journalists and compare between different cultures and different experiences.<br />
Jordan, she added was the right choice because it is surrounded by countries which are experiencing conflict, but is safe which gives the students an opportunity to learn about the refugee crisis and report on the conflict from a safe environment. <br />
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The Australian students will publish the stories they write from Jordan on their university website; they interviewed a JMI student and a member of the team of the institute’s media monitoring project akeed.jo <br />