Amman - A training workshop on "Effective and Specialized media Coverage of Economic and Financial Issues" concluded at Jordan Media Institute (JMI). The three-day course, held in cooperation with the USAID-funded Jordan Fiscal Reform & Public Financial Management Project, aimed at improving the business writing skills of journalists and increase their economic and business knowledge.
A total of 16 journalists representing various media outlets joined the training. Two other training courses are also scheduled to take place as part the project’s activities.
The training covered key economic developments in the Kingdom, the mid-term fiscal framework, financial decentralization, and public-private partnerships - among other issues.
Project manager at JMI Tareq Bakri said the training focused on the sources of financial news, whether local such as the General Budget Department or international sources such as the World Bank. Participants also learned how to get and read financial data and turn them into easy-to-read items. They were also introduced to digital tools they can use to make their stories more attractive, he added.
JMI Dean, Basim Tweissi stressed the importance of precision and depth in analyzing, interpreting, and presenting economic and financial content, and making it more understandable to readers. Some readers, he pointed out, still find business issues unintelligible.
The Dean also called for using “digital media” in business journalism to spread more information to the larger society.
Journalist Ali Omari, who participated in the training, said journalists learned more about key economic and business terms, how to read figures, and how to obtain them from reliable sources. "This will reflect positively on what we produce," he noted.