AUC's Future Journalists :: Spring 2013 Graduates

My summer TA, Haifa, is 1 of 2 @JRMCAUC grads who is NOT attending the #AUC commencement. :-(



via the ohradiogirl Tumblr 

Lazy Journalism from the UK's Guardian Newspaper

Lazy Journalism from the UK's Guardian Newspaper

FULL DISCLOSURE: I'm an American, a former journalist, a current journalism professor teaching at The American University in Cairo (AUC).


One of the first articles I read this morning about the #AUCstrike was from The Guardian:
"Egyptian student protest hit elite Cairo university."

I quickly sent a tweet on Twitter that the article is/was poorly written and, in my opinion, is/was biased.

The article was written by Jack Shenker and has been retweeted all day. In his defense, Shenker sent me a few direct messages and tweets on Twitter addressing my issues with the article. NOTE: I'm working on a Storify about this.

However, someone took things a step further and conducted a bit more research than Shenker or his editors bothered to do. This is not my research, but I support the research below. Note to the Guardian: it's pretty simple: As a journalist and editor, you should do the basics: do some research, ask some questions and report the facts.

Report errors or inaccuracies: reader@guardian.co.uk
Guardian UK...what a disgrace...
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Subject: Where are the standards? - "Egyptian student protests hit elite Cairo university"
To: reader@guardian.co.uk

Poor journalism
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/15/egyptian-student-protests-american-university-cairo

1.  Enrollment at the American University in Cairo (AUC) is 5984.  Faculty number 383.  Staff numbers are around 700.  If the entire AUC community was on campus at the same time the number would be around 7000.  This is impossible...
http://www.aucegypt.edu/about/Facts/Pages/default.aspx 

In Jack Shenker's article, he states that, "within a few hours thousands of students and staff at the American University in Cairo had joined the demonstration, bringing Egypt's most elite educational institution to a standstill." 

Pure rubbish.  It might have been in the hundreds.  To state that 1/4 to 1/3 of the entire university was involved in these protests is sensational, delusional and shows that Shenker was not present.

2.  The debate over the tuition increase of 9%:
USA - "Private College Tuition Increases 4.6 Percent for 2011-12; Institutional Student Aid Up 7 Percent" http://www.naicu.edu/news_room/private-college-tuition-increases-46-percent-for-2011-12-institutional-student-aid-up-7-percent

USA - "The 12-month change in the all items index edged up to 3.8 percent after holding at 3.6 percent for three months." 

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm 

USA - Tuition increases outstripped inflation 4.6% to 3.8%.  In short, in real money terms education became more expensive. 

UK - "Proposed tuition in the UK to jump 300% for 2011-2012" 

http://chronicle.com/blogs/innovations/the-uk-student-protests-continued/28177 

UK - "UK CPI inflation rate rises to 4.5% in August" 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14895510 

UK - Proposed tuition increases to outpace inflation 300% to 4.5%.  In short, in real money terms education becomes more expensive (much more...)

Egypt - The American University in Cairo raises tuition 9% 

Egypt - "Egyptian Inflation Slowed to 8.5% in August as Food-Price Increases Eased" 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-10/egyptian-inflation-slowed-to-8-5-in-august-as-food-price-increases-eased.html 

Egypt - The tuition rate at the AUC almost matches the current inflation rate of 8.5%.  When the decision was made to raise the tuition to 9% in May 2011 the inflation rate stood at 11.5% 

3. Regarding the snipers (an extremely sensitive and potentially volatile topic).  You could have gone to the AUC website and did a search for "sniper" you would have found this article. 

WEB EXCLUSIVE: AUC President says use of Tahrir campus to fire on protesters 'illegal and unauthorized'
http://academic.aucegypt.edu/caravan/story/web-exclusive-auc-president-says-use-tahrir-campus-fire-protesters-illegal-and-unauthorized 

4.  What school of journalism encourages the construction of statements such as, "On Tuesday, it emerged that striking university cleaners have been threatened with dismissal if they do not return to work within 10 days." 

Who is your source for this information? 

Abysmal reporting.  An absolute disgrace.  It's a difficult time in Egypt and poorly researched journalism absent of context does not help matters.

Teaching Journalism During a Revolution

The past few weeks in Cairo, Egypt have been filled with lots of uncertainly because of the #Jan25 Protests. Unfortunately, there's a Robert Gibbs (White House press secretary) quote that is fitting: "It's a fluid situation".

I teach journalism at The American University in Cairo (AUC) and we're scheduled to begin the Spring semester on Sunday. Under normal circumstances, I'd be ready: syllabus, course outline, website, guest speakers, Blackboard, etc. I'd have all of my ducks in a row. As it stands, I've talked to many students who've said "I'm taking your class this semester". For some reason I'm startled when they say that. Normally my response would be "What's your name?" because I would have reviewed my roster and I'd be familiar with who's enrolled in my courses. Not now.

I've spent most of the past few days traveling to Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo to support the protesters. I've spent little time adjusting my syllabus for the two weeks of classes that we've missed. I've spent even less time trying to figure out how to incorporate Egypt's revolution into my courses. There's no way that I can teach them as they are or how I've taught them in the past. To do that would be a disservice and it kind hard to ignore that fact that we're in a city that's the center of an uprising.

An Egyptian protester leads a chant at Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo. (Feb., 2011)

This should be interesting though, teaching during a revolution that is.

I don't have a TV, so I haven't watched television regularly over the past few weeks; just a few minutes here and there during the critical times of the protests. However, that won't prevent me from incorporating a bit of media literacy into my courses especially my Multimedia Writing courses which are more based on the fundamentals of good writing and reporting. I know that what the TV presents can be strong, but has it been accurate? And how would you know?

I wish I'd been able to reach the students before now because Tahrir is a classroom whether you're there physically or watching from home. This is the best teachable moment for journalism students. Problem is I know some of our students have been there almost daily, but I'm afraid that just as many have not been - for whatever reason. What do I say to those students who've been in Cairo, but have yet to go to Tahrir to see for themselves? I'll tell them to go to Tahrir as soon as they can; it's a revolution that you need to see for yourself. The mood changes daily and the story ideas are plentiful.

So although I'm not going to be ready for the start of the Spring 2011 semester, I think there's a field trip in the future.

Using Paperli

I've been playing around with Paperli for a few weeks. I was trying to create a custom paper, but it's been cumbersome trying to find the right mix of information (you have to use Twitter search results, but Paperli does not provide the format for submitting the search material). So I had to settle on creating a paper using my Journalism list on Twitter.

So far it looks okay ... I'll pay attention to it and tweak it as needed.

The Journalism Daily:

http://t.co/pOLTW9

Working in the Media

Every year at the end of the semester I give a talk the students in all of my classes. The focus is on what it really takes to work in the media industry.

• I warn them of the low salaries.
• I tell them that they are bound to work w/difficult people.
• I tell them that if they work hard, they will be rewarded.

This year I transferred my usual PowerPoint presentation to Prezi. Using Prezi is a good and bad thing. For example, when I was done, I asked if there were any questions and most of them want to know what I used to make the presentation?

Here's my presentation from this year at The American University in Cairo.

Media Careers on Prezi