AJMI - Doha

In cooperation with Somali National University, Al Jazeera Media Institute inaugurated Al Jazeera Lab for Journalism Department at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, alongside the launch of three specialized training courses.

The inauguration ceremony in Mogadishu was attended by leaders from the Somali National University, representatives of Al Jazeera Media Institute and the Somali Ministry of Information.

Establishment of the lab comes as a strategic step to support university's efforts in digital transformation and integration of digital journalism courses into academic curricula in order to enable students to study new topics that help them keep pace with the rapid developments in the media field.

Coinciding with the lab’s opening, the Institute, through “Media for Development” initiative, organized three training courses targeting journalism students at the university, with total participation of more than 60 male and female students. These courses covered areas such as digital storytelling, mobile journalism and photo-report writing and extended over five days, including practical exercises and discussions on realities of journalism profession and its contemporary developments.

In this context, journalist Samir Al-Nimri trained students on basics of producing journalistic reports using mobile phones, where he focused on photography and editing skills in modern digital environment. Also journalist Tasneem Abdullah from AJ+ empowered participants to build digital stories and employ multimedia tools to create content that engages audiences across digital platforms. Meanwhile, Montaser Marai, Director of Media Initiatives, focused on developing photo-report writing skills, explaining how to combine powerful images and text to produce high-quality and professional field reports.

It is worth noting that since 2019, Al Jazeera Media Institute has offered multiple courses in digital journalism in Somalia, benefiting around 150 trainees.