Students and faculty at Northwestern University in Qatar (NU-Q) will be participating in the 2016 World Congress sponsored by the International Press Institute (IPI) and Al Jazeera, as well as the World Media Summit hosted by Al Jazeera.
The two concurrent conferences – taking place March 19th to 21st will attract major media leaders from around the world.The IPI World Congress focuses on journalism at risk with panels looking at safety and professionalism in a dangerous world, including: safety of journalists on dangerous assignments, including those covering Syria and ISIS; increasing attacks against journalists in countries outside of war zones; and threats to online journalism as well as online threats and cyber-attacks on journalists.
Everette E, Dennis, dean and CEO of NU-Q, will moderate a panel at the World Congress on Media Use and Regulation in the MENA Region, which will also include new data from NU-Q’s annual survey of media in the Middle East.
Providing NU-Q students with the opportunity to attend international conferences that include attendance by the leaders in the global media industry is a unique opportunity and offers students insight into the media industry, as well as contact with industry leaders. “Because of our partnerships with IPI and Al Jazeera,” Dennis said, “our students and faculty are being provided with access to two important global conferences that deal with the issues our students and faculty study and research.”
Joining Dennis on the panel will be Lina Ejeilat, co-founder and executive editor, 7iber.com, Jordan; Jeffrey Cole, research professor; director, Center for the Digital Future, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California; and Nabeel Rajab, president and co-founder, Bahrain Centre for Human Rights.
The first World Media Summit was convened in 2009 by major media industry leaders, including the New York Times, Xinhua News Agency, AP, Thomson Reuters, and others. This year marks the fourth summit, and the first hosted by AL Jazeera. The two-day summit will explore the major challenges facing media organizations in an age of decentralized information.
A professor of journalism at NU-Q, Justin Martin, will participate in a panel discussion at the summit, which is titled Business Unusual. The panel, hosted by Hazem Abuwatfa, Al Jazeera Arabic Channel presenter and former presenter for BBC Arabic, will explore how both established brands and start-ups have to work hard to ensure their sustainability and how changes in the industry are ushering in new innovations and forcing companies to rethink their business models.
