
Thomson Foundation trainer Deborah Kelly has just returned to the UK from Qatar where she has completed two training courses at the Al Jazeera Training Centre working with journalists and producers from across the Arab world.
News Bulletin Production Course 3 February to 7 February 2013
Eleven journalists, many from the Al Jazeera Arabic Channel, joined Deborah and translator Assad for the five-day course on news-bulletin production. Many of the journalists had some experience in producing television news bulletins and wanted to improve their story selection and running-order construction, but for others it was their first opportunity to produce their own news bulletins.
It also provided an opportunity for the local journalists to view bulletins produced on the worlds numerous news channels and compare how they select their own running orders and the techniques and formats they employ. With an increasing number of channels producing news programming in Arabic, the journalists were anxious to ensure they were writing to high standards and in an informative and compelling form.
New challenges During the course, the students looked at long form and short form bulletins. They explored the use of graphics and the importance of effective strap and ticker writing.
With the expansion of existing news channels and the creation of new ones, many of the journalists said they are being challenged to be more creative in the production of their news bulletins but at the same time want to maintain high ethical standards in their journalism. These challenges prompted a great deal of informed and interesting debate during the five-day course.
Planning and television production course 10 February to 20 February 2013
Youve a great idea for a new television programme, an issue that cries out to be made into a documentary, or need to plan material for a new magazine programme; How do you make sure everything goes smoothly from planning to production?
This was the challenge that the 11 students taking part in the planning and television production course run by Thomson Foundation trainer Deborah Kelly tackled during a recent ten day course at the Al Jazeera Training Centre in Doha, Qatar.
The students representing a variety of television channels from across the Arabic world examined television programming from planning, to pitching, production and critical review. Discussions took place around programmes as diverse as the BBCs latest format success, The Great British Bake Off, Indian Televisions talk show, Satyamev Jayate, and Al Jazeeras highly successful chat show, The Opposite Direction.
Tough critics Senior members of staff at Al Jazeera, including commissioning editor, Rawan Al Damen, and talk show producer, Montaser Marai, talked about their experiences in programme production. The toughest critics for the students were their fellow class members who they had to impress when pitching their ideas for programmes.
The course culminated in the production of a half hour chat show with audience participation and use of social media. The students worked in two production teams and shared the production and presentation roles.
One team chose to explore aspects of the conflict in Syria whilst the second looked at the growing issue of obesity and how sport is being promoted to tackle the increasingly sedentary lifestyle of children. Both teams invited guests to contribute, but the team producing the sport based show had the added benefit of being able to use the course translator Assad who, when he is not working at the training centre, is the senior translator for the Al Jazeera Sport Channel.
New opportunities The broadcast industry in the Middle East has been flourishing and expanding at a fast rate since the "Arab Spring" with many more opportunities opening up for journalists and producers.
"It was a great to be with such enthusiastic and talented people," said trainer, Deborah Kelly. "I am certain their skills and new understanding of the medium will translate into producing innovative and informative television productions."
Most recent headlines
24/12/2025
What is AI good for? Posted by MTI Film on December 24, 2025
What is AI good for?
What is AI good for?
It's been three years since ChatGPT first cap...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Back to All News
Love, Fights, and Everything in Between: Badly in Love' Returns for Season 2
Entertainment
24 December 2025
GlobalJapan
Link copied t...
24/12/2025
Scripps Research study links sleep variability with sleep apnea and hypertension How consumers' digital activity trackers could enable personalized health s...
23/12/2025
How guilas Cibae as Dominican Winter League Games Are Locally Produced for Glob...
23/12/2025
BitFire's Jim Akimchuk on Supplying Scalability and Customization in the Clo...
23/12/2025
CAMB.AI Enables European Athletics to Offer Multi-Language SupportPlan is to eventually offer translation into all languages spoken in EuropeBy Ken Kerschbaumer...
23/12/2025
Analysis: As sports media values trend negative, scarcity and quality are king By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Monday, December 22, 2025 - 14:08
Print ...
23/12/2025
ESPN, Disney, and NBA Return to the Animated Altcast Fray With Second Edition of...
23/12/2025
End the Year on a High Note and Donate to the Sports Broadcasting Fund Today! By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Tuesday, December 23, 2025 - 12:25 pm
...
23/12/2025
The year is winding down, the weather outside is frightful, and it's the perfect time to escape into a story that warms the heart. For listeners looking for...
23/12/2025
A Zeus motor is hot fire tested at L3Harris' Camden, Arkansas, solid rocket ...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Lightware will exhibit several major product innovations at ISE 2026, including the new USB-C BOOSTER-V1, Google Meet. integration for various Taurus UCX models...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Taking the Stage at Carnegie Hall-On a Global Scale Boston Conservatory Orchestra students reflect on their epic concert marking the 80th session of the UN Gene...
23/12/2025
Back to All News
Netflix's The Great Flood and Culinary Class Wars 2 Top Gl...
23/12/2025
Back to All News
Stranger Things By the Numbers: How the Global Phenomenon Shap...
23/12/2025
Experience the power of WO Automation for Radio's newest service, the System Effectiveness Review. Designed to help you achieve more, a System Effectiveness...
23/12/2025
23 Dec 2025
VEON's Beeline Kazakhstan and Rakuten Symphony Collaborate to A...
23/12/2025
Back to All News
How Steamy Can It Get? Single's Inferno' Season 5 Pre...
23/12/2025
Back to All News
33 Million Global Viewers on Netflix Watched Jake Paul vs. Ant...
23/12/2025
New technique lights up where drugs go in the body, cell by cell Scripps Research scientists developed a technique that maps drug binding in individual cells th...
22/12/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Presidio's Neerav Shah on the Role of Its Captiva...
22/12/2025
Hitting the bullseye: Sky Sports readies itself for the biggest PDC World Darts ...
22/12/2025
Unique skillset: Bringing new directors to the world of darts at The Worlds with...
22/12/2025
Gravity Media prepares for a flight of fancy with the PDC World Darts Championsh...
22/12/2025
One hundred and eighty: Gravity Media on hitting the production bullseye at the ...
22/12/2025
The Famous Group's Jon Slusser on Fascinating Fans Through Immersive Content...
22/12/2025
ESPN's Meg Aronowitz on Continuing High-Quality Broadcasts of Collegiate Spo...
22/12/2025
ESPN Takes Data-Driven Storytelling to New Heights with MNF Playbook with Next ...
22/12/2025
For a decade, popular German podcast Fest & Flauschig has hosted an annual Chris...
22/12/2025
Paramount Scores Largest Share Increase Among Distributors as Paramount and CBS...
22/12/2025
New multi-year deal integrates Roku's data to fuel Nielsen's measurement suite
Roku gains access to Nielsen's streaming ratings, showing The Roku C...
22/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
22/12/2025
Berklee Wrapped 2025: Our Top News and Stories A look back at a year highlighted by faculty milestones, major film and television projects, Bob Dylan's ho...
22/12/2025
The works of Plato state that when humans have an experience, some level of change occurs in their brain, which is powered by memory - specifically long-term me...
22/12/2025
Partnership integrates complementary satellite data and AI analytics to enhance security, infrastructure, and environmental monitoring solutions for global cust...
22/12/2025
Workflows allow you to create a sequence of planned events which may be added to your template(s) or inserted directly into your sequential or background playli...