
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
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
09/10/2026
September 10 2026, 06:00 (PDT) Dolby Expands Dolby OptiView Platform with New Capabilities at IBC 2026
New Sports Intelligence helps providers better unders...
08/10/2026
Modern venues have come a long way since the tinny, echoing audio of the mid 20t...
08/10/2026
ESPN's first Super Bowl production will stream in English and Spanish on Disney+, while the ESPN App carries the full slate of game, ManningCast, studio, an...
08/10/2026
From high-school videoboards to War Eagle Productions, the Opelika native is learning how to lead shows and capture big moments
The future of live sports produ...
08/10/2026
The Television Academy and Prime Video have announced a six-year agreement making Prime Video the exclusive global home of the Emmy Awards beginning with the 20...
08/10/2026
Techex will exhibit at NAB Show New York 2026 (Booth 623, Javits Center, October...
08/10/2026
X Games has announced the appointment of Steve Rogers as Chief Operating Officer. Rogers previously served as COO of World Supercross and spent nearly a decade ...
08/10/2026
Fonn Group has appointed Trevor Spielmann as Sales Director for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Spielmann joins from EVS, where he held sales and business de...
08/10/2026
The flagship program will originate from major PG events with a four-camera production, live distribution across PGTV, social platforms
Perfect Game is bringin...
08/10/2026
Innovation rarely happens in a vacuum. More often, it happens at the point of collision: when worlds that have run on separate tracks begin to converge. That is...
08/10/2026
For decades, the production and broadcast services business has run on a familia...
08/10/2026
Uplynk, Zixi, BroadView Software, and Grass Valley have published The IP Converg...
08/10/2026
The NFL has announced the return of the Big Data Bowl, the league's analytics competition, now in its ninth year and again powered by AWS. Registration is o...
08/10/2026
Eutelsat has renewed its partnership with T l diffusion d'Alg rie (TDA), Algeria's national broadcasting network operator, for continued distribution of...
08/10/2026
Disney will livestream Super Bowl LXI on February 14, 2027, alongside the game's broadcast on ESPN and ABC. All Disney subscribers in the United States wi...
08/10/2026
RHStv and Red House Streaming have announced an expansion of their partnership w...
08/10/2026
Gray Media has announced a distribution agreement with TEGNA and DAZN to simulca...
08/10/2026
SVG readers can save 10% on registration and receive a complimentary Solutions H...
08/10/2026
PROTON Camera Innovations GmbH has been named a recipient of a 2026 Technology a...
08/10/2026
Industry leaders discuss real-world cloud workflows for live game production, pl...
08/10/2026
The next-gen audio technology joins Dolby Vision as part of Apple TV's immersive F1 experience...
08/10/2026
David France, Jesse Short Bull, Mato Wayuhi, N. Bird Runningwater, Jodi Archambau, Jhane Myers, Paul McGuire, Amber Morning Star Byars, Holly Macarro, Nick Tils...
08/10/2026
Dynamic panning plug-ins get an upgrade
Sound Particles have just announced major updates for two of their popular dynamic panning plug-ins. Energy Panner 2...
08/10/2026
New expandable instrument boasts full DMNO engine
UDO Audio have just announced the upcoming release of a new, expandable synth that packs the power of the ...
08/10/2026
Two new subwoofers added to monitoring line-up
ADAM Audio's monitoring range has just been expanded with two new DSP-equipped subwoofers, the Sub8 PRO a...
08/10/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
08/10/2026
Calrec gives broadcasters freedom of choice at NAB Show New York We're looking forward to meeting up with you all at NAB New York on 21st-22nd October.
Cal...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Globecast, a leading provider of broadcast, media and entertainment managed services, will showcase its next generation of media orchestration services at NAB S...
08/10/2026
Clear-Com played a critical role in the production communications infrastructure for Rock in Rio 2026, one of the world's largest and most recognized music...
08/10/2026
Sohonet Launches ClearView Rush: A Leap Forward in Studio Review, Built for Crea...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Ikegami announces a major expansion to its range of broadcast-quality live production cameras. Scheduled for introduction on Ikegami booth 708 at NAB New York, ...
08/10/2026
Calrec will be located at Booth 444.
Freedom to choose
The media landscape is evolving quickly, and the broadcasters best placed for what comes next will be...
08/10/2026
LiveU has announced that CRD Audiovisuel relied on LiveUs LU900Q intelligent production unit, with built-in native LiveU IQ (LIQ ) connectivity, to deliver live...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Marshall Electronics, a globally recognized provider of high-performance video solutions for broadcast, streaming, AV and professional production, will exhibit ...
08/10/2026
14-hour package also includes A Remarkable Place to Die season 2 as well as libr...