Doha: Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q) recently hosted prominent international journalist and editor Magda Abu Fadil for a campus lecture titled “The Evolution of a Journalist” where she shared her professional experiences, discussed the history of journalism through the digital age, and gave career development advice to an audience of Georgetown students, faculty and staff.
The media expert presented a photo slide of key figures she has met over the years, and described her professional trajectory from working as a journalist in the White House to her stint in academia teaching journalism at her alma mater, American University in Washington, D.C. The former Washington bureau chief of Events magazine then took questions from the audience, who asked about everything from the rewards of the profession to what it takes to be a successful journalist. “To me there’s a story everywhere. To be a journalist, you have to have endless curiosity,” she said. In response to a student’s question about her key advice for future journalists, she repeatedly expressed the importance of a broad educational background in international affairs and other social sciences, in order to understand the “context” of any newsworthy event. “You need a reservoir of information and you need to know how to process it,” she explained.
Mohamed Zayani, who currently directs the Media and Politics Program at GU-Q said: “It is important for our students to engage with both journalists and media professionals and to develop the ability to reconcile theory and practice.”
The Peninsula
