Are YOUNG BROADCASTERS today more or less prepared to join the workforce than you were as a fresh graduate?

Muriel Aboulrouss
Freelance cinematographer

As a professional cinematographer and part-time teacher, I can say that the young generation today has more opportunities then we did – especially at the technical level – to be prepared to join the workforce. IESAV [St. Joseph University’s Institute forAudiovisual Studies] was a new-born department when I joined. Young graduates are mostly ready to do videoclips and commercials, which are important; but they jump into these jobs without expecting to be abused 24 hours a day and paid poorly with unlimited delays. The one thing lacking is passion. Most people are ready to run behind fame and money, which are great, but not at any price – unlike a few passionate others who are looking for self-satisfaction and artistic thirst. I believe we need to make films; that is my dream. In that temple, the rare disciples are losing faith. The reason is obvious: the country is sinking, people are hungry, and they would do anything for money. Who cares about movies?

Hani Hatab

Producer and Director of

Research for Future News

Three factors of starting a professional life vary between my generation and that of the mid-2000s: personal tendency, academic preparation, and availability of job vacancies. Academic disciplines have become increasingly specialized and sophisticated in the
past ten years. And job vacancies have multiplied by the hundreds as compared to the
mid-90s, which means that fresh graduates have a bigger chance to begin a career in
their field. But has this evolution led to more productive and creative young professionals? In a global view, I think the average level of “technical” productivity has risen, but it has become poor on the intellectual side. This is the result of narrow academic specialization, which produces technicallycapable, but not well-rounded students. Plus, the overabundance of job vacancies pushes students to seek fame and speedy success, without building a suitable cultural background necessary for any media job. Many of them lack the ABCs of politics, literature, or even cinema and theatre. While we had to be self-dependent on cultivating ourselves to enter a new world, today’s fresh graduates depend on the uni-dimentional culture offered to them by new programs of education. They are tempted by a wide range of job oppotunities which makes their presence and their production in this field without any distinction.

Rola Amin

Correspondent for

Al Jazeera English

The young broadcasters of today are more exposed but less experienced. More opportunities, both to get media education and to get jobs that refine their skills, means that they are more prepared. More and more universities are offering media and  journalism courses, and television stations continue to boom. When I started working, none of the Arab satellite channels were on the air. We only had access to local channels. The Internet allows young broadcasters to have amazing access to other media outlets and newspapers, and it gives them incredible access to information. But because there are all these opportunities and job vacancies, the drive is not as strong as it used to be. When jobs were limited and competition was very strong, we needed to prove ourselves, not only to get a job with one of the news networks, but also to keep it. We had to really know the issues: read, know a bit of history, make contacts. Today, it seems that young broadcasters can get away with very little knowledge of the subjects they are covering and a limited perspective. As more reporters cover the news now standing in front of the camera all day long, instead of finding the stories and talking to the people behind them, the viewer is deprived of well-prepared reports that truly explore the
issues. Today’s broadcasters have a better chance to become great journalists, but
they are less forced to excel due to changes in the media business.

Assad Fouladkar

Film director and professor

I would say young students definitely are more prepared than we were because they have many more opportunities available to them. There were only a couple of television stations that you could train at when I was first starting as a director. We all fought over the same positions – it was very much survival of the fittest. Young trainees now can have the luxury of choosing from a range of television stations and production houses to train and work at. But that also means that market dynamics have changed, and they face a much tougher competition. They have to really prove their qualifications and skills to be able to make their way into these positions.