Bahçeşehir University’s department of communication will introduce Turkey’s first certificate program for international journalism in December 2007.The Faculty of Communication Vice Dean Assoc. Prof. Dr. Süheyla Kırca (C), Instructor İbrahim Al-Marashi (L) and journalist Nicole Pope(R) started the first international journalism program in Turkey.The international journalism certificate program has been designed to enable young Turkish journalists and interested candidates to embark on a promising career in the field.The department’s Associate Dean Süheyla Kırca said they seek to prepare their students to cope with the dynamic changes in the contemporary world. “With the accelerated improvement of communication technologies, globalization has gained several new dimensions. Our students need to develop a global perspective, and international journalism is now considered an important field. Both the EU membership process and the conflicts in the Middle East underline the significance of international journalism in Turkey, too,” said Kırca in an interview with Today’s Zaman. She also noted that the latest developments in terrorism and war have shown the lack of knowledge and experience of international journalism in Turkey. The certificate program has been established in part to address this lack. Many experienced journalists and academics including Şahin Alpay, İbrahim Al-Marashi, Günter Seufert, Nicole Pope, Andrew Finkel and Mehmet Sağnak will teach the seminars over the 10 weeks of the program.

The program consists of theoretical and applied studies as well as case studies on the topics of “media in international and local politics,” “terror journalism,” “international laws and institutions,” “global media,” “basic issues in journalism,” “gathering information and analysis,” “interviewing techniques,” “news analysis,” “feature and editorial writing analysis” and “understanding the reader/spectator.”The coordinator of the program, veteran journalist Nicole Pope, explained that in journalism students learn theory, but sometimes journalists face quite different issues in the field and that this program intends to prepare the participants for those complex situations. “We will be looking at the coverage of the Iraq conflict, for instance. In that case, the media failed to give the right warning because they followed the government’s line. A good journalist should always question the other dimension from the public’s perspective,” explained Pope. She said the technique or the framework may be given to the journalist but that they should always question it because in journalism nothing is completely right or wrong; there are so many “gray areas.” What is important is to keep the debate going, she concluded.

Professor Al-Marashi, who has written various academic publications on conflict situations, says many journalists don’t necessarily have a journalism background and therefore haven’t explored the issues of conflict or terrorism theoretically. “I’m trying to introduce them to the field in a very short time span but nevertheless, I think introduction to the field is enough to open the students’ eyes,” he commented. He also noted that it is better if journalists can understand the world they operate in within a theoretical context, saying this way they will have a better appreciation of their own work and others’ work as well.The program will begin on Dec. 3; those who wish to participate can enroll through Nov. 30 and should be able to read and write both in Turkish and English since the seminars will be in both languages. Apart from being taught by the veteran instructors for three hour sessions each week, the participants will have a chance to discuss and interview various experts and foreign correspondents for 15 hours during the 10 weeks. The tuition fee of the program is YTL 1,500, and companies may also want to consider sponsoring young journalists who would like to take part in the program. For more information: