Special Issue on Teaching and preparing graduate journalists for Arab world (Volume 26, Issue 2, December 2016)

Asia Pacific Media Educator (APME) is an international refereed journal published twice a year by SAGE Publications (New Delhi) in collaboration with the School of the Arts, English and Media, Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts, University of Wollongong in Australia. APME focuses on generating critical discussions among media educators, researchers and journalists. For the December 2016 (Volume 26:2) issue, APME will explore the opportunities and challenges in preparing employable journalism students for the media industry in the Arab world. This thematic issue invites contributors from the academia and industry to raise and address any critical issues related to these topic areas:

1) The state of media and journalism education and training in the Arab world
Media education and journalism training in the Arab world is little known internationally despite the Middle East being the hot spots of global media coverage. The region certainly needs educated and well-trained journalists to cover Middle East affairs with a deeper understanding of the religious, cultural, tribal and political complexities of the Arab world. Are tertiary institutions in the region well positioned to educate and train journalism students to report on the Arab world for a global news market? What are the obstacles and opportunities in educating and training the next generation of journalists for the Arab world?

2) Regulations, press freedom and ethical dilemmas in Arab media
Foreign media agencies in the Arab world has pushed the boundaries of reporting for a global market, often at the risk of being deported or arrested. How can journalists reconcile their investigative reporting for a global audience with the growing restrictions on freedom of expression and access to information in the Arab world? To what extent is the code of media practice in the Arab world fostering, compromising or hindering truthful reporting?

3) Emerging storytelling tools, techniques, and content design in the Arab media
Social media has become an integral part of daily personal, public and commercial activities in the Arab world. Public participation in media discourse is influencing the type of events and issues covered. In a society rich in ‘adab’ (literature) and ‘hekayat’ (storytelling), and with emerging user generated content, how is the Arab political history and religio-cultural heritage shaping the news decision making process, the production, presentation and dissemination of its Arab-centric views of Middle East Affairs?

Commentaries and Q&As
This thematic issue also welcomes commentaries and book reviews in the form of Q & As with book authors. Reviewers should inform the guest editors the books to be reviewed and whether the book authors are contactable for a Q&A.

Deadlines are as follows:
Abstract for consideration: May 15, 2016
Paper for double blind peer review: June 30, 2016
Peer review period: July 1-30, 2016
Submission of final paper: August 1-30, 2016

The word lengths for full papers are:
• Commentaries (3000 – 3500 words)
• Research papers (6000 words max including references)
• Book reviews (Q&A with book author) (2000 words max)

Dr Mohammed Firoz (University of Wollongong in Dubai, UAE) will coordinate and guest edit the thematic issue, assisted by Dr Eric Loo (University of Wollongong, Australia).

Please email paper abstracts to: MohammedFiroz@uowdubai.ac.ae, and copied to the Editor-in-Chief, Dr Eric Loo at: eloo@uow.edu.au