Paper
Educating future journalists in ethical reporting on migrants and refugees is particularly relevant in the Arab region with its unequalled complexity as countries of origin, transit and destination. Based upon the theory of the professions, this paper aims to investigate the relevance of the coverage of migration and forced displacement in Arab journalism education. The interdisciplinary research fields of international human mobility, based on human rights such as press freedom and academic freedom, are challenged in a region with limited freedoms. In focus group discussions conducted in 2023, 19 journalism educators and practitioners from Tunisia, Libya, Iraq and Lebanon highlighted the relevance to teach the reporting of migration and forced displacement at university, balancing knowledge, ethics and practice. They articulated uphill struggles due to the political sensitivity of the matter, divisive public debates, bureaucratic constraints, funding issues and the professional standards in newsrooms which were often lower than in the classrooms. Against this backdrop, the UNESCO handbook for journalism educators Reporting on migrants and refugees intends to serve as a resource for Arab journalism educators to develop their own culturally sensitive curricula.
Key words: Arab journalism education; migration and forced displacement; professionalism, ethical reporting
Introduction
Educating future journalists in ethical reporting on migration and forced displacement is particularly relevant in the Arab region with its unequalled complexity as countries of origin, transit and destination, an ‘epicentre of global displacement challenges, as conflicts continue unabated and prospects for comprehensive political solutions remain limited’ (UNHCR 2020: 101). Another precarious step forward1 from ‘towards the abyss’ (Ben-Meir 2015) to the ‘brink of abyss’ (United Nations 2023a) and perhaps even towards genocide (Journal of Genocide Research 2024) had been taken in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by 2024. What started with the ‘worst massacre since the Holocaust’ (Los Angeles Times 2023) against Israeli civilians by Hamas on 7 October 2023 erupted into a war. Israeli hostages were missed over months while more than 36,000 Gazans had been killed by late May 2024. Palestinian people were displaced across the Hamas-controlled Gaza strip (UNRWA 2024), adding new protection needs to around six million Palestine refugees under UNRWA’s mandate.
Additionally, the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR is mandated to protect more than 30 million refugees, over 6 million asylum-seekers, over 4 million stateless people and close to 60 million IDPs, among other people in need of protection and/or assistance globally (UNHCR 2023). The Arab world, spreading across North Africa, West Asia and sub-Saharan Africa2, with its protracted situations of conflict and persecution, is among the most vulnerable regions for forced displacements. While globally, almost one-third of all forcibly displaced people under UNHCR’s mandate originated from just three countries – Afghanistan, Syria and Ukraine – the Syrian situation remains the largest with more than 13 million forcibly displaced people equating to over half of the country’s population. Besides Syria, other member states of the League of Arab States (LAS) with protection concerns are Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, the latter being one of the worst humanitarian crises globally. Forced displacement also affects LAS members as host countries since, relative to their national populations, one in seven people in Lebanon and one in sixteen in Jordan are refugees (ibid). In addition to forced displacement, economic instability pushes millions of migrant workers out of their homes in search of employment opportunities. Globally, two-thirds of international migrant workers are concentrated in high- income countries, with the Arab members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) as magnets, representing the highest share of migrant workers in the labour force worldwide (ILO 2022).
This short account of global and regional mobility is only a snapshot of the complexity that journalists are expected to master factually, analytically and ethically. What renders the issue exceptionally demanding is that facts change rapidly. Another complexity concerns the question of who is who in which category. Palestinians are ‘Palestine refugees’ under the mandate of the UNRWA but not under the mandate of the UNHCR and, therefore, not eligible to rights under the 1951 Refugee Convention nor its 1967 Protocol (Akram 2002). Perhaps the Arab case is the most difficult to study academically and cover journalistically and it captures many complexities. In any case, news media, as Berger argues (2021: iii-xiv) ‘have a duty towards the people on the move about whom they are reporting, as part of their obligations to human rights more broadly. There are both legal and ethical issues related to the movement of people, and journalists need to know and align with these fundamentals’. The ethics of reporting on migration and forced displacement has elicited in scholarly work and institutional reports (e.g. Ethical Journalists Network 2016; Zappe 2021). Mass communication scholarship impacts on the field increasingly in cross-cultural and comparative research that not only informs journalism educators but also helps practising journalists to navigate the complex field. Journalists, in brief, need to be provided with adequate education to professionalise.
Based upon the theory of the professions, particularly the knowledge and the ethics propositions thereunder, this paper aims to investigate the relevance of issues in the coverage of migration and forced displacement in Arab journalism education. As professions are meant to help solve problems of the ‘world of affairs’ whereby the professional person is to be ‘an interpreter’ and ‘a mediator between the world of pure study and the world of everyday life’ (Carr-Saunders and Wilson 1964: 498), this paper draws on the complex, interdisciplinary and global challenge of reporting on migration and forced displacement. The subject is rampant with an ill-informed public debate, lacking much knowledge and ethics, and it is thereby prone to disinformation, misinformation, fake news, hate speech and propaganda (Omar 2021; Tandoc, Zhang and Ling 2018).
Knowledge is essential for journalism learners who embark upon studying how to promote ethically, responsibly and proficiently comprehensive public debate on migration and forced displacement. This debate affects societies across the world as countries of inward and outward human mobility alike, and often, as in the case of Morocco, countries are all at once, origin, transit and destination. The magnitude of migrants and refugees from, through and to the Arab region is related to a host of reasons including conflict, persecution and climate change as well as intentions to improve livelihoods, to advance educational and career development, among many other motives (IOM 2023; Lengauer and Fengler 2021; UNHCR 2022). In an era that struggles with the threats discharged by waves of misinformation and disinformation, journalism and journalism education are under an obligation to help identify means to counter and combat those challenges and to reroute the public debate towards a constructive, knowledge-based discourse (e.g. Al Zou’bi 2022; Douai 2019; Mutsvairo and Bebawi 2019). The stakes are high for journalism education to build the capacity of journalism students to prepare for responsible reporting (see Goodman 2017: 2).
Literature review
The professions are bound to help solve the challenges of everyday life, be it health, justice, or – if one considers journalism a profession – by impacting the public debate and counteracting misinformation and disinformation through knowledge-based reporting. Knowledge is ‘the sine qua non of the professional category’ (Halliday 1987: 104) in the theory of the professions and an essential element in media accountability. Concerned with defining knowledge as a core term in the theory of the professions, theorists have highlighted that professions are grounded in their body of formal knowledge and its resulting technique. The particular professional technique is ‘educationally communicable’ (Hodges 1986: 34) during extensive and specialised education.3 At institutions of research and higher education, the formal knowledge of the profession is organised in disciplines, is created, peer- reviewed, published and transmitted to students, the ‘professionals-in- training’ (Freidson 1994: 143; Soloski 1989: 211). The academic system provides conditions that facilitate for the professionals-in-training to learn a set of ethical attitudes and a sense of professional group identity (Hughes 1964: 23). Ultimately, following their extensive academic studies, professionals are skilled to apply knowledge and technique to the ordinary business of life by contributing to solving practical problems benefiting individuals or the society at large. Ethics, besides knowledge, represents a core trait in characterising a profession in sociological theory (e.g. Carr-Saunders and Wilson 1964; McNair 1998), in mass communication (e.g. Deuze 2005; Waisbord 2013), in global comparative journalism studies (eg Hanitzsch, Hanusch, Ramaprasad and de Beer 2019; Weaver and Willnat 2012), in Arab media studies (e.g. Hafez 2002), in communication studies focusing on Islam (e.g. Ayish and Sadig 2012; Hamada 2016), and in Arab journalism education (e.g. Bou Zeid and El-Khoury 2020). Overall, the value propositions are all-encompassing, including trust, confidence, altruism, obligation to public service, personal commitment, and references to codes of ethics are frequent (e.g. Bertrand 2002). Macdonald (1995: 167) goes as far as to condition professional practice on ethical codes: ‘If one thing is thought to characterize a profession besides knowledge, it is a code of ethics: professionals are people who act ethically and therefore questions of value are of the essence in professional practice.’
Whether or not journalistic ethics transit globally towards similar commitments to truth and objectivity, to a similar consensus on the public’s right to know and to similar aspirations for the independence and autonomy of the profession has been explored in global comparative studies (e.g. Hafez 2002; Ramaprasad et al. 2019; Waisbord 2013; Weaver and Willnat 2012). These studies have established that, today, academic education and certification is only atypical in countries with a traditional focus on vocational training over tertiary journalism education (Josephi et al. 2019). The rise of academic journalism education is often attributed to objectives to professionalise (de Burgh 2003; Donsbach 2010; Glasser 1992; Golding 1977; Josephi et al. 2019; Reese and Cohen 2000).
Reporting on migration and forced displacement is a case in point. Besides mass communication, migration and refugee studies - two disciplines in their own right (Vannini, Gomez, Carney and Mitchel 2018) - require comprehensive knowledge fields, particularly in social sciences, law and health all of which, viewed from a de-Westernisation vantage point, are informed by critical thinking and based on human rights such as press freedom and academic freedom. Notwithstanding, practitioners across journalism and education cultures often cover the demanding matter despite a lack of adequate knowledge (e.g. Fengler et al. 2022; White 2015) an unawareness about definitions of migrants and refugees and ignorance about contexts. Fengler and Kreutler (2020) found in a comparative study of European and US news outlets that background reports on issues such as economics, statistics, culture and religion only represented a low combined share of 11 per cent of all articles in the sample compared to 45 per cent dedicated to political debate. Migrants and refugees were usually seen as a group, not as individuals, an approach also observed in Arab media (Abu-Fadil 2015). Journalism, as a sense-making institution (McNair 1998), plays a crucial role in guiding and sustaining a knowledge-based and responsible public debate on migration and forced displacement. Knowledge and ethics are ‘strong curriculum values, together’ (Zipin and Brennan 2020, italics in the original). Donsbach (2014: 667) conceptualises five journalistic competences in a single educational programme following which ‘a journalist should (1) possess a keen awareness of relevant history and current affairs, as well as analytical thinking, (2) have expertise in the specific subjects about which he or she reports, (3) have scientifically based knowledge about the communication process, (4) have mastered journalistic skills, and (5) conduct himself or herself within the norms of professional ethics’.
The Arab context
As knowledge has been necessary in the functioning of any society, the Arab world has a long history in the development of knowledge. Conditions of freedom, autonomy and independence that provide the fertile ground for professions as theorised in sociological theory, for journalism to flourish, and that journalists require to fully embrace responsible and ethical reporting, are generally limited in LAS members states. A large Arab citizenry has never experienced life in a democracy. Lack of good governance, rule of law, equality, economic opportunities, press and academic freedom also impact knowledge systems, as shown in assessments of academic freedom (Bubtana 2006; Hanafi 2022; Ismael 2011; Kinzelbach, Lindberg, Pelke and Spannagel 2022; Taha- Thomure 2003) and press freedom (Harb 2019; Reporters Without Borders 2022). As governments do not typically invest in academic research that questions and critiques officials and their decisions, people feel driven to emigrate, resulting in crippling brain drain (Currie- Alder, Arvanitis and Hanafi 2018; Lengauer 2021b; Lengauer and Fengler 2021). Against this backdrop, universities in the Arab region seem not to be concerned with developing curricula that unfold migration and forced displacement. Studies have unveiled ‘academic deficiencies that should be paid attention to in building the knowledge of media ethics curricula in Arab universities’ (Al-Mekkawi 2018), a lack of learner-centred didactics, syllabi including ethical issues in media practice and empowerment of critical thinking (Boukhenoufa 2022). Even the comparatively free and diverse, yet sectarian, Lebanese media sector is susceptible to unethical behaviour explained by economic pressure, bribery and corruption, among other features. Bou Zeid and El-Khoury (2020: 290) conclude from their study ‘the need for media ethics education to remedy the corrupt Lebanese system from its roots. Academic programs and courses should train and prepare future media professionals to assume their role as contributor to the proper mechanism of democracy’. Comparative studies on accountability in the Arab world specifically (Fengler and Lengauer 2021) show that ethics codes of journalism associations or media companies are inconspicuous, ethical journalism stomachs a severe lack of economic sustainability, and ethical rules are abused and breached even under conditions of relative optimism regarding democratic transitions as in Tunisia after the ‘Arab Spring’. The reasons for a lack of ethical journalism in the Arab world not only rest in political authoritarianism but also in a lack of safety of journalists and ‘customs and traditions recognised by the society’, for instance, in social values and professional norms. These findings may be illustrated by two examples: firstly, Al-Najjar (2011: 747) finds ‘that patriotism, for many Arab journalists, is a virtue and not a breach of journalism ethics’. Researching Al-Jazeera’s reporting on the 2008 war on Gaza, she suggests that Arab journalists’ general awareness ‘of the significance of committing to ethics of impartiality and balance’ is contingent of crises situations that make them feel obliged to defend their own country or the Palestinian causes (Al-Najjar 2011: 753-754). A second example relates to how the newsroom of Wbur reacted to an interview with Khaled Al-Hroub, renowned author on Hamas, affiliated to the Liberal Arts Programme of the Northwestern University, in Qatar. In a live radio interview with On point on 16 October 2023, meant to analyse the background of Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, Hroub ‘expressed doubt that women and children had been killed by Hamas in its 7 October attack on Israel’ (Wbur 2023a, 2023b). Wbur later the same day highlighted that the episode failed to ‘meet our editorial standards’ and pulled it off-air. Meanwhile, on many campuses throughout the world, students demonstrated for Palestinians and against antisemitism (UWN Reporter 2023).
For the Arab world, the lack of curricular attention to matters of migration and forced displacement is at first sight astounding considering that the magnitude of matters of migrants, refugees and their host communities are particularly pertinent to Arab societies (e.g. Fargues 2017; Ferwerda and Gest 2021; Lengauer and Fengler 2021). Along with conflicts, persecution, lack of democratic transition and widespread rather modest human development (UNDP 2022), the region has dealt with migration and forced displacement for decades (if not since the beginning of humankind). Jordan has been deeply affected by migration and forced displacement: with protracted conflicts in neighbouring countries. Jordanians are not known as refugees, but they emigrate in search of employment or educational opportunities. For them, and other nationalities across the Global South and Global North, the Arab high-income countries in the Gulf are leading destination countries that exhibit a very high ratio of expatriate communities (Migration Data Portal 2023) but very low ranks on the Migrant Integration Policy Index (Migrant Integration Policy Index 2020). North African countries have traditionally been transit countries for sub-Saharan African migrants, and have increasingly turned into their more permanent host communities.
Few universities in the Arab region have developed programmes in reporting these very complex and diverse matters of migration and forced displacement in their own region, for instance the Master’s programme at the Higher Institute of Information and Communication (ISIC) in Rabat, Morocco. Following the Syrian civil war and the ensuing refugee crisis, the Center for Strategic Studies (CSS) at Jordan University launched a certificate programme for Jordanian and Syrian participants on reporting refugee matters. Apart from such exceptions, migration and refugee studies exist at Arab universities largely in parallel to journalism, media or mass communication studies and are not usually actively cooperating. The German Jordanian University (GJU 2020) offers a Master’s in social work for migration and refugees that is not cooperating with journalism studies in Jordan despite earlier attempts to link the two. Journalism students at Jordan’s Yarmouk University have, at least theoretically, learning opportunities at the university’s refugee center (Refugees, displaced persons, and forced migration studies center 2023). Similarly, students at the Department for Journalism and Mass Communication at the American University in Cairo (AUC n.d.) may benefit from the AUC’s Center for Migration and Refugee Studies.
This modest, albeit brief, account of few and far between courses in journalism and on media and migration is astounding, given the features of a region with massive and protracted movements of migrants and refugees arriving, transiting, staying, departing and returning for a variety of push and pull factors. Considering the generally underprovided educational opportunities for Arab journalists to study migration and forced displacement, the lack of a fact-checking culture suggests that verification should be on the agenda of every training and curriculum in the Arab world (Fengler and Lengauer 2021). The lack thereof results in considerable misinformation and disinformation in reporting on migration and forced displacement. Akeed, a fact checking operation managed by the Jordan Media Institute in Jordan, chronicled hate speech against Syrian refugees, use of inaccurate data, undocumented generalisations, unprofessional sources and untruthful reporting (JMI, personal communication, 8 October 2022). Similar observations have been reported for Lebanon where hard news stories, researched in the 2015-2016 refugee crisis, tended to focus on crime, violence, security and terrorism, thereby ‘othering’ Syrian refugees. A TV journalist was quoted as saying that ‘there is a lack of professional and ethical will to cover these issues fairly’ (Abu-Fadil 2015). The perceptible curricular void is being addressed by a UNESCO handbook on reporting on migrants and refugees that offers journalism educators knowledge and know-how in various languages, including Arabic (Fengler et al.. 2021; Fengler, Lengauer and Zappe 2023). The UN’s high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi, highlighted the importance of addressing journalism educators to prepare practitioners for responsible and respectful reporting, commitment to ethics, cross-cultural competence and thus spare migrants and refugees from fake news ‘as the media will be better placed to unpack complex situations’. He also placed the responsibility for the miseries squarely on governments’ ‘inability to prevent conflict and tackle crises’ (Grandi 2022).
Research questions, method, sample
This paper pursues two research questions devised broadly to explore potential aspects relevant for the study the researcher may not have previously considered:
RQ1: In the view of the experts interviewed for this study, does Arab journalism education provide the knowledge and ethics required for professional journalism?
RQ2: In the view of the experts interviewed for this study, how do the real ‘world of affairs’ challenges of migration and forced displacement in the Arab world relate to the knowledge claim of journalism education in university curricula?
To address the research questions, the study follows a qualitative research design. In March 2023, data were gathered in two separate Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) with 19 participants from four Arab countries (Tunisia, Libya, Lebanon and Iraq), noting that respondents from Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region were also represented. The FGDs were conducted face-to-face, in English or in Arabic/English translation, and transcribed verbatim. The interview guide was based on the theoretical findings derived from the theory of the professions, media accountability, journalistic professionalism and Arab studies. The responses were coded alongside the country where the respondent was working. The country coding uses three letters of the colloquially known country name (IRQ for Iraq, LEB for Lebanon, LBY for Libya, TUN for Tunisia). A serial number was assigned to each interview (e.g. LEB1 for the first Lebanese participant). The academic group was distinguished by the letter ‘a’ from the practitioner group (p), e.g. LBY1-a. The interview transcriptions were imported as word documents, using the software MAXQDA which numbers each paragraph of each interview. The combination of interview specification and paragraph numbering allows to quote the resources precisely, for instance LBY1-a/3 indicates the third paragraph of the respondent number one from Libya.
Findings
Findings related to RQ1: educators report many limiting challenges to teaching their students knowledge-based and ethical journalism, including political instability, and efforts to understand ‘the real meaning of democracy’ (LBY1-a/2) after decades of dictatorship. The seismic regime changes take a toll on media systems and journalism education to date (LBY1-a/2, LBY2-a/5). Libyan participants portrayed Lebanon as a comparatively more advanced democracy, a view that was rejected by a Lebanese participant, arguing that the country is in ‘a long, long transition’ (LEB2-a/14). The safety of journalists was raised as a very serious concern (e.g. LEB6).
Under these conditions, the Iraqi and Libyan media systems were generally described as deprived of means – an ‘embryonic nature’, including a lack of professional experience, of contacts to peers globally, exposure to new concepts that were taboo under the previous regimes such as investigative journalism, hate speech or media accountability (IRQ2-p/9; LBY5-p/9). The deprivation of the system of journalism education, too, is considerable: in Lebanon’s private universities, resources mostly go to science, engineering, technology and mathematics (STEM degrees; LEB2-a/24). The lack of resources is, however, exacerbated in Libya from where participants representing a public university listed a dearth of financial resources, laboratory equipment, studios for campus media, faculty qualified in didactics and journalistic practice (IRQ1-a/11; IRQ2-p/8-11; LBY2-a/5; LBY5-a/28). This situation accounts for curricula being overly theoretical (LBY3-a/6). Urgently needed curricula reforms are often hindered by university bureaucracies and governments alike.
Obstacles to journalism education also stem from parents who prefer studies that qualify for the traditional professions of medicine, engineering, science or business (LEB1-a/3, LEB2-a/14). Unlike the Tunisian respondent (TUN1-p/39), Iraqi and Lebanese participants reported that the student body itself was not always primarily interested in journalism as they aspire to secure any university degree (IRQ2-p/10; IRQ3-p/38; IRQ4-p/38). If all of these conditions are felt strongly in flagship universities in or close to capital cities, they are aggravated in the regions (LBY2-a/5).
The deficiencies in journalism education strongly affect the academia- media industry divide to the effect that graduates are being teased for their studies (LEB4-a/43). In a twist of the academia-industry divide, LEB1-a (3) posits that Lebanese ‘media education is more advanced than the media landscape itself’ owing to quality assurance processes through accreditation and the ensuing standards the university is obliged to follow. Narrowing the academia-industry divide would mean ‘to lower our standards’ to the level of the trade.
Envisioning professional journalism education, all participants agreed that journalists need to be educated in an academic setting that balances theoretical knowledge, practice, the know-how of the profession’s technique in a multidisciplinary curriculum including ethics (IRQ1-a/54; LEB3-a/46; LBY1-a/48; LBY7-a/51). The theory-practice nexus is meaningful because ‘theory helps you see the problems; practice is where you apply the theory to not replicate the problems’ (LEB2-a/53). Research was said to be at the essence for journalism; it informs teaching as well as practice (LBY7-a/51).
Explaining that the Arabic term of professionalism means both knowledge and ethics (TUN1-p/77), the university was said to be the place where ethics is best taught. Respondents thought that the media would refrain from spreading false information if journalists were educated in ethics (LYB8-a/48). The question whether or not ethical standards are global or local was also discussed. LEB3-a (116) maintained that ethics, ‘rights, morality, respect for the community ... apply everywhere’. Concurring that theory of journalism ethics is global, LEB1-a (120) highlighted the added value of local examples that make the theory ‘relevant to the context in which we live ... because we have a lot of unethical practices’. The need for local resources and local case studies to make the learning outcome relevant was underpinned also in other contexts (LEB2-a/14).
Findings related to RQ2: respondents reflected on their countries as migrants and refugees hosting – as opposed to origin – communities, and described it as a major topic of public debates and most relevant to journalism education. Acknowledging the relevance of the matter does, however, not always lead to curricular reform: a variance in the representation of migration and forced displacement in mass communication curricula resulted from the discussion as respondents teaching at private universities in Lebanon shared narratives which were different from those of their colleagues from public universities in Iraq and Libya. Variations between the groups of academics and practitioners were not discernible which may be explained by the hybridity of scholars and practitioners in journalism studies generally, applicable to the participants in these FGDs as well.
Lebanese participants gave accounts of the curricular inclusion of the topic. They teach it in curricular spaces that permit flexible responses to current affairs (LEB1-a/93) or cut it across the curriculum in courses such as media and gender, media and society, journalistic theory and practice, the media in Palestine or trauma journalism. The content they teach includes human rights, terminologies, ethics, the coverage of refugees and migrant workers in Lebanese media, and all of the above in theory and practice (LEB1-a/93; LEB2-a/75-82; LEB3-a/97-98). The weaknesses they observe in actual coverage – for instance, sensational reporting at the expense of accuracy – is used in class with the aim to build journalistic knowledge and skills in order to evade sensational reporting in the future.
Participants from Iraq and Libya reported that migration and forced displacement were largely absent from mass communication curricula and that, at best, some Master’s theses cover the topics (IRQ-1a/87, LBY5-a/65; LBY6-a/108). Various reasons were mentioned that explain the deterrents to include migration and forced displacement in journalism education: political ill will to endorse the teaching of content perceived as a matter of national security (IRQ1-a/88-89; IRQ2-p/102-103, 106; LBY7-a/72; TUN1-p/98-101). Bureaucratic constraints ruling the academic system make it very difficult to negotiate endorsement for new subjects with the ministries (see responses to RQ1). On the side of faculty, it has been suggested that educators would welcome possibilities to advance their professional development in teaching the coverage of migration and forced displacement. A respondent said that this political issue was ‘very, very complicated’ and narrated a classroom experience with a student asking: ‘How can you teach us about hate speech while I was forced to leave my hometown [due to the civil war in Libya]?’ The respondent regretted that he ‘did not know what to answer the student’ (LBY6-a/110, 112).
Iraqi, Lebanese and Libyan respondents alike reported that the publics in various Arab countries were polarised over the perception of migration and forced displacement (LEB6-p/92) whereby migrants were often viewed as threats to national security. TUN1-p (98-100) summarised her research following which immigration was covered as if it were ‘an invasion’ in Libya; in Jordan, the public was reported as believing that migrants were forced upon the country and should not be granted any rights; in Tunisa citizens were represented as victims of racism in Europe while at the same time migrants from the sub-Saharan region were portrayed as intruders: ‘Journalists report the same problem in two different ways depending on the subject that is being covered’ (TUN1-p/100).
Overall, respondents acknowledged that it was imperative to educate journalists on reporting on migration and forced displacement, building knowledge and honing journalistic skills, aiming at rounded practitioners able to report proficiently, ethically, responsibly, skilfully and without bias (IRQ2-p/108; TUN1-p/101). The recommendations for journalism education included the claim to instill on aspiring journalists the humanitarian and ethical approach to reporting, providing a platform for individual migrants and refugees to express themselves (IRQ3-p/115; LEB1-a/93; LEB5-p/117). As a strategy to circumvent local sensitivities, LBN3-a (99) suggested teaching the issue by also using examples from other parts of the world, for instance the Rohingya in Myanmar.
Discussion
Based upon the theory of the professions, this paper aims to explore the relevance of issues in the coverage of migration and forced displacement in Arab journalism education, discussing responses by journalism educators and practitioners from four countries across North Africa and the Middle East to two research questions discussed during FGDs in 2023.
Multifaceted developments of migration and forced displacement in the Arab world impact public debates in the region and prompt journalism educators to consider teaching the matter. In theory, as ‘mediator and interpreter’ between the ‘world of affairs’ and ‘the world of pure study’ (Carr-Saunders and Wilson 1964), the professional capitalises on comprehensive knowledge through academic education with ethics at the forefront. Journalism, as the ‘new knowledge profession’, possesses relevant scientifically based knowledge on the norms of professional ethics, the communication process, on history and current affairs as well as analytical thinking and journalistic skills (Donsbach 2014). These thoughts translate only moderately to Arab journalism education on migration and forced displacement. All educators represented in this study noted their uphill struggle. They operate in a democratic framework as a ‘long, long transition’ (LEB3) at best, aftershocks of regime changes, political instability, conflict and war; in a media system described as ‘embryonic’ (IRQ2); in a media industry that does not always meet the hallmarks of a ‘profession’, using standards inferior to those taught at university (LEB1); in university settings deprived of resources of all kinds, theoretical curricula are seen as less-than-ideal solutions but academics’ reform initiatives are restricted by bureaucratic and political ill will and regulation; last but not least, journalism educators are met with parents and even students who prefer studies that qualify for the traditional professions or business.
A related challenge aims directly at the heart of Arab ethical journalism education. Those respondents who talked about journalism ethics in their teaching did not cast doubts that the theory of global journalism ethics applied to the context of their culture of journalism and journalism education, and that local examples were used to make the theory relatable. One respondent explained that the Arab language for professionalism comprised the meaning of knowledge and ethics. These findings seem to conflict with Al-Najjar’s (2011) suggestion that patriotism is a virtue in Arab journalism ethics, particularly during conflicts such as the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
The participants in this study revealed that Arab journalism educators negotiate the spaces they have in addressing the multidisciplinary field of reporting on migration and forced displacement. In some cases, graduation theses mark a starting point in turning the university into a place of research and journalistic practice on migrants and refugees. Other cases venture into a greater variety of opportunities, teaching theory and applying it to practice, raising the awareness of refugees and migrants of all backgrounds. Looking across the border and using examples from around the world, one educator suggested, can help sidestep local sensitivities: talking about the Rohingya in Myanmar or the Ukrainians is perhaps less controversial in the Arab context. This hints to more intense exchanges among (Arab) journalism scholars on how to navigate adequately and use available academic spaces, and how to develop content aimed at building the capacity of ‘professionals-in- training’ to address matters of migration and forced displacement based on knowledge, ethics and know-how. In full appreciation of Internally Displaced Persons who do not cross borders, mass communication research and teaching on migration and forced displacement is based upon a cross-cultural outlook as much as international mobility is a cross-border activity with countries often serving at the same time as origin, transit and destination communities. Teaching the reporting on migration and forced displacement is complicated, also in view of the political constraints, respondents to this study noted. Arab journalism educators may be supported in developing their own curriculum applying to their cultural specifics the knowledge, ethics and practice of the UNESCO handbook (Fengler et al. 2021; Fengler, Lengauer and Zappe 2023) that is available in the Arabic language.
Limitations of the study
The study’s limitations comprise a focus on two of three Arab regions; for instance, the inclusion of the countries in the Gulf Co-operation Council (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates) would represent additional perspectives from migrant- receiving countries. Broadening the spectrum of institutions to include universities in these countries would render the results more inclusive.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 This paper cannot, in any responsible manner, do justice to the implications of the catastrophe known by Jewish people as Sho’ah. It cannot, in any responsible manner, do justice to the implications of the catastrophe known by Palestinian people as Al Nakba. It can also not reflect on the conflict between the Israeli and the Palestinian people in any responsible way. When referred to, this paper notes the developments in the context of this paper’s research questions
2 This paper views the Arab world as the twenty-two member states of the League of Arab States
3 Knowledge and its transmission in tertiary education as theorised in sociology and as is reflected in journalism education has been discussed elsewhere (Lengauer 2019, 2021a)
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Note on the contributor
Monika Lengauer is affiliated to the Erich Brost Institute for International Journalism at the Institute of Journalism, TU Dortmund University, Germany. She contributes, as a senior research fellow, to research on international journalism with a focus on migration and forced displacement as well as media accountability and with a geographical emphases on the Arab world, Africa and Southeast Asia. Her contribution as a lecturer was acknowledged by a teaching award in 2020.