Journalism Course Ends with Alternative First Pages

On the last day of their five-day programme, the young journalist trainees at the course run by the IPS Communication Foundation used their accumulated experiences of the week to prepare the first page of newspapers.

After examining around 15 newspapers, they prepared the first pages of fictive newspapers which they called "Halk ve Hayat" (People and Life), "Başka" (Different), and "OHO Postası", the last referring to the name of the course, "From the Classroom to the Newsroom", in Turkish "Okuldan Haber Odasına" (OHO).

The thirty graduates from universities in Turkey and Northern Cyprus examined the real newspapers in terms of the rules of the profession and the concept of rights journalism, all of which they had discussed in previous sessions.

Under the guidance of journalists Ahmet Tulgar, Ahmet Şık, Burçin Belge and Murat Çelikkan, the different groups then prepared their own first pages.

In the following discussion, bianet project advisor Nadire Mater warned the young journalists of using clichés in headings, which would reduce the political impact of a news item.

Assist. Prof. Esra Arsan from Bilgi University lauded the efforts, but also warned of using mainstream media as a source of information:

"If you have an empty page in front of you, this represents power - whose voice are you going to amplify? It is important to bring forward the actors who are not represented in the mainstream media."

The five-day programme ended with a cocktail and certificate celebration in the evening. The academics and journalists awarded the certificates to the young journalists, who expressed their belief in the possibility of a different kind of media.

This year's participants in the course were:

Mesut Kurtuluş, Nurcan Pınar Avcı, Hatice Kaya, Ayşe Yıldız, Zeynep Güner, Ayşen Yavaş, Fatmanur Ayasun, Vahap Karakılıç, Ali Şaylığ, İbni Sina Ceyhan, Barış Mumyakmaz, Gülşah Güneş, Perihan Dinler, Deniz Turan, Ümit Altındere, Serdar Cevher, Selin Bayraktar, Koray Yaşar, Çetin Ak, Aslı Özyurt, Makbule Kayadibi, İlknur Ekelik, Berrak Sırma, Damla Kayayerli, Ferah Poyraz, Yusuf Körükmez, Abdullah Karlıdağ, Özge Kolay, Emel Şen, Nihal Giray. (CU-CB/EÜ/AG)