This week, students in the Journalism and International Issues (MJEI) course of the Information Professions master's program, co-sponsored by EJCAM and Sciences Po Aix, are immersed in the Medi1 newsroom in Tangiers.
Founded in 1980 and broadcasting in Arabic and French to several million listeners, Medi1 is the leading radio station in the Maghreb and a key news player in Africa and the Arab world. An exceptional setting for students trained in international journalism.
A collaboration made possible by a former student
This partnership owes a great deal to Eva Cohen, a former graduate of the master's program, now a journalist with a permanent contract at Medi1. It was she who opened the doors of the editorial office and made this unprecedented collaboration possible. A fine example of what alumni networks can bring to a training program.
A week of total immersion
For a week, the students are immersed in the newsroom, in contact with the journalists, but also in the field. They cover set topics on the economy, sport, culture and the history of Tangier. They also develop their own reporting and investigative ideas. In the field, angles become clearer, obstacles arise - language, fixers, the diversity of interlocutors - and journalistic reflexes are built up in a foreign context. This is precisely the aim of the MJEI course.
Subjects rooted in Moroccan realities
The reports produced this week cover a deliberately varied range of topics: the impact of climate change on small-scale Moroccan livestock breeders, the resistance of an iconic cinema, the issue of stray animals in the city, or the gradual disappearance of donkeys as an indicator of the social changes underway. Angles that say something about Morocco today - and that required meetings with women's soccer associations, cultural players, breeders, veterinarians and international musicians.
A week in the field, exchanging ideas and learning under real conditions - as close as possible to what their job will be.
