By Fatima Karmostaji
ABU DHABI — Zajel ZU, the student media website at Zayed University, took second place in the Region 2 Society of Professional Journalists’ Mark of Excellence Contest at Richmond, Virginia, in the United States on April 9, 2016.
Zajel ZU was runner-up to the Capital News Service from the University of Maryland at College Park in the category of Best Digital-Only Student Publication. Region 2 includes Maryland and Virginia.
“The Society of Professional Journalists is described as the oldest organisation representing journalists,” said Pamela Creedon, the dean of the College of Communication and Media Sciences. “For our college, the award received by Zajel is indicative that CCMS has outstanding students and professional faculty. We are exceptionally proud that our students are internationally competitive. I congratulate the Zajel staff and reporters and look forward to its continued excellence in coverage of events and activities at Zayed University and beyond.”
Zajel ZU covers the ZU campuses in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Student journalists also cover stories in both cities and beyond.
Nada Almenhali, the president of ZU’s Student Chapter of SPJ, was pleased that Zajel ZU received the award.
“We owe this award to Zajel, for being such a great supporter of our work and making it possible for us to reach a bigger crowd,” Ms. Almenhali said.
The contest was for Zajel ZU content produced in 2015. It marked the second time Zajel ZU has been awarded in the SPJ Mark of Excellence contest. In 2012, Zajel ZU was named the top student news website for Region 8 (Oklahoma and Texas). That year, Zajel ZU journalists won five individual Mark of Excellence Awards as well.
Jim Buie, who heads the college’s Student Media Editorial Board, was delighted to hear the news.
“I think it is wonderful that Zajel won a Mark of Excellence Award from the Society of Professional Journalists,” Mr. Buie said. “Frankly, I’m not all that surprised because we have some very talented students contributing great work.”
Similar thoughts about the award came from Dr. David Bulla, an associate professor and the adviser of the ZU SPJ chapter.
“This is quite an achievement,” Dr. Bulla said. “Kudos to all of the students, the faculty, our dean and especially Jack Frizzell in Dubai. All have worked hard, and our students are learning the trade in a practical way. Zajel gives our students this great educational opportunity.”
Mr. Frizzell, a member of the CCMS staff, serves as the coordinator of Zajel ZU and has built a reliable group of journalists to create content for the site. All contributors are Zayed University student volunteers.
Dr. Bulla praised Mr. Frizzell for his commitment to ZU students’ education.
“Jack has really done a wonderful job of promoting Zajel to ZU students,” Dr. Bulla said. “I think there are approximately 40 students in Dubai alone who have contributed to Zajel in the last year. Our students are getting out there covering stories that young people are interested in. Jack also shuffles back and forth between campuses to coordinate Zajel.”
Dr. Bulla also said the opening of du labs on both campuses has helped Zajel ZU students do more video assignments — vital in 21st-Century news media.
The ZU Student Chapter of SPJ promotes journalism’s core values, and members, in addition to actively contributing to Zajel ZU and other media, serve the community and visit news media in the country. This year, the chapter has visited both UPP printing in Al Shahama and the National newspaper in Abu Dhabi. They also put on Journalism Day each October. Last fall’s Journalism Day took place at CNN at twofour54.
“Westerners need to see and read more of the high quality work produced by communications students in the Middle East,” Mr. Buie said of the significance of Zajel ZU’s award beyond the two campuses.
Link:
http://www.spj.org/news.asp?REF=1424
This story was originally published on May 25, 2016. It was re-uploaded on Dec. 29, 2020. The photo that accompanied this story was lost due to the loss of the domain name.
