By Kabeer Yousuf — MUSCAT: Some 27 girls and 11 boys from Grade 9 to 12 of Indian School Muscat had their first date with newspaper production process when they visited the Oman Establishment for Press, Publication and Advertising (OEPPA) office on Wednesday. OEPPA is the mother organization that produces the Oman Daily Observer and Oman Arabic daily. The students who were members of the Literary Club of their school were accompanied by three teachers and were visiting the establishment as part of their field trip.
The students were impressed upon seeing the labyrinth process involved in the making of a Daily and were all ears in listening to the explanation of the management and staff, reporters, sub-editors and designers of the Establishment on what they do and which area they were responsible of.
“I got an insider view on how a prestigious newspaper like Observer brings the news to us,” Juliet, one of the participating students, said while going through a copy of a newspaper.
‘We wouldn’t know how much human efforts and mechanical work are involved in the process,” she added.
Anchal Trisal, who is considering taking journalism as a serious profession, said, “For those who are committed to literature art and journalism, it was more than an inspiration.”
The students accompanied by Novena Augustine, Literary Club Coordinator, Augustine Joseph and Aishwarya Sasidharan, both teacher members of the Literary Club, were first toured to the editorial section for them to know how news is gathered and how it is distributed among the sub editors.
They were also told how journalists work to gather information and were shown how the reports end up on the pages of the newspaper.
They keenly followed all the stages of newspaper making that made Bithiah Fernandez say “I’m now a better ‘Observer’.”
“We are truly thankful to OEPPA, the Acting CEO Saif al Mahrouqi; Abdullah al Shueili, the Editor in Chief of Oman Observer Daily; Mohsin al Balushi, the PR Director and his staff Sultan and Mohammed for their valued support and immense guidance in making the visit a fruitful one,” Joseph Augustine said.
“Coming here really expanded my horizon. The visit nourished my ambition of being a journalist,”said another student, Shalu Marin.
“This visit to Observer gave me hands on learning on the working of the press and triggered in me the passion of writing,” Lenin Augustine said.
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