Flowering in the desert...
From desert rose, Abyssinian rose, or Arabian jasmine, the mountainous and valley areas of Oman are rich with colourful wildflowers. Lavender is one of my favourites for its intense yet delicate...
Fun and entertainment as news deliverance
The media and journalism are letting people down. Those interested in solid forms of reporting are in search of alternatives. While the youth look for entertainment, investors and researchers look for...
Chatbot in journalism and academia...
Technological progress is bringing a breath of fresh approaches to journalism, education and academic integrity. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) is more real than ever bringing both potentials...
Ideologies and the risks of digital age
Ideology understanding is a challenging yet important topic. Ideology as a set of ideas, beliefs, and attitudes that can reflect or shape interpretations or misconceptions of the social, political,...
The Quotidian
Where is your husband? It was not the first time such a question has been asked. Whether it is funny or not is another matter, but returning ‘home’ and having been asked such a query raises an...
Retrospective, the way I see it
The year 2022 has been a passionate and tumultuous one, like a cat toying with a mouse. Emotions are high, and people are expressing themselves more vigorously. The year seems to have been permanently...
Media translation matters...
You enjoy watching international programmes, but you want subtitles in your native language. You want to read that best-selling book written in a language you don’t grasp, so you look for...
Pride and patriotism...
Praise the nation and the people who contribute to the country’s human development. It's that sense of triumph: much has been accomplished, but much remains to be done. The wheel doesn’t stop, but...
Lessons from Brazil: Not for the weak
The Brazilian presidential campaign has served as a laboratory for political scientists and media scholars. The richness of variants is even more important for a deep look during the 30 days leading...
The fun nights of karaoke in town
The number of karaoke venues and performances in Muscat is mushrooming. On some weeknights, there are gigs in more than one place. With the coming of cooler weather, and clear and starry skies, fans...
Streaming: The reshape of the media
The widespread use of live streaming has given communication and media work a new dimension. Media consumption habits and customers interactions are becoming more sophisticated. It is not surprising...
Inspirational women: many out there!
The epics of Queen Shamsaa, also known as the queen of Oman, have crossed my path. Reading about her role in the pre-Islamic era reinforced my views on the strength of Omani women.We can start with...
Taking tourism reporting seriously
The year was 2010, journalism students were having lessons on tourism reporting. It was something new to the local journos. Today, 12 years later, many of them occupy prominent jobs within the media...
Stories shape experiences, reality and colour our interpretations
The haze in my head seems to be dissipating. The cold and dark feelings are moving away at a slow pace. The surrounding is strange. A bizarre and unreal emptiness. Time is an abstract concept until...
In the name of security
When teaching news writing to journalism students, I always make a point of focusing on the areas of business, sports, and a toe in the finance aspects of weather reporting. Great subjects with a lot...
Simply put, comedians are the new intellectuals
Is the tragic death of a tourist by a shark in Egypt a suitable topic for a comedy? Perhaps. Making jokes about people’s misfortune and family grieving is dreadful – I think. But there are those...
Tap your feet... Life is better when you dance
Have you ever thought that dance is a focused activity? Or that dancing is strongly related to problem solving, identifying patterns, and leadership? And more, that dance is a system of communication...
Turn the radio on...
Driving from Ruwi to Al Khoudh in Muscat is so much more interesting when there is a nice programme to listen to or a good soundtrack playing on the local radio. But driving from Muscat to the...
A shift in social behaviour
The “I don’t get it, I’m not interested” approach to news disengagement.News avoidance is on the rise. There are many reasons for such a shift in social behaviour, one of which is a lack of...
Not glamorous but necessary
People rarely talk about sanitation, unless when human waste is treated in the context of a joke or vulgarity. It is not an attractive or photogenic topic, and it is not glamorous to be featured in...