The Faculty of Modern Media at the Arab American University in Ramallah has held a training workshop targeting employees of public relations departments in local authorities titled “Public Relations in Local Government Institutions: Towards Effective Communication with the Public.”
More than fifty representatives of public relations departments in municipalities and local councils from Ramallah, Al-Bireh, Hebron, Bethlehem, Nablus, Jenin, and Qalqilya participated in the workshop.
The meeting was inaugurated by Professor Dr. Mohammad Asia, Vice President for Ramallah Campus. He stressed the importance of strengthening the integrated relationship between the University and local authorities. Dr. Asia also stressed the vital role played by local authorities in serving the community and promoting positive communication.
Prof. Dr. Asia added: “The initiative came out of the social responsibility of the University and the Faculty of Modern Media. We are pleased today to receive representatives of local authorities from multiple regions, and for them to endure the hardship of traveling to Ramallah, which confirms the desire to develop performance and enhance communication between community institutions and the Arab American University.”
The Dean of the Faculty of Modern Media, Dr. Hanadi Dweikat welcomed the attendees and pointed out the importance of the role played by the Faculty of Modern Media in serving the local community and developing the services it provides through a group of training workshops as part of the social responsibility of the Faculty of Modern Media. In the first session, Dr. Dweikat discussed basic topics that included introducing public relations tasks, responsibilities, audiences, and the organizational structure in the Public Relations Department.
In the second session, Mr. Omar Abu Arra, lecturer at the Faculty of Modern Sciences, gave a lecture on the ideal ways to manage municipal pages on social media. The lecture provided practical advice on building appropriate content and how to deal with different audiences present on these platforms.
For his part, Dr. Said Abu Mualla, a lecturer at the Faculty of Modern Media, gave a lecture focusing on the skills of writing for public relations and drafting media messages. It included a review of the best practices in writing messages to the media with the aim of achieving effective communication and building a positive image of institutions.
The three workshop sessions had great interaction from the participants. They also shared their expertise and experiences with the attendees, expressed the challenges they face in the field of public relations and discussed ways to overcome the pitfalls associated with daily work.
The event was concluded with distributing certificates to the trainees, thanking them for their active participation and the valuable contribution they made during the training workshop.
