The second Habib Al Reda Award for Media Innovation
is inviting submissions from media and communication students in the UAE. Amelia Naidoo reports.
With the aim of encouraging creative competitiveness among students and elevating the standard of media graduates in the country, Zayed University (ZU), UAE University and the Higher Colleges of Technology have jointly organised the second Habib Al Reda Award for Media Innovation.
Dr Sulaiman Al Jasem, ZU Vice-president, Dr Kenneth Starck, Dean of the College of Communication and Media Sciences, ZU, and Khalid Habib Al Reda, family member and chairman of the award, announced the competition last week.
The award is an initiative of the Al Reda family to honour the late Habib Mohammad Habib Al Reda who contributed to the advancement of the media in the UAE.
Media mover and shaker
The late Shaikh Rashid Bin Saeed Al Maktoum appointed Habib Al Reda as director of Dubai TV from Kuwait in 1969. Al Reda was later appointed assistant undersecretary in the Ministry of Media and Culture in the Northern Emirates until his death in 2003.
"He (Habib Al Reda) always took an interest in students and education. He always said the UAE should be number one and the best," said Khalid Habib Al Reda.
"Social responsibility was very important to him and now to the Al Reda family. He was a leader in the media and took time to create a new generation of media people. When he started with Dubai TV in the 1960s there were no UAE nationals in the cast but now there are plenty," he added.
Al Jasem said Al Reda laid the foundations for the development of the media. "His remarkable achievements were evident in the emiratisation of the media sector, the organisation of media censorship operations, the legislations of intellectual property rights, media and publications management as well as the establishment of media offices and directorates in the northern emirates," Al Jasem said.
Student feedback
Azita Ebrahim and Isra Taymour are ZU communication and media science students majoring in film and broadcast. Together with two other ZU students, they are working on submitting entries in more than one category in the competition.
"We want to end up working in media or TV or owning our own business in this field," said Azita. She said classes at ZU pertained to "the real world", where the professor showed students how to produce short documentaries, videos and commercials and how to do photography.
"We are currently doing a documentary about the changes in the UAE and will finish it in the next two weeks." said Isra.
She added that students have also done public service announcements, photos and short videos dealing with themes such as water, which they may enter for the competition.
Both students said they had never heard about Al Reda's work prior to the competition, but added they are now familiar with his achievements.
About the competition
Organised jointly by Zayed University (ZU), UAE University and the Higher Colleges of Technology, the competition is open to communication and media majors studying at UAE universities.
The competition categories include: print media, photography, video production, audio production, animation, multimedia, graphic design, public relations and senior project.
The deadline for submissions is May 4. Winners will be announced in June.
"The fact that students are preparing materials that will be judged by professionals will give them a better indication of the quality of work they are doing," said Dr Kenneth Starck, Dean of the College of Communication and Media Sciences, ZU.
Although organisers have not announced the prize money yet, they said it would be similar to last year's amount of Dh5,000; Dh4,000 and Dh3,000 for first, second and third prize winners respectively.
- For information about entry requirements email andrea.juhasz@zu.ac.ae
- Electronic entries may also be sent to this email address.
By Amelia Naidoo