Journalism faculty and students from Yarmouk Univeristy in Irbid, Jordan held a seminar on journalism education Friday, August 31, at the Communications Building.

Professor Ali Nejadat helped lead the presentation and wanted "to thank the University of Tennessee and the good people of Knoxville" for hosting them this past week. The group, scheduled to return home, took part in various activities around campus, including a visit to the headquarters of the campus newspaper The Daily Beacon.

"Yarmouk University has the only undergraduate program for journalism in Jordan," UT Professor James Stovall said. UT is working with the International Research and Exchanges Board to help develop some of the journalism programs in Jordan, he said.

The Journalism and Mass Communication Department of Yarmouk, started in 1980, has only a few specializations, according to Nejadat. They are newspaper, television, public relations, radio and advertising.

The local community paper, Sahafat al-Yarmouk, is published by the department and written and produced by the students of the Journalism Department. A challenge they face with the paper is a lack of money, which leads to printing in black and white and processing the paper manually, explained Nejadat.

Their radio station is scheduled to launch October 1, 2007, and they also look forward to having a public relations lab in the near future, Professor Abdel-Nasser Tbaishat said. Regarding the station's content, he said, "Our station will deal with the issues, especially concerns about family and education."

Tbaishat said the role of journalism in Jordan "is to discover the truth. We have some journalists working to discover issues and inform the public." He said a gap between the citizens and government exists, but that he feels they have some kind of freedom of press.

Stovall rounded out the seminar by presenting the professors and students with certificates as "tokens of accomplishment" for what they have achieved stateside. "We are so pleased and honored by your presence and hope that you return," he concluded.

Yarmouk University was established in 1975 and currently has around 300 students in its Journalism and Mass Communication Department, according to Tbaishat.