The Carnegie Middle East Center and the Thomson Reuters Foundation held a strategic communications workshop in Amman, Jordan which brought together a large group of young scholars and communications professionals from Carnegie’s think tanks partner network across the region. The workshop combined Thomson Reuters’ in-depth knowledge of the media in the Middle East and Carnegie’s familiarity with working and building relationships in this sector. The training centered on studying the media environment in the Middle East and how it works including how scholars can work with the media to spread their analysis to a wider audience. It also concentrated on how think tank communications staff can define key messages and understand their audience when pitching articles and identifying channels of dissemination and publicity for their publications with an emphasis on social media. Finally, the workshop included a session dedicated to crisis management and identified strategic options for how to deal with the media in case of breaking news or urgent requests. Participants received diplomas from Thomson Reuters certifying their completion of the training.
