Photo: Henrik Keith Hansen/IMS

Cairo, Egypt: In room after room, row after row, young reporters from the rising star of the Arab media world, the news e-portal Youm 7,  are busy updating their website for its five million users

By Henrik Keith Hansen, IMS

We are in Cairo and the hectic activity of the reporters mirrors the inner soul of one of the world¹s largest cities - hyper activity. Silence is not part of the vocabulary here. In one of the rooms two persons clearly differ from the rest: Two pale Danes. They are just as focussed and hard working as the rest of the reporters here, but their mission is different.

Under the editorial headline "The future of Islam" they are supplying the Danish public with news, features, interviews and short personal stories from Cairo. Text, video and photos for the web, tweets, blogs, Face Book updates; ­ every possible new media platform is used to give the Danish audience a feeling of Egypt focussing on every day life.

The audience can ask the reoprters questions, ask them to research specific topics and they can post comments. Interactivity and dialogue are the keywords. 

The two Danish reporters, Lars Damgaard Sørensen and Thorleif Ravnbak are part of an IMS Twinning and dialogue project between DR News (Danish National Broadcaster) and Youm 7, where staff from the two media participate in an exchange programme and are partnered. The purpose of the Twinning programme is to partner media professionals in the Arab world and Denmark to exchange experience and ideas.

Seeking inspiration for new content

Last week two reporters from Youm 7 visited DR News in Denmark to seek inspiration for new ways of producing content for the web and new social media. They were so enthusiastic about their stay in Denmark that they are now trying to set up their own structure of future cooperation with DR.

The objective of the project is to create dialogue between Egyptian and Danish media and to tear down stereotypes and prejudice, which is often voiced in the media of both countries. The ambition is to achieve this by working closely together and through these working relations broaden the horizon and understanding of the participating journalists and to see these new insights reflected in their reporting.

The Egyptian colleagues are all very helpful and supportive of the two Danes, and help them find sources, contact numbers, places etc.

- There is an abundance of good and interesting stories here in Cairo to tell our Danish audience. It is incredible. And very fascinating, says one of the Danish participants, Thorleif Ravnbak.

- We try to mix between little, daily life stories from Cairo and then the more serious stories about the coming elections, limitations in freedom of speech, the different ways of practicing Islam here in Egypt etc.

However, some of their Egyptian colleagues find the title of the DR sub-site, "The Future of Islam", strange. "Why are you so focussed on Islam?"

Egypt is more than Islam

- Egypt and the Middle East are so much more than Islam. It is sometimes like you can only see us through religious glasses. I cannot imagine us producing stories from Denmark under the headline "The future of Christianity¹, says Fatima Kheir, one of the reporters who visited DR last week.

The Danish reporters are a bit surprised that their focus on Islam is controversial in the eyes of some of their hosts. 

- But this headline just reflects a very big interest and curiosity about Islam among our users ­ but probably also a lack of knowledge, says Lars Damgaard.

There has been such a great interest shown in the project from the other media platforms of DR, that the two Danish reporters constantly are on live from Cairo in some of the most popular radio programmes on the big mainstream channels P3 and P4 of the National Danish Broadcaster. And this is exactly the editorial aim of the Danes: To target the broad audience and not so much the smaller, intellectual segment of their users. 

Take a look at the project which runs until Tuesday November 30 on www.dr.dk/nyheder and click at the front page logo "Fremtidens Islam" (translated: Future of Islam). More on the IMS Twinning Programme here.