“MTV Academy”…the secrets of the profession in your hands
The Lebanese MTV channel follows the example of foreign and Arab channels that today contribute to graduating a media generation whose talents are honed in science, knowledge, and applied work.
Out of her eagerness to provide fans with her media style, she decided to publish it in her own way. “MTV Academy” is the first academic institution born from the womb of a Lebanese television station, whose goal is to create successful media models that resemble in thinking and style the station itself.
Rania Ashkar, Director of MTV Academy
This academy was founded by one of its presenters, Rania Ashkar, who has high educational experience. She holds a doctorate in media and education, and a master’s degree in French literature. After several conversations with the management of the aforementioned station, she succeeded in implementing it. She told Asharq Al-Awsat: “I have had the idea, as have the owners of the station, for a long time, and the time has come today to implement it at the required level. The curriculum was developed and the necessary teaching and practical materials were included. All of these materials are needed by every media person who seeks progress and development. I personally received private lessons with trainers and experts in the field, to hone my media experience.”
MTV Academy offers intensive courses of up to 40 hours each. It takes about 5 months so that the student receives 10 different subjects. Ashkar explains: “These materials are distributed to the students, each according to their need, and it may be less or more. These are materials that constitute the basic foundation for a program presenter, television broadcaster, or interviewer, and other media tasks that he likes to perform.”
Beauty expert Laila Obaid gives makeup lessons
Ashkar developed the curriculum carefully, and it required extensive research and contacts with experts and media professionals. She continues: “Even the academy’s website required a lot of preparation and took about 3 months to complete. Today, anyone who enters the site can clearly see everything that the academy offers in the context of media.”
Two sessions a year were set to complete this task, and each session could accommodate 20 people: “We start our first session on October 6th, and we had to increase the number of students to 27 students instead of 20 due to the large demand we witnessed.”
MTV stars, in addition to media experts, will undertake the task of giving these classes, including those related to political programs, news, reportage, and others. Among them are newscaster Majid Bouhadir, political interviewer Danny Haddad, morning broadcaster Elie Ahoush, Rania Ashkar herself, and others. These courses also allocate sections on fashion, body language, and beauty, and are co-taught by beauty expert Laila Obaid and etiquette expert Nadine Daher.
Majid Bu Hadir “MTV Academy” benefits from his media experiences
The academy will also host stars who work in the media in general, providing students with their expertise, but what about the degree the student obtains and the extent of its objectivity? Rania Ashkar replies: “The certificate will be official and signed by the Ministry of Information in Lebanon, in cooperation with two Lebanese universities, NDU and Jesuit. Their students, too, can follow these classes with us at the academy. Media students at various universities need applied lessons in audio-visual. We all know that the media needs intensive training in order for its students to reach the required level.”
The second session for which the Academy began enrolling its students begins in February of 2024. Ashkar tells us about the quality of these students: “There are, of course, media students, lawyers, company managers, businessmen, and other professions. They all need these skills to excel in their professions and provide the best.”
A special space created by MTV for the academy’s students in its edifice located in the Naqqash area. These lessons will be enhanced with practical lessons taking place in its studios.
The academy allocates a permanent seat to a student with simple social capabilities, thus providing him with the opportunity to follow the course for free as part of a humanitarian initiative it follows.
Lara Lahad, daughter of MTV and director of the communications department and responsible for casting and television training, also participates in the academy team. She told Asharq Al-Awsat: “By joining the academy, students will learn the secrets of the profession, which will guarantee them success in the future when they work. We are keen to give theoretical and practical lessons, so they can live a realistic television experience in all its dimensions.”
Lara, who holds two university degrees in translation and living languages, explains the nature of the subjects she will give to the academy’s students: “Among the 11 subjects given to the students, I will study (the art of standing in front of the camera) and (creative content).”
In the first, students learn about everything related to being in front of the camera and how to deal with it. In the second, Lara will give lessons on how to create television content, to provide the student with a comprehensive and clear idea of how to create a television program, develop its idea, and implement it. As well as providing him with television experience that will enable him to become a trend on social media and the performance that he must follow in order to achieve his goal and succeed.
Lara points out that the experiences that the academy student will gather will be accumulated: “He will enter the photography studio, deal with the director, and will also learn the foundations of television work in control and reggae booths. These are basic sections in television work. Among the subjects he will also study is the science of television production and the process of preparing programs, in addition to others.
Lara Lahad, Director of the Communications Department at MTV, teaches camera art (MTV)
Lara tells us that the channel will devote video reports to this academy that convey to the viewer how it works: “It is a metaphor for a short episode that summarizes the merits of the teaching course and its nature on the ground. Thus, the viewer learns about the high level of professionalism that we provide to our students.”
One of MTV’s goals is to rely in the future on elite graduate students to work in its facility if it needs specific media personnel. Lara concludes: “In this way, we are aware and aware in advance of the energies we resort to. She will be completely ready, as we wish, to enter television work.”
