Since autumn 2009, IWPR conducted a series of multimedia workshops in Beirut and Damascus for 16 reporters from Syria. The aim was to teach the young journalists to produce video and audio slideshows for online publication and, more generally, to familiarise them with multimedia techniques. Lessons focused on audio-visual story telling, script writing and the basics of still photography, filming and sound recording.

Equipped with Flip cameras and digital audio recorders, the participants then set out to produce multimedia stories from Syria, putting into practice the lessons they had learned in the classroom. They came back with a colourful range of stories, dealing with subjects as varied as bellydancing, rapping, street children and the decline of Syrian cinema. The multimedia stories – voiced in Arabic with English subtitles - will be published on the IWPR website over the coming months.

The workshops were organised by IWPR Beirut as part of its Syria Journalism Training Programme. A third workshop was held in February 2010.