Out of 2,600 Applicants, Two AU Mass Communication Graduates Earn a Place Among the Arab World's Next Media Leaders

College of Mass Communication graduates Reem Ayoub and Ibrahim Tahan join the Arab Youth Center’s Young Arab Media Leaders Program, recognizing the region’s most promising media talents

Every year, thousands of young people across the Arab world compete for a chance to help shape how the region tells its own stories. This year, 2,600 of them applied to the 8th edition of the Young Arab Media Leaders Program at the Arab Youth Center in Abu Dhabi. Two of the names that made it through belong to Ajman University (AU) graduates.

Reem Ayoub and Ibrahim Tahan, who earned a Bachelor of Mass Communication with a specialization in Radio and Television Production from the College of Mass Communication, are among a regional cohort of emerging media talents chosen for their potential to lead the next chapter of Arab media.

In a recent conversation with the Arab Youth Center, Reem reflected on where the profession is heading and why, in the age of AI, the human side of media matters more than ever.

"No matter how far technology develops, no matter how far AI develops, it can never reach the point where it can see what a person is thinking and truly hold a conversation with them," she said. "If I tell a robot a sad, moving story about myself, it won't feel anything. It just moves on to the next question. A journalist might be moved. A journalist might even cry."

For Reem, protecting that human connection does not mean standing still. "Media professionals today need to focus on learning the new technologies and tools, and applying them both in their professional field and in content creation," she added, "because the two are tied together in today's media era."

Their selection arrives at a defining moment for the industry. Audiences across the region now discover news, culture, and entertainment through short-form video, podcasts, and creator-led platforms as much as through traditional broadcast. The people who will lead that shift need more than technical skill. They need to understand audiences, tell stories with purpose, and move confidently between the studio and the screen in someone's hand.

That range was built at AU. In Radio and Television Production, students spend their time producing rather than just studying production: scripting, shooting, editing, and presenting work that has to hold up to real scrutiny. It is the kind of preparation that shows when graduates are measured against the strongest young talent in the Arab world, and it is why two AU alumni now stand among them.

The impact reaches beyond two careers. Every graduate who earns a place on a regional platform like this widens the path for the students who follow, showing current Mass Communication students that the distance between an AU studio and the region's most influential media spaces is shorter than it looks. It also strengthens the College's role as a source of the voices that will shape Arab media in the years ahead. 

For Reem and Ibrahim, the program is a beginning rather than a finish line. For AU, it is a clear signal that its graduates are ready to lead, and a proud reminder of what happens when talent meets the right preparation.