Pablo Menguy: working for a French-language newspaper that I admire
In June 2019, the MediaLab Campus project awarded grants to ten female students and five male students studying journalism in schools across Europe and the Mediterranean and looking to undertake an internship in a foreign media outlet over the summer. Pablo Menguy, a student at the Tours Public Journalism School in France, served as an intern at L'Orient-Le Jour in Beirut (Lebanon) in July 2019; here, he tells us about his experience.
“I like meeting other people, speaking to people I've never met before, and making new acquaintances. Journalism is the perfect profession for doing those things. Of course, you need to be extremely dedicated (and put in long hours!), but there are very few professions that offer such a variety of activities and experiences. For instance, one day during my studies, I interviewed a politician in the morning and then attended a lightsaber class in the afternoon as part of a report! What other profession could have offered me that?
I am passionate about the Middle East and international relations in general. I have already served as an intern many times in France, working in the international departments of several media outlets. While those experiences were very interesting, I still felt a little frustrated about reporting Middle Eastern news from Paris. When you're in France, you sometime feel very detached from the actual situation – if you want to gain a better understanding of it, then there is nothing better than being in the field.
“I've been a regular reader of L'Orient-Le Jour for years. For me, serving as an intern within that newspaper's editorial team was the perfect plan: I would be working for a French-language newspaper that I admire, whilst being in a region that I am passionate about. I was put in the international department, and spent most of the time in the newspaper's offices working with the other journalists in the department. I submitted articles on topics affecting the Middle East or Northern Africa. I benefited greatly from being able to speak to the other journalists about their experiences and what they thought about specific topics."