Aljazeera TV’s role in shaping Arab political awareness (the Egyptian revolution 25 Jan – 11 Feb 2011)

This thesis investigates Aljazeera TV’s role in shaping Arab political awareness during the 18 days of the Egyptian Revolution, from 25 January to February 11, 2011. Situated within media impact studies based on news content analysis, the research is an ethnographic research on Aljazeera with thematic analysis of its news content during the Revolution. The study aims to understand the channel’s role between covering the events on the one hand, and participating in the event on the other hand. The study explores how the channel employed its staff and media discourse to play its role in the political change. The research focuses on the emotions in journalism, arguing that Aljazeera, by satisfying the audience’s cognitive and emotional needs, was able to gain their trust over a long period of time, which enabled it to influence the shaping of their political awareness. Based on the aims of the study, I employ semi-structured interviews and archive analysis to produce an intimate narrative analytical account of the channel’s coverage of the Egyptian Revolution in a notable and important level of detail. The study primarily focuses on the themes and impact of Aljazeera’s main news bulletin, news reports and political commentary of the Arab thinker Azmi Bishara during the Revolution through an analysis of the archive. To understand how the channel produced its coverage of the Revolution, the study depends on semi-structured interviews with Aljazeera staff who produced the coverage. The analysis shows how Aljazeera overcame the Egyptian authorities’ measures against it and broadcast all that the regime’s media ignored and denied during the Egyptian Revolution. Aljazeera employs the themes and visual elements of its news content in favour of the revolutionaries, which contradicted the objective journalism principles, and contributed to the benefit of the Revolution by encouraging, alerting and guiding the revolutionaries. The results of this research illustrate that satisfying Arab audience's needs for knowledge and collective values enhances Arab television media’s ability to influence the audience's attitudes. Aljazeera, by employing its financial capabilities, network of correspondents and dealing with news in a different approach from what Arab media used to adopt, satisfies Arab viewers’ needs for knowledge and collective values. This role, regardless of hidden agendas, would increase in awareness that enables people to monitor regimes, challenge it, and eventually move to demand their rights through revolutions

Foundling and Abandoned Children in Palestine

The study addressed foundling and abandoned children in the Palestinian society as a multi-dimensional phenomenon. The study consisted of a retrospective transversal survey of one hundred and fifteen abandoned children, and ninety-two abandoning mothers purposefully selected from the records of Crèche Institution in Bethlehem, West Bank. The findings indicated that the ratio of foundling and abandoned children in the Palestinian society is very low comparison with international figures. The study concludes that child abandonment in the Palestinian society is a risk factor, and that under-reporting of offences, especially incest is widespread in the Palestinian patriarchal society

Emotional Stability among the Ex-detainees Palestinian Children from Israeli Prisons

The objectives of the study were to identify the emotional stability among the ex-detainees Palestinian children from Israeli prisons. Emotional stability scale was administrated to 299 children using the stratified random sampling method. The findings revealed that the ex-detainees Palestinian children experienced a low level of emotional stability. These results confirmed the traumatic experiences on the personality of the ex-detainees Palestinian children from Israeli prisons. The consequences of the findings for practice are highlighted

The Impact of a Group-counselling Program on Self-affirmation Skills among 11th Grade Students at Jaba Secondary Girls School

The study aimed to investigate the impact of a group-counseling program on self-affirmation skills among 11th grade students at Jaba secondary girls school. The study approached the literature as a multi-dimensional phenomenon, which addressed both theoretical and applied research. The significance of this recent study is the first, which dealt with this theme, to the authors' knowledge, which in turn encourages other researchers to work on further research on this important topic. To achieve this end, the study adopted the experimental method using a triangulation quantitative and qualitative design approach using the questionnaire and the focus groups, which are appropriate to the exploratory nature of the research, and have provided more meaningful, in-depth data. The random purposive method was utilized which comprised of a sample size of (26) students of the 11th grade at Jaba secondary girls school, which were divided into two groups, that are the experimental group and controlled group. Data were analyzed using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS). The study revealed the determinant effect of a group-counseling program on developing selfaffirmation skills among 11th grade students at Jaba secondary girls school. The findings of the study revealed significant statistical differences in self-affirmation skills among the sampled population favored the experimental group. The above findings confirm the value of effect of a group-counseling program on self-affirmation skills among 11th grade students at Jaba secondary girls school, and recommend for training programs that provide educational counselors with strategies and defense mechanisms to increase self-affirmation skills among the students. The need to strengthen the principles of self-affirmation skills among the students through workshops and training courses, and update their knowledge in such important issue which affects positively their self-confidence and that of the others as well; and finally, further research is essential to develop a clear understanding of self-affirmation skills using the qualitative research design