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Month: June 2017
MSN Arabia
Currently managing editorial operation at MSN UAE in its Arabic and English versions at Microsoft, Dubai office.
My journey with MSN started by joining the MSN Arabia team in 2013 in Cairo as a homepage editor for the Arabic and English versions of the site, as well as running MSN Arabia Facebook and Twitter pages, one of the biggest among global MSN websites.
MSN then moved to the Microsoft Cairo office in 2014, where I worked as a content editor, curating and creating content as well as weekly and monthly reports to measure our KPIs.
I left Microsoft for one year to finish my masters degree in Interactive Media in the united states as a part of the Fulbright scholarship program. Upon completing my diploma, I re-joined the MSN team at Microsoft Dubai office, focusing on MSN UAE in Arabic and English, before moving to the managing editor position at Microsoft.
Fulbright
I was awarded the Fulbright scholarship, a merit-based American exchange program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, in 2015 to complete my masters degree in Interactive Media at Elon University, North Carolina.
During my year as a Fulbright student, I got a chance to contribute regularly to the Fulbright MENA blog, as well as travel across the U.S. and attend events as part of and outside the Fulbright network such as the U.S. Politics and Elections: Democracy in Action Conference, as well as doing charity work for Partnership for Children in Austin, TX.
Cairo 360
Cairo360.com is a comprehensive online guide to all that is new in Cairo, it includes features and reviews of hangout places in the Egyptian capital, restaurants, movies currently in theaters, books and more.
I worked at Cairo 360 for 2 years as a writer, examples of published articles below:
Ahmed Shawki Museum: A Quiet Tribute to the Prince of Poetry
Darb El Barabra: Preparing a Party Has Never Been Easier
Cycling In Cairo: Pedal Your Way to a Healthier State
Hanging Church: Ancient Hallmark of Coptic Cairo
Cairo Traffic: Bey2ollak and Wasalny Can Save Your Day
Another Year: Slow-Paced Family Drama
Anne-Marie Drosso: In Their Father’s Country
UN Women
Media documentation volunteer, 2012
– Monitoring daily Egyptian independent and government-owned newspapers while focusing on certain stories related to Egyptian Women, UN activities in Egypt, and important events happening on the Egyptian political scene. This was during the first Egyptian presidential elections after the revolution.
– Compiling daily and weekly reports.
– Working on separate special files on timely important events and characters, gathering news stories that mention their achievements and updates.
Elon University
Projects for the iMedia program 2015-2016 in various new media fields such as interactive media writing, visual design, SEO and more.
Allied Churches of Alamance County (ACAC)
Allied Churches of Alamance County is a charity organization that helps people in need. They provide basic shelter and food to those in need in Alamance County in North Carolina. This project’s main focus was creating a social media plan and optimizing the Allied Churches website for search engines. During the spring months, our team worked with Allied Churches to better get the organization’s message across to its audience and increase the amount of community support the receive.
My graduation capstone project was to create an online community for writers. Scribblers’ Hub is a website that provides inspirational and motivational content in the form of writing tips and advice from famous writers, relating to what every creative person goes through in the process of writing any sort of material.
Click here to read more.
Audio Slideshow: Culture and Religious Dialogue
My interview with Dr. Janet F. Fuller, chaplain for Elon University and director of the Truitt Center for Religious & Spiritual Life at Elon.
White Paper: Using the Internet for a Better State of Mind
A previous research paper I worked on titled Consumption of Social Media and Anxiety Among Teens and Young Adults reviewed literature that studied young adults’ usage of social media, instant messaging apps and other online networks, and discussed the effects of the internet and social media on anxious and lonely people. The paper revealed that the Internet can sometimes help users feel less worried and more connected, but it also revealed some of the downsides of being always connected and constantly in the know.
Manuscript: Is Extended Consumption of Social Media Linked to Anxiety Among Teens and Young Adults?
Interacting on social media has changed how people communicate and form relationships, consequently altering the social structure of the new generation. This literature review seeks to clarify the possibility of a relationship, whether a correlation or a causation, between social media usage and anxiety. What motivates young users to interact online, as well as the effects researchers observed on their samples showed that the main reason people use this method of communication is to connect and feel included, even though they are often exposed to more worry and anxiety. However, almost all studies found that the increase of either anxiety or happiness level was tied to personal attributes. Thus, social media as a platform has no tangible effect on individuals by itself but can help predict certain psychological patterns.
Abair Leat
During winter term at the iMedia MA program at Elon University, students fly to different locations around the world to work with non-profit organizations and groups on a project for the public good.
This year, our team went to Ireland to work with our client Mícheál Ó Foighil to help develop Abair Leat, the first Irish language messaging app.
Together our team created a website, a social media plan, wireframes, screen designs and promotional videos for Abair Leat, creating something that Micheal can pitch for funding to make the app a reality.
Abair Leat – Commercial from Salma Tantawi on Vimeo.
The most motivating part of this project is the role the app will play in solving a wider cultural problem; Irish teens have no convenient way of using Irish on social media. Their words always get autocorrected to English thus discouraging them and their peers from communicating in their original language, which use in the community has been drastically declining.
My role in the project was the video/photography lead. Together with Micheal, we made the best of our visit to Ireland by getting footage that represented the culture in the towns and cities we visited, as well as talk to experts in the communication field about the language use. During our visit to a school in Tullamore, we also heard from high school students, Abair Leat main target age range audience, about how they use social media, and what are their thoughts about Abair Leat after testing the app.
Abair Leat – Promotional Video from Salma Tantawi on Vimeo.
What we heard while being on site was different from what we were expecting preparing for our project. Irish is not only an old language used in official settings, teenagers actually yearn for a way to use it more, they love their language and they wish there was a way to always use it, and more people to speak it with.
As one girl we interviewed said “I always say my hellos and goodbye in Irish, even when I’m in the city and when no one understands me. It’s the way I connect with my culture.”
Hopefully many will be able to text and chat in Irish soon not only learn Irish in school.
In addition to the videos above, we created a video that shows part of our experience as a team which was a great and a rewarding opportunity for us to work on a real project in a challenging setting.
Ireland Fly-In 2016 Team video from Salma Tantawi on Vimeo.
