AFP Student Video Goes Viral on YouTube

Arabic Flagship Program (AFP) Student, Grace Zhang, is abroad this summer studying in Meknes, Morocco. Her time abroad is part of her participation in the Arabic Overseas Flagship Program where she is studying Arabic – specifically the Moroccan dialect – for two months.

In her Arabic media class,  Grace created a video  for her midterm project. For the project, students were given the choice to focus on any political or social topic relating to media, and Grace selected the referendum, as it has been the recent, hot topic on television and in the newspapers, and also the reason for the majority of the protests and demonstrations that occurred in the last month in Morocco. Grace wanted to personally learn more about why people were protesting, whether they supported or opposed the constitutional changes, and the rationale behind their support or opposition.

As you will see in the video, Grace portrays a news anchor for the fictitious news channel “Al-Akhbar Al-Maghribia”, as correspondent, Karima, who covers the unfolding story of the July 1st Moroccan referendum. After speaking about the problems Moroccans currently face,  she asks people on the street about their opinions, how they’ll vote, and whether they think the constitutional amendments will truly improve the condition of ordinary Moroccans.

After speaking with and interviewing many people in the streets of Morocco, Grace discovers and presents in the video’s conclusion, that most of the public supports the king, but has various problems with the government’s handling of the economy and other issues. Most are hopeful that the amendments, though not a panacea for all the existing social, political, and economic problems, will at least pave the way for changes that benefit the people.

We invite you to watch Grace’s video, which has already received over 20,000 hits on YouTube at:

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