The Department of Mass Communication at the College of Social Sciences at Umm Al-Qura University launched the first lecture of the cultural and scientific activities of the faculty members in the department, for the first semester of 1440/1441. The lecture entitled, "The Study Problem", was delivered by Dr. Samir bin Abdul-Rahman Tawakkul.

During the lecture, Dr. Samir enunciated the concept of 'the problem' as being a problem that still exists and needs to be researched. The lecture also detailed the methods of selecting, identifying and narrowing down the problem to be researched, and tackled how it is formulated in order to research it easily and to how to have access to sufficient information. He used teaching aids to present the material to the attendees.

In addition, there were fruitful interventions by the faculty. Prof. Dr. Wadi Al-Azazi took the lead by stating, after thanking and praising Dr. Samir, that the keenness to hold such lectures at the beginning of the semester is beneficial to students, especially postgraduate students. "It is appropriate to present this scientific material at this time," he added.

Dr. Al-Amir Al-Sahsah said that it is important to know why the research topic is chosen, and to identify the problem. He explained that questions and assumptions are elements of the plan related to the problem, but they are not the problem itself.

Dr. Muhammad Gharib, a sociology specialist, mentioned, "There is a difference between the methodology, the research language and the descriptive approach. In the field of media, we have begun to explain the difference between the language of research and research methodology, and between questions and hypotheses."

Next, Dr. Samir Tawakkul concluded the meeting saying, "Identifying the study problem in scientific research is an obstacle for students, especially novices, and causes some sort of difficulty. My aim was to introduce this problem. We have talked about the concept of the problem and how to formulate it with questions or statements; there are different methods that can be chosen. I thank the learners for their interaction, and I thank the faculty for their comments, which enriched our lecture."

He explained that after attending the lecture, the students would be better able to identify the research problem, and would thus be able to contribute something to knowledge they would be proud of. He added that it would be easy for them to submit a research within the allotted time, Allah willing.