Is the discipline of development communication a spent force or one on the ascendancy? That’s the subject of a keynote article in the latest issue of AMIC’s quality quarterly publication, Media Asia. In The rise, fall and revival of development communication, Associate Editor, Rachel Khan, plots the course of the subject since the Lerner, Schramm and Rogers days of the 1950s and 1960s. Drawing on a variety of sources, including the proceedings of the UNESCO Emeritus Dialogue session on development communication at this year’s AMIC annual conference in Yogyakarta, the author traces a series of experiences from Asia and Africa.
Media Asia also features a ‘special issue’ research section headed Global networks, global divides: research and views from the Antipodes. Guest edited by AMIC’s Country Representative in Australia, Dr. Terence Lee, from Murdoch University in Perth, the section includes papers from several Australian scholars.
Professor Emeritus at Temple University and former winner of the prestigious AMIC Asia Communication Award, John Lent, is the subject of Media Asia’s highlight Interview. “I didn’t apply for grants” Lent tells interviewer Dr. Cherian George, “because I didn’t want to be beholden to anybody else.” His passion for academic independence, not to mention comic art, has made Professor Lent an entertaining conference presenter and a global leader in the field of comics. His Interview is full of wisdom and surprises.
Elsewhere, Media Asia includes an Insights article on media self-regulation and the Indian press by Singapore-based law and policy expert, Professor Ang Peng Hwa, and a case study by Dr. Usha Harris on the use of media in assessing climate change impact in the Pacific. AMIC Secretary-General, Martin Hadlow, contributes a reminiscence on media development in Afghanistan, where he was based for almost three years.
Media Asia Vol. 40, No. 4, 2013, is now available for purchasing on-line at www.amic.org.sg