AMIC holds 30th Annual Conference in Beijing

AMIC holds 30th Annual Conference in Beijing

AMIC holds 30th Annual Conference in Beijing

Communication and journalism educators, scholars, and practitioners will meet at the Communication University of China (CUC) in Beijing for the 30th Annual Conference of the Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC), September 24 to 26 .

This year’s conference theme celebrates the rich and colorful diversity of Asian culture, highlighting one common value, “Asia as a (Knowledge) Sharing Society.” It will take a closer look at how Asian communication and journalism schools can collaborate so that they can reap the benefits of the internationalization of higher education, said Dr. Crispin C. Maslog, chair of the AMIC Board of Directors.   

He added that this year, the 53-year-old AMIC takes a giant step toward achieving its vision “to be truly Asian” as it welcomes colleagues from diverse sub-regions of Asia, such as Central Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia, North Asia, Oceana and the Pacific, South Asia, and West Asia.

The event features four plenary sessions on the following topics: Updates on Internationalization of Higher Education in Asia; Journalism and Communication Education: Asia’s Best Practices; Journalism Issues Across Asia: Commonalities & Differences; and The Bandung Spirit in the Era of AI, Meeting 2.0.

Some 20 parallel sessions will be held, featuring almost 200 papers on Artificial Intelligence, Media and Information Literacy, Health Communication, Environment and Sustainable Development Communication, Communication and Culture, and Freedom of Expression. There will be parallel sessions in Chinese language.

Master classes will feature topics on Gamification for Entertainment and Learning; Mobile and Smartphone Filmmaking; Advance Film Studies with Machine Learning; How to Use Link-Building Techniques to Enhance PR Campaign Visibility and Engagement in Digital Environments; Effective Peer Review; and Academic Journal Publishing.

A memorandum of understanding will be signed to formalize collaboration among higher education institutions in Asia.

During the event, AMIC will also confer the 2023 and 2024 AMIC Asia Communication Award to Dr. Arvind Singhal and Dr. Cherian George, respectively. Established in 2006, the Award and has since been conferred on 23 communication scholars, educators, and practitioners.

The AMIC 2024 Beijing Conference Declaration on Collaboration Among Higher Education Institutions Offering Communication and Journalism Programs in Asia will be adopted at the end of the three-day conference.

The AMIC 30th Annual Conference also coincides with the 70th founding anniversary of CUC, the conference host, which has evolved as one of the leading communication higher education institutions in Asia.

Partnering with AMIC for the conference are UNESCO, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Faculty of Communication Arts – Chulalongkorn University, Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University, City of Malabon University, Al Farabi Kazakh National University, Manipal Institute of Communication, City College of Calamba, Universitas Padjadjaran, Department of Communication Research – UP College of Communication, Ateneo de Davao University, and Visayas State University.

Cancellation of 2020 AMIC Conference

Dear AMIC colleagues,

We wish to inform you that the AMIC Board of Directors (BoD), upon the recommendation of the AMIC Board of Management (BoM), approved the cancellation of the 2020 28th AMIC Conference. This was originally scheduled on 25-27 September 2020 at the Communication University of China (CUC) in Beijing. The AMIC Board and the Secretariat seek your understanding and patience.

 

Starting January 2020, our AMIC Secretariat had been in regular consultation with Dr. Peixin Cao of CUC regarding our options in holding the conference in Beijing in the aftermath of the COVID-19.  Finally, on 18 February 2020, we received a letter from Dr. Cao informing us of CUC’s decision to withdraw its hosting of the event in the interest of health and safety of our AMIC members and colleagues.

 

In lieu of the 2020 Annual Conference, AMIC will focus on other urgent matters such as address backlogs in our 2019 Media Asia issues; publish updated Communication Theory: The Asian Perspectives; AMIC Asia 2020 Communication Awards; launch of AMIC Communication Campaigns Excellence Awards; finalize systems, procedures and tools for the accreditation system for Asian communication schools; and the 50th anniversary of AMIC in 2021.

 

AMIC Secretariat envisions a year-long kick-off activities for our 50th anniversary. A plan is now being prepared for this purpose and we will update you on this matter. We expect the full support and participation of our members on this special event.

 

We will also follow up with some country representatives who have earlier expressed interest to convene a national AMIC Conference this year or in succeeding years. We will encourage them to do so and the AMIC Secretariat will provide technical assistance in the planning of such national events. The Secretariat can share with them the list of plenary and parallel sessions earlier prepared for the AMIC Beijing Conference as this could provide ideas on possible themes/issues for the national conferences.

 

AMIC expresses its yearning that our communication colleagues worldwide will stay healthy and safe amidst the health crisis due to the COVID-19 health crisis. We pray that the disease will end soon in the interest of humanity.

 

Thank you very much. Keep well.

Sincerely yours,
 

RAMON R. TUAZON
Secretary General

AMIC Award for Fr. Franz-Josef Eilers, svd

The 2018 AMIC Award for ‘Transformative Leadership” has been accorded to Fr. Franz-Josef Eilers, svd at the 26th Annual Conference of the “Asian Media, Information and Communication Centre (AMIC)” on June 8, 2018 at Manipal ‘Academy of Higher Education’ in Karnataka, India “for his outstanding contributions in the field of Church and social communication”. He has “written extensively on human and social communication and developed the concepts of pastoral and evangelizing Communication” which is also reflected in an academic program at the Pontifical University of Santo Tomas in Manila. His several books in the field are considered as standard in the field, including a 632 page commented edition of all official Vatican documents on Communication from 1936 to 2014 (Logos, Manila).

AMIC is since the 1970s the only professional continental organization for Asian communication scholars and professionals which since 2006 gives only one annual Award to outstanding figures in the field. The last former awardees were Shelton Dhavalasri Guanaratne (2016) who is recognized as proposing a “de-Westernizing” communication theory especially under Buddhist but also Hinduism and Confucianism perspective. The 2017 Awardee Wijayanada Jayaweera was leading the “International Program for the Development of Communication (IPDC) at UNESCO in Paris and developed a “human-centric theory of Press freedom” based on Daoist principles.


Original article at St. Joseph Freinademetz Communication Center, Inc. website.

‘Fake news’ and millennials’ lack of media judgment a challenge, says leading Indian academic

‘Fake news’ and millennials’ lack of media judgment a challenge, says leading Indian academic

By David Robie
June 12, 2018

India’s “alternative” freedom and democracy empowerment in action … as portrayed at the AMIC2018 communication conference at Manipal University, Karnataka.

BRIEFING: By David Robie in Manipal, India

“Fake news” combined with a lack of critical media judgment by many in the millennial generation is a major challenge to democracies across the world, says a leading Indian communication academic.

Professor Sanjay Keynote Address at the 26th AMIC Annual Conference

Speaking at the 26th annual conference of the Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC) conference with the theme “Disturbing Asian millennials: Some creative responses”,Professor Bharthur Sanjay, pro vice-chancellor of the University of Hyderabad, said the vulnerability of some states in the face of the social media crisis had led to a default response of shutting down the internet in “volatile contexts”.

In the case of India and some states, efforts to formally regulate fake news with legislated responses were withdrawn.

READ MORE: Professor Sanjay’s full address

Papua New Guinea is an example of an Asia-Pacific country where a government minister has threatened to shut down Facebook for a month to research so-called “fake accounts”.

Professor Sanjay did not mention Papua New Guinea but he said the implications were wide-ranging for Asia-Pacific countries. Papua New Guinea is due to host APEC in November.

The WhatsApp social media platform – widely used throughout Asia – was cited as a leading outlet for disseminating fake news.

“Fake news” is a misleading term because of its wide-ranging intepretations, says Professor Sanjay of the University of Hyderabad, at AMIC2018. Image: David Robie/PMC

“Fake news is a bit of a misleading term, as fake news can mean many things – a mistake, intentional misleading, twisting a news story, or fabricating a complete lie,” Dr Sanjay said, quoting Pankaj Jain, one of India’s most active ‘fake news slayers’..

Fake accounts damage

In the opening address at the host Manipal University (MAHE) in Karnataka, South India, Dr Sanjay said that while news media organisations and credible journalists had been found to publish misleading stories and mistakes, the most damage was done by people with fake social media profiles, polarising websites, and social media sites seeking to intentionally spread fake news to win elections or promote hatred.

Formal education contexts featured debates about the public sector, commercialisation and privatisation while a “default faith” was placed on new media that could virtually bring “handheld” education to the millennials.

This was a field that the public and private education sector intended to reach out to through online education and learning tools and options, said Dr Sanjay.

He said the euphoric underpinnings of the digital era in the Asia-Pacific and its subregions of ASEAN countries, South Asia and the Southeast Asia had parallels in the colonial and postcolonial periods with a technocentric dimension.

Dr Sanjay said online Indian language context was expected to reach about 60 percent.

Digital destinations across genres would capitalise on the profile that was non-English.

Information was considered an enabling and empowering input.

The speed with which it travels through multiple platforms has raised concerns about legacy media content through adaptation or user-generated content, Dr Sanjay said.

Higher trust
Apart from ethics, the legacy media enjoyed higher trust based on its screening and verification processes.

User-generated content reflected a paradigm shift that in theory allowed higher participation.

The millennials profile was not uniform across countries and the kind of content had come into sharper focus.

A critique of the content was an issue for both academic discourse and legal and regulatory frameworks, Dr Sanjay said.

Extension models of higher education seemed to suggest that they could be tapped to bring skilled youth into the workplace.

Speakers in the opening AMIC2018 plenary on “Millennials – concept of democracy: Freedom of expression for all v. Freedom of expression for themselves”.

AMIC chairman Professor Crispin Maslog of the Philippines said the millennials were the largest such generation in history – “and we ‘centennials need to understand them’.”

“There are some 1.8 billion out of the 7 billion global population – and they love smart phones. Of that 1.8 billion, 600 million are Asian.”

 

Redefining millennial life
Millennials, sometimes known as the “echo boomers”, are generally regarded as the 16 to 34-year-olds – the “digital natives’ who are not just consumers of media, but produce their own media content.

Globalisation, migration and technology are some of the major factors redefining the millennials’ way of life.

Pacific Media Centre’s Professor David Robie speaking in a plenary session at the AMIC2018 conference.

Most of the 200 academics from 15 countries at the conference presented papers on millennials education research and innovative case stories.

Themes explored included “Branding millennials – defining identity”, “A passion for technology – living in a social media world”, “News and current affairs as consumption (or creation) practices”, “evolving gender representation in the new mediascape”, and “Research and data management – today’s cutting edge competencies”.

One of the conference highlights was a “Free/Dem” panel dialogue and presentation about communication for and by young people in practice.

Giving Indian girls from poor communities a technology chance in life … teenager Summi of FAT speaking at AMIC2018. Image: David Robie/PMC

Deepika and Summi, programme associates of India’s Feminist Approach to Technology (FAT), gave inspiring addresses in Hindi about how their movement had worked across the continent to give girls in poverty-hit communities the opportunity to work with computers and learn technical skills.

“When I saw people using computers, I wanted to be able to do the same,” said Summi, a 13-year-old from a very poor urban neigbourhood where girls never got an opportunity.

“Now I am able to help other girls to do the same.”

One of the performers in the Yakshagana Kendra cultural show at AMIC2018. Image: David Robie

Creative communication and culture were also major parts of the programme, including an episode of Jataaya Moksha performed by MAHE’s creative arts school Yakshagana Kendra.

Launching a report on “World Trends in Freedom of Expression and Media Development“, New Delhi-based national UNESCO programme officer Anirban Sarma, said that while new media had expanded freedoms and communication beyond the media, there had also been “increasing incursions into proivacy and an expansion of mass and arbitrary surveillance”.

“The rise of new forms of political populism as well as what have been seen as authoritarian policies are important developments,” says the report based on a survey of 131 countries.

“Citing a range of reasons, including national security, governments are increasingly monitoring and also requiring the take down of information online, in many cases not only relating to hate speech and content seen to encourage violent extremism, but also what has been seen as legitimate political positioning.”

Asia communication awards

AMIC 2018 Asian Communication Award co-winner Charlie Agatep … critical of the “digital acrobats” who swept President Rodrigo Duterte to power. Image: David Robie/PMC

Filipino Charlie Agatep – a public relations guru in Asia – made a passionate video plea for more courageous, rigorous and accurate journalism as an antidote for “fake news”.

He was also critical of the “digital acrobats” who swept Rodrigo Duterte into the presidency in 2016 and who still manipulates and distorts public opinion in the Philippines.

Agatep founded the PR agency Agatep Associates in 1988 and transformed it into Grupo Agatep Inc., the largest marketing and digital (social media) communication agency in the Philippines.

He was one of two AMIC Asia Communication Award in Transformative Leadership recipients for 2018. AMIC recognised him for his role as “shaper of many professionals who have learned from his artistry” across diverse Asian audiences, and for his efforts to reach out to youth.

The other was Manila-based Father Franz-Josef Eilers, an inspirational Catholic church and social justice communicator of the Society of Divine Word (SVD). Among many achievements, he helped establish the Asian Research Centre for Religion and Social Communication (ARC) at St John’s University, Bangkok.

AMIC presented the award to Father Eilers in recognition of his “outstanding contributions to church and social communications, and in appreciation for the church communication institutions he has built”.

The conference was hosted by MAHE’s School of Communicationwhose director, Professor Padma Rani, thanked ZEE television, UNESCO and the many sponsors and her “fabulous” faculty team for the successful outcome.

Next year’s conference will be hosted by Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand.

  • The Pacific Media Centre’s Professor David Robie addressed the opening plenary panel on “Millennials’ concept of democracy: freedom of expression for all v. freedom of expression for themselves” and delivered a paper on the expanding notions of “Pacific way” journalism.

A brief clip from a community journalism promotion video produced for the Manipal University School of Communication and screened at the university’s “experimental theatre”.

David Robie

https://www.aut.ac.nz/profiles/david-robie

Dr David Robie is professor of journalism and director of AUT University’s Pacific Media Centre. He is a strong advocate of independent journalism at the country’s journalism schools. He is co-founder with Selwyn Manning of Pacific Scoop and manages the Pacific Media Watch media freedom project; he is also founding editor of Pacific Journalism Review research journal.

Blogging and Vlogging Contest

Blogging and Vlogging Contest

Asian Millennials!

join our blogging and vlogging contest on the theme:

 Disturbing the Asian Millennials: Some Creative Responses

Win cash and other prices !

Open to teachers and students

The rules:

  1. The essay contest is open to all Asians—with two separate categories:

(a) For college teachers in communication, English, communication arts, Media Information Literacy (MIL) and related courses, and

(b) College students enrolled in communication degree courses (communication arts, mass communication, journalism, broadcasting, and social media).

  1. The contest is sponsored by the Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC) based in Manila.
  2. Officers and staff of the sponsoring organization are disqualified from joining the contest.
  3. The contest will run from February 15 to April 30, 2018. The winners will be announced in the mass media and social media not later than May 30, 2018.
  4. The contestants are to blog/vlog on the theme of the coming AMIC Annual International Conference.

 Entry Requirements

  1. The blog and vlog entries must be in English.
  2. All entries must be grammatically sound and conform to standards of good English.
  3. The blogs and vlogs may either tell stories or express opinion.
  4. Entries containing dirty, foul and offensive language are subject to immediate disqualification.
  5. The vlogs should be in landscape orientation and at least 640 x 480 resolution. Vlog entries must not be more than three (3) minutes. It is advised that the entries be uploaded in the participants’ Youtube account for easier linking and dissemination to the judges.
  6. The vlog entries will be judged on the basis of their compelling visuals, and impressions they convey to their audiences.
  7. Blogs must not exceed 1,000 words.
  8. The blogs will be judged in the basis of their impact on the readers.

 

Criteria for Judging

In detail, the blog and vlog entries will be judged based on the following criteria:

Online Votes 25%
By the Panel of  Judges
Overall Impressions

  • Entertainment quality
  • Clarity of Expression
  • Verbal/Visual Presentation
25%
Relevance of content

  • Adherence/Appropriateness to Theme
  • Usefulness of information
  • Social Impact
35%
Grammatical Correctness 15%

 

The contestants are encouraged to access the AMIC website (www.amic.asia) and the AMIC conference website ________ for background information about the organization, conference and conference theme before writing their essays. Contestants may do additional research and interviews as needed before writing their essays.

 

Submission of Entries

  1. Each participant is allowed to submit one entry only.
  2. Contest participants must register online at the official website of AMIC (https://amic.asia/amic-annual-conference/26th-amic-annual-conference-india-2018/competitions) and fill out the AMIC Vlogging and Blogging Competition online registration/entry form. AMIC will only accept entries submitted online through the AMIC website.
  3. The link to the entries will be automatically forwarded to the country representatives who will shortlist and send three (3) finalists from each country for each category to AMIC Manila.
  4. Deadline for the online submission of entries is on April 30, 2018 (Monday) at 11:30 p.m. Philippine Standard Time. The submission portal will automatically close and reject any entries that will be submitted after the deadline.

The contestants must identify their country of residence when they submit their entries. 

Screening of Entries

The decisions of the judges are final.

Rgional Screening

  1. The entries to the competition will first be screened by the country representatives.
  2. For each country-screening, the judges shall select the top three (3) entries for each category that will eventually move on to the grand finals of the competition.
  3. All the grand finalists under the Teacher and Student categories will be formally notified by AMIC via email through conference@amic.asia.

 

Grand Finals

  • Final judging day will be in May 2018 and the results announced before the conference starts June 7, 2018.  There will be first, second and third prizes for each category.
  • AMIC Manila will launch online voting on May 1, 2018. A voting guide will be released upon announcing the finalists to the contest.
  • Online votes will be monitored and validated by AMIC Secretariat.

 

Prizes

The winners (six teachers and six students) will be given the following prizes:

  1. Cash prizes of USD 300 for first, USD 200 for second and USD 100 for third places.
  2. Free Basic AMIC memberships for one year which will entitle them to one-year subscriptions to two online editions of AMIC journals—the Asian Journal of Communication and Media Asia.
  3. Fifty per cent discount in registration fees in the coming AMIC annual conference June 7-9, 2018 at Karnataka, India.

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