Tribute to Fr. Franz-Josef Eilers, Ph.D., SVD

Tribute to Fr. Franz-Josef Eilers, Ph.D., SVD

Jan 15, 2021 | Announcements, Member Updates, News

Tribute to Fr. Franz-Josef Eilers, SVD

(On her death January 13, 2021)

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The Asian Media Information and Communication Center, Inc.(AMIC) announces with sadness the death of AMIC laureate and long time AMIC Member, Fr. Franz-Josef Eilers, SVD. He was executive secretary of the Office of Social Communication of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC), and Consultor of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications in the Vatican.

 

Fr. Eilers passed away on 13 January in Manila, Philippines. The exact cause of his death is not yet publicly known but he had heart conditions for several years.

 

In 2018, AMIC awarded Fr. Eilers the 2018 AMIC Asia Communication Award for Transformative Leadership Award in recognition of his outstanding contributions to church and social communications, and in appreciation for the church communication institutions he has built. His excerpt of his award citation reads:

 

Over the years, the name Franz-Josef Eilers, SVD, has stood out in the field of Church and social communication. Many religious and lay leaders now engaged in the “communicating Church” were students and directees who got their knowledge and inspiration from their eminent teacher. 

An ordained priest of the Society of Divine Word (SVD) congregation, Fr. Eilers has written extensively on human and social communication, the concept first introduced in the Council Decree “Inter Mirifica” (1963). He ranks among a few Church scholars and theologians who has traced God’s communication in salvation history. He also explicated  the new concepts pastoral communication and evangelizing communication in one of his most seminal works.  His priestly ministry, now spanning five decades, saw his books used as standard references in missiology, intercultural communication, and communication. His name resonates as one of a few significant contributors in literature and discourses on communication theology.

The Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC) 2018 Asia Communication Award recognizes Franz-Josef Eilers, SVD, for his contribution to Church and social communication.

Fr. Eilers is professor at the Pontifical University of Santo Tomas (UST), Maryhill School of Theology (MST), and Don Bosco Center of Studies (DBCS) in Manila. He is the founder/coordinator of a graduate program in Theology specializing in social/ pastoral communication (MAT-SPC) at UST. He holds a Doctorate in Communication and a Licentiate in Missiology from the University of Muenster in Germany. He is adjunct professor of the University of the Philippines at Los Banos (UPLB) College of Development Communication. He has taught Communication and Missiology at Divine Word Seminary in Tagaytay City, as well as the Gregorian and Salesian Universities in Rome.

Fr. Eilers helped establish the Asian Research Center for Religion and Social Communication (ARC) at Saint John’s University, Bangkok, Thailand. He also co-founded St. Joseph Freinademetz Communication Center (JFCC) in Quezon City, Philippines.

Fr. Eilers has served as executive secretary of the Office of Social Communication of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC), and Consultor of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications in the Vatican. He served as communication secretary of the SVD Generalate in Rome, and at the Joint Committee on Society Development and Peace (Sodepax) of the World Council of Churches in Geneva. He was founding director of the Catholic Media Council (CAMECO) in Aachen, Germany.

He was conferred the Jaime Cardinal Sin Outstanding Catholic Author Award in 1996. The Carmelite Fathers (OCarm) conferred on him in 2015 the very first Titus Brandsma Excellence in Social Communication Award for his contribution to communication education, formation and research. In 2007, a “Festschrift” was published in his honor by colleagues from University of Dayton in Ohio, U.S.A. and University of Kassel in Germany.

 

AMIC conveys its deepest sympathy to his colleagues, friends, and the SVD community.

Tribute to Nora C. Quebral

Tribute to Nora C. Quebral

Oct 26, 2020 | Announcements, Member Updates, News

Tribute to Nora C. Quebral

(On her death Oct. 24, 2020)
By Crispin C. Maslog

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The first time I met Nora was in the early 1970s, shortly after I became director of the School of Journalism and Communication in Silliman University. Those were the days when we both were young and gay, and the word gay meant happy and not what it means today. Fifty years later, I pay tribute to my esteemed friend and scholar who has passed away to eternal pastures.

She was then a young faculty member of the Institute of Development Communication, UP Los Banos. And I was a new associate professor of communication in Silliman. She struck me as intellectual, demure and soft spoken. We kept in touch over the years, growing our professions in our respective parts of the country. We had a common advocacy—rural development. I nurtured community journalists for the small towns. She developed communicators for the countryside. We struck up a quiet professional friendship, partly because of our common advocacy.

It was in 1975 that we started working together as founding organizers of our professional organization—the Philippine Association of Communication Educators (PACE). She became the second President of PACE from 1980 to 1984. I took over as third President from 1985 to 1989.

By that time I was already a professor at the College of Development Communication, which had grown from the Institute when I first met Nora. Nora had a major influence in my coming to UP Los Banos in 1982. I came as a visiting professor but my visit became permanent with her encouragement–and the rest is history.

I stayed and saw Nora develop her practice and theory of development communication and her rise in stature to become the “mother of development communication” to hundreds, perhaps thousands of former students, scholars and professionals all over the Philippines and the world.

It has been a privilege to have stayed on and retire from UP Los Banos with my wife, Florita, who was just as happy as I was with my decision because her childhood home is in Santa Cruz, Laguna. So to my esteemed friend and development communication comrade in arms, Nora, thank you for accepting me here in UP Los Banos. I leave with you the words of the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore:

“Death is not extinguishing the light. It is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.”

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[Call for Book Chapter Abstracts] Environmental Journalism in the Global South

Oct 24, 2020 | Announcements, Call for Papers, Member Updates, News

Dear AMIC Members:

We–Ramon Tuazon, Sadia Jamil and Therese San Diego Torres–are pleased to open the call for book chapter abstracts for our forthcoming publication, “Environmental Journalism in the Global South.” We invite you to submit your abstracts.

Below are the details. We have also attached the PDF of the call here.

 

Call for abstracts

Environmental issues continue to grow in scope, indicating the timely need to address pressing areas of concern: global warming; climate change; food security and public health safety; overpopulation; water, land, and air pollution; increased carbon footprint; deforestation; and natural disasters. These issues go beyond the realm of science into the areas of politics, public policy, and economics. As environmental concerns grow, the need for a well-informed public becomes more critical (Jamil, 2020). Public opinion and perceptions about environmental issues are shaped by many sources including government and non-government organizations, the academe, and the media. Journalists and the news media, in particular, are among the important sources of information about the environment. A major challenge is how to convey complex concepts and impart a sense of urgency in addressing problems in a way that engages the reader. In the past two decades, environmental journalism has evolved to serve this purpose and has represented people’s diverse perceptions of the world. Over time, people have become more and more interested and concerned about what is happening in the environment. As more information comes to light about how environmental issues impact people and the globe, the interest in and recognition of the importance of environmental journalism have likewise increased. The rise in public awareness has translated to an even greater need for environmental journalism studies. Much of the work on environmental journalism has been done by Western scholars (Sachsman and Valenti, 2020; Valenti, 2017; Rogener and Wormer, 2017; Ale, 2015; Bodker and Neverla, 2014; Bodker, 2012; Carthew et al., 2012; Wyss, 2010; Frome, 1998), and limited attention has been paid in the Global South to reflect upon different aspects of environmental journalism (Acharya and Noronha, 2010). Thus, this edited volume welcomes contributions from scholars in the Global South to cover the following key areas:

– Journalists’ attitudes and motivations towards environmental journalism;
– The influence of contextual factors, such as religious, cultural, ethnic and socio-political environments, on journalists’ practice of environmental journalism;
– Coverage of environmental issues by mainstream, ethnic and diasporic news media;
– The role of religious, political and cultural factors in shaping and influencing news media discourses on diverse environmental issues;
– Challenges and prospects for the practice of environmental journalism;
– The role of economic, intellectual and technological resources to foster environmental journalism;
– Environmental journalism pedagogy in the Global South.

Submission details and guidelines:

Please submit your abstract of 500-700 words by 20th November, 2020. All abstracts will be assessed based on:

– Clarity of research problem;
– Conceptual soundness of study;
– Theoretical and methodological strength;
– Contribution and impact of the study.

Abstracts should be submitted to Dr. Sadia Jamil (sadia.jamil@ymail.com), Ramon Tuazon (ramon.tuazon@aijci.com) and Therese Patricia S. Torres (therese.torres@aijci.com). All authors should submit a bio of 200 words with complete institutional details when submitting their abstracts.

Timeline

– Abstract submission deadline: 20th November, 2020
– Notification to author/s: 10th December, 2020
– Full chapter submission: 15th April, 2021
– Review process by editors: 16th April, 2021 – 15th May, 2021
– Revision deadline: 1st July, 2021
– Anticipated submission of full book manuscript: 30th September, 2021

Publisher

The full book will be submitted to Palgrave Macmillan in 2021 and is envisioned to be published as part of the ‘Palgrave Studies in Journalism and the Global South’ book series: https://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/16423 (series editors: Bruce Mutsvairo, Saba Bebawi and Eddy Borges-Rey).

On behalf of Sadia Jamil and Therese San Diego Torres, I look forward to hearing from you. 

Best regards,
Ramon R. Tuazon

Cancellation of 2020 AMIC Conference

Mar 9, 2020 | Announcements, Annual Conference, Events, Member Updates, News

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

Passing of Prof. Brian Shoesmith

Passing of Prof. Brian Shoesmith

Feb 7, 2020 | Member Updates, News

Prof. Brian Shoesmith

It is with great sadness to inform you that Prof. Brian Shoesmith passed away last January 30. He was in the AMIC board of directors from 1999 to 2005. He was AMIC representative of Australia during that time. He served as media studies and journalism department head of the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh from 2006 to 2008.