Jul 2, 2018 | Annual Conference, News
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In the case of India and some states, efforts to formally regulate fake news with legislated responses were withdrawn.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.
May 6, 2018 | News
From left: Ojoma Ochai, Sara Whyatt, Marie Ottoson, Julie Reid, Ramon Tuazon, Getachew Engida | Photo ©UNESCO
AMIC Secretary General Ramon R. Tuazon outlined some best practices in addressing the issue of impunity in the killing of journalists during a special session at the World Press Freedom Day Global Conference held at Accra, Ghana on 02-03 May 2018. The best practices were based on a recent 7-country case study by the International Media Support (IMS). The panel discussion also served as the launching pad for two recent UNESCO reports – World Trends on Freedom of Expression and Media Development 2017/2018 and ReShaping Cultural Policies: A Decade Promoting the Diversity of Cultural Expressions for Development.
Also speaking at the event were Marie Ottosson, Assistant Director-General of the Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency (SIDA); Deputy Director-General of UNESCO, Getachew Engida; UNESCO Freedom of Expression Division Director Guy Berger, and Prof. Julie Reid from the University of South Africa.
According to Tuazon, among the best practices documented in the IMS Study were inter-agency/multi-stakeholder engagement in journalist safety and protection; adoption of a national plan of action on safety; comprehensive safety programs especially at the ground; and legal defense.
The AMIC SG also highlighted the link between communication and culture. According to Tuazon, with media rights incessantly under attack, various forms of arts and culture provide alternative platforms for expressions.
The World Trends in Freedom of Expression and Media Development series offers a critical analysis of new trends in media freedom, pluralism, independence and the safety of journalists. Previous editions were published in 2014 and 2015. SG Tuazon and AMIC Country Representative to Bangladesh Golam Rahman are members of the International Advisory Board of the 2017/2018 Report.
The conference also featured a Policy Lab organized by UNESCO in partnership with the University of Ghana and the Global Development Network. At the Policy Lab, Tuazon presented the paper, Data Management System on Media Killings in the Philippines. According to the SG, the development of the data management system has four phases: architecture, archiving, analytics, and advocacy.
See related stories at:
- https://news.mb.com.ph/2018/04/27/keeping-power-in-check-media-justice-and-the-rule-of-law/
- https://en.unesco.org/news/accra-conference-site-launch-unesco-trends-report
Jan 29, 2018 | News
Shelton A. Gunaratne professor emeritus, MSUM
During my recent (end of September) visit to the Philippines, I spent a whole day—a Friday—with five Asian communication scholars led by Crispin Maslog, (Philippines) the chairman of the board of directors of AMIC (Asian Media and Communication Center), on a tour of traffic-congested and polluted Greater Manila. Our team included John Lent (United States), Peixin Cao (China), Professor Zulu (Indonesia), me, and my spouse.
Maslog informed us that considering our departure schedules the next day, he would take us to a few selected spots that might be of professional interest to us mostly in and around the old city of Intramuros, which eventually was absorbed into the sprawling megapolis of Manila. Because of the unruly traffic mess in Metro Manila, even the hardiest traveler cannot hope to explore more than a fistful of the city’s tourist attractions in one day.
Maslog’s plan included stops at the University of Santo Tomas (UST) in Sampaloc, the Manila Bulletin building in Intramuros, lunch at the Bayleaf Hotel and Restaurant overlooking the walls of the old city of Manila known as Intramuros, the AMIC headquarters at the Philippine Women’s University, and the Philippine International Convention Center. Our leisurely tour of these few places took the entire day.
Starting from our hotel in Mandaluyong City (part of metro Manila) mid-morning, our experienced driver cut through the traffic mess and brought us to the UST campus in Sampaloc, the oldest university of the Philippines, and of the whole of Asia, with a current student enrolment of about 43,000. It is a private nonprofit Roman Catholic research university established in 1611. It currently holds the fifth rank in academic standing among the 67 universities, colleges and other mostly private, higher education institutes in the National Capital Territory (Greater Manila) alone. (The top four are the University of the Philippines at Diliman, Ateneo de Manila University, De La Salle University, and the U of P System.) I wondered whether Sri Lanka would ever allow the proliferation of such a variety of higher-ed institutions considering the recent fuss over SAITM.
The purpose of our visit to UST was to confer with Jose Arsenio Salandanan, chairman of the department of communication and media studies in the faculty of arts and letters, and a few graduate students about how the department has de-Westernized communication theory to be more in tune with a resurgent Asia. The university supplied Subway sandwiches for the participants to munch for lunch if they felt any hunger pangs.
Maslog, now 87, told us that UST was his alma mater in the 1950s. After graduation, he proceeded to America, where he attended the school of journalism and mass communication at the University of Minnesota to get his MA in 1962 and PhD in 1967. Back in the Philippines, he served as the director of the school of journalism at Silliman University in Dumaguete City and as a columnist for the Philippines Inquirer, a national daily. Then, in 1982, he moved to the University of the Philippines at Los Banos as a professor. He has edited or authored 35 books so far, including two released in 2017: Martial Law Joke Atbp, and Deconstruct to Understand: Why President Duterte Speaks His Way.
Maslog seemed overwhelmed by nostalgic memories of his undergraduate days at UST that our visiting team must also sense and feel. He celebrated his pride of these memories by showing us the glorious past of his alma mater at the next stop of our tour: the old city of Intramuros (meaning ‘walled city’) founded by the Spanish invaders who conquered the archipelago in the 16th century and made it the capital of the Philippines in 1571. The UST began its life in 1611 as Colegio de Nuestra Señora del Santisimo Rosario in Intramuros, about 5km southwest of its present location in Sampaloc.
The Spanish colonial government erected Intramuros with a moat around it on the ruins of a Malay settlement at the mouth of the Pasig River. The wall was for protection against foreign invasions; and for 400 years, Intramuros became the center of Spanish political, religious, and military power in the region. But it was nearly destroyed by the Japanese and the Americans during World War II. The government restored it as a tourist attraction in the 1980s.
We learnt that the Philippines’ second oldest daily newspaper, The Manila Bulletin, had its beginnings in Intramuros in 1900 with Carson Taylor, an American, as its founding editor and publisher. We visited the spot as an obligatory media professional duty and enjoyed sipping a cup of Starbuck coffee that we bought from the commercial coffee lounge located on the ground floor of the two-storey Bulletin building on Recolletos Street.
Next, we went to the nearby Bayleaf Intramuros, a hotel and restaurant at the Muralla corner, Victoria Street, for a sumptuous lunch while relaxing in the restaurant’s sky deck, which offered an uninterrupted 360-degree view of the entire Manila Bay skyline. Although we did not have the time to join a walking tour of its restored historic icons—Fort Santiago, Manila Cathedral, San Ignacio ruins, San Augustin Cathedral and Monastery, Barrio San Luis, etc.– we had a bird’s eye view of the entire complex, including Rizal Park, also known as Luneta, from the sky deck.
While I was relishing my Filipino lunch with my Asian colleagues, I could not help but recall with pleasure the encounters I had with a few other walled cities in the world: Chester by the River Dee in northwestern England, Leeds in West Yorkshire, and Xi’an in China. Although each had
Its own charm and unique attributes, Xi’an offered the best value for money as one of the world’s largest city walls. It was the eastern terminus of the Silk Road and home to the Terracotta Army.
We left Intramuros about mid-afternoon and headed for 1743 Taft Street to visit the AMIC head office now housed in the Philippine Women’s University (PWU), about 4 km southeast of Bayleaf.
One member of our group, John A. Lent, a prolific author of communication-related books, had arranged with Maslog to donate to the AMIC archives four of his (Lent’s) books, as well as communication artifacts and research notes he collected to write the book titled ‘Philippine Mass Communication: Before 1911 and After1966.’ The donation also included Lent’s typed and handwritten abstracts of 627 book and magazine articles he compiled in 1964-65.
Lent was interested in Southeast Asia as a young American researcher, and he lived in the Philippines and Malaysia for considerable periods of time in the ‘60s and the ‘70s. He was a pioneer in initiating the journalism and communication program at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). After I got my doctorate in 1972, it was Lent who was instrumental in getting my lectureship at USM in Penang. I also wrote the chapters on Sri Lanka for two of the books he edited: ‘Broadcasting in Asia and the Pacific’ (1978) and ‘Newspapers in Asia’ (1982). After he retired from his professorship at Temple University, he has devoted full-time attention to editing and publishing the International Journal of Comic Art, which he started in 1999.
Obviously, Lent wants Asian researchers to look deeper into his contribution to Asian mass media education. Maslog wanted our tour group to witness the hand-over at a makeshift ceremony attended by AMIC staff and three officials of the PWU: Arts and Sciences Dean Olivia Celeste Villafuerte; Media Director Lyca Benitez-Brown; and Academic Affairs SVP Felina Young. This event took about two hours.
This left us to decide whether we should visit the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Pasay City further to the south, considering the sunset had begun. It was President Marcos who got the Brutalist- style PICC built in two years by presidential decree (starting in 1974, and inaugurating it in 1976). It became the venue for Miss Universe 1994.
Maslog kept to the original itinerary of ending the tour at PICC just to show us the scenic bay area along the coast. The darkness of the evening discouraged us from even getting off our tour vehicle when we reached the venue.
We returned to our hotel to get ready for the next day (Saturday) departure.
Source: (LankaWeb – 28/01/18) http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2018/01/27/a-days-tour-in-manila/
Mar 17, 2017 | Member Updates
AMIC is inviting its members to help mainstream media and information literacy (MIL) in the Asia-Pacific region, especially among the youth.
AMIC is working with the UNESCO Paris and the Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication (AIJC) in this endeavor.
UNESCO has recently spearheaded the “Media and Information Literacy: Critical Thinking, Creativity, Literacy, Intercultural, Citizenship, Knowledge and Sustainability” or “MILCLICKS” social media movement. It seeks to encourage netizens to “think critically and click wisely” through engaging social media content.
All materials on the MILCLICKS social media pages can be used as resources for teaching and conducting training on MIL. These include infographics, videos, and online articles.
AMIC members can be part of the MILCLICKS movement. They just have to “like” the MILCLICKS Facebook page, follow the MILCLICKS Twitter account, and spread the word to students and colleagues.
All AMIC members are invited to email digital materials on MIL to AMIC, that will then review them for possible sharing, with proper attribution, on the MILCLICKS social media accounts.
Shared materials can also be sent to r.tuazon@amic.asia and rrtuazon722@yahoo.com.
Feb 6, 2017 | News
UNESCO is looking for people interested to present research on “Safety for women journalists”.
UNESCO’s previous research studies have shown that while the number of women journalists killed is much lower than those of their male counterparts, women journalists are particularly susceptible to other kinds of gender-related attacks.
According to Guy Berger, UNESCO Director for Freedom of Expression and Media Development, women covering conflict and socio-political turmoil have particular concerns for their safety. Even in non-conflict situations, there is the risk of gender-linked sexual harassment, online abuse, direct and indirect threats, as well as actual physical violations, including rape.
UNESCO is setting up an academic panel for the conference in Cartagena, Colombia on 16-20 July 2017 of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) to look at gender-related media safety issues.
UNESCO hopes that the panel can elevate gender-related media safety issues on the academic agenda by examining the extent, nature, causes and responses related to gender issues in media.
The panel will also seek to uncover the impact of these attacks on the women journalists themselves, their families, colleagues and audiences; and on their societies more broadly.
Presentations with a gender angle could cover any of the areas of research identified in the UNESCO document “Towards a Research agenda on the safety of journalists.”
While there is no budget to support attendance of presenters, the chosen researchers can present on this UNESCO panel and use this status to secure alternative funding, such as from their respective university or organization.
Interested parties can express their interest and a draft abstract (approx. 150 words) by 7 February 2017 to Saorla McCabe, S.McCabe@unesco.org
UNESCO’s research document on media safety can be accessed at http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CI/CI/images/Themes/Freedom_of_expression/safety_of_journalists/Draft_Research_Agenda_Safety_of_Journalists_06_2015.pdf
Former AMIC Secretary General Sundeep Muppidi, PhD, was named one of 46 American Council on Education (ACE) fellows for the 2017–18 academic year. Muppidi, who has been a faculty member at the University of Hartford since 1998 and associate dean for the past two years, was nominated for the fellowship by University President Walter Harrison.