Media Asia marks 50th year in 2023

By Danilo Araña Arao
Editor, Media Asia

Volume 50 in 2023. Next year is an important milestone for Media Asia as the quarterly peer reviewed journal marks its golden anniversary.

As of this writing, there are 18 accepted manuscripts lined up for next year, 17 of which have already been published online under the journal’s “online first” system. The editorial team has also planned the themes and sequencing of articles for the March and June 2023 issues and has started to line up articles for the September 2023 issue.

That the journal is publishing its issues ahead of schedule is due to the respectable turnaround time in handling manuscripts. Based on those included in Volume 49 (2022) and lined up in Volume 50 (2023), the average turnaround time from submission to online publication is 247.95 days for refereed Original Articles. As regards non-refereed Editorials, Commentaries and Reviews, it is pegged at 49.35 days.

Most submissions from 2020 to 2022 already have final editorial decisions (i.e., Accept, Reject, Withdrawn). There are only a few pending manuscripts submitted in 2020 (0.00%), 2021 (2.86%) and 2022 (13.43%). This means that only one out of every 10 submissions is currently being revised, edited or evaluated.

For manuscripts with final editorial decisions submitted so far from 2020 to 2022, the journal’s acceptance rates are computed at 10.57% for refereed manuscripts and 41.97% for non-refereed ones.

Based on the full calendar year data, new manuscript submissions increased by 209.68% in 2020 and 191.67% in 2021 compared to the respective previous years. For the full calendar year of 2022, the number of submissions is projected to be the same as 2021 even if there were no new calls for papers in 2022.

As the journal marks its 50th year in 2023, the editorial board remains committed to further improving the journal’s reputation globally.

The journal’s editorial board is composed of nine women and three men who are based in nine locations in Asia, Europe and North America. At present, the Editor is Danilo Araña Arao (University of the Philippines Diliman, Philippines). The Associate Editors are Lisa Brooten (Southern Illinois University Carbondale, USA), Roselyn Du (California State University Fullerton, USA), Paromita Pain (University of Nevada Reno, USA), Ma. Theresa M. Rivera (Far Eastern University Manila, Philippines) and Nick Y. Zhang (Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong). The members of the Editorial Advisory Board are Sarah Cardey (University of Reading, UK), Ataharul Chowdhury (University of Guelph, Canada), Minjeong Kim (Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, South Korea), Eunice Barbara C. Novio (Vongchavalitkul University, Thailand), Sheau-Wen Ong (Wenzhou-Kean University, China) and Deborah N. Simorangkir (Swiss German University, Indonesia).

Published since 1974, Media Asia is a peer reviewed quarterly journal that focuses on practices in journalism, advertising, public relations, entertainment and other aspects of media in Asia. It publishes relevant media-related studies in Asia like freedom, ethics, working conditions, ownership, campus press, community press, corporate media, alternative media, literacy, language and culture of impunity.

AMIC to host Talk ASAP – Asia-Africa & the Pacific Dialogue

Asia and Africa experience many common media issues and concerns but there is no platform for sharing of lessons and experiences in addressing these issues.

To fill this gap, AMIC has adopted Talk ASAP – ASia-Africa & the Pacific Dialogue as its theme for the AMIC 29^th Conference scheduled in 2023, said AMIC Secretary-General Ramon Tuazon.

He said countries in Africa and Asia-Pacific share many commonalities.

For example, many countries in both continents experience poverty amid bountiful human and natural resources. These countries have to address political and economic inequities.

At the same time, they share some common positive developments: expanding democratic space, women empowerment, and greater freedom of expression.

According to Statista (see report here), majority of the emerging and developing countries are from these two continents (i.e., 29 from Asia and 22 from Africa). As of 2020, the combined population of these two continents represent 77% of global population.

Talk ASAP is envisioned as a comprehensive AMIC program in cooperation with  Asian and African-based partners.  The 29^th Conference will jump start the program. Other program components are the following: Offline/online forums (including seminars/webinars) and training courses, collaborative research and development, joint publications and exchange (e.g., online/offline books and journals), and faculty/scholars/students exchange.

According to Tuazon, the pioneering dialogue between the two continents was the 1955 Asian-African Conference popularly known as the Bandung Conference. 

To celebrate the 60^th anniversary of the Bandung Conference, the Indonesian government hosted in 2015 a series of commemorative events, including the Asian-African Summit. Two related initiatives were the Africa-Asia  University Dialogue for Educational Development in 2004-2007 and the Africa-Asia Dialogue Network (AADN) held in November 2021. No forum was held to discuss common communication media issues.

The Annual Conference is AMICs flagship program. It features plenary and parallel sessions. It is hosted in rotation by countries across the Asia Pacific region. Recent conferences were held in Vietnam, Thailand, India, Philippines, and United Arab Emirates.

Over 500 resource persons and participants, mostly coming from Africa and Asia Pacific, attend the annual event. They come from the academic community, journalism/news media sector, other communication and ICT professions and government information offices.

Among the proposed topics for plenary and parallel sessions are the following: State of freedom of expression and of the press; safety and protection of journalists; priority areas for news reportage (e.g., poverty, corruption, sustainable development); journalism education: challenges, opportunities, and trends; mobilization of community media for civic engagement; media and information literacy for sustainable development and intercultural dialogue; and Communication for Development (C4D).

According to SG Tuazon, there will be simultaneous plenary and parallel sessions in Asia and Africa.

AMIC is currently negotiating with two higher education institutions from Asia and Africa as co-hosts.  UNESCO will be invited as lead partner. Africa is one of the two global priorities of UNESCO. The other priority is gender equality.

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