14.12.2015 – Communication & Information Sector, UNESCO

ANCIENT ASIAN PHILOSOPHY TO FEATURE IN REVIEW OF ASEAN JOURNALISM EDUCATION

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The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) will transform Southeast Asia and have a tremendous impact on the lives of the 608 million people who call it home. Journalists will be the ones telling the stories of this transition and journalism education in this sub-region needs to be re-assessed to take this important role into account.

An upcoming meeting in Bangkok will address this need by bringing together communication scholars, media practitioners and philosophers from throughout Asia for a two-day discussion on revising the curriculum for journalism education in the region.
The meeting, which will be held on 14-15 December at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University, will draw from UNESCO’s Model Curricula for Journalism Education, while also examining how Asia’s age-old philosophical teachings can be integrated into course materials. The meeting falls under the wider project, “Mindful communication for ASEAN Integration”, approved and funded by the International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC).

The aim of this initiative is to develop course materials and train the trainers to implement a newly reviewed curriculum for journalism education in ASEAN.

The project is unique in that it aims toachieve this by incorporating Asian philosophical teachings of Buddhism, Hinduism and Confucianism which promote harmony, protection of the environment, respect for cultural diversity and economic models that focus on self-sufficiency.

These teachings are both timeless and timely in the context of developing communication theories in the context of the AEC. Media will play an important role in facilitating and promoting regional integration and journalists need to shift their focus to a more regional perspective, with less emphasis on conflicts. New approaches must also be taken to reporting on economic, environmental and developmental issues to ensure that ASEAN’s needs, regional priorities and its historical experiences into account.

The two-day meeting will bring to
gether communication scholars, media practitioners and philosophers from Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Republic of Korea, Lao PDR, Cambodia, Malaysia and Singapore to present papers and share ideas with the aim to develop a new journalism education curriculum tailored in ASEAN. A core team of scholars will draw on the seminar’s outcomes to develop a web-based curriculum and resource materials to be used in trainings of journalism teachers from Southeast Asia starting in early 2016.

The IPDC is the only multilateral forum in the UN system designed to mobilize the international community to discuss and promote media development in developing countries. The programme not only provides support for media projects but also seeks an accord to secure a healthy environment for the growth of free and pluralistic media in developing countries.

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[IDN-InDepthNews – 19 December 2015]

ASIAN SCHOLARS CRAFTING A NON-ADVERSARIAL APPROACH TO JOURNALISM

 

By Kalinga Seneviratne* | IDN-InDepthNews Analysis

 

BANGKOK (IDN) – While a ‘Mindful Communication’ fad is currently sweeping across the United States, a group of Asian scholars and media practitioners gathered here to examine how this traditional Asian way of communication could be adopted to train 21st century journalists to create a media that would promote harmony rather than conflict.

Phuwadol Piyasilo Bhikku, a communication arts graduate from Chulalongkorn University and a former journalist, who is now a Forest Monk in northern Thailand, in an opening speech to the symposium noted that mindfulness practiced in the West is “a bit problematic”, because it is used mainly on an individualistic level to de-stress.

“Mindful practice in the West tries to be secular and is practiced without having any religious values in it,” he argued. “You need to accompany it with panna (wisdom). Without this moral wisdom, the practice will not be enough to drive us in the right direction to help society.”

As a practical approach to journalism, Bhikku Phuwadol explained that because at the root of Buddhism is the need to eradicate suffering, by being mindful of the suffering, you can report an issue without promoting division and conflict

The symposium titled ‘Mindful Communication for ASEAN Integration’ was held on December 14 and 15 at the Communication Arts Faculty of Chulalongkorn University in association with the International Program for the Development of Communication (IPDC) of UNESCO. This gathering was part of a process to develop a new journalism training curriculum for Asia incorporating thoughts, concepts and ideas from Asia’s age-old Buddhist, Hindu and Confucius philosophies.

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Link to full story: http://www.indepthnews.net/index.php/the-world/asia-pacific/12-asian-scholars-crafting-a-non-adversarial-approach-to-journalism

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S.E.A.View - Straits Times(Singapore) - 24 December 2015

THE MINDFUL WAY TO ASEAN JOURNALISM

By Kalinga Seneviratne

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While a new Asean community dawns, a "mindful communication" fad is sweeping across America which has its origins in a philosophy that shaped the Asean civilisations centuries ago.

Americans are now professing to be the new gurus of awareness training that the Buddha taught as Vippassana Meditation over 2,500 years ago. The University of Massachusetts has recently set up a Centre for Mindfulness. It offers a five-day residential intensive programme of "Mindfulness Tools" for a fee of US$625 (S$879). There is no acknowledgement of the Buddhist or Asian origins of its mindfulness practice.

A group of Asian communication scholars and media practitioners are now trying to reclaim their heritage from such appropriation. They gathered at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok this month to develop a "mindful journalism" curriculum for Asia that will bring in ideas and concepts from Buddhist, Confucius and Hindu philosophical traditions.

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Link to story: http://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/the-mindful-way-to-asean-journalism

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