Mindful Communication for Asian Integration
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14th and 15th December 2015
Communication Arts Faculty, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
Aims and Objectives of Seminar:
The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) will come into force at the end of 2015 that will transform ASEAN into a region with free movement of goods, services, investment, skilled labour and freer flow of capital. To achieve these goals the media needs to play an important role in facilitating and promoting regional integration. This may also need a new look at aspects of training journalists to look at issues from a regional perspective with less emphasis on conflicts. There needs to be new thinking on how to report on economic, business, environment and development issues, where Asia’s needs, its priorities and its historical experiences are taken into account. This is where developing mindful communication methodologies, that take into account the region’s cultural and social norms and traditions will come into play.
Mass Communication courses taught in universities across the world are usually based on western concepts of communication with heavy focus on individual rights and freedom of expression. In the ASEAN region (as well as Asia in general) where the protection and promotion of community and social harmony plays an important role in political and social discourse, media practitioners’ focusing on individual rights over community harmony sometimes creates unnecessary conflicts that could be avoided by more sensitive and mindful communication strategies, that would have the same result of opening up public and community space for more freedom of expression and communication.
This seminar is part of an UNESCO funded project implemented by the Communication Arts Faculty of Chulalongkorn University to develop course material and train-the-trainers to implement journalism training in the ASEAN (and SAARC) region that will take a unique approach to developing communication strategies based on Asian concepts of communications. To do this, the project would incorporate Asian philosophical ideas and communication theories emanating from Buddhist, Hindu and Confucius teachings that cover areas such as social harmony, protecting nature and environment, respecting cultural diversity and encouraging sufficiency economic models.
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Presentation at World Journalism Education Conference
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14- 16 July 2016, Auckland, New Zealand
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A paper titled "Mindful Communication For A Re-Emerging Asia: Building A New Asian Journalism Curriculum" authored by Dr Kalinga Seneviratne, Dr Jirayudh Sinthuphan and Prof Supaporn Phokaew of Communications Arts Faculty, Chulalongkorn University was presented to the World Journalism Education Conference in Auckland, New Zealand by Dr Kalinga Seneviratne. The paper was well received and there was much interest in it by journalism scholars, especially from Asia, Australia and the South Pacific. University of the South Pacific has requested the assistance of Chulalongkorn University to organise a workdshop on the topic in Fiji next year.
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Participants of Workshop at Thai PBS - July 2016
Bangkok Workshop To Introduce New Mindful Journalism Curriculum
Communication Arts Faculty of Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University will host a ten-day workshop from 4th to 12th July to introduce the new Mindful Journalism training curriculum that have drawn from Asia’s age-old philosophical wisdoms.
This workshop is part of an IPDC funded project implemented by the Communication Arts Faculty of Chulalongkorn University to develop course material and train-the-trainers to implement journalism training in the ASEAN (and SAARC) region that will take a unique approach to developing communication strategies based on Asian concepts of communications that promotes mindfulness and social harmony.
Up to 16 mid-career journalism trainers will be taking part in the workshop along with the project team from Chulalongkorn University led by Dr Jirayudh Sinthuphan and Dr Kalinga Seneviratne. The trainers will come from Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Bhutan, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
The project team has developed 5 curricula for journalism training in Asia that have drawn from UNESCO’s ‘Model Curricula for Journalism Education for Developing Countries & Emerging Democracies’, and incorporated Asian philosophical concepts. The curricula include - Media & Society, Human-Centred Journalism, Reporting Climatic Change and Sustainable Development, Development Journalism and Communication Theory. These curricula have incorporate Asian philosophical ideas and communication theories emanating from Buddhist, Hindu and Confucius teachings that cover areas such as social harmony, protecting nature and environment, respecting cultural diversity and encouraging sufficiency economic models.
With development of mindfulness becoming a global movement today, all the curricula have a strong emphasis on mindful communication and its adaptation to the practice of journalism in a secular setting. The 4 journalism curricula emphasize the gathering of wisdom (panna) with the journalist being mindful all the time to peoples’ suffering and the need to listen to them with compassion in crafting their stories. The communication theory curriculum challenges many western-centric notions of communications and encourage teachers to look deeper into Asian philosophical concepts in developing new communication theories and models.
Chulalongkorn University hopes to organize national seminars with partner universities in Indonesia, Philippines, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Malaysia and China in the coming year to promote the curricula and develop cooperative journalism training and practice projects in the Asian region. A paper based on the curricula will be presented to the World Journalism Education Conference in Auckland, New Zealand in July by Chulalongkorn University.
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