Pathways to Critical Media Education
and Beyond: Deliberations on Media Reforms and the Manila Initiative

Edited by M. Nadarajah

Bangkok. Asian Communication Network. ISBN 983-40497-1-4. 286 pages.

This book compiles the papers presented during the symposium-workshop “Rethinking Democratisation of Media: Pathways beyond Critical Media Education” held in Manila on 20-24 September 2002. Most of the papers are case studies dealing chiefly with how non-government organizations (NGOs) and church-based institutions, including the academe, in Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea, and Taiwan carried out media education in their respective areas.

Monopolization of media by media moguls or the state and the hegemonizing impact of Western, particularly, American culture were the key issues faced by those engaged in media education.

The call, therefore, was to democratize media, and the various papers provided interesting strategies in achieving it.

Perhaps the most remarkable experience would be that in South Korea where the Internet newspaper OhMyNews has achieved phenomenal success with the mobilization of 20,000 citizen reporters or news-guerillas. This demonstrates “people’s media power,” where people are not only “news consumers,” but are also “news producers.” As the standard media outlets are held by powerful interests, OhMyNews shifted the arena of struggle to cyberspace. In Malaysia where press censorship is strict, a similar effort to shift the battle lines to cyberspace got mixed results.

The Japanese case study discussed media literacy efforts directed towards making people more critical of media content. Research results are publicized in order to influence the media to be more sensitive on matters of gender, race, the aged, etc. Media reforms are achieved not through direct pressure by groups but through public opinion. The Philippine case study, meanwhile, elaborated on a media education strategy for children in both formal and nonformal educational settings.

The other papers talked about how certain organizations used media or produced their own media to give voice to the marginalized or advance their own media messages. In rural India, some communities are acquiring technical skills, if not outright facilities, so they can talk about their concerns that are ignored by authorities and the media. Church-based institutions in Taiwan and Indonesia, meanwhile, own media facilities to promote interreligious dialogue and harmony.

The experiences in media education and attempts at reforming media make the book already worth reading. As bonus, there are other papers dealing with theories and frameworks, the digital revolution, and the results of the Global Media Monitoring Project 2000.

Macario D. Tiu won first prize in the 2005 Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature in the Cebuano short story category for his “Ang Balyan”.