Singapore's Media-Literate Society

Next up is Pam Hu from the Media Development Authority in Singapore - which is one of the best-connected nations in the world, of course (next to some countries in Scandinavia, as well as South Korea, and Japan - indeed, the entire country is a wireless hotspot...). The MDA is similar to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). Singapore is looking to position itself as an East-West Media Gateway, involving media financing, production, aggregation, and distribution; this is done in part also through the Asia Media Festival (29 Nov. to 3 Dec. 2006), including film, television, and animation components, and Broadcast Asia (in June 2007). Singapore is also increasingly placing itself in international media projects to develop global awareness of what it has to offer. The Media Development Authority was established on 1 January 2003; it is charged with developing the Singaporean media industry and acts as a facilitator, promoter, and catalyst.

As a basis for such activities, however, Pam now moves on to the question of increasing media literacy, especially with the backdrop of continuing media convergence - she notes the rise of user-led content generation (using Alvin Toffler's old 'prosumer' term), and outlines the need for a 21st-century form of media literacy. The Singaporean goal is that by 2015, 70% of its citizens will be equipped with basic media literacy - and Pam outlines four stages of media literacy as being aware of, appreciating, adopting, and advocating (new) media. Right now, on average, only some 30% of Singapore's citizens are effectively media literate - and unsurprisingly, media literacy is highest amongst the younger generations (media literacy rates at 45% here). However, even of these media-literate younger citizens, most are located towards the lower ends of the literacy spectrum. In Pam's view, the four pillars of such literacy are good judgement when engaging with media, responsibility in using them, the ability to inspire others, and balanced media lifestyle.

At the highest end of media literacy in Singapore are the 'screenagers', who work across a broad range of technologies - but on the other hand, teachers are often not yet exploiting the available technology (and in Singapore, there's a lot of equipment available in educational institutions) and media effectively enough (and they lag behind their students to some extent); parents are also often a hindrance as they are insufficiently aware of career options in the media industries, and continue to push kids towards traditional careers (medicine, law, etc.). This means that the MDA has students, teachers, and parents as target groups for its literacy programmes. Youth need to know that media are a career of choice; teachers need to use media more effectively to make lessons come alive; and parents need to know that they are responsibe for their kids' media consumption habits and need to exert a positive influence.

There are a number of public/people/private partnerships which MDA has developed, therefore, leading to an all-year-round media action campaign to boost media literacy. These are about media skills and craft (making things), identifying such work as a career, and understanding the intellectual property usage ethics required - and example projects for this include 3D Dino Animation with the Singapore Sciencentre, the online project Animate Now!, AniMania.com.sg, an annual student competition, the World CyberGames, a computer game championship, the film industry showcase and education project Moving Minds, the Canon Digital Video Fest, Kid Witness News, the School Video Awards, distributed Digital Audio Broadcasting of school classes for Mandarin learning, Kid Reporters, and a CyberWellness campaign, using blogs to engage young people in e-counselling. Phew.

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