Asean To Leverage Popularity Of Social Media - Minister

KUALA LUMPUR, March 1 (Bernama) -- The 11th Conference of the Asean Ministers Responsible for Information (AMRI) which ended here Thursday, among others, has endorsed that Asean should leverage on the popularity of the social media to keep it current and relevant as a disseminator of information. Speaking to reporters at the close of the three-day meeting at a hotel here, Information Communication and Culture Minister Dr Rais Yatim said ministers from the 10-member regional grouping recognised social media as an effective channel for information dissemination and critical for people-to-people connectivity and the promotion of awareness about Asean and integration. "Delegates totally endorsed the stand of the meeting that in future, the social media will play bigger, substantive role in making Asean closer with each other...this will enable us to reach out further and through a bigger area within Asean itself. "This is not to say that the traditional media is to be sidelined, this is simply an augmentation between the traditional media, as well as new media," said Rais, who is the chairman of the 11th AMRI. He said the social media, which was emerging as the fastest growing medium of communication in Asean today, should be enhanced to the point that the younger generation should play a bigger role in the Asean awareness and Asean cohesion towards making Asean Community a reality. The three-day conference is themed, 'Media: Connecting Peoples and Bridging Cultures towards One Asean Community'. The Asean Community comprises three pillars, namely the Asean Political-Security Community, Asean Economic Community and Asean Socio-Cultural Community. Rais said the conference deliberated on the emergence of the new media, especially social media, as important tools for communication and interaction in Asean and the importance of social media, especially in the mission to build an Asean Community. As such, Rais said AMRI had called for active discussion among Asean countries to identify appropriate programmes and activities using social media positively to inculcate cultural values, understanding and solidarity among Asean peoples and communities. "This is particularly important towards AMRI’s efforts to assist in the building of an Asean Community. As we approach 2015 when Asean is to become an Economic Community, all efforts must be made to engage key target audiences, especially our youth, to explain what this will mean to them when that happens," he said. Besides this, Rais said that another one of the five key outcomes of AMRI was about the integrated Asean Quiz, which was to be improved to reflect the current Asean. He said the quiz, held very successfully over the past 10 years, would have a uniform format, be more structured and standardised and would be based on the Asean Curriculum Sourcebook with five themes to reflect Asean's present identity. Another outcome was the consolidation of Asean Culture and Information Portal (ACIP) and Asean Media Portal (AMP). Rais said the two portals would be consolidated by incorporating the relevant social and new media to develop into a 'first-stop', rather than 'one-stop' portal. He said social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter would be incorporated in the portal. "These will be combined to give Asean a bigger boost among the peoples around the region and for them to understand that Asean actually stands also for information dissemination plus the outspread usefulness of culture as a binding factor for the peoples of Asean," he said. Another outcome of the 11th AMRI outlined by Rais was about progress on digital broadcasting, where the minister said that Asean member states were encouraged to switch over to DVB-T2 standard. He said Asean Digital Broadcasting (ADB) members would look into the training needs, with the cooperation of Dialogue Partners. DVB-T2 refers to Second Generation Terrestrial, which is the extension of the television standard DVB-T. Yet, another outcome of the conference is the adoption of the Draft Work Plan on Enhancing Asean Plus Three Cooperation Through Information and Media (2012-2017). Under this, Asean member states will take the lead in coordinating 17 projects such as exchange of media personnel and broadcasters, news exchange, digital broadcasting and co-productions and sharing best practices. Rais said cooperation between AMRI and Asean Dialogue Partners –- China, Japan and South Korea -- would see more collaborative efforts in the areas of training and human capital development, news and cultural exchanges. "We have the plan for enhancing Asean Plus Three cooperation...this involves strategic partnership, information and media development, broadcasting content, network and journalist exchanges...beyond that, we have the training and technical assistance, from various countries within the three groups," he said. -- BERNAMA