About the Conference

The Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC) is pleased to announce its 19th Annual Conference, to be held in Singapore on 21-23 June 2010, at Suntec City. AMIC is especially happy to hold this conference back to back with the International Communication Association (ICA) Conference which will take place at the same venue from 23-26 June 2010. This is a rare opportunity for you to spend a whole week listening to and interacting with many of the best brains in the media world on an extraordinary range of topics and issues.

The theme of the 19th AMIC Annual Conference is “Technology and Culture: Communication Connectors and Dividers”. Communication technology is often seen as a connector of people. Certainly, millions are now able to connect and communicate with each other in ways never before imagined. And the world has shrunk in distance and time, thanks to this technology. However, people have not been homogenised by using common technology. Nor have their responses been alike to the same technology. One country uses the technology to liberate its people while another uses the same technology to shackle its people. One group of people embrace new technology for its ease and convenience while another group abjures it as an invasion of privacy and a violation of security. In one society, the technology narrows the gap between the haves and the have-nots and in another it widens the gap. A common factor that is often seen in all these variations is the role of culture in technology absorption and diffusion. Though culture is not the only factor to affect the use of technology, it is a salient one. The theme of this conference is designed to explore the interplay of technological determinism and cultural determinism and the spectrum of intersections between these polarities. In Asia, the range of experiences in various countries with new communication technologies provide a wealth of insights and indicators that would be of much value to those who study the media world or practice in it.

The AMIC conference is open to academics, media industry professionals, government agencies, policymakers, regulators, UN agencies, donors, research groups, civil society organizations, independent consultants and students.

This flagship conference is hosted in rotation by countries across the Asia-Pacific region. Recent conferences were held in New Delhi, India (2009), Manila, the Philippines (2008), Singapore (2007), Penang, Malaysia (2006) and Beijing, China (2005). The AMIC Annual Conference is a premier event on the Asian media calendar and attracts eminent international speakers and participants from the media world. Delegates to the conference come not only from the Asia-Pacific region, but also from Africa, Europe and the Americas as well. It features high-profile keynote addresses, plenary sessions, and many parallel sessions. Networking events, cultural programmes, media visits and even tourism events are also held in conjunction with the annual conference.

Themes and Topics

For the 19th AMIC annual conference, in addition to the theme of the conference as set out above, papers are invited to address the following topics: