Transforming Journalism and Communication Education: A Focus on Bangladesh and Papua New Guinea

: The study focuses on Journalism and Communication education
in developing countries that indicates a compromise and balance of
traditional outlay and modern technology but resulted to a mismatch of
‘slow march to fast music’. Expansion of media is not commensurate with
the population in both the countries studied. It has been observed that with
thriving democracy, the growth of mass media is reflective with the growth
of media education in Bangladesh, whereas the growth of media and the
state of democracy both are in formative stage in Papua New Guinea
(PNG). It was examined that media in Bangladesh have been contributing
potentially to create pluralistic democratic values to a densely populated
country. Newspapers and TV channels draw communication graduates from
public and private universities. The study envisaged that Papua New
Guinea, an independent country in 1975, and world’s most diversified
nation with highest number of languages, 823 languages among 6.5 million
people, craving for a working democracy with meager state of media in the
country. On the other hand, alternative media education as conceptualized
as ‘Civic Journalism’ got a trial in one of the public universities. It has
been focused to rural areas and on the issues like human rights, good
governance, gender, democracy, rule of law and justice, and environment.