Editorial

It is with mixed feelings that I am writing the final editorial for this journal. I am sad that this journey has come to a stop but also happy in all that we managed to achieve in the short time that the journal was in publication. It was a visionary initiative of the founding editor Professor Eric Loo, when he launched it in partnership with SAGE Publications, and it provided a good, much needed platform for young scholars, in the Asia-Pacific region, to publish their research. Over the years, under three different Editors-in-Chief, it grew steadily and became a quality publication forum for showcasing cutting-edge media and communication scholarship in the region. I am thankful for the active participation of the illustrious editorial board, and for everyone associated with the professional publication of the journal, especially SAGE Publications (Adit Kumar, Aarchik Sinha, Ramesh Bhatt and others). They were equally responsible for the increasing number of good submissions that led to the journal’s steady growth in quality, rigor, rankings and scholarly value. So it is with a heavy heart that we (on behalf of everyone associated with this journal) are signing off. There will now be a space for a good journal, and I hope others will step in to fill this void and continue to provide a forum, especially for the young scholars in the region.

In this final issue, there are several relevant and timely issues that will contribute to furthering the current scholarly understanding, on these topics. In the research section, the first two articles are relevant to the current pandemic. While exploring pedagogical innovation in the COVID-19 times, Marcos Cubero, in the first article, presents the findings from a case study on blended learning of television journalism courses with Moodle by exploring how to improve students’ television writing skills in a hybrid ecosystem. He concludes that there was a high degree of student satisfaction with the experience and a significant improvement in students’ television writing skills with the adoption of these innovative pedagogical approaches. In the second article, Pradeep Krishnatray and Sangeeta Shrivastava utilize the opportunity provided by the global pandemic, to analyse and present their findings on how national leaders, from five countries with the highest GDP (USA, China, Japan, Germany and India), framed their speeches to fellow citizens during the pandemic. While they found that each leader’s speech was unique and specific, they also identified four common dominant frames that revolved around prevention, protection, solidarity and hope/comfort.

The next three research articles analyse various aspects of the communication process. Kaifia Ancer Laskar explores questions of gender sensitive portrayal in cartoon shows for pre-schoolers and if they resort to counter-hegemonic portrayals, by undertaking a critical discourse analysis of the television show, Masha and the Bear, through the lens of Bandura’s (2001) Social Learning Theory and Beauvoir’s (1997) notion of social construction of women as the ‘other’. Suruchi Mazumdar analyses diverse ownership models of mainstream regional and linguistic newspapers in terms of their profit versus partisan causes, through a case study of ‘commercially run, mainstream newspapers’ coverage of anti-industrialization protests in the East Indian city of Kolkata’. She highlights the importance of understanding the role of ownership influences and ‘extra-economic’ factors in the workings of Indian news media. In the final research article, Nosyamihah Abdul Wahab and Nasya Bahfen present their findings from a study of workplace messaging in Malaysia. They identify the impact of social media and new messaging processes on the well-being of Malaysian workers (specifically middle managers in Kuala Lumpur) by exploring the workplace use of electronic communication methods, and how managers view the impact of tablets, social networking apps, and similar technologies on their social and emotional wellbeing, including their capacity to relate to and interact with other employees.

In the commentary section, Prashant Bhatt presents his reasons for the short-lived optimism in realizing the potential role of mainstream social media for creating a democratized public space for civil discourse and political freedom. While exploring the emergence of alternative social media in India (and globally), he also comments on the financial, social, political and other vested pressures on content moderation that defines the complex relationship between technology companies and populist forces in Indian society. In the next commentary piece, the team of Joe Foote, Robyn Goodman, Ian Richards and Elanie Steyn chart the birth and progress of the World Journalism Education Council, and its historical role in promoting capacity building, international cooperation and integration, in partnership with journalism education associations worldwide. In the last commentary, Harsh Mahaseth and Shifa Querishi explore the online journalism scenario in Nepal. They offer their reflections on how traditional media has evolved over time and how its working has been impacted by the rise of digital media. They also call on the government to develop an online media policy and suggest that the ideal model is for both systems to work together.

In the book review section, Aniruddha Jena reviews the new book on Caste, Communication and Power, by Biswajit Das and Debendra Prasad Majhi from SAGE Publications. He also interviews the first author, Biswajit Das on most of the themes explored in the book but especially on those questions that revolve around the dynamics of caste, and power in social sciences and communication research.

In conclusion, it has been my honour and privilege for the last couple of years, to have this opportunity to serve as the Editor-in-Chief of this journal. I wish to convey my sincere thanks to everyone associated with this journal, and too numerous to individually list here, for making it such a huge success. It is unfortunate that the journey must end here for reasons beyond our control. I know we have done what we could to the best of our abilities. I do wish and hope that a new journal steps in soon to fill the void that will be created by our ceasing publication and will continue to provide a robust platform for especially young and upcoming scholars in the Asia-Pacific region to present their research. As we say in Hyderabad, phir milenge [We shall meet again]!