Digital Media in Social Science Curricula in Nepal

By Harsha Man Maharjan 

 

Digital technologies have become pervasive and ubiquitous. Traditional news media organisations have moved to websites and apps, with people accessing news contents in digital forms. Social media platforms have become important to express thoughts and exhibit identities. IT companies and even news media organisations are collecting, storing and analysing users’ data. These organisations are using these digital footprints to innovate. Due to the pandemic, the use of digital platforms like Zoom has increased for interaction and education. The pandemic has accelerated the digitalisation of societies. Scholars are discussing the issues related to domination, identity, representation and differences in the digital sphere.

 

The disciplines under social science and humanities should be helpful to make sense of this digitalisation. These disciplines need to make students aware of these socio-technological changes. They have to encourage students to advance new knowledge related to this new field through discourse and research.

 

Curricula

Are the curricula prepared by universities in Nepal imparting adequate knowledge to students about the digital world? To understand this, we can look at curricula of some disciplines such as Journalism, Sociology and Anthropology.

 

We assume that the discipline focused on media such as Journalism and Mass Communication, which Tribhuvan University offers or Mass Communication and Journalism that Purbanchal University offers is giving priority to digital media. However, the curricula show that these universities have put more emphasis on digital journalism.

 

The curriculum of MA on Journalism and Mass Communication focuses on social media and online journalism. Though the curriculum contains 20 papers, only one is related to social media and online journalism. This paper aims to “enable students to have extensive understanding of the opportunities and use of social media”, “enable students to analyse online communication and journalism”, and “enable students on new media research”. Its syllabus contains these ten units: Digitalisation of News Media”, “Principles and Practices of New Media”, “Social Media and Communication”, “Online Journalism and Traditional Media”, “Technical Writing Techniques” and “Globalisation and Local content". This paper indicates that the increasing use of social media and online journalism has been considered while preparing this curriculum. However, it also clearly shows that the curriculum contains three aspects of digital media — online journalism, social media, and online research — that could have been divided into three papers. Besides this paper, some aspects of digital media have been incorporated in other papers such as “Introduction to Mass Communication Theory”, “History and Growth of Mass Media” and “Media Law”.

 

The TU curricula for MPhil and PhD have not given importance to digital media in comparison to the MA level. It is interesting that the course does not contain a paper directly related to digital media and neither does the PhD course contain any special paper on digital media. 

 

The MA curriculum offered by Pubanchal University too prioritises online journalism that contains five papers — “Fundamentals of Information System”; “Advanced Concepts in Electronic Publication”, “Multimedia applications”, and “Cyber publishing.” They clearly show that the curriculum intends to impart technical aspects of digital media/journalism. Besides, a few papers such as “Mass Communication: Theories and Practices”, “Print Journalism”, “Public Journalism: Theory and Practices” talk about some aspects of digital media.

This lack of attention given to digital media in general in the above curricula give room for having the issues related to digital media in other disciplines. Yet, the curricula of Sociology and Anthropology that TU offers have paid less attention to digital media. 

 

Though there is no paper focused on media, the curriculum of Sociology in MA does include a few materials on media. Particularly, students have to read the “ Prologue: the Net and the Self “of Manual Castell’s book The Rise of Network Society under the paper, “Practice of Social Change and Development in Asia”. It is interesting that the curriculum contains papers on gender, disability/aging, disaster, education, tourism, not on media. Likewise, the curricula of MPhil and PhD do not include books and articles on digital media. 

 

Even Anthropology does not contain a paper directly related to media or digital media. It does contain the paper on “Visual Anthropology”, which may contain more materials on media, but its syllabus is being developed. Like the curriculum of Sociology, it contains a few materials related to media under papers like “Anthropology of Disaster and Resilience”, “Anthropology and Globalisation”, “Contemporary Theories in Anthropology”. Both MPhil and PhD curricula don’t have a paper on digital media.

 

Revision

To help students understand the digitalisation of societies, the courses under social science and humanities have to include papers focused on digital media. This can be done while revising the courses. Journalism courses can also have papers on digital media in general. The curricula of Sociology and Anthropology too need to have papers on media — if not — on digital media. These syllabuses should include materials that discuss the different aspects of digital media, society and culture.

Governing YouTubers in Nepal

By Harsha Man Maharjan 

The evidence shows YouTube could be a menace, when it is left unchecked — audience being uncritical, YouTuber being avarice — and there are concerns that some mechanisms to govern YouTubers are needed. YouTube has become a platform not only to help those in need, but also to spread malice, hatred, rumours, and earn revenue easily. While discussing the governing mechanisms, we should focus on the role of different actors — state, YouTubers and audiences — and create a balance between rights and responsibilities.

Role of state

The mechanism the state uses is legal provisions to govern YouTubers, but these provisions have come under criticism as often freedom of expression is curtailed when these laws are used. Let us see two cases, in which the charges were made under the Electronic Transaction Act, 2008.

One, in March 2019, police arrested a model, the owner of YouTube channel, Masti Talk Time produced by Fulchoki Media and its host in charge of promoting obscenity in the society. This channel had uploaded interviews with struggling actors/models about their personal and sexual lives. The model had shared her experience of working as a sex worker in the interview. When the news about this arrest was uploaded on YouTube, many people left comments thanking the police for this “commendable” job, but few people claimed that the model had rights to do and speak as she wanted.

Two, on June 7, 2019, comedian Pranesh Gautam was arrested on the charge of cybercrime when his video reviewing Nepali movie Bir Bikram 2 was uploaded in the YouTube channel of meme Nepal. While the director of the movie and its crew claimed that his review was intended to defame the film industry by using racist and sexist remarks, his supporters termed the arrest as the violation of his freedom of expression. People also criticized the review for using foul words and urged to be more responsible. Pranesh remained in custody for more than a week.

But the use of this Act to regulate the activities in cyberspace is problematic. Often article 47 of this Act is invoked that prohibits people from publishing materials against law, public morality, decency and communal harmony. This Act was formulated to govern electronic transactions and the IT sector, then to regulate freedom of expression. As people demanded that this law should be revised or annulled, the government has brought out the Information Technology Bill, 2075 BS, which also came under huge criticism from journalists, activists and civil society for its provisions curtailing freedom of expression. This bill is still in consideration in the parliament.

Roles of YouTubers and audiences

Both YouTubers and audiences can contribute to governance. The mechanism YouTubers can have is self-regulation. If YouTubers themselves follow the community guidelines related to issues such as sensitive content, and violent or dangerous content, it will be better for them. The guideline under “violent and gory content” clearly mentions that sexual content should be uploaded under ‘age-restricted content’. So, merely having a disclaimer in Masti Talk Time was not enough, it should have kept many of its videos under this category. There are many Nepali videos on YouTube which should have been put under this category. YouTubers are also uploading videos that have violent and gory content, blurring the image or putting them under ‘age-restricted content’ category, though the community guidelines don’t allow it. So, when YouTubers demand that their rights be assured, they also need to be responsible. Following these guidelines is one way to make them more responsible.

The mechanism audiences can have is voicing to safeguard the rights and to remind about the responsibilities of YouTubers. For this, they should be literate about the platform. Being literate is to know what can be or can’t be posted on YouTube and how it earns money. It is to know that YouTube is “addictive” as it uses artificial intelligence to analyse users’ behaviour and serve the content according to their preferences. It is also to be aware that many YouTubers want the audience’s attention so they often promote rumors and fake news with misleading and sensational headlines to earn revenue. They should be aware of the community guidelines and report if they are violated by YouTubers or leave comments on the videos and request YouTubers to follow these guidelines. They can voice when YouTubers’ rights are curtailed.

Way ahead

Among the mechanisms of governing YouTubers, regulation by state has often drawn criticism. So, while using such regulations, the state machinery has to restrain from using them recklessly. YouTubers also need to be self-regulated, if they want respect from the audience. Audiences’ voice is needed to make YouTubers more responsible.

Originally published in The Rising Nepal; published here with slight revision and additional links.