INFORMATION ECOSYSTEMS IN TRANSITION: A CASE STUDY FROM MYANMAR HOW TO INFORM, EMPOWER, AND IMPACT COMMUNITIES Mon State, Myanmar Pilot Study PART TWO: ADDITIONAL DATA ANALYSIS ABOUT THE AUTHORS ABOUT THE RESEARCH TEAM EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Andrew Wasuwongse is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins Established in 1995, Myanmar Survey Research (MSR) University’s School of Advanced International Studies in is a market and social research company based in Washington, DC. He holds a master’s degree in International Yangon, Myanmar. MSR has produced over 650 Relations and International Economics, with a concentration research reports in the fields of social, market, and in Southeast Asia Studies. While a research assistant for environmental research over the past 16 years for UN the SAIS Burma Study Group, he supported visits by three agencies, INGOs, and business organizations. Burmese government delegations to Washington, DC, including officials from Myanmar’s Union Parliament, ABOUT INTERNEWS IN MYANMAR Ministry of Health, and Ministry of Industry. He has worked as a consultant for World Vision Myanmar, where he led an Internews is an international nonprofit organization whose assessment of education programs in six regions across mission is to empower local media worldwide to give people Myanmar, and has served as an English teacher in Kachin the news and information they need, the ability to connect State, Myanmar, and in Thailand on the Thai-Myanmar border. and the means to make their voices heard. Internews He speaks Thai and Burmese. provides communities with the resources to produce local news and information with integrity and independence. Alison Campbell is currently Internews’ Senior Director With global expertise and reach, Internews trains both media for Global Initiatives based in Washington, DC, overseeing professionals and citizen journalists, introduces innovative Internews’ environmental, health and humanitarian media solutions, increases coverage of vital issues and helps programs. She recently relocated to the US from Asia, establish policies needed for open access to information. where she founded Internews Burma project in 2001, started the Internews Burma Journalism School and has been The Internews Burma project opened its doors in January 2001 deeply involved in the recent exciting developments in the and has worked for the last 14 years to strengthen the capacity media scene in Burma/Myanmar over the last few years. of Burmese media outlets both inside the country and within yanmar’s recent relaxing of political, The report draws from quantitative and qualitative With a background in both journalism and humanitarian the exiled and international Burmese media community. Over research commissioned by the Internews Center for the years Internews has provided comprehensive support economic, and social restrictions has relief, she specializes in the design and troubleshooting Innovation & Learning (the Center) from December 16, of media projects in conflict, post conflict, peace building for Burmese and ethnic language publications, websites, provided a unique opportunity to conduct bloggers, broadcasters, editors, managers and publishers. M 2012 to January 5, 2013 in Mon State, Myanmar. The and other transitional environments. Alison has worked research in Myanmar’s ethnic states. This report on in various capacities for Internews over the last 15 years, This support includes training and mentoring in reporting on research sampled respondents from across Mon State, most recently as Regional Manager for Africa Programs environment, human rights, elections, gender, policy issues, Mon State’s information ecosystem is the first in a and combines quantitative data from a 500 household overseeing projects in Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Rwanda, media management, media law, small grants and technical planned series of studies into the demographic, news survey covering urban, rural, non-conflict, and former Uganda and South Sudan. She also established the support for publishing and production. As part of this program, conflict areas, with qualitative data from 12 focus Internews operated the first in-residence journalism school media, and information dynamics that characterize Internews program at the International Criminal Tribunal for group discussions and 24 key informant interviews in Rwanda, providing a foundation for the important work that for Burmese and ethnic reporters in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The Mon State as well as Myanmar’s six other ethnic Internews still does in Rwanda. Before joining Internews, school trained hundreds of journalists and media professionals, both non-conflict and former conflict areas. Alison worked in radio, print and television newsrooms and equipped a new generation of Burmese and ethnic media states—Chin, Kachin, Kayah (Karenni), Kayin in South Africa and in the UK before spending four years professionals with the skills to work full-time. Internews trained (Karen), Rakhine (Arakan), and Shan. The research focuses on three themes. Firstly, it as a press officer for CARE, managing press relations and and provided technical and financial support to more than identifies and maps the information environment policy in humanitarian emergencies including Rwanda, 15 different local organizations, both along the border and An information ecosystem is not a static entity; it is in Mon State in terms of technology and media inside the country. These organizations have gone on Burundi, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and Bosnia. by nature constantly evolving and changing. Nor is it to play leading roles in disseminating quality news and use across urban, rural, non-conflict, and former information about Burma to the world and to the Burmese a discrete form; it can be defined at many levels, from conflict geographic areas. Secondly, the flow of news COVER PHOTO population alike. Internews’ work in Myanmar continues global to national to community to interest-based and information is examined to see how individuals today, and has expanded beyond support for traditional groupings within communities. Any examination of receive information and then make decisions about A villager reads a journal at a tea shop in media to include the country’s first-ever hackathon in an information ecosystem goes beyond traditional sharing it with others. Thirdly, the report examines Ye Township, Kaw Dut Village. 2014, which brought together 76 of the country’s most audience research on media access and consumption; the dynamics underlying the trust and influence of talented young developers, designers and entrepreneurs. it adds considerations of information needs and news and information among individuals in Mon www.internews.org information creation and distribution as fluid systemsState. that adapt and regenerate according to the broader developmental challenges and needs of a given community. 1 INFORMATION ECOSYSTEMS IN TRANSITION: A CASE STUDY FROM MYANMAR HOW TO INFORM, EMPOWER, AND IMPACT COMMUNITIES PART TWO: ADDITIONAL DATA ANALYSIS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY DESPITE THE HIGH COST OF MOBILE ACCESS IN In this study, news and information sources that are It is true to say that media content and media and considered trusted—with trustworthiness defined in information channels will always be primary factors MYANMAR AT THE TIME OF THIS RESEARCH, terms of a source’s accuracy and reliability—tended of supply in any information ecosystem. However, it is NEARLY HALF OF ALL URBAN MON STATE strongly to be the sources that were best-known and necessary to guard against drawing conclusions about RESPONDENTS HAVE A MOBILE PHONE familiar to respondents. Few people indeed trust what media access and “openness” based on a “production they are not familiar with. As a result, friends and family + distribution = better informed citizenry” model ranked highest for trust, but perhaps surprisingly, so did that cannot adequately account for the quality of the state-owned media, such as MRTV (jointly-operated information available, or flow, trust and uptake factors with the private Forever Group Ltd.) and Nay Pyi in complex environments. There can be few places left in the world where almost The research indicates that, despite the high cost of Daw Myanmar Radio National Service (Nay Pyi Daw half the population does not know what the internet is. mobile access in Myanmar at the time of this research, Myanma Ah-Than). Overall, however, people in Mon In Myanmar today there exists the risk that under The Mon State pilot research has particular value in nearly half of all urban Mon State respondents have State remain generally skeptical of the news they hear, the guise of increased media access, the formerly attempting to describe the information ecosystem of a a mobile phone. This penetration would have been a habit held-over from a time when information sources “information dark” ecosystems which prevailed target community situated at an unprecedented tipping unthinkable just a few years ago. Nevertheless, were few and rumors abundant. Most people regularly across much of the country under military rule point in the history of a closed society. Key structural widespread lack of electricity continues to significantly validate the news and information they hear against may be seamlessly replaced with “information lite” factors (governance, technology, economy) are hamper full mobile phone usage. Furthermore, only other sources, never fully trusting any source completely. ecosystems in which unsophisticated media audiences changing suddenly, simultaneously