democracy discourse fellow
Gayathry Venkiteswaran
Gayathry Venkiteswaran is Assistant Professor at the University of Nottingham Malaysia, where she teaches media and politics. She is also pursuing her PhD and her research focus is on media reforms in Southeast Asia. Prior to this, she was executive director of the Bangkok-based Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) for five years, working on press freedom and access to information in the region. Before joining SEAPA, she headed and was co-director of the Malaysian press freedom organisation, Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ), for seven years, worked as a journalist and taught media history and journalism in a number of private colleges and universities.
Country
Malaysia
Categories
Education
Digital Media Literacy
Democracy Discourse in Malaysia
This project entails conducting a series of activities that would involve the participation of young people from institutions of learning around Selangor to engage in political awareness and education. It also hopes to create a better understanding of how young people use social media to get their information and to interact on political issues. The project takes advantage of changes in the political environment in Malaysia, especially since parliament passed a constitutional amendment to lower the voting age to 18, and effectively allowing 18-year olds to qualify as candidates for elections.
Earlier, changes were made to the law on universities to allow students to participate in politics, a right that had been banned for forty years. These changes provide opportunities to expand the discourses on democracy among students in institutions of higher learning and to encourage them to actively participate in politics.
