Malaysia, 13 September 2021 – The Media Education 4 All (ME4A) programme by Arus Academy, developed in collaboration with 15 Malaysian educators has won the Asian Digital Media Award for Best Project on News Literacy.
Awarded by the World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), the Asian Digital Media Awards is an annual recognition awarded to some of the most successful media companies across the Asian continent.
The ME4A programme was awarded the top prize in the Best Project for News Literacy category, edging out a project by Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) which came in second.
“Getting recognized for this award is a huge testament to the countless hours we have put in for this initiative. With the pandemic hanging above us, and the election looming, the urgency of doing media literacy education is increasing by the day, and there is no better time to do it than yesterday. I hope this award opens up more opportunities to collaborate with local educational institutions, both public and private, to train more media literate educators, ” said David Chak, co-founder of Arus Academy.
Arus Academy launched ME4A earlier this year, with the goal of developing an online programme that would equip educators to teach media literacy skills to students across the country.
To achieve this objective, Arus worked with 15 specially-selected educators and 12 media professionals to develop Media Education Academy, a free online course which was launched on Sept 3 and currently has over 1,700 educators enrolled.
Investigative and impact media company The Fourth, a ME4A partner, also won at the Asian Digital Media Awards this year, in the Best Native Advertising Campaign category.
The Fourth co-founder Ian Yee shared: “Winning an ADMA is really quite a big deal for those of us in the media industry. This year alone, you have massive media organisations like Reuters, Bloomberg, SPH, and South China Morning Post among the winners.
“So for Arus Academy – a social enterprise for educators – to come in and win in their first attempt among all these big players is really quite remarkable. It’s something for Malaysians to be proud of, and it shows just how good the MEA programme is.”
Aside from signing up for the MEA programme, now educators can also win over RM10,000 in cash prizes if they participate in the MEA Challenge, a nationwide competition for teachers and lecturers to build teaching aids incorporating media and information literacy skills into their lessons. Contest details are at https://arus.cc/cabaranmea.
To find out more about the programme, send a direct message to the campaign’s Facebook page at facebook.com/mediaedu4all or Telegram group at t.me/mediaedu4all.
