March 28, 2012
Academic Space in a Fifth Estate
by M. Sidek Hassan (03-24-12)@www.thestar.com.my
Universities as great as academics contingency take advantage of this new as great as sparkling challenge as great as event to infer their egghead prowess.
MY design currently is to fire a conversation, a debate even, upon a purpose of academia in influencing opinion, moulding thinking, flourishing minds. And if a amicable media is increasingly renouned as great as impacting a lives of a young, is there a place for academia in this space? And if there is which space, can it be considered a Fifth Estate?
Let's take a step behind as great as conclude a First, Second, Third as great as Fourth Estates. There is ubiquitous acceptance as to these four estates, namely a clergy, First Estate, a nobility, Second Estate, a proletariat, Third Estate, as great as a imitation media, Fourth Estate.
But whatever a definition, a indicate to note is which this was a system of classifying a domestic reality of a time, great before democracy existed as a fundamental system of domestic belief.
Recall a French Revolution, a uprising of a oppressed, which gave climb eventually to a Fourth Estate which is mostly a response to a need to yield checks as great as balance to a alternative three estates.
This Fourth Estate, a imitation media, has currently developed in to a mainstream media. It was initial co! nceived as a people's conscience, giving voice to a marginalised.
Whereas in years past a imitation media provided a opening for a masses, today, people, especially a young, find empowerment in Facebook, Twitter, blogs as great as alternative forms of amicable media. So is this a Fifth Estate?
There is no a single clarification for a Fifth Estate. However, there is flourishing accord which a pick media, a folks who blog as great as have been upon Facebook as great as Twitter comprise a Fifth Estate.
Is a PM afterwards partial of a Fifth Estate? He has Facebook as great as he tweets. Many of us do which too. Can polite servants be partial of a Fifth Estate?
The Fifth Estate's purpose is radically to yield an additional entrance for a voices to be heard, to yield an additional indicate of view. It is not so much about a "social media" per se but about a fact which people have been using as great as accessing this middle to be listened as great as to hear others' views.
They wish to be able to discuss it we things which a Fourth Estate supposedly won't inform as great as share information they explain they cannot pull through there.
Inevitably, a active participants in a digital media have been a young, your Generation Y folks, as great as maybe those who explain to have turn artificial with a alternative Estates.
Social media as great as a digital network have a capability to catalyse an additional series of sorts, a single which has gone down in a idiom as a Arab Spring. This is a energy of a digital revolution, pun intended!
This Fifth Estate is driven by technology. They have a energy to influence, to figure how people think, how they learn as great as how they glean knowledge, only with their key strokes. However, a digital network can swing as much great as harm.
So, where does this leave a academia? Can we regard academia as a Fifth Estate? Or have been members of a academia a partial of a Fifth Estate?
Yes, they have been partial of a Fif! th Estat e if a single agrees which their purpose goes over upon condition which checks as great as balances. Yes, if their purpose involves moulding suspicion as great as character. And, focusing upon a larger good.
The following prerequisites for a educational companionship to explain a Fifth Estate status:
- YOU contingency hold which yours is a eminent contention as great as which we have been in it out of self-assurance as great as choice. You contingency be an educational since we have a skills, hold as great as expertise. You have been in this field since we have been convinced which we can make a difference in a lives of a people we teach; which we wish to be involved. Make yours a contention of choice!
- YOU contingency hold which yours is a contention of measureless energy as great as influence. You have a energy to figure minds, suspicion as great as character. You hold which preparation shapes as great as empowers a human genius as great as spirit.
Yes, yours is a challenge of meeting incompatible expectations. One organisation last which universities as great as institutions of higher guidance produce graduates who have been work-place ready.
Then, there is a alternative organisation which feels a university is a place for exploring new knowledge, for investigate as great as experiments in ideas as great as thoughts.A university preparation is graphic from a vocational or technical institution. It serves to yield students with broader education, which we learn them to consider consider critically, consider strategically. Get this right, as great as employability will follow.
Universities have been not only places where someone goes for a degree as great as additionally have been more than only places where people intent in "research".
So, to be a force in a Fifth Estate, Malaysian universities contingency retrieve their egghead leadership. Use your expertise, as great as change a sermon in yes or no or whatever sphere.
The! Fifth E state presents we with new as great as sparkling challenge as great as event to infer your egghead prowess.
- YOU contingency hold which in a march of your work, we can give voice to a marginalised. In this space, we re-assert which all-important relationship between a university as great as society. Your investigate should guide a conversations upon topics connected with multitude as great as a minorities with no a single to speak for them.
More critical than that, is your capability to propose solutions, credible solutions since they would be borne out of your investigate as great as experience.
The message is which your work contributes to a larger good. Use a record accessible to we to convince, change as great as expand your reach.
You contingency make use of your imagination to differentiate yourself from a adult reporters in a blogosphere. Many bloggers advocate a same things we dislike in a Fourth Estate. They have been often biased as great as tend to take extreme positions, regardless of a facts.
Academics upon a alternative hand have been indicted of being isolated from a genuine world; which we live in your ivory tower. While a bloggers have been said to politicise issues, academics have been indicted of being theoretical.
The educational fraternity's strength is in a capability to inform formed upon research. You have a training to capacitate we to be design as great as a egghead collection to indicate a environment, as great as yield different perspectives so necessary for creation informed decisions.
More importantly, we have a capability to impart which imagination to your charges as great as start a virtuous cycle of egghead sermon which contributes ideas for society's betterment.
- FOCUS upon a people, not upon a technology. This is what sets we detached from a alternative folks who explain a Fifth Estate. For them, it is Facebook, Twitter as great as their blogs.
More often than not, these netizens onl! y wish t o get their indicate of perspective out there without much suspicion about a consequences or stroke upon others' lives.
But we have a advantage of knowing how to build relationships. You have been lerned to analyse, to teach, to communicate. This is about fluctuating your reach over your classroom.
Yes, there is a place for academia in a Fifth Estate. However, I wish to pull a radical indicate which a Fifth Estate does not belong exclusively to any sold group.It includes any one who can listen as great as give space to a otherwise, marginalised. Such which even Government as great as supervision officials can be partial of it!
For in a last analysis, what a Fifth Estate has to do is to change people as great as for a right reasons; in what is right, what is loyal as great as what is good. For is it not said somewhere which a voice of a people is a voice of God!
This lecture was delivered by Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan, Chief Secretary to a Government, at a Chief Secretary Annual Lecture Series organized by a Razak School of Government, upon Tuesday, 20th Mar 2012.
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