Die Medienkompetenz der kambodschanischen Bevölkerung

Eine qualitative Studie zur Erforschung der Medienkritikfähigkeit

Abstract

This study deals with the media ability and expectations of cambodian receivers in the con-text of the so-called „Khmer Rouge Trial". The Khmer Rouge, a political movement which claimed to develop communism based on the traditional rural population, controlled Cambodia between 1975 an 1979. During the time of their rule, Cambodians had no access to any media. According to Freedom House it wasn't until 2006 that the cambodian press could be seen as “partly free”. In the course of research on the spot interviews with 18 Cambodians between the age of 20 and the age of 69 were made. The interviewees were distinguished by residence (city or countryside) and wealth (upper middle class, lower middle class and lower class). Based on the media ability concept by Groeben, these interviews consisted of three main parts: Questions concerning the interviewee's average media use, their knowledge and opinion about the trial and their comprehension and opinion in concern of differently biased stimuli. This method enabled us to ex-amine whether the interviewed Cambodians are used to media perception, if they are able to identify and understand different political opinions offered by the media and how aware of the function of the media. The main finding is a distinct correlation between the media ability and the position within the social hierarchy but rather unexpectedly no serious differences between people from the city and those from the countryside could be found. This study mainly confirms a strong connection between wealth and education as a necessary precondition for media ability.