The Understanding Myanmar’s Development (UMD) series is an exploration and analysis of the economic, political, and social changes of Myanmar. In this volume Soe Lynn Htwe analyzes the crucial role of ethnic media outlets in the context of a rapidly changing political, cultural, and economic context. While perhaps freer in their ability to write and report than at any other time in Myanmar’s recent history, the market forces that are now shaping the media landscape in Myanmar threaten to overwhelm and silence ethnic media. 

Soe Lynn Htwe shows in this volume how ethnic media outlets in Myanmar are facing a new set of challenges in the rapidly changing society and economy of Myanmar. Ethnic minority people in Myanmar now finally have the opportunity to present themselves and their perspectives via their own media after decades of misrepresentation in official news produced under central state control. At this time, access to accurate information from trustworthy sources is crucial for ethnic minority peoples in Myanmar because of huge natural resource exploitation projects and unsettled armed conflicts in ethnic minority areas, and the role of these ethnic media outlets is perhaps greater than ever before.