Abstract
This commentary presents my thirty-year involvement with Malta's mediasacpe during which I constructed a theoretical framework which helped me analyse critically Malta's mediascape in an original way, influence the formulation of policies governing it, and contribute practically to its building (particularly in the public service broadcasting and Church media sectors).
This commentary details the way I critically mapped and evaluated this mediascape, contributing to both theory and practice through an extensive number of academic publications, reports and public lectures. It discerns the paradigmatic changes that this mediascape has undergone. In particular, this commentary explains the following: I combined psycho-cultural and sociological approaches in order to appreciate the complexity of the Maltese mediascape, including its specific way of evolving from one stage of media/culture relation to another; the paradigmatic shift from monopolistic to pluralized broadcasting; the impact of the presence of various institutions, particularly political parties, that own different media organisation; and finally the role of the media in the secularisation of the Maltese Islands. The important position of the Catholic Church in this mediascape is analysed by means of a pastoral/theological model I put forward. In its final section, this commentary reflects on the media education programme which was developed as a tool to empower the readers, listeners and viewers that populate Malta's mediascape.