During the 1990s, we have seen the transformation of information and mass-media policies in Southeast Asia, where globalization is now going on.For example, satellite-communication systems are not only regarded as a means of national integration, but an economic resource for winning in the international market.Some governments are competing to build satellite-communication systems in this area.As a result, the Western content of DBS channels is increasing because of a scarcity of local content.Moreover, in some countries, the government ministry which is concerned with broadcasting policies has shifted from the ministry of information to the ministry of communications, which is concerned with telecommunications.I will examine the case of two such countries, Indonesia and Malaysia, both of which have experienced authoritarian press control.The reforming Indonesian government, under President Abdurrahman Wahid, abolished the Department of Information.Also, the Directorate of Broadcasting, formerly a subsection of that Department, will be shifted into the Department of Communications.As for Malaysia, although there are serious problems about press freedom, especially in the case of Anwar Ibrahim, the government has partly assured the public freedom of speech on the Internet.It also elevated the importance of the Ministry of Communications over that of the Ministry of Information.I will identify and explain recent trends in telecommunications and broadcasting in the political economy of these two countries.

View full abstract

In the last two decades, in the United States, over-the-air television has faced increasing competition from new delivery systems.Since the mid-70s, cable television has grown rapidly, led by HBO's pioneering use of domestic satellites and Ted Turner's superstation WTBS.In 1994, Hughes launched the digital DBS service, DirecTV, and its success sufficiently threatened both TV broadcasters and cable operators.The author focuses in this articie on the various forces that could bring critical changes to the conventional system of the US TV industry.

View full abstract

Looking back on the development of mass media to date, technological inovations have led to the appearance of new media and to changes in the media order.Changes in the media order till today have shown three main trends entangled each other.The first is an increase in the variety of media and the number of information channnels.The second is progress in the convergence of functions between different media.And the third is the development of media concentration and monopoly.The increse in the variety of media and the number of information channels, as well as the convergence of functions, has been promoted by the introduction of liberal and open media policies through political changes which have allowed the active adoption of new technologies.Concentration and monopoly seem to be in opposition to the increase in the number of media and information channels.However, concentration and monopoly are also products of liberal media policies.

View full abstract

This Paper explores the development processes of new media practice and new media culture in East Asian region.First, KIM chooses and describes Korean "PC Bang(PC room)"phenomenon emerged from grass-root youth popular culture.Putting a framework of the negotiation process among policy maker, media industry, media professionals, and media audience, he analyzes the muti-dimentional dynamics of the formation of "PC Bang"sphere.Second, LIU reviews online activities among over-seas Chinese in Australia.She studies 4 websites in detail at the Chinese communities of Sydney and points out the emerging process of new online ethnic communities.In conclusion, MIZUKOSHI considers Japanese new media culture referring to above two examples and points out the importance cultural diversity and of "peripheral imagination"in the process of media practice and its cultural development.

View full abstract

One nagging problem for news theory in mass-communication studies is how to convincingly link one influential factor to another.In this paper, I examine frame-building-process studies to address this problem.Tuchman's work on the news-production process has been cited as a conceptualizing media frame.But "news as frame"used by her suggests "a frame of a window"that consists of several routine procedures.This is not the meaning of "frame"that postulated by frame-building-process studies.Gitlin provides a good account of this linkage problem, using the theory of hegemony.According to him, news production in modern capitalism is a hegemonic process in which larger-scale social conflict is imported, reproduced through the routinized strategy of neutralization and "radical"oppositional movement is openly suppressed.This is the basic mechanism of frame building.Furthermore, he argues that reporters "consciously"modify their own audience image, news sense, and world view when they are pulled into cognitive world generated by their source's world view.This congnitive vulnerability on flexibility of journalisto is a clue for understanding the transformation of the media frame.In conclusion, his excellent frame-building theory suggests that future study of news theory needs the logic of synthesization.

View full abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of digitization on news content.I will take a close look at the case of the newspaper industry.The newspaper companies need to develop a new corporate strategy in response to the emergence of the Net economy.It seems likely that newspaper companies will accelerate their efforts into the 21st century in an effort to seek out new opportunities for further development by becoming more efficient.In this article, it will be shown that the willingness to solidify the relationship with newspaper readers is the key to solving all of the electronic media's problems.

View full abstract

The Commission on Freedom of the Press published its report, entitled A Free and Responsible Press, in 1947.The report was highly critical of the way in which the press exercised its freedom and urged, among other things, that public rights prevail over private rights in construing freedom of the press and that government should help create a model for the private press.This report, later developed as the social responsibility theory of the press, became a staple in postwar media studies around the globe.This essay reviews its plausibility in the contemporary media environment after it surveys the analyses and critiques of the report in the past.

View full abstract

This study investigates how the governmental authorities controlled the newapapers published in Japanese American camps during World War II.At the temporary assembly camps, the military authorities imposed strict censorship on evacuee newspapers.After Japanese Americans moved into more permanent relocation camps, the civilian War Relocation Authority(WRA)allowed "free"newspaper publishing without censorship.However, the WRA retained an authority to "supervise"newspapers.After examining the military censorship and conditions of newspaper publishing in the earliest phase of mass encampment, this article probes in detail how the WRA planned and documented the free under-supervision press policy.

View full abstract

The New York Times has been under the control of the Oches and Sulzbergers since 1896.What all the publishers have in common is their belief that the main mission of the paper is to report the news without fear or favor.But The Times introduced a signed column in 1933 and the Op-Ed page in 1970.We analyze the role of this opinion page and contend that the Op-Ed page is an attempt to adapt to the diversification of American politics and society at its best.

View full abstract

Market-oriented economic reform in China reaches every aspect of the society.Television, which had relied entirely on government funding, now has to use new sources of revenue in order to survive and make a profit.This paper attempts to shed light on the development of television by analyzing the relationship between modernization and the mass media.To achive this aim, we concentrate on the television stations' advertising activity.Specifically, we examine the advertising auction of Chinese Central Television.From our analysis, we conclude that the advertising activity does promote the process of the industrialization of television in China.

View full abstract

This study investigated interpersonal relationships in computer-mediated communication.A closed computer-mediated communication space was introduced experimentally and 26 participants, including members who were unacquainted with one another, communicated only there.After 5 months they met one another and they could communicate through other communication channels, including face-to-face communication.The results showed that (1)differences in the amount of knowledge about other participants made communication patterns different, (2)an increase in communication channels led to a decrease in the number of participants' remarks and responses, and (3)the patterns of changes differed according to their knowledge about other participants.

View full abstract