Media Asia Vol. 33, 2006 1-2

VOLUME 33

MICA (P) No: 276/06/2005 ISSN 0129–6612

NUMBERS 1 & 2

2006

Media Asia

an Asian Mass Communication Quarterly Editor-in-Chief Indrajit Banerjee Associate Editor Stephen Logan Editorial Advisory Committee Alan Knight Ang Peng Hwa Anuradha Rajivan Daya Thussu Gaëtan Tremblay George Thottam Georgette Wang Hu Zhengrong Javed Jabbar John Lent Srivinas Melkote

MEDIA ASIA is published quarterly by the Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC), and the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University (WKWSCI–NTU). The opinions expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect the views of AMIC, WKWSCI–NTU or of the organizations with which they are associated. For correspondence: AMIC, Jurong Point PO Box 360 Singapore 916412 Tel: (65) 67927570 Fax: (65) 67927129 Subscriptions: [email protected] Submissions: [email protected] Website: http://www.amic.org.sg Subscription • Singapore & Malaysia: S$50.00 • Rest of Asia (except Japan): S$60.00 • Rest of the world & Japan: US$60.00

Big Stick, Soft Touch; Big Stick, Hard Ball: Variations in Political Internet Censorship Tan Tarn How and Arun Mahizhnan ......................................................... 3 From Codes to Corporations: Journalism’s Missing Link Ian Richards ................................................................................................. 10 The First Five Years of the Hong Kong Press Council: A Case Study of the Desirability and Feasibility of Media Self-Regulation Yan Mei Ning ................................................................................................ 13 Exporting the Nation: Singapore International Co-productions and National Cinema Ling Chua-Yen and Pieter Aquilia ............................................................. 23 Emerging ICT and Challenges for Education Daniel Churchill ........................................................................................... 28 The Role of the Mass Media in the Formation of a Rally-based Pro-democracy Movement in Hong Kong Francis L. F. Lee and Joseph M. Chan ...................................................... 33 Covering Disasters and the Media Mandate: The 2004 Tsunami Alan Knight .................................................................................................. 47 Cultural Industries on the Global Stage: The Evolution of a Global Discourse, Its Key Players and Its Impact in the Asian Region Jan Quarles ................................................................................................... 58 The Analysis of News, the Culture of Celebrity and the Concept of Vortextuality Garry Whannel ............................................................................................ 65 The Peaceful Path of Jihad: Nasyid Revolution in South East Asia Kalinga Seneviratne ..................................................................................... 72 Insights on the Education Needs of Aspiring Advertising Professionals Katherine Frith and James Chen ............................................................... 79 Voices for Change: Media Literacy and a Case Study on Designing of Opportunities for Learning Internet Radio in Malaysia Shanthi Balraj and Khoo Seok Wah .......................................................... 87 Traditional Culture and Avant-Garde Cartoons in China HongYing Liu and Alfonz Lengyel ............................................................. 99 In Search of Cultural Resemblances: The Consequences of Media Consumption Among Young Adults in Malaysia Latiffah Pawanteh ...................................................................................... 103 Issues and Challenges for Media and Education in Asia Usha Vyasulu Reddi ................................................................................... 112 Channel News Asia’s Position, Strategy and Vision in the Global Media Marketplace: An Interview with Woon Tai Ho, CEO of Channel News Asia Sim Soek-Fang ............................................................................................ 116 FEATURES Editorial ......................................................................................................... 2 Viewpoint: Journalism Training in Vietnam Richard Shafer ............................................................................................. 21

EDITORIAL It is my pleasure to welcome you to this, the first of two special, double issues of Media Asia. As I mentioned in my previous editorial, the release of this special issue (Vol. 33 No. 1 & 2) and the next (Vol. 33 No. 3 & 4) allows Media Asia to catch up with its delayed schedule. I am happy now to announce that the journal’s publishing cycle is back on track. The theme of this issue is “Media and Society in Asia: Transformations and Transitions”. The issue draws on some of the best papers presented at the 14th AMIC Annual Conference, held in Beijing in July 2005. The Beijing conference was significant for a number of reasons: the event was extended to a four-day format, it convened the inaugural Distinguished Forum, and hosted the launch of UNDP’s regional Human Development Report. Featured here are papers dealing with culture, media education, regulation and, of course, journalism. Three papers deal with media regulation. Francis L. F. Lee and Joseph M. Chan analyse the media’s role in the 2003 pro-democracy movements that saw half a million people take to the streets of Hong Kong to protest against the proposed national security legislation. Mei Ning Yan presents a case study on media self-regulation with a look at the first five years of operation of the Hong Kong Press Council. Tan Tarn How and Arun Mahizhnan take a broad look at the effectiveness of political censorship of the Internet. On journalism, Ian Richards looks at the conflicts journalists face between codes of ethics and the pressures of the publishing marketplace. Alan Knight examines the roles played by the media of different nations in covering the 2004 Asian tsunami and asks questions about the relevance and influence of national priorities and the different needs of catering to national, regional and international markets. Garry Whannel presents his definition of “Vortextuality”,

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the concept he applies to an intense focus by the media on a single event. Richard Shafer’s Viewpoint piece recounts some of his experiences as an American journalist teaching journalism in Vietnam. For media and education, Usha Vyasulu Reddi’s paper explores some of the broad issues and challenges facing media education in Asia today. Katherine Frith and James Chen look at the specific education needs of the advertising industry in Singapore and address the extent to which the educational institutions are meeting these needs. Daniel Churchill’s paper presents the theory that emerging ICTs not only change our relations with the world and how we do things, but that they also change how we think and act to develop our cognitive capacity. Shanthi Balraj and Khoo Seok Wah present a case study of the Universiti Sains Malaysia Radio Project to demonstrate the importance of developing media literacy and skills among young Malaysians. On culture, HongYing Liu and Alfonz Lengyel trace what they see as the decline of traditional culture witnessed in avant-garde cartoons in China and Latiffah Pawanteh presents a study on the cultural impact of TV on young adult Malaysians. For the cultural industries, Kalinga Seneviratne documents the emergence of Nasyid, a popular form of music being employed to promote Islamic values, into the mainstream music industry. Ling Chua-Yen and Pieter Aquilia examine the prospects for further development of the Singapore film industry through co-productions with other nations, as well as highlighting the danger of diluting the presentation of its own national identity. Seok-Fang Sim presents an important interview with the CEO of Channel NewsAsia (CNA), Woon Tai Ho, on the positioning of CNA in the global marketplace. And Jan Quarles looks at the global trade in cultural industries, with a focus on the “Big Five” trading nations.

Big Stick, Soft Touch; Big Stick, Hard Ball Variations in Political Internet Censorship

This paper examines the arguments usually advanced for claiming that political censorship of the Internet will or will not work. It looks at real-life examples of censorship in some countries. Our tentative judgment is that, as of now, government control is not as effective as authoritarian states would like them to be; nor are they as liberal as the evangelists of liberating technologies hoped. As to the future, the jury is still out—it is still not certain whether the censor or the censored will have the upper hand. As public domain Internet is still in its teens, scholars should pause before rushing to conclusions.

TAN TARN HOW AND ARUN MAHIZHNAN

The cat-and-mouse question Since the rise of the Internet in the public domain from the mid 1990s, governments have always sought to control this continually evolving medium. The motivations for censorship and regulation have been, at times, economic (such as against spam and financially motivated crime), social (such as against suicide-related, pornographic and Nazi websites) and political (such as anti-government, anti-ruling party websites). Political censorship and regulation1 may, first, be justified by the authorities using “national security”, whether or not these justifications are legitimate, accepted, believed or publicly stated. Secondly, they may be driven by political survival, though such motivations are often dressed in other clothes as if to benefit the common good. Because censorship by the powers-that-be for the purpose of self-preservation would be politically unsustainable or at least costly, many governments justify their curbs on the Internet with reasons that are the very opposite of what many reasonable people believe are the real reasons. Japan and Singapore, for example, which have a widely open Internet environment proscribe certain forms of election campaigning on the Internet. The reasons given for the controls are couched in “pro-democratic” and “fair play” terms. But they are widely seen as anti-democratic and unfair by those not in power. Of course, some governments do not even bother to offer explanations for stemming the free flow of information, and their censorship actions are only apparent when surfing. Indeed, some even aim to provide a smooth but censored surfing experience, say, by not showing banned

Tan Tarn How is Senior Research Fellow and Arun Mahizhnan is Deputy Director at the Institute of Policy Studies, Singapore.

links in search engine results. In this kind of surreptitious censorship, the governments are abetted by willing and compliant corporations whose eyes are on the commercial ball. Google, working “for” and with China, does this with its search engine in China, for instance. Microsoft bans certain keywords on its China blog service. Before we jump to any conclusion that only China imposes such draconian conditions, let us remember what the Europeans had demanded and gotten from Microsoft and Yahoo. Money talks everywhere and pretty much the same language. Other countries, such as Saudi Arabia, take the opposite tack, openly declaring their censorship and even enlisting the help of citizens by inviting them to suggest content to censor. In any case, it is clear from the various practices that a cat-and-mouse game has developed between censors and the censored. This paper examines the censorability of the Internet both in theory and in practice. Specifically, it asks: Can political censorship of the Internet work? What are the arguments either way? And what is the evidence that censorship works—or does not work?

Net difference: The nature of the beast The case for the uncensorability of the Internet are based on several arguments. 1. The “new media is different” argument where traditional media is different from new media. The differences extend from their infrastructure to their very nature. First, there is the view that the Net’s distributed and democratic infrastructure makes it hard to exercise control. Then, there is the position that “bits” which carry information are different from physical media and hence cannot be scrutinized or blocked.2 In this view, 3

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the Internet is more porous in allowing material across barriers such as geography, perhaps even differently porous in a qualitative sense, than physical media. Secondly, there is the position that new media is more interactive, allowing end-users to seek information from non-authorized and non-traditional sources, and try to get round censorship barriers3. Thirdly, thanks to the Internet, there is now a multiplicity of sources of information beyond the control of any single government. These sources, though varying in their credibility and impact, are readily available to the persevering seeker. 2. The “mouse is too nimble” argument where the technology is constantly evolving and the Internet will find new ways of getting round government roadblocks. In other words, censors can only play catch up but can never catch the mouse once and for all. 3. The “resource drain” argument where censorship requires too much time, effort and money, and governments will not be able to or will not want to deploy the necessary resources. 4. The “Internet is about freedom” argument where the Internet is founded on freedom and few—whether individuals, organizations or corporations—will cooperate with repressive regimes. The following sections look at each of these arguments in turn.

New media, old media—same media? The most active censors of the political Internet are also the countries that have a tight grip on their traditional media. They have gone about proscribing the new media in a way which suggests a belief that it can be done with as much effect, if not always in the same manner, as for the old media. Their success in controlling the traditional media has probably encouraged them to do the same in the virtual world. Old media controls Control of the traditional media, that is broadcast and print, is achieved by two means: licensing and influence. A licensing system requires that operators of broadcast and print media get approval before they conduct their business. Licensing in effect allows governments to shut out or shut down non-compliant media publications or stations.4 Besides licensing, governments also put pressure on the media to comply via the softer means of influence. This can extend from appointing the right people in the right places, from the boardroom to the newsroom, to the co-option of journalists into the establishment, control of access to information to approved reporters, to surveillance and intimidation and even advertising patronage.5 Governments have also tried to prevent their citizens from accessing foreign traditional media. Traditional media has to cross borders. The first method is stopping material physically, such as banning the import of 4

publications or interfering with the material, such as by jamming radio signals. The second method is outright ban of certain carriers of content. For example, some countries ban satellite dishes altogether. The third method is filtration at micro-level, allowing certain publications or programmes to enter but censoring specific portions of it. Governments can, for instance, blank out certain segments of television programmes or black out certain pages in a news magazine. New media controls Authoritarian governments’ success in muzzling the traditional media has encouraged them to use the same tactics against new media such as the Internet. A small number have opted for the most extreme and effective means by banning the new media entirely or putting extremely tight limits to access. But, most of the countries which want to control the Internet also see an indispensable economic and even political value to having their citizens connected. Their aim is to have their cake and eat it. As with the traditional media, governments have used licensing as one form of control of the new media. For example, access providers such as Internet service providers or Internet cafes can be licensed. Infrastructure providers, such as wireless and wired connections, can also be licensed. Content providers, from news websites to individual bloggers, can also be licensed. Filtering has also been tried. This essentially is a mechanism where certain websites or certain pages of websites are blocked. Most filtering systems use a “blacklist” of sites to which access is denied. China, in particular, has also tried another form of filtering by sifting links thrown by search engines so that the user only sees links to approved sites. Governments have also tried to influence Internet media operators. Most notable is China’s success in getting Google, Microsoft and Yahoo to adapt their products to the China market for the purposes of censorship.

New media different? Even where governments use the same tactics to censor both traditional and new media, the extent of success depends on the nature of media processes. For example, content origination to consumption involves a four-step process: content generation, content reproduction, content dissemination and content reception. However, the way these four steps are carried out in the context of the traditional media and the new media vary greatly. There are also differences in the number of players (companies or individual consumers) at each step and the way the players are linked to one another. We will look at the processes and the network of linkages for the traditional media and then those for the new media. Traditional media networks In traditional media, there is first only a small number of publishers and broadcasters—the content generators. This

BIG STICK, SOFT TOUCH; BIG STICK, HARD BALL: VARIATIONS IN POLITICAL INTERNET CENSORSHIP

is true even in liberal democracies, where the number of publishers and broadcasts are relatively few. It is even more so in countries where licensing is used as a form of political control. These few content generators feed their content to the reproducers, which are usually in-house. Second, traditional media is also characterized by having a small number of content reproducers. For the print media, these are the printers of newspapers. In broadcasting though, this is a minor function and hence is done in-house as part of the process of content generation when tapes are copied. The few reproducers hand their products to the disseminators. Third, traditional media is a characterized by the small number of content disseminators. Distributors who bring newspapers to newsstands or deliver them directly to subscribers are few in number. Broadcast stations which beam out television or radio signals are also small in number and so are the number of cable television providers. The few disseminators distribute their products to their many customers who are the consumer. Fourth, broadcast media content reception equipment such as satellite dishes and televisions are needed to receive and view the content. The providers of these equipment can be easily regulated because there are limited, if not few, providers. Traditional media, therefore, involves few players. Furthermore, the links from content producer to consumer are largely in one direction. There is also no link between the consumers. New media networks New media networks are more complex. First, there are many more content generators on the Internet than in traditional media. News organizations’ websites and special interest websites such as advocacy groups as well as blogs are also more plentiful than their traditional counterparts. Second, the Internet is a medium where it is easy to reproduce or copy content. Every computer is a built-in virtual photocopier and a virtual fax machine combined. Content reproduction can be as simple as referencing a page via a link, sending the actual contents via e-mail or newsgroups or mirroring (that is, replicating) content on another computer. New technologies, such as peer-to-peer and friend-to-friend file-sharing capabilities of Kazaa, Gnutella, Freenet, Darknet, Frost and BitTorrent also allow a kind of distributed replication. Furthermore, file-sharing technologies facilitate the circumvention of censorship as they often protect the privacy of the file sharers6 and make the copies of content hard to track down. Third, dissemination on the Internet is carried on data pipes which are relatively few in number, similar to the distribution of programmes on cable television. Although anyone can be a creator of content, that content must be channelled through licensed data carriers. Hence, dissemination is similar to that in traditional media. Fourth, reception equipment for the Internet—computers and communication devices such as modems—is widely and easily available because they have economic value as a communication tool. If governments want to reap the

non-political benefits of the Internet, they will have to allow people to have the equipment to access it. But, this automatically enables people to try to use it for political purposes or to access information considered political. Thus, in contrast to traditional media, new media is characterized by many players at each stage, bi-directional links between players in each step of the process, and also links between consumers. Direction of information flows: Interactivity As mentioned above, information in traditional media flows overwhelmingly in one direction from content generator to end-user; this is not so in the new media. This is a consequence of technology: It is much easier to respond to the source of information on the Internet than to a newspaper or a television station. Indeed, the Internet encourages such interactivity. The one-way flow is also a consequence of the perceptions about what constitutes “usable” news. In traditional media, usable news is that which is aggregated, packaged and distributed by journalists, who theoretically need to operate by standards such as objectivity, reliability and independence. End-users then decide the extent to which the journalists and their newspapers live up to these standards. In the new media, such standards need not apply at all, even if end-users also often have to make decisions about how they apply to the source of the news. Anyone can become a source of usable news. Traditional media is thus a “push” technology. The Internet also works as a push technology but, additionally, its interactivity is manifested in its “pull” capabilities. This means that people can ask for the information they want instead of being passive recipients of what others push out. Real versus virtual nature Traditional print media is physical, existing on paper. Traditional broadcast media, whether carried over air or cable, is electronic but temporal, disappearing with the radio waves that carries it, like the passing scenery in a moving train. Of course, broadcast content can be converted into physical, non-temporal form by taping it onto a video or cassette tape, or burning it into a CD or VCD. In contrast, the new media is both virtual and nontemporal. It is less bound by physical and temporal constraints but this is not entirely so. The need, for instance, to be carried on wire is a physical constraint; even “wireless” Internet is only wireless at the end-user end of the flow of data. Streaming media also shares the same temporal limitations as broadcast media. The virtuality of the Internet—that it exists as “bits”— does not mean that it is not in some sense physical or that it cannot be controlled. Bits and strings of bits carry information and can thus be identified and discriminated. Even encrypted bits can be identified as such and be stopped by the censor. The virtuality of the Internet does not necessarily imply that it is a-geographic, operates without borders or that borders cannot be imposed. Radio, for example, also operates on non-physical electromagnetic signals but governments can easily jam extraterritorial stations even 5

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if they cannot switch off the source. Similarly, the way in which Internet connects nations via pipelines means that governments can cut that pipeline or scrutinize what flows within.

Models of control It is evident from the above discussion that the Net and other new technologies present a considerably bigger challenge to political censors than traditional media. Different governments have chosen different models of control.

Mouse too nimble? The Internet is still evolving in ways that traditional media is not. The innovations are both functional and technological, resulting in new ways in which people use the new media and what they use it for. File sharing, podcasting, blogging, social bookmarking, RSS feeds and wikis are among the innovations in the Internet alone. Mobile telephony and mobile Internet will continue to evolve quickly. There are and will continue to be more and newer ways of getting and sharing information. Furthermore, users are also able to invent new ways of using existing technology to get round barriers. For instance, they are able to get round keyword-based content filters by using proxy words, much in the same way spammers have kept ahead of the game by spelling Viagr@, Vi-gra or Via-gra.

Too much resource needed? The number of Internet users continues to rise and so does the amount of information they retrieve and send. Censoring the Internet takes resources, both human and infrastructural, because of the large volume of traffic and population of users. There is also the threat of degradation of performance. Screening every activity may lead to a slowdown in speed of access, for instance. Furthermore, as new technologies which help to get around censors emerge, censors must work to block the new routes. No one knows for sure how many people are involved in the China or Saudi Arabia Internet enterprise, but some estimates put it as high as tens of thousands of people in the former.7

It’s about freedom? That the Internet is founded on freedom has been shown to be a myth but, nevertheless, that narrative has a certain frontier appeal for many. More importantly, the credo has spurred actions aimed at subverting censorship measures.8 Hence, pro-freedom innovators continue to fight censorship by developing new technologies such as Freenet, Darknet and Frost, allowing anonymous communication and also fragmented distribution of information across many computers. Others have used existing technologies to help the censored get round restrictions. For example, when China made it compulsory for non-profit websites to register and for website owners to give their real personal information, a “adopt a Chinese blog” initiative urging users elsewhere to host Chinese blogs was launched.9 Other initiatives also allow users to request Web pages via e-mail instead of having to visit a website, which may be banned.

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Targeted control This is the model pursued by countries such as Singapore and Japan. The measures tend to be specific to the areas of application. For instance, Japan and Singapore both restrict electioneering on the Internet during an election. The frequency and rigorousness of deployment of regulations may also not be high. In Singapore, for example, provisions allowing the government to ask certain websites to register as “political” websites has not been widely exercised, and indeed has been used only three times.10 Singapore’s case is worth discussing more extensively because of its success in promoting the Internet while continuing to exercise a high degree of political control. What is perhaps the most significant point is that much of the political control actually stems from outside of the Internet. Even before the advent of the Internet, Singapore had become a highly depoliticized society where the zeal for politics had largely been depleted and where political activism (especially when it is well-organized by the residually and stubbornly politicized minority) had become unrewarding. In other words, the government does not seem to fear knowledge so much as organization and zeal, particularly when the two come together. So far, however, the Internet by itself has not affected the zeal; it has failed to politicize an apolitical population. The Internet is a tool, which means that someone has to use it. It is the Internet’s potential as an organizing and mobilizing tool that the government is wary of. But the few-to-few nature of many Internet networks does not serve as a threat to the dominance of incumbent political power holders. Indeed, some see the Internet as a valve for letting off steam for the minority who care about politics and as a consolidator rather than a destroyer of authoritarianism. The strategy is to let the most grassroots type of Internet activity exist11 but to crack down on the few sites—or more effectively, on the people behind them—which gain organizational momentum and become a force to reckon with.12 Secondly, relationships between users of the Internet appear to be a form of network called “small-world” and “scale-free”. “Small-world” networks means that it takes relatively few steps to link one person on the network to any other person. This small-world nature of the network makes it very easy and fast to spread information.13 It has a viral—or chain reaction—nature. It is this capability of the Internet that appears to worry Singapore authorities as information can then take a life of its own. This has been demonstrated in the people’s revolutions in the Philippines, where SMS and text messages were a key instrument in organizing people. More recent is the central role played by the new technology—mobile text messages (SMS),

BIG STICK, SOFT TOUCH; BIG STICK, HARD BALL: VARIATIONS IN POLITICAL INTERNET CENSORSHIP

instant messaging, emails, bulletin boards and blogs—in the anti-Japanese bashing by Chinese activists earlier this year. The weakness of Internet networks is that it is “scalefree”14. In other words, not everyone is linked to everyone else. There are some “hubs”, people who are linked to many people. Most people are not hubs though and are linked to few people. Thus, a network can easily be disrupted by censors by targeting the hubs. This, of course, does not include the new hubs springing up over time to “repair” the damage. The strategy of the Singapore government is two-fold. First, try to control the hubs through licensing. Second, put in place measures against chain-reaction effects during the elections when possession of information can result in voter behaviour. Because of its control over the traditional media, which enjoys extensive reach and high levels of trust, the government believes it can finally win the argument against its opponents and critics. The only time when it does not have the luxury of time is during elections when hustings are compressed into a short time. Singapore’s Internet regulatory approach has been characterized by itself15 and others as “soft touch” as opposed to “heavy-handed”. But that is only half right and explains why Singapore is constantly cited in the same breath with other authoritarian regimes as an avid censor. The problem with the “soft touch” characterization is that it implies a relatively hands-off approach to Internet regulation. In truth, though, Singapore has been quick and enthusiastic in putting into place laws which control the Internet. The soft touch is in the enforcement of these laws, though the most obvious political targets have not been spared. The more accurate description of Singapore-style regulation would be “big stick, soft touch”; it has enacted tough laws that can be resorted to at will, even if they have not been rigorously deployed16. Switching off the Net Some countries disallow or severely restrict Internet usage, including Myanmar and North Korea. They have decided that they do not need the Internet that much or that the pros of having it on a large scale is over-ridden by the cons. Wide and active control The third set of countries— China and Saudi Arabia—allow and even encourage usage but restrict access to certain content. Saudi Arabia has a very rigorous censorship regime, with filters blocking even matters such as women’s rights issues because they are politically sensitive. But, interestingly, it also enlists the help of citizens by asking them to suggest content to block. But, one of the most avid and inventive political censors of the Internet now is undoubtedly China. Unlike Saudi Arabia and most other countries, much of China’s censorship measures are backroom affairs rather than public activities. The rules of censorship and the ways in which it censors

are constantly changing and often not made public. It uses the whole arsenal of tools: blocking, filtering, licensing, rigorous enforcement through prosecution and detention of those who break its rules. It is a “big stick, hard ball” strategy.

Discussion: Who wins? China and Saudi Arabia show that governments who want to censor the Net can block many sites and filter a great deal of content. This is because both are able to surmount the four following obstacles to censorship. 1. New media is different. It is certainly true that the large number of players involved in most steps of the process from generating to receiving content makes the Internet somewhat harder to control. So does its interactivity and its virtuality. But, for now at least, the Internet still shares one major weakness with traditional media in that it is carried across data pipes whose contents can be inspected and stopped at the borders or at the gates of (compulsorily licensed) Internet providers. For encrypted content, censors can employ the crude but effective method of not allowing any such information through. 2. Emerging technologies. The greatest challenge to censors is new technologies created specifically to protect freedom of expression, such as Freenet. It remains to be seen if these can be curbed and if they will become easy enough to be used by the non-technical user. Censors would be less deterred to completely take down those products and services of the Internet within or crossing their borders if doing so has little economic or other side effects. Censors have also improved their own censoring technology.17 3. Resource drain. Censorship can be resource intensive. That is why some countries, such as Singapore, are very focused in their efforts. But, countries which fear the consequences of opening up are willing to pour in the resources needed, just like authoritarian regimes now and in earlier times felt impelled to erect huge police state apparatuses for the sake of political survival. This is the route that China and Saudi Arabia have taken, and evidently they think it is a price worth paying. 4. Internet is about freedom. Defenders of freedom of expression and information have volunteered in the fight against repression. But, equally, there are people who are on the other side of the divide, ranging from those whose work it is to be censors to whistle-blowers. Companies are more than willing to cooperate in the interests of their bottom line. These companies include both providers of filtering software and search engines.18 And where the censor has sufficient economic clout, as is the case with China, then even the most well-heeled companies are happy to collaborate in the censorship enterprise. So far, there has been no backlash against companies such as Microsoft, Yahoo and Google for helping China censor the Net. While, no doubt, much is censored, it is not clear how

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much information gets through despite the efforts of the censorship regimes as in China and Saudi Arabia. No study seems to have been made about the leakiness of the system to date. On the other hand, it is also not clear how widespread is the hunger for the censored information. Much study is needed to understand the effect of self-censorship, both in providing information and looking for information.19 Thus, several general conclusions could be made about the current state of political censorship of the Internet. First, the patterns of censorship vary from country to country because different environments demand different government responses. Second, governments determined to control the Internet continue to deploy as much resources as they could muster. Third, freedom seekers continue to undermine or circumvent as much of the government control as they possibly could, within limited resources available to them. Fourth, while much information has been controlled or regulated, no government has managed to control the Internet completely or even near as much as they had done with the traditional media. Fifth, no amount of liberal force has been able to keep any national system completely free. Thus, the tensions between the censor and the censored continues unabated as in the era of the traditional media though it might be reasonably said that the balance has tilted more in favour of the censored in the era of the new media. Whether this tilt will go all the way down or the other way up in the future remains to be seen. Finally, it should be pointed out that the popular use of Internet is only about a decade-and-a-half old and it is far too early to say which way the medium is going and if censors can keep abreast. Under the circumstances, it is prudent for communication scholars to hold their judgment till an opportune time comes up for a more definitive assessment.

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Notes 1.

Though sometimes used interchangeably in this paper, “regulation” strictly refers to governments directives in general, while “censorship” refers to those regulations that seeks to deny access to materials. This is the essence of Nicholas Negroponte’s (Wired, magazine, Issue 2, dated 9 September 1994) famous remark: “Bits don’t wait in customs; they flow freely across borders. Just try stopping them.” “Censorship devised for application to physical material will be rendered powerless when applied to the new digital products.” Stephen Yeo Siew Chye and Arun Mahizhnan, Developing an intelligent island: Dilemmas of censorship, in Arun Mahizhnan and Lee Tsao Yuan (Eds.), Singapore: Re-engineering Success. But it must be noted that not all licensing laws are aimed at censorship. Scarce resources such as broadcasting frequencies dictate the use of licensing as regulation. Newspapers, however, are not subject to this scarce-resource limitation. Also, licensing is not common to all countries. For example: “Although journalists do not often face

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11. 12. 13.

violence in South Korea, there are times when there is considerable pressure on journalists and media organizations to conform to certain views and perspectives on contentious subjects … As a result, the government’s claim that press freedom exists in South Korea is often divorced from the actual reality of the situation. There is tremendous pressure to conform in South Korea and this impedes the free flow of information and the right of journalists to practice free of intimidation or harassment.” See International Press Institute website http://www. freemedia.at/wpfr/Asia/southkor.htm. Also: “Certain newspapers enjoy a regular stream of telecommunication advertisements and those from state enterprises. With economic survival and profit as the top priority, the media has failed to perform their role as watchdog. Instead, they are more willing to follow the news agenda set by the government and its spin doctors.” Thailand— http://www.freemedia.at/wpfr/Asia/thailand. htm Link to http://dessent.net/btfaq/ According to the BBC, which is almost completely blocked within the “great firewall of China” (as it is known among techies), 50,000 Chinese officials “do nothing but monitor traffic on the Internet”. In December 1993, talking to Time magazine, technologist and civil libertarian John Gilmore created one of the first verses in Internet lore: “The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.” See http://projab.jot.com/WikiHome. China first took action against Blogger’s free Blogspot hosting service in January 2003 by blocking that site. That block is still in place today. In March 2004, it also blocked Typepad blogs but, for unknown reasons, removed it in January 2005. The sites are Sintercom, Think Centre’s website and Fateha. The founder of Sintercom, which has original content such as letters rejected by newspapers and an online forum, closed down the site in 2001 after being asked by the government to register as a “political website”. He had been asked to provide information such as his salary, employer’s name and particulars, and to sign an undertaking that he would be fully responsible for all Sintercom content. Ironically, in 1996, he had asked for and received an exemption when the new rules on political websites were first put in place. Shortly after he closed it down, New Sintercom was started by an anonymous person, with much the same content as its predecessor. Think Centre, an activist group, registered its site following the order to do so but took down its online forum as they would be held responsible for the content on it. Fateha, a Muslim site with forum and news, refused to register, according to its founder. A fuller account of negotiations is given in Zulfikar Mohamad Shariff (2004), Fateha.com: Challenging control over Malay/Muslim voices in Singapore, in Steven Gan, James Gomez and Uwe Johannen (Eds.), Asian cyberactivism: Freedom of expression and media censorship. No action was taken against it. Though coercive actions are far and few in between, it is evident that the level of monitoring is high. Hence the difference in treatment between newsintercom. org and fateha.com. The original work on small-world networks was done by Stanley Milgram (May 1967), The small world problem, Psychology Today, pp 60–67. His studies have found that

BIG STICK, SOFT TOUCH; BIG STICK, HARD BALL: VARIATIONS IN POLITICAL INTERNET CENSORSHIP

14.

15.

16.

an average of six “degrees of separation” linked any person to any other person in this type of network. That means, if a person sends out an email to all his contacts, then all these contacts forward it to all their contacts and so on, it takes just six such steps to reach almost everyone. Among the seminal works are Barabasi, Albert-Laszlo and Reka Albert (15 October 1999), Emergence of scaling in random networks. Science, 286, 509–512. Part of Singapore’s self-conceptualization as “soft touch” is the notion of what it calls “symbolic” censorship. It says it is not practical to censor pornography so it maintains a blacklist of about 100 sites with sexually explicit content which is barred. “The 100 sites we monitor are purely symbolic. You can get around them in so many ways,” acknowledged Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, the son of former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, the architect of modern Singapore. Singapore’s Minister for Information and the Arts, and Health stated last year that Singapore practises active censorship “not because censorship can ever be 100 per cent effective but because the act of censorship is itself symbolic and an affirmation … of the values we hold as a community”. What is interesting is that the blacklist has become symbolic in more ways than one and, together with its other censorship practices, has become representative of intolerance and interference. This straitlaced view of Singapore was not historically inimical to the country’s economic and other ambitions—indeed, it wore its conservatism and interventionism on its sleeve but has possibly subverted its own vision of becoming an arts and creative hub. One reason that it has not been active in enforcing the laws, such as requesting political websites to register, is partly because there are so few such sites. And the fact that no one has been prosecuted for illegal electioneering is that there are none or very few instances of transgressions in the only election, in 2001, since the laws were passed. Another is that the laws have driven the websites underground

17.

18. 19.

and overseas, so enforcement is not possible. A third is that these websites are considered fringe, so they are not centres of organization or mobilization and, according to stated censorship approaches, require less policing. Benjamin Edelman, a student fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at the Harvard Law School, said China and Saudi Arabia have made significant investment in hardware, software and human capital to censor and filter the Internet. He said he visited a government installation in Dubai which processes every single request for a Web page and then decides whether to allow it. http://www. wpfc.org/index.jsp@page=ICP%20Article%203.html He said the blocking devices have become so sophisticated that they can block individual Web pages, images and even parts of images. The censorship does not end at the World Wide Web. New internet-based technologies, which tried to lend hope to free speech when ONI filed its last report on China in 2002, are also being targeted. Although email censorship is not as rampant as many (including the Chinese themselves) believe, blogs, discussion forums and bulletin boards have all been targeted through various measures of state control. Hardware companies have also been accused but the evidence is inconclusive. Shanthi Kalathil. Kalathil, co-author of Open networks, closed regimes, said, in many countries, Internet content providers were often government-owned and therefore part of the official media. Censors lurk even in chat rooms and delete dissenting posts. There were even cases of governments physically harming Internet journalists, like the Malaysian government harassment of Malaysiakini, she said. Such actions were strategic and promote selfcensorship.

This paper was presented at the 14th AMIC Annual Conference on Media and Society in Asia: Transformations and Transition held on 18–21 July 2005 in Beijing, China.

9

From Codes to Corporations Journalism’s Missing Link

As well as revealing much about the values which journalists consider important, different journalists’ codes of ethics tell us something about the societies in which they operate. Yet, one influence on the professional lives of journalists is almost invisible in these codes, even though the implications for practitioners are just as significant as the social context. This is the economic context in which all journalists and the media organizations which employ them operate. This paper argues that, although many of the ethical dilemmas journalists face begin with the inherent conflict between the individual’s role as a journalist and his or her employer’s quest for profit, journalistic codes of ethics consistently fail to acknowledge this. It also argues that the codes leave it up to the individual journalist to resolve any ethical implications of the corporatization of journalism, even though most of the power for resolving such issues rests with senior management.

IAN RICHARDS

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hat values do journalists value most? As anyone who has worked in a newsroom will be aware, members of the public often think that the only things journalists value are sensationalism, negativity and beating the opposition. Yet, while these are not without influence, most journalists are motivated by other values. To determine what they are, it is useful to compare some of the codes of ethics which apply to journalists working in different countries around the world. When we do this, we find that one of the most striking aspects of these codes is not how much they differ but, rather, how much they have in common. Most of the codes which guide most journalists in most countries contain provisions which emphasize the over-riding importance of truth-telling, and stress the need for accuracy and fairness. Most codes refer to the need for journalistic independence and contain clauses warning journalists to avoid conflicts of interest in a range of situations, from accepting gifts and travel junkets to avoiding political involvement. The codes stress the importance of journalists maintaining the confidentiality of sources and make it clear that journalists should avoid unnecessary intrusion on the bereaved. They also warn journalists against plagiarism and advise them not to discriminate against minority groups. As well as revealing much about the values which journalists consider important, these codes tell us something about the societies in which they operate. Thus, in Australia for example, when the main journalists’ code was revised a few years ago, the following provision was included:

Ian Richards is Director of the Postgraduate Journalism Programme at the University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia.

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Aim to attribute information to its source. Where a source seeks anonymity, do not agree without first considering the source’s motives and any alternative attributable source. Where confidences are accepted, respect them in all circumstances (MEAA, 1998). This clause reflected the fact that, over the previous decade or so, there had been an extended debate about the use of such sources in Australia. Indeed, during that time several Australian journalists had gone to jail rather than reveal their confidential sources. As is the case with Australia, an analysis of the codes of other countries also reveals something about those societies. Thus, the South Korea Press ethics code has a provision dealing with reports about kidnapping while the Press Council of India code includes a section on covering communal disputes and clashes (International Journalists’ Network, 2005). The codes of many other countries reflect the special issues affecting those societies, such as social cohesion, national unity and respect for traditional customs. In short, in looking through the various journalists’ codes, one can discover much about the values that journalists regard as important and about the social context in which journalists operate in different parts of the world. Yet, there is one influence on the professional lives of journalists that is almost invisible in the codes, even though its implications for practitioners are just as significant as the social context. This is the economic context in which all journalists and the media organizations which employ them operate. While there are some references in different codes to advertising—for example, many codes advise journalists to make clear to their audience when a report is news and when it is advertising—there is almost nothing about the

FROM CODES TO CORPORATIONS: JOURNALISM’S MISSING LINK

wider economic forces at work on journalists as they go about their daily work. Yet, around the globe, more and more journalists are working for large corporations whose prime objective is to maximize profit. This has implications for the way individual journalists approach their work and thus implications for their ethical behaviour. The growing trend of corporate takeovers of newspapers, television and radio stations is not always good for the journalists who work there. The attitude of management is often ruthless, as reflected in the recent observation by a senior media executive in Australia: In terms of content, there is no doubt that the consumer is more promiscuous than ever before and that the only way to ensure that your relationship with him or her is more than a one-night stand is to make the experience compelling. If all we do is report the news fairly and accurately, we have not got a chance (O’Reilly, 1998). In practical terms, typical developments after corporate takeovers are retrenchments of journalists; declining support for more expensive approaches to news gathering such as investigative reporting; the proliferation of lighter (and cheaper) stories about lifestyle, entertainment, celebrities and so on; and greater use of material from “sister” outlets and material provided through public and corporate relations (McChesney, 1999: 58). Hand in hand with these developments, there is often greater pressure on editors and reporters to be more “reader friendly” in order to maximize ratings and circulation, which often means increasing advertising and subscription rates and reducing the amount of serious news. Such developments are not new but what appears to be different today is the extent to which this is occurring. The net effect is that, in the words of internationally acclaimed investigative journalist Carl Bernstein (1992): We do not serve our readers and viewers, we pander to them. And we condescend to them, giving them what we think they want and what we calculate will sell and boost ratings and readership (p. 25). In other words, today, the news media are not so much competing in a news market but in a market for public attention. One result of this process has been the rise of what one of Australia’s most respected journalists—The Australian newspaper’s Paul Kelly—has called “the international show business trend” (Kelly, 2001). All of these forces lead to considerable pressures on journalists and these pressures often have ethical implications. Corporate pressures strongly encourage journalists to internalize the values of the news organization which employs them and to become conditioned into particular institutional conventions. The result can be a form of timidity, meaning that certain issues or views or situations that rest uneasily with the corporate line will not be reported, exposed or aired. This often includes pressure to accommodate advertisers, as advertising is the crucial link between media organizations and profitability. Bagdikian (1997) has called advertising journalism’s “fatal

affliction” (p. 120) because journalism is often compromised by pressures not to bite the hand that feeds it as it needs advertising to survive. In most media organizations in most parts of the world, “the fiercer the battle for circulation, the greater the commercial pressures on editors to erode journalistic standards on matters of truth, accuracy and ethical acceptability” (Belsey and Chadwick, 1992: 45). Many news outlets are encouraged by their corporate owners to give the greatest priority to finding and holding audiences which possess the qualities considered most desirable by advertisers with regard to levels of disposable income, education, occupation, age and spending habits. While this might be entirely justifiable in terms of business practice and the need to maximize profit, it is much more difficult to defend on ethical grounds because there are obvious losers from such an approach—the less well-off sections of society whose information needs and wishes are understated or ignored. A wider consequence of the increasing pressure on journalists to hold readers and maintain viewers is the tendency to report events that are more dramatic than those that have been reported before. It has long been the case that most events which capture media attention for a brief period drop from media view unless a new element is added to the situation. What is different now is that this element has to be dramatic and often extremely so. Also ethically problematic is the associated phenomenon of “compassion fatigue”, which refers to the way in which readers and viewers can became emotionally impervious to the dramatic content of journalists’ reports because these reports present one extreme disaster after another, with little attention to context or explanation (Moeller, 1999: 2). Compassion fatigue means becoming so used to the spectacle of dreadful events, misery or suffering that we stop noticing them. We are bored when we see one more tortured corpse on the television screen and we are left unmoved as soon as we realize that the earthquake in Taiwan killed fewer people than the earthquake in Turkey. Compassion fatigue means being left exhausted and tired by those reports and ceasing to think that anything at all can be done to help (Tester, 2001: 13). The corporatization of the newsroom and the corresponding extension of corporate influences on journalists raises other ethical questions. Media companies have often demanded special favours because of their power over public information. The larger the media company, the greater the favours it can request and the more likely it is to have “friends” who are given preferential treatment in the news. At the same time, there can arise considerable pressure for a corporation’s media outlets to promote the operations of other sections of the corporation. All of these issues arise or are at least exacerbated through the operations of corporate media. To that extent, they raise a more fundamental question: How can media organizations provide information and analysis about the forces of corporatism when they are themselves an integral

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part of those forces? In ethical terms, there appears to be an inherent conflict of interest. All of which brings us back to the journalism codes of ethics referred to at the beginning of this paper. It is serious enough that so few of them acknowledge the impact of economic forces on journalists but, even worse, the codes invariably place the onus for ethical decision making on the individual journalist. In other words, although many of the ethical dilemmas journalists face begin with the inherent conflict between the individual’s role as a journalist and his or her employer’s quest for profit, journalistic codes of ethics leave it up to the individual journalist to resolve any ethical implications when most of the power for resolving such issues rests with senior management. These deficiencies do not mean that the existing codes of ethics are a waste of time, although there is ongoing debate as to whether codes of ethics are useful in journalism. It has been argued that codes do not guarantee good behaviour; that they are “unworkable”; that they encourage only outward compliance; and that they are “window-dressing” whose “real” purpose is to improve the public image of journalists. Against this, it is argued that codes highlight potential ethical dangers before journalists encounter them; that they publicly express the values and ideals of the profession; that they play an important symbolic role; and that they serve as a reminder to journalists and the public of the real point of journalism. Although there is no room to go into these arguments here, my view is that, while codes of ethics are far from perfect, it is infinitely preferable to have journalists working in a situation where they can be guided by such codes than a situation where such codes do not exist. However, it is vital to make these codes as relevant and effective as possible. To do this, we need to adapt and extend them so journalists are not left to struggle on their own against

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the less appealing pressures associated with the dramatic extension of the modern corporation into their working world.

References Bagdikian, B. (1997). The media monopoly (5th ed.). Boston: Beacon Press. Belsey, A., & Chadwick, R. (Eds.) (1992). Ethical issues in journalism and the media. London: Routledge. Bernstein, C. (1992, June 8). The idiot culture. The New Republic, pp. 22–28. International Journalists’ Network. (2005). Retrieved on 28 May from http://www.ijnet.org/FE_Article/CodeEthicsList. asp?UILang=1 Kelly, P. (2001). Keynote address at the Media Traditions Conference held on 13 June in the University of Central Queensland, Rockhampton. McChesney, R. (1999). Rich media, poor democracy. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance. (1999). Journalists’ code of ethics. Moeller, S. (1999). Compassion fatigue: how the media sell disease, famine, war and death. New York: Routledge. O’Reilly, C. (Guest). (1998, September 3). The Media Report [Radio Broadcast]. Australia: ABC Radio National. Transcript available at www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/ mediarpt/mstories/mr980903.htm Tester, K. (2001). Compassion, morality and the media. Buckingham: Open University Press. This paper was prepared for the 14th AMIC Annual Conference held in Beijing, China. Sections of this paper are drawn from the author’s book Quagmires and quandaries: Exploring journalism ethics, published in 2005 by University of New South Wales Press, Sydney.

The First Five Years of the Hong Kong Press Council A Case Study of the Desirability and Feasibility of Media Self-Regulation

Opinions about media self-regulation are split. Some remain enthusiastic about the idea, maintaining that it can promote both media freedom and accountability. Some, however, are rather sceptical. They regard the practice as being largely ineffective or even a sham. In Hong Kong, the recent experience of forming and operating a press council has provided further illustrations in both directions. Focusing on the concept of media self-regulation and its desirability and feasibility, this article examines the formation of the Hong Kong Press Council in 2000, and assesses its performance in the first five years.

YAN MEI NING

S

elf-regulation by the print media is controversial, with its motive and effectiveness subject to constant questioning. The Hong Kong Press Council (HKPC) is no exception. Brought into being only in 2000, the HKPC represents the concerted effort of many Hong Kong newspapers and journalist organizations to fend off a proposal to introduce a statutory press council. However, the HKPC has for the five past years faced huge doubts about its effectiveness. The threat of statutory regulation is still alive and kicking. Indeed, the self-regulation of the Hong Kong print media is in its infancy, facing an uncertain future. An empirical study of the formation of the HKPC and its performance in the first five years contributes to the debate on media self-regulation, its effectiveness and potential. This article focuses on the following two research questions. First, how effective is the HKPC? Second, can its effectiveness be enhanced, and if yes, then through what means? Several HKPC members kindly shared their candid views with the author of this article, who finds it appropriate to withhold their names.

Self-regulation: Meanings and arguments Self-regulation and state regulation are commonly perceived as opposite ends of the regulatory spectrum. State regulation is largely command and control in nature and relies heavily on legislation. In contrast, the state is not involved in the self-regulatory process, with which participation is voluntary and based on agreements. A nonstate group is formed among members of a particular sector with the responsibilities of devising common regulatory

Mei Ning Yan is Assistant Professor at the Department of Journalism in the Hong Kong Baptist University. She teaches media law and ethics, media regulation and policies, and the production of current affairs programmes.

objectives for that sector, drawing up rules and standards, and monitoring compliance (Palzer, 2003). Members of the public may be recruited to boost the self-regulatory body’s credibility and independence. This article will only examine the self-regulatory mechanism most commonly instituted by the print media— the press council. The main functions of a press council usually include the drafting of a code of ethics and the adjudication of complaints about media practices. Hence, in this article, media self-regulation refers to the drafting and enforcement of codes of practice by the media that regulate media content through a largely consensual process that incorporates a high degree of public participation and monitoring. The following discussion of self-regulation by the print media is therefore confined to aspects of content regulation and the protection of privacy in particular. The concept of media self-regulation has been around for some time. The first press council was established in Sweden in 1916 (von Dewall, 1997). The UK introduced its General Council of the Press (GCP) in 1953 (Shannon, 2001). In the US, some states followed suit in the 1960s and the National News Council (NNC) was formed in 1973. Half of the press councils in the world operate in Europe and many of them are modelled after the British version (Bertrand, 2003). Not all press councils are truly selfregulatory devices. The performance of press councils also varies greatly. Those in the Nordic countries like Sweden and Finland have fared well. Some others, including the NNC, no longer exist. In the UK, the performance of the GCP and its replacement, the Press Complaints Commission (PCC), has been subject to persistent criticism. Since the second half of the 1990s, interest in media self-regulation and research into press councils have once again gathered momentum. In the Western world, this revival of interest has been closely linked to media practices relating to Princess Diana’s death and President Clinton’s testimony to the grand jury, which caused public outcries and heated 13

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debates (Council of Europe, 1999). In Hong Kong, several incidents of disreputable media behaviour around the same period have drawn sharp criticism from various sectors (Subcommittee on Privacy, 1999). Intrusions into privacy, unethical or controversial practices by media organizations and practitioners, indecency and sensational media content have led to numerous calls for state intervention. In some Southeast Asian countries, notably the Philippines, the danger of the abuse of press power resulting from swift moves to greater press freedom has also been recognized (Balogs, 2002). Arguments for and against media self-regulation The media sector, both in Hong Kong and in other parts of the world, has fallen back on the concept of self-regulation to fend off attempts by the state to introduce statutory regulation of the print media. The argument is that selfregulation can cater for the needs of the media industry better, having the advantages of increased incentives for compliance, efficiency, flexibility and reduced cost. Some also see self-regulation as a means to a lesser role for legislation and litigation. Support for self-regulation also comes from the wider community. Indeed, self-regulation is seen by some as the most valuable form of regulating the media in society (Nordenstreng, 2002). It not only promotes media freedom but is also capable of evolving into an accountability system that protects the general public from media abuses to a limited extent, in the form of public condemnation or rectification. Media self-regulation is popularly seen as offering an ideal way of balancing media powers and responsibilities while steering clear of any pitfalls caused by the intervention of the state. Several functions of press councils have been identified (Sonninen and Laitila, 1995). Press councils protect the rights of the public by adjudicating complaints about unethical or bad journalism and by allowing the public to have some input into media performance. They can help to improve the quality of journalism and protect the media by fending off statutory regulation. Nonetheless, some journalists and media organizations show strong scepticism towards self-regulation, particularly the creation of press councils. They fear it will impose controls on journalism and constraints on media freedom (Council of Europe, 1999). Although journalists might self-regulate as individuals, critics have observed, consensus about self-regulation has always been elusive (Chadwick, 1994). Can self-regulation by the print media be effective? The most debatable aspect of self-regulation is its effectiveness. As the state is not involved in the selfregulatory process, public authority sanctions cannot be imposed. For self-regulation of the print media to succeed, two major requirements must be fulfilled: the existence of industry-wide binding codes of practice and the creation of an independent body with adequate funding to enforce the codes. Indeed, media self-regulation relies heavily on the active involvement of individual news outlets and journalists and on their desire for self-improvement. 14

Financial penalties are rare for breaches of the codes, with those handed out by the press council in Sweden being the notable exceptions. Exclusion or expulsion may be used in certain self-regulatory schemes to punish extreme cases of violation but it is doubtful what effect these measures can have on any print media outlets or journalists. In modern democracies, neither newspapers nor journalists are subject to licensing regimes. Violations of self-regulatory rules normally result in moral sanctions only, of which censure is a common form. Self-regulation is thus perceived as the operation of a “shame culture” (Belsey and Chadwick, 1995). There are also widespread doubts over the real motives of media self-regulation. Various studies of media selfregulation show that press councils usually come into being during crises, in which the print media sector faces fierce public criticism about intrusions into privacy or other unethical practices (Chadwick, 1994; Sonninen and Laitila, 1995; von Dewall, 1997; Bertrand, 2003; Leonardi, 2004). Very often, press councils are simply endeavours by the print media to stave off threats of regulatory legislation. Denis McQuail bluntly asserted that “it is no secret that self-regulation is intended to support the media” and “serve as a smokescreen behind which media organizations are free to cater for what the media market rewards” (McQuail, 2003: 290). He noted that press councils have been widely accused of being slow, inefficient and serving the interests of the press itself. Indeed, press councils are often seen as toothless. Other critics have also raised fundamental issues relating to self-regulation and press councils such as transparency, accountability, who regulates the regulator and the danger of agreeing on lowest common denominators (Ukrow, 1999). A keen supporter of press councils has noted that many press councils have either disappeared, have never acquired much influence or have generated great dissatisfaction and he concluded that press councils at their best cannot be said to play a major role in the progress of media (Bertrand, 2003). Journalism is far from being a profession and journalists are not self-employed professionals. This is yet another factor that makes self-regulation ineffective. Journalists are employees subordinate to the newspaper management and their work is governed more by market criteria than professionalism (McQuail, 2003). Indeed, critics have maintained that media freedom, in the UK and many other market economies, remains little more than a property right attached to ownership, and not a charter for editorial independence (Hanlin, 1992). It is also widely acknowledged that media proprietors do not enjoy being criticized by their employees and even less by members of the public (Bertrand, 2003). In essence, although media selfregulation seems to be an appealing compromise between the heavy-handedness of state regulation and the anarchy of market forces, reservations abound, maintaining that media councils and other self-regulatory devices often fail to live up to the claims made by their supporters. In assessing the performance of a press council, it is therefore essential to examine its legitimacy and effectiveness. Multiple factors must be considered. Some are structural such as the composition of the council, its sources of funding and

THE FIRST FIVE YEARS OF THE HONG KONG PRESS COUNCIL

the degree of independence. Others are operational, such as the transparency of its procedures and the impartiality of its adjudications. Moreover, the motives of media organizations and practitioners on the one hand and the responses and perceptions of the public on the other have to be explored. For the public, adjudications only take place after breaches of the Ethics Code have occurred, and the inadequacy of sanctions and the inability to provide compensation, among other things, also need to be examined. According to the Oxford study on media self-regulation, the history of press councils in several European countries shows that the struggle between the print media and government may resurface from time to time, thus resulting in new settlements (Leonardi, 2004). This evolutionary aspect is also worth noting when examining the possible future development of a press council.

Background to the self-regulation of the Hong Kong print media In Hong Kong, the debate about whether the print media should be self-regulated or a statutory press council should be introduced came to a head in August 1999 when the Subcommittee on Privacy of the Hong Kong Law Reform Commission (Privacy Subcommittee) published its Consultation Paper on the Regulation of Media Intrusion (Consultation Paper). The Consultation Paper claimed that some local media had abused media freedom by unwarranted intrusions into privacy, that effective press self-regulation was impossible, and that there was a pressing social need to protect members of the public, especially those without the means to resort to legal proceedings, from such intrusion. The Consultation Paper reviewed the few existing selfregulatory devices. The Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA), the major organization for frontline journalists in Hong Kong, had its own code of ethics. Its ethics committee received complaints from the public and ruled on breaches of its code. As media outlets regularly ignored findings of the ethics committee, the Consultation Paper regarded this self-regulatory mechanism as neither impartial nor effective. Meanwhile, Next Magazine was the first and only media organization in Hong Kong which had appointed a news ombudsman. Yet, the experiment was short-lived and lasted for only about one year. The publisher terminated the scheme on the grounds that less than 10 complaints were received in over a year. The Consultation Paper also noted that the idea of a press council was not totally new to the Hong Kong media. In 1985, Robin Hutcheon, the then proprietor of the South China Morning Post and the chairman of the Newspaper Society of Hong Kong, took the lead to set up a preparatory committee to form a news council. But this initiative was ill-received by the media industry. Many journalists and media outlets feared the possible dwindling of press freedom upon the 1997 handover and were generally hostile to the introduction of any new regulatory device, even in the name of self-regulation. The preparatory committee was eventually dissolved and the idea of a news council aborted.

Despite this historical setback, the Consultation Paper went ahead to recommend that a “press council for the protection of privacy” (statutory press council) be created by law. The proposed council would have wide power to regulate newspapers and magazines. It would draft and revise a press code on privacy, receive complaints about alleged breaches, initiate its own investigations, conduct conciliations, and rule on alleged breaches. Upon finding a breach of the press code, the proposed council could reprimand the newspaper that committed the breach, require it to publish an apology or correction. A maximum fine of HK$500,000 could be imposed on a newspaper found to be in serious breach of the press code for the first time. A heavy penalty of HK$1,000,000 could be imposed for subsequent breaches. Newspapers that failed to publish apologies, corrections or other matters as required would also be liable to fines. These recommendations met with severe opposition from media establishments and journalist organizations, which feared that media freedom would be in jeopardy. This was despite assurances in the Consultation Paper that the remit of the proposed body would be confined to privacy matters and not be extended to cover matters such as obscenity or taste; that the council would have a retired judge or a senior lawyer as chairman; and that it would be wholly independent of the government. According to the proposals, nonetheless, the Hong Kong government would have been able to exert a significant influence over the body. Members of the proposed council would be appointed by a three-member appointments commission, which would in turn be appointed by an “independent” person invited by the chief executive of the Hong Kong government in consultation with the press industry. Furthermore, the Consultation Paper proposed that the first secretary of the statutory press council could be seconded either from the government or from the secretariat of the Legislative Council (Legco).

Formation and operation of the Hong Kong Press Council In view of the threats that emerged in the Consultation Paper, the media sector in Hong Kong acted promptly to strengthen self-regulation. In June 2000, four journalist groups—the HKJA, the Hong Kong Federation of Journalists (HKFJ), the Hong Kong News Executives Association (NEA) and the Hong Kong Press Photographers’ Association (HKPPA)—jointly devised the Journalists’ Code of Professional Ethics (Ethics Code). In July 2000, 11 newspapers, together with the NEA and the HKFJ, formed the Hong Kong Press Council. This first self-regulatory body for the Hong Kong print media has three objectives: to defend press freedom; to promote the professional and ethical standards of local newspapers; and to deal with public complaints arising from the acts of the members of the industry related to intrusion into privacy. Registered as a private limited company, the HKPC has both corporate members and public members. The corporate members come from the member newspapers, the NEA and the HKFJ, and the public members constitute 15

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at any time more than half of the total membership. The HKPC constitution also stipulates that both its chairman and vice-chairman should come from the non-press sector. Professor Edward Chen, the president of a local university, and Arthur Garcia, a retired judge and the territory’s first ombudsman, were elected as the first chairman and vicechairman respectively. The constitution of the HKPC stipulates that every member must comply with its rules, including the Ethics Code. Any refusal or neglect to do so or any conduct unworthy of a member, can result in expulsion. When the HKPC first started to receive complaints in September 2000, its remit was confined to the handling of complaints concerning intrusions into privacy. Complaints were first referred to a screening committee, if a prima facie case could be made out by the complainant, then the executive committee decided whether to appoint a complaints committee to investigate the complaint and, if appropriate, assists the parties to resolve the matter through negotiation and conciliation. If a complaint was eventually substantiated, the complaints committee forwarded its findings to the executive committee, which could reprimand the newspaper or its editors, ask the newspaper to publish a summary of the committee’s findings, require the newspaper to give a written apology or require it to publish an apology. At the outset, the HKPC was successful. It was formed within a relatively short period and brought together most of Hong Kong’s daily newspapers. The HKPC was independent from the government and enjoyed a certain degree of community support. Its public members were reputable and representative of a cross-section of the community. Furthermore, the HKPC benefited from the rich experience of its overseas counterparts when devising its set-up and operational details. Serving as an excellent public relations exercise, the formation of the HKPC sent a clear message to the community because the print media has been able to subject itself to self-regulation, any proposals for statutory regulation should be shelved.

Controversies and failures of the Hong Kong Press Council Despite its initial success, several members of the HKPC have admitted privately that its very survival is the biggest problem that it faces. Indeed, its chairman’s reports of the first two years were entitled “The Press Council at the Crossroads” and “The Press Council in Testing” respectively. Non-participation of three major newspapers The HKPC’s most widely publicized problem is that three popular newspapers—The Oriental Daily News, The Sun Newspaper and The Apple Daily—have so far refused to join. These are the best-selling newspapers in Hong Kong and together constitute more than 70 per cent of the total circulation of local dailies. The first HKPC chairman’s report highlighted their absence as a major difficulty, admitting that “this makes it virtually impossible for the Council to perform an effective self-regulatory role to enhance 16

professional standard in the press” (HKPC, 2001a: para. 21). To make matters worse, 60 per cent of the complaints received in the HKPC’s first year of the operation were directed at non-member newspapers and another 14 per cent were directed at magazines. As the HKPC only handled complaints against member newspapers at the time, it could not offer assistance to many complainants. Lobbying for qualified privilege Instead of attempting to win over the three non-member newspapers, the HKPC launched a campaign in September 2001 lobbying the Legco to pass a private member’s bill (HKPC, 2001b). The draft legislation aimed to grant the HKPC a statutory body, a status that enjoyed qualified privilege. This would protect its statements and findings concerning non-members from defamation lawsuits. The privilege would also be extended to reports by the media of any findings or decisions of the HKPC, unless the report was made with malice. Despite membership to the HKPC remaining voluntary, the proposed bill required all newspapers in Hong Kong to try their best to comply with the Ethics Code. The HKPC would be able to investigate on its own initiative media reports that it considered to infringe privacy or to be prurient, indecent or sensational. If the allegation or complaint were to be substantiated, the HKPC would have the power to demand that the newspaper concerned publish the HKPC’s censure or an apology. Although the HKPC insisted that its future rested with the bill, it failed to secure enough support to table the bill in the Legco. The 2002 chairman’s report noted that “some of our legislators, while supporting the spirit of the Bill, made no secret of their distrust of the SAR government fearing that our Private Member’s Bill could be used as a political tool to curb press freedom” (HKPC, 2002a: para. 22). Extending the remit of the council Despite the setback, the HKPC moved on with two new policies. First, it extended its remit to handle complaints that were related to prurience, indecency and sensationalism. Second, it started to handle complaints concerning nonmember newspapers and magazines. Furthermore, the HKPC reprimands or condemns those publications that are proven to have grossly violated professional ethics, regardless of whether they are members or not. Complaints against non-members by the HKPC have remained consistently high. In 2004, for instance, 72 per cent of the 19 complaints were directed at non-member newspapers and magazines. To the end of 2004, the HKPC had made 10 public condemnations, six of which were directed at specific newspapers and magazines, all of which were non-members. Publications from the Next Media Group, including The Apple Daily, Next Magazine and Easyfinder, have been named on four occasions. Being sued for defamation There has been no significant improvement in the relationship between the HKPC and the three major non-

THE FIRST FIVE YEARS OF THE HONG KONG PRESS COUNCIL

member newspapers. The Oriental Daily News and The Sun Newspaper—from the same media group—have carried prominent articles from time to time denouncing the HKPC and its members. Initially, the response of another major newspaper, The Apple Daily, was encouraging. When the HKPC found against The Apple Daily in one of the very first complaints it upheld, the newspaper complied with the adjudication and apologized publicly to the complainant. But the relationship has deteriorated since. In 2002 and 2003, the HKPC publicly condemned Next Magazine, a sister publication of HKPC, for photographs and articles published. Huge disagreements developed. The second incident involved the publication of DIY nude photographs of a teenage schoolgirl (Lo, 2003). The HKPC ruled that the publication was prurient but the statutory Obscene Articles Tribunal later found the article was neither obscene nor indecent. Next Magazine sued the HKPC for defamation. At odds with major journalist organizations Two major organizations for frontline journalists, the HKJA and the HKPPA, also chose not to join the HKPC. The HKJA does not favour any press council, whether statutory or not, in the handling of complaints against the print media and in the enforcement of adjudications. It maintained that such an arrangement would have a chilling effect on media freedom, and could ultimately affect media diversity (Mak, 2002). The HKJA has also reservations over the expansion of the HKPC’s remit, maintaining it might overlap with laws that govern obscenity (Cheung and No, 2001). Furthermore, the HKJA strongly objected to the HKPC’s proposal to become a statutory body, arguing that it would create a back door for government intervention (HKJA, 2002). Apparently, the HKPC has neither paid heed to these views nor is it anxious to bring the HKJA on board. The HKPC and its operation suffer from the absence of prominent newspapers and journalist organizations among its membership. Similar problems were encountered by the Australian Press Council in its early years (Chadwick, 1994). Nonetheless, universal industry commitment to self-regulation on a voluntary basis is widely perceived as a key element of media self-regulation (Beales, 2002). The PCC of the UK, for example, has the support of the whole print media industry. The Mirror Group Newspapers pulled out for a short while but were pressurized to rejoin (von Dewall, 1997). Handling of complaints The handling of complaints has been the most important function of the HKPC. Nonetheless, there had only been a total of 130 complaints in its first five years. In 2003, the HKPC received only 15 complaints. This is despite the fact that a survey commissioned by the HKPC in 2004 showed that dissatisfaction towards the performance of the local press was widespread and contrary to HKPC’s own claim that it was the most popular venue for complaints. Compared with the 3,649 complaints received by the PCC of the UK in 2003, the HKPC’s figure is distinctly low. It is far from clear what factors have been contributing to this low rate

of complaints. Possible reasons could include a public perception of the HKPC’s ineffectiveness and a low level of public awareness about the HKPC and its work. In the UK, one major criticism of the PCC is that it only adjudicates a very small proportion of complaints (Robertson and Nicol, 2002). The picture in Hong Kong is similar. In 2004, the HKPC received 19 complaints. Out of the 17 cases for which the HKPC posted a summary on its website, only one complaint concerning a close-up photograph depicting a dying policeman was eventually found prima facie in breach of the Ethics Code. But, the member newspaper concerned was only given a warning because the HKPC considered that the traffic accident involved was a public event and that the publication of the photograph could have conveyed a positive message about the adverse consequences of dangerous driving. It is extremely doubtful whether such a moderate ruling will help to curb the widespread practice of the local press publishing huge close-up photographs and personal details of victims of accidents and crimes. At the same time, the HKPC found eight of the 17 complaints outside of its remit, seven of which were about inaccuracy. Clause One of the Ethics Code demands journalists to strive to ensure accuracy of their reports and Clause Two stipulates that: “whenever proven inaccuracy, misleading facts or figures, or distortion of original meaning occurs, media organizations should provide persons or organizations affected with the earliest opportunity to reply, and corrections should be made promptly”. This raises the question of how these two clauses are to be implemented. It is fair to conclude that the HKPC’s handling of complaints has had little effect. Furthermore, a non-member newspaper can simply ignore the rulings of the HKPC and refuse to publish any correction or apology. Lack of proactive measures to promote media ethics Over the years, the HKPC has made little effort to promote self-discipline among its member newspapers. This is another key element of its ineffectiveness. In a smallscale survey of 52 frontline journalists, 96 per cent of the respondents never participated in any activities organized by the HKPC (Mak, 2004). Among them, 60 per cent had not even learnt of the HKPC’s seminars. The majority of the respondents knew that there was the Ethics Code but they only ranked 4.75 out of 10 for their understanding of it. Moreover, 46 per cent of the respondents were not sure whether they followed the Ethics Code in their newsgathering and reporting. Indeed, the HKPC conducted few courses in media ethics in the past years. The HKPC also seems uninterested in the decentralized approach to media ethics that is advocated by the HKJA, which maintains that individual media organizations should draw up their own codes of ethics and have them written into staff employment contracts (Mak, 2002). The HKPC has neither demanded this nor helped its member newspapers to carry out other reforms to ensure that members of the public have viable channels to express their views and grievances, such as letters to the editor columns and the publication of errors and apologies. 17

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In the past two years, the PCC of the UK has adopted several new measures to make self-regulation more effective, accountable and transparent. These include the publication of a handbook to the Editors’ Code of Practice setting out previous adjudications in context; the printing of the Editors’ Code of Practice in poster size for display in newsrooms and offices; the introduction of a Charter Commissioner to consider complaints about the handling of complaints by the PCC; and the establishment of a Charter Compliance Panel to audit the service that the PCC gives to complainants. Comparatively speaking, the HKPC is lagging far behind. The Ethics Code that it relies on deals sparsely with the protection of privacy. There is no mention of reporting in hospitals or the use of telephoto lenses. Nor is there any detailed guideline on how to prevent misrepresentation and harassment. The HKPC has made no attempt to revise the Ethics Code or to devise further guidelines and it takes no steps to publicize the Ethics Code or its own functions. The HKPC has few publicity venues other than a website and press releases. The chairman’s reports have also been brief in their description of the HKPC’s activities. Low level of commitment by member newspapers In the UK, critics have viewed the PCC’s annual expenditure of over one million pound sterling, funded by newspapers, as a form of insurance by the proprietors against new laws targeting the print media (Robertson and Nicol, 2002). In Hong Kong, the HKPC mentions that its funding comes from membership subscription and public donations but discloses no further details. Some HKPC members said privately that most of the donations received in the early days have been used up and the HKPC can only afford one full-time staff since 2004. The defamation action brought by Next Magazine has also had implications for the HKPC’s finances. It seems that newspaper members of the HKPC are not prepared to invest large sum of money for the very purpose of forestalling statutory regulation. Public perception of the HKPC and its work There has been no independent opinion survey of the HKPC’s performance. To solicit support for its private member’s bill, the HKPC conducted its own opinion survey in early 2002 (HKPC, 2002d; Chan and So, 2002). It commissioned another opinion poll in October 2004 (Hong Kong Institute of Asia Pacific Studies, 2004). Both surveys produced similar results. The 2002 survey showed that most of respondents were in favour of an independent press council and support for major HKPC initiatives, namely the widening of its remit and the call for qualified privilege. As for the 2004 survey, 66 per cent of the respondents thought that the HKPC should continue to exist. Relying on the 2004 survey results, the HKPC came to the conclusion that its efforts had paid off and that it had earned the recognition of Hong Kong people (HKPC, 2004b; Chan, 2004). A closer look at the survey results reveals a somewhat different picture. In the 2002 survey, 67.5 per cent of the respondents heard of the HKPC but only 5.8 per cent thought that the HKPC had been effective in improving 18

media ethics and 56.2 per cent thought otherwise. In the 2004 survey, only 15.2 per cent of the respondents thought that media ethics had improved in the past three years and 32.8 per cent considered that the situation had worsened. Moreover, only tiny fractions of the respondents, ranging from four per cent to 12 per cent, regarded the HKPC as having made positive contributions in curbing intrusion into privacy and indecent or sensational reporting in newspapers and magazines in the past three years.

Further threats of statutory regulation The above discussions show that the HKPC is faring far from well. Worse, there have been further threats of introducing a statutory regulatory body. In December 2004, the LRC published a report entitled Privacy and media intrusion (Media Intrusion Report) (LCR, 2004a). The report maintained that self-regulation by the journalistic profession and the press industry had proven to be ineffective. It further noted that a self-regulating body cannot be effective if it does not cover the entire industry or does not have the necessary sanctions or resources at its disposal. It went on to assert that: When the market and voluntary measures cannot provide an effective remedy, the Administration and the legislature, representing the interests of the public, should step in and define the parameters of selfregulation within which the public can be protected from unwarranted press intrusion (para. 14.11). The LRC proposed the creation by law of a public body to deal with complaints of unjustifiable infringements of privacy by newspapers and magazines. It preferred to call the body a “commission” (thereafter “statutory commission”), so as to distinguish it from the existing HKPC. The LRC insisted that this would be “a statutory but self-regulatory body” independent of the government and modelled upon the HKPC, with one major difference: its jurisdiction would cover all local newspapers and magazines. The government would not be involved, whether directly or indirectly, in the drafting of the code, in the adjudication of complaints or in selection of members of the “statutory commission”. Public members would be nominated by professional bodies and non-governmental organizations. As for press members, they would come from various media and journalist organizations and the journalism teaching profession. A detailed scheme of nomination was designed to take into account the circulation size of individual publications and the membership of various bodies. The “statutory commission” would have limited powers at its disposal, the key one being the ability to shame a media outlet which had misbehaved (LRC, 2004b). When the “statutory commission” upheld a complaint against a publication, it would be able to advise, warn or reprimand the publisher and require it to publish a correction or its findings and decision. If the publisher failed to comply with the ruling, the “statutory commission” would apply to the court for an order requiring it to take specified action and to bear the costs of the application incurred by the “statutory commission”.

THE FIRST FIVE YEARS OF THE HONG KONG PRESS COUNCIL

Safeguards would be built in to prevent abuse. Newspapers and magazines, but not the complainants, would have the right to appeal to the Court of Appeal against the decision of the “statutory commission”. The decision of the Court of Appeal would also be subject to judicial review. The commission would have a duty to publish annual reports and to make public its findings and decisions. It would have the duty to give reasons in writing when adjudicating complaints. Its procedures would have to comply with the rules of natural justice and it would have no power to compel journalists to give evidence or to disclose their sources of information. The commission, as opposed to its members, would still be liable for making defamatory remarks. It is fair to say these elaborate recommendations of the Media Intrusion Report had taken into account many of the criticisms and fears expressed by the media industry. Yet, several important aspects remain unclear. As the “statutory commission” would be funded partially by a levy on newspapers and magazines and partially by moneys appropriated by the Legco, what kind of influence could the Legco assert on the proposed body? This would be a crucial question given the fact that the majority of Legco members are not directly elected and most of them are supportive of government policies. The Media Intrusion Report also did not give any hint on another question: Would the “statutory commission” replace or co-exist with the HKPC? There is another key factor in the whole development that should not be overlooked. Together with the Media Intrusion Report, the LRC published another report entitled Civil liability for invasion of privacy (Civil Liability Report) (LRC, 2004c). In that report, the LRC recommended the introduction of two statutory torts, namely, unjustified intrusion upon the solitude or seclusion of another or into his or her private affairs or concerns and giving unjustified publicity to a matter concerning the private life of another. If the Hong Kong government eventually adopts these two proposed privacy torts alongside with the “statutory commission”, it would mean that the territory’s print media industry would be subject to a dual scheme of statutory regulation with respect to the protection of privacy. This would make the situation in Hong Kong markedly different from that of the UK. There, though the desirability and effectiveness of the PCC have been subject to constant queries, this self-regulatory body for the UK print media industry has so far succeeded in fending off attempts to introduce statutory privacy torts.

Can self-regulation by the Hong Kong print media be improved? The HKPC has so far done little to react to the two LRC reports other than voicing its opposition to the proposed “statutory commission” and to reiterate its demand for statutory qualified privilege. But the HKPC’s representation and effectiveness would not be improved even if such a privilege was eventually granted. Any public condemnation in the future of non-member media outlets by a council protected by statutory qualified privilege would certainly

cause further confrontations between members and nonmembers. The relationship among local newspapers would become more antagonistic than it is now. Any hope of curbing media intrusion by self-regulation would dwindle further. Hence, the HKPC has failed to solve its most daunting problem: the non-participation of the three major newspapers. If the HKPC and all others in the print media genuinely prefer self-regulation to the proposed regulatory arrangements stipulated by the LRC, they must convince both the government and the general public that they have worked hard to make self-regulation effective. Several obvious measures can be adopted in realizing changes in this direction. In the short run, the HKPC must update its Ethics Code, organize more training courses on media ethics and improve its visibility. In the long run, the HKPC must demonstrate its determination to implement the Ethics Code effectively among its own member newspapers. This would not only make a significant contribution to the improvement of media ethics but would also have a showcase effect on non-member newspapers. It would help non-members to shake off their cynical belief that the HKPC and its member newspapers have conspired to tie non-members’ hands and reduce their competitive power by demanding that they abide by the Ethics Code. To foster future cooperation and possible membership, the HKPC and its member newspapers must engage non-members themselves or do so via the efforts of intermediaries. Such initiatives may seem too idealistic. After all, the ultimate goal of most media outlets is the pursuit of business profit and not the promotion of public interest. But, if media organizations and practitioners are to continue to enjoy media freedom and remain free from government intervention, they need the support of the wider community. In other words, they have to prove that they deserve the freedom and its protection. To take a step further, media outlets and practitioners must be taught that media freedom is neither a monopoly of the media nor a licence to do whatever they like. The tide of public sentiment will eventually turn completely against the media if they continue to abuse media freedom. The public will then side with the government supporting the introduction of control-and-command measures. Some HKPC members have privately admitted this danger. They envisage that the Hong Kong government may be able to implement the LRC’s proposals with overwhelming support from the public if a grave incident of media intrusion occurs. If that happened, the media outlets would make themselves the biggest enemies of media freedom.

A truly independent and effective press council is desirable for Hong Kong To assault the LRC proposals head on may help turning the possible crisis of scrapping the HKPC into an opportunity to strengthen self-regulation. In this respect, the media, the public and the government all have to be persuaded that media self-regulation is desirable. Only by moving towards self-regulation can the overbearing power of 19

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state regulation and related fears of censorship and selfcensorship be removed. Self-regulation would also help to improve media accountability. When self-regulation is widely respected and firmly established among media organizations and practitioners in Hong Kong, abuses of media freedom can be greatly reduced and the rights of the public better protected. To conclude, the performance of the HKPC, as with many of its overseas counterparts, is far from satisfactory. It came into being largely as a device to forestall statutory regulation. For the past five years, its member newspapers have done little to regulate themselves or to promote media ethics. In view of its limited resources and the pending threat of a statutory press council, the future of the HKPC is uncertain. Media self-regulation in Hong Kong may thus be very short-lived. But, media self-regulation is certainly the way forward for the territory’s media freedom and accountability. There are definitely ways and means to improve the effectiveness of media self-regulation provided that the print media is truly dedicated to the cause.

References Balogs, C. (Ed.) (2002). Watching the watchdog: Media selfregulation in Southeast Asia. Bangkok: Southeast Asian Press Alliance. Belsey, A., & Chadwick, R. (1995). Ethics as a vehicle for media quality. European Journal of Communication, 10(4), 461–473. Bertrand, C. (Ed.) (2003). An arsenal for democracy: Media accountability system. New Jersey: Hampton Press. Chadwick, P. (1994). Creating codes: Journalism self-regulation. In J. Schultz (Ed.), Not just another business. Leichhardt, New South Wales: Pluto Press. Chan, J. (2004). Press council earns the recognition of Hong Kong people. Retrieved on 10 January 2006 from the HKPC website. Chan, J., & So, C. (2002). Majority supports the proposals of the press council (in Chinese). Retrieved on 10 January 2006 from the HKPC website. Cheung, J., & No, K. Y. (2001, July 27). Media watchdog expands its role. South China Morning Post, 4. Council of Europe. (1999). Proceedings of the Information Seminar on “Self-regulation by the media”. DH-MM, (99)7, Strasbourg. von Dewall, G. (1997). Press ethics: Regulation and editorial practice. European Institute for the Media, Monograph 21. Hanlin, B. (1992). Owners, editors and journalists. In A. Belsey & R. Chadwick (Eds.), Ethical issues in journalism and the media. London: Routledge. Hong Kong Journalists Association and Article 19. (2002). Freedom of expression Yearbook 2002. Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong. (2004). 2004 Opinion Survey on handling of complaints lodged against the print media (in Chinese) commissioned by the HKPC. Retrieved on 10 January 2006 from the HKPC website.

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Hong Kong Press Council. (2001a). Chairman’s Report 2001. Hong Kong Press Council. (2001b). Draft Bill. Retrieved on 10 January 2006 from the HKPC website. Hong Kong Press Council. (2002a). Chairman’s Report 2002. Hong Kong Press Council. (2002d). Report on 2002 Opinion Survey on handling of complaints lodged against newspapers (in Chinese). Retrieved on 10 January 2006 from the HKPC website. Hong Kong Press Council. (2004b). Chairman’s Report 2004. Law Reform Commission of Hong Kong, Subcommittee on Privacy. (1999). Consultation paper on the regulation of media intrusion. Law Reform Commission of Hong Kong. (2004a). Privacy and media intrusion. Law Reform Commission of Hong Kong. (2004b). Press conference on the publication of the two privacy reports on 9 December 2004. Retrieved 10 January 2006 from http://webcast.info.gov.hk/carchive11-0105.html. Law Reform Commission of Hong Kong. (2004c). Civil liability for invasion of privacy. Leonardi, D. (2004). Self-regulation and print media: Codes and analysis of codes in use by press councils in countries of the EU. Retrieved on 1 June 2005 from http://www. selfregulation.info/iapcoda/0405-press-report-dl.html. Lo, A. (2003, June 26). Nude photo of “student” draws flood of criticism. South China Morning Post, 3. Mak, C. (2004). Can self-regulation provide a solution to intrusion of privacy by newspapers: A case study of Hong Kong Press Council. MA thesis. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Baptist University. Mak, Y. T. (2002). A decentralized approach to media ethics. In C. A. Balgos (Ed.), Watch the watchdog: Media self-regulation in South East Asia. McQuail, D. (2003). Media accountability and freedom of publication. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Nordenstreng, K. (2002). Media ethics in Europe: In search of core values. A paper presented at the International Colloquium on Media and Ethics held in Tunis. Palzer, C. (2003). Co-regulation of the media in Europe: European provisions for the establishment of co-regulation frameworks. Iris plus collection: Key legal questions for the audio-visual sector, 8–15. Pritchard, D. (Ed.) (2000). Citizens, ethics, and the law: Holding the media accountable. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Robertson, G., & Nicole, A. (2002). Media law. London: Sweet and Maxwell. Shannon, R. (2001). A press free and responsible: Self-regulation and the Press Complaints Commission 1991–2001. London: John Murray. Sonninen, P., & Laitila, T. (1995). Press councils in Europe. In K. Nordenstreng (Ed.), Reports on media ethics in Europe. Tampere: University of Tampere, Department of Journalism and Mass Communication. Ukrow, J. (1999). Self-regulation in the media sector and European community law: An independent study of European law. Prepared at the request of the Federal Government Commissioner for Cultural Affairs and the Media, Saarbrücken. Institute of European Media Law.

VIEWPOINT Journalism Training in Vietnam RICHARD SHAFER

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n a cool drizzly early March day in the old quarter of central Hanoi, an intent young Vietnamese journalist was interviewing me in a hotel lobby, asking how a Western reporter knows what to write about. That was a hard question but I gave it a try and pointed across the street to a woman who was arranging her brilliant mangoes, pineapples, star fruits and bananas in the first floor shop of a French colonial building with “1917” engraved on its stone arch. Display is everything among vendors in Vietnam because competition is fierce. Why not write about that woman? Ask her where her produce comes from, how she gets it into the city, how many family members she supports, what bribes she pays and the other obstacles to making a living here in Hanoi, I suggested. Tell her story and you will have told the story of many thousands of such women throughout Vietnam. Several years ago when I was teaching journalism at a university in Uzbekistan, I remember telling another student to look out the window. A noisy Soviet-era tram clattered down the street. I asked her, “What is the life of that tram driver like? What does he think about the public transportation system? Why does the system seem to be in such a bad state of repair? What can he expect his retirement to be like?” Those were important things to report. Everybody in Tashkent without a car rides the tram or the subway. I had answered scores of questions about Western journalism during day-long seminars beginning in Ho Chi Minh City in the south and ending in Hanoi in the far north. The US State Department sponsored the tour as part of its general mission to promote “democratic journalism” worldwide. In a country where the press is generally owned by the government, the Western concept of news as a commodity to be gathered, packaged, marketed and sold can be both alien and somewhat repugnant to professional journalists working within a socialist system. In Vietnam, journalists have been taught that the mission of the press is to serve the people by serving their government. I respect their Richard Shafer is Professor of Journalism at the University of North Dakota School of Communication, USA.

evident professionalism and was heartened by their desire to learn Western newsgathering and reporting conventions and values. Because the Vietnamese press is government-owned, the US embassy staff politely but persistently warned me that reforming journalism is a very sensitive topic, further cautioning me to approach all issues of democracy carefully. I was told to avoid being openly critical of the economic system or the government. That more or less makes sense when you are a hired consultant and a guest in another country. I tried to imagine a Vietnamese journalism instructor being invited to my hometown in the US and getting such a large and responsive forum to express his or her views. It probably would not happen. Usually what I have in mind when I am teaching journalism in developing nations in Asia is the standards of the most widely read and generally trusted newspaper in the country I am teaching in. Journalists are also workers who must earn a living and avoid losing their jobs for crossing some sort of censorship line. My goal is to provide the skills that will serve them as good reporters and writers anywhere. Those with the intelligence to acquire international-level journalistic skills will also have the intelligence needed to navigate their own national press systems and to practise the best journalism possible under whatever constraints and obstacles their government or society places before them. It was obvious to me that the 300 or so journalism students, government press officers and professional journalists I addressed in Vietnam intuitively understand what the universal standard is and seek to conform to it. They can usually access high quality media content on the Web and are well aware that the future of journalism in Vietnam is likely to be more competitive, accurate and conforming to universal news values and reporting standards of accuracy and balance. Virtually anyone can write for the Web but the competition for readership and profits is fierce. The young (continued on page 32) 21

Exporting the Nation Singapore International Co-productions and National Cinema

In 2003, the Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA) unveiled a blueprint (Media 21) which aimed to stimulate the media industry on a transnational level. Its emphasis is on co-productions and its definition would include international collaborations such as The Eye (2002) and Infernal Affairs II (2003), widely perceived as Hong Kong films, although they are partially funded by Singaporean production companies. While this new policy may stimulate the Singapore’s film industry and export its products to broader markets, it also becomes vulnerable to what O’Regan (1996) calls the “problemitization of nationhood”. The implementation of the Media 21 film policy raises debate about the concept of national cinema and questions its identity in the age of international co-productions. Will transnational film policies work against the presentation of local stories in an international marketplace? This paper investigates what constitutes a “Singaporean” film, arguing for the support of a national cinema, acknowledging the critical role that film, policy, filmmakers and audiences play in the process of national myth-making in the face of transnational pressures.

LING CHUA-YEN AND PIETER AQUILIA

L

ike most other young nations, Singapore has been preoccupied about what it means to be a Singaporean. Debates about citizenship and nationhood, typically limited to the confines of the academic or political arena in older, less newly independent countries, flood the local press on an almost weekly basis. The average man on the street, it seems, has as much to say about the responsibilities of the Singapore citizenry as the local journalists and politicians. It is not surprising then that most Singapore films produced after the country’s independence in 1965 articulate the struggle to define what it means to be Singaporean. The issue of identity has been especially highlighted in Singapore films released during the recent cinematic renaissance that started in the 1990s. Jan Uhde and Yvonne Uhde (2000) map the historical development of the local film industry in a pivotal and comprehensive study of films that have been produced, funded and released in Singapore from 1933 to 1999. However, there is still insufficient critical analysis examining how popular discourses of nationalism and national identities have shaped the development of the Singapore film industry. This is perhaps due to inherent pitfalls of defining a national cinema. After all, projects that attempt to categorize a group of films for the purpose of identifying and analysing discourses of nationhood have typically been fraught with questions

Pieter Aquilia and Chua Ling-Yen are Assistant Professors in the Division of Electronic and Broadcast Media at the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

of authenticity. As Andrew Higson (2002: 132–133) noted, there are many ways to define national cinema. Different governments in devising film policies have used this term to promote particular forms of film that suits the national agenda. Film critics have also used this term for their own purposes, such as to differentiate films in a hierarchical system to basically judge if a particular film is good or bad. Typical methods of defining the parameters of any national cinematic project include evaluating films based on geography (where are these films made and by whom), economic background (who funds or distributes these films), history (what are these films about), culture (what language is used and who is represented) and aesthetics (does a particular group of films share a common style or world view). Even after taking all these factors into consideration, any project that attempts to identify a national cinema remains inevitably involved in an ongoing process of complex negotiation of inclusions and exclusions; a troubled project that will valourize particular histories while marginalising other subjects. As Stuart Hall argues, the construction of every identity, even oppositional ones, has at its margins, a “necessary, even if silenced and unspoken other, that which it ‘lacks’” (Hall, 1996: 4–5). Nevertheless, the search for an identifiable national cinema has its usefulness. Critically, such projects are also valuable in mapping the psyche of the nation, in identifying the numerous diverse and conflicting narratives depicted and circulated in the popular national imagination. Where newly independent nations like Singapore are concerned, they can serve to document the fledging development of national identities and the creation of the myth of an imagined collective community as it emerges from the shadows of colonialism. As Benedict 23

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Anderson (1983) argues, the creation of nationhood depends on “imagined communities”––the collective belief in a shared history and the identification of comradeship. Given the widespread popularity of cinematic images in contemporary society, the significant role that films play in the process of national myth-making cannot therefore be ignored. Since the creation of the first narrative film, films have been used by governments in countries as diverse as the US, USSR and Germany to promote particular agendas and generate nationalistic sentiment. In today’s Hollywood-dominated environment, the ideological power of cinema must be acknowledged by countries like Singapore, whose citizens are weaned on Hollywood blockbusters. It is not surprising then that government support for a homegrown film industry has become all the more strategically important in small nations throughout Europe and Asia. Other obvious benefits are financial, political and cultural. Differentiating an identifiable group of Singaporean films enables the fledging film industry to secure a footing in the crowded global marketplace. This can, in turn, be used as a marketing tool to differentiate local productions from the Hollywood-dominated film industry and, in the local agenda, to also distinguish Singapore films with other regional Asian productions for both financial benefit and to boost the country’s cultural standing. Herein lies the currently most critical reason behind the necessity of a timely debate about Singapore national cinema. In the last three years, the positioning of the Singapore film industry has been significantly altered by governmentled developments. In 2001, after several decades of rapid economic growth led by the productive manufacturing sector, the Singapore economy declined. But, where Singapore distinguishes itself from other developed Western nations that also face similar problems is by adopting the pragmatic approach of accepting the effect of globalization and coming up with the creative solution of “remaking” itself as an international hub to generate new revenue streams for the country (Media Corporation of Singapore, 2002). As part of the national agenda to “remake” Singapore, the local film industry has been transformed from a marginal activity into an area highlighted for national development. In January 2003, the Media Development Authority (MDA), a statutory board formed after the merger of the Singapore Broadcasting, the Films and Publications Department and the Singapore Film Commission, was tasked with the agenda to develop the media industry and promote Singapore as a global media city. In July 2003, the MDA unveiled Media 21, a blueprint which aimed to increase the GDP contribution from the media industry from 1.5 per cent to 3 per cent over 10 years, generating 10,000 new jobs for Singaporeans. To achieve this target, S$100 million (approximately US$57 million) has been allocated to this initiative over a five-year period (Lee, 2003a). An initial offering of S$10 million (approximately US$5.7 million) was awarded to Singapore’s leading film production company, Raintree Pictures, to produce 10 international films over five years. Small change by Hollywood standards but this amount of subsidy is sizable to a local film industry producing entire feature films on US$200,000 budgets. However, this funding is not necessarily targeted at local stories for local moviegoers: 24

At a forum to unveil its Media 21 blueprint last month, Mr Lim Hock Chuan, chief executive of the Media Development Authority (MDA), defined made-by-Singapore content as that which is “made with Singapore talent, financing and expertise but not necessarily entirely made in Singapore or made for the Singapore audience only” (Lee, 2003b). Media 21’s primary focus is on regional film collaborations and co-productions, with little or no condition on promoting a truly national cinema. MDA’s definition of a “made-by-Singapore content” would include films produced by Raintree Pictures’ co-productions, Turn Left Turn Right, The Eye and Infernal Affairs II; films which are more widely perceived by audiences as Hong Kong blockbusters rather than Singapore productions. Such co-productions have been the main beneficiaries of MDA funding. For instance, in July 2005, the MDA-funded Singapore Film Commission increased funding for international co-productions to S$1 million (US$590,000) per film, whilst funding for wholly Singapore-produced feature-length films under the film incubator project is capped at S$100,000 (US$59,000). Theorists such as Wildman (1995) applaud microeconomic initiatives such as Media 21, recognizing that narrowly targeted domestic themes may affect the international appeal and global sales of film products (Wildman, 1995). After all, Singapore’s small population and diverse culture present a very small market for local films (Kaur, 2004; Soh and Tan, 1994; Uhde and Uhde, 2000). Since 1991, only four out of 42 made-by-Singapore films shown commercially in Singapore have made more than their budget at the local box office. Even then, local box office success is not sufficient. For example, Teenage Textbook (1998) failed to breakeven, despite having a box office gross higher than its budget (Kaur, 2004). With high exhibition rates, a film typically needs to earn four times its production cost to breakeven (Thinkquest, n.d.). As such, international marketability and a larger audience base is of primary concern to MDA-funded production companies. For example, eight out of Raintree Pictures’ 16 films were international collaborations targeted at an international audience. However, Goldsmith and O’Regan (2002) in their assessment of the Australian studio system warn against the dangers of privileging international co-productions. Their warning holds useful lessons for the implementation of the made-by-Singapore policy. Since the 1990s, government film policy in Australia aimed to re-situate its film industry to broader global industrial trends, promoting international coproductions. However, in the pursuit of such new markets, Australia’s unique national cinema is under jeopardy (Jacka, 1994). Similarly, Media 21 encourages Singaporean coproductions, especially with Chinese language markets, hoping to attract large multinational media firms that can interact with Singapore’s growing smaller film companies. Indeed, Raintree Productions with its involvement in Hong Kong films, The Eye and Infernal Affairs II, is an example of how film as an economic commodity may lead to the sacrifice of national cinematic identity. Higson (1989: 141) asks, “What is a national cinema

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if it doesn’t have a national audience?” For instance, one of the Singapore films listed on the Singapore Film Commission’s website includes Song of the Stork, a film about the Vietnam war that has so far not been released to the Singapore general public. According to past research and statistical evidence, Singaporean audiences prefer to watch films about Singapore. In 2002, Raintree Productions’ I Not Stupid, was the fourth most popular film at the Singapore box office while the company’s Homerun was in the top 10 in 2003. These films directed by Jack Neo, followed his success with Money No Enough (1998), which is the all-time highest grossing Singapore film and fifth in the all-time top five films (Singapore Film Commission, 2005). Neo’s box office successes are arguably definitive Singaporean films: made in Singapore for Singaporeans, using Singaporean content, talent, financing and expertise. Identifying the relationship between local audiences and Singapore film contributes to a valuable understanding of national cinema. The use of integrated audience studies and critical analysis to arrive at a fuller understanding of key moments in national film history is a methodology now firmly established among film researchers and scholars (Jancovich, 1999; Kuhn, 1999; Mikiro, 1996; Geraghty, 2000). These studies recognize the importance of recording and analysing film reception as a means of documenting national cinema. An understanding of cinema audiences extends film studies beyond traditional textual analysis into a wider socio-cultural realm. In 1999, a survey by Nanyang Business School at Nanyang Technological University identified six critical factors in local films and surveyed the relative importance of these factors to local audiences (Leong, 1999). The survey discovered that local audience preferences included the use of the local vernacular Singlish; the incorporation of local identity markers (such as local stars and locations); stories classified as Parental Guidance (PG); and films that have been supported by government financing agencies. Singaporeans are not interested in the budget of the film or whether it looks like a big budget film. Predominantly, local audiences preferred local references rather than universal themes in cinema programmes. According to O’Regan, audiences recognize themselves in films, and use films to create their understanding of the nation, specify what citizens make up their nation and make sense of what they and their society are aiming to become (1996). O’Regan (1996) includes filmmakers with audiences as influential in the understanding of the cultural and aesthetic characteristics of a national cinema, believing they play an important role in representing the “national society to itself and to the larger world” (p. 305): They also mundanely use such projects to create and make sense of local filmmaking. Specifying who its people are and what they might become, in a routine social, political and cultural activity of a variety of agents inside and outside the film milieu. (O’Regan, 1996: 304) O’Regan recognizes the impact of policy on the filmmaker’s role to find an “identity” and “mission” for national cinema. Even after the implementation of Media

21, film producers in Singapore continue to make local fare on limited budgets rather than international co-productions with universal themes. Over the last decade, Eric Khoo (Mee Pok Man, 1999; 12 Storeys, 1997), one of Singapore’s most renowned filmmakers and director of Zhao Wei Films, has continued to make films that portray Singaporean life. In 2005, Khoo’s Be With Me about a local Singaporean, Theresa Chan, a courageous deaf and blind woman whose life story inspired the film, was selected as the opening film of the “37th Director’s Fortnight” at Cannes, where it attracted international distribution. Films such as Be With Me support the proposition that local movies about local subjects hold currency not only as exportable but also in consolidating national cinema. Over the last 40 years, the Singapore film industry has survived on the resilience of its filmmakers to produce the kind of movies they want to make. With little or no government funding available for first-time or young filmmakers, the independent film sector has existed outside the structures of government or market economics. A recent survey of Singaporean film directors and producers by Kaur (2004) showed that while filmmakers realize the need for Singapore films to be exportable in order for the local movie industry to flourish, funding does not motivate or affect the type of movies they want to make. Kaur (2005) concludes that filmmakers in Singapore are resilient and passionate, who adopt a guerrilla style of filmmaking that is fashioned on “learnt reticence”. Indeed, this sentiment is echoed in Ng’s exploration of the independent industry when she describes the majority of filmmakers as “young, in their twenties and thirties, and it may take a while yet before their productions can display the breadth and depth of maturity” (2004). However, a national cinema cannot be built on a willingness to “explore and experiment” (Ng, 2004). Singapore’s film industry operates on two levels: the young self-financed filmmaker and the producer of international co-productions. In the latter, Media 21 initiatives have no specific provisions to ensure that a national cinema is fostered. Nor do the films that have evolved from this funding structure have any requirement to produce stories that resonate with local audiences. In the current cinema environment, there is no government policy in place to encourage a second-tiered level of filmmaking where subsidies are available to produce mid-range budget films which focus on the production of national images and content for the local cinema. Indeed, many of the films produced by emerging filmmakers in Singapore over the last few years have displayed a trend away from a national imagery supported by official cultural policy towards a bleaker portrait of life in the island state. Djinn, who had moderate success with his self-financed first film, a low budget horror movie, Pontianak (2003), based on a traditional Malay ghost story, evidenced this trend in his second film, Perth: The Geylang Massacre (2004). The film, a Singapore-Hong Kong co-production made for approximately S$800,000 (US$470,000), takes an anti-official national imagery. In Perth, a jaded taxi driver, disenfranchised by a society that favours Westernized university-educated workers, dreams 25

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about escaping a bleak, violent and crime-ridden Singapore for a perceived utopia in Perth, Australia. Understandably, there has been a certain reluctance to promote films that touch on this particular social reality of Singapore. Kenneth Bi’s Rice Rhapsody (2004), which focuses on a family who attempts to “straighten out” their gay son by inviting an attractive French exchange student to board at their home, “troubled the Singapore Board of Film Censorship inasmuch as its month-long deliberation for the film’s wide release” (Lee, 2004). In another example, Royston Tan’s 15, a fictional social commentary on the stark realities faced by juvenile gangsters in Singapore was not accepted for a general release in Singapore. The Film Censorship Board, an agency of the Media Development Authority, asked for 15 minutes of the film to be edited. The filmmakers appealed this decision in September 2004 but it was upheld. Objections to the film centred on the chants used by the gangs in the film. This was further complicated by the fact that the film uses juvenile delinquents rather than actors in the lead roles. However, the film has been seen in its full, uncut version in numerous film festivals outside of Singapore: Unfortunately, Singaporeans may need to fly to Venice to see it. The city-state’s government has yet to approve the film for general theatrical release … It would be a cruel irony if Singaporeans aren’t allowed to see 15 because the Lion City's middle classes would learn more from this film than they did studying for their O-level exams in secondary school. 15 is meant to give its native audience a glimpse of a subculture usually airbrushed out of the official reality. (Walsh, 2003) 15, Rice Rhapsody and Perth: The Geylang Massacre ink a national imagery that challenges the international image of Singapore as a clean, safe and crime-free society. All three directors, having demonstrated the resilience to produce low budget films in the past, comfortably fit into the second-tier of filmmaking in Singapore. In this tier, still divorced from the commercial restraints of international co-productions, filmmakers are able to consolidate both concepts and experience to produce a cinema that conveys an alternative to the official national discourse. O’Regan concurs that national cinema is a result of various agencies both within and without the “film milieu” (1996: 304). Filmmakers, audience and critics play an important role in the creation and appreciation of a national cinema. Critics, policy makers and audience provide a “repertoire for filmmakers to exploit in the films themselves and an identity and a mission for the cinema” (1996: 304). As explained by Graeme Turner, in his lucid summary of the nationhood in the Australian cinema (1994), it was a range of industrial and policy initiatives that developed the Australian film as the “cultural flagship of the nation” (p. 202). The revival of the Australian film industry in the 1970s, he argues, was not only an “economic intervention to subsidize a local cultural industry; it also represented a semi-official project of nation formation” (1994: 202). It was the introduction of local content quotas in the cinema and the fostering of local Australian stories in recognizable 26

locations which built the successful film industry of the 1970s to 1990s in Australia. As Jacka (1988) argues, this policy came at a time in history when the nation was still considered an independent entity and not in the “present phase of multinational capitalism” (p. 122). Indeed, Singapore’s Media 21 policy addressed a multinational free market, where desire for a national cinema was compromised by a need for the economic development. Media 21 was initiated to produce profits rather than create a national cinema. This compromise was clearly articulated by the CEO of Singapore’s largest production company: … We can still make movies with stories that are honest and real to our cultures and traditions but they must have universal themes that will appeal to an international market (Daniel Yun, Raintree Productions, 2003). Raintree Production’s box office offering Homerun (2003) was the company’s first experiment away from specifically local stories to a more universal narrative. The film was adapted from the Iranian film Children of Heaven by Majid Majidi. The film follows Ah Kun, a 10-year-old boy, who loses his sister’s shoes one day and struggles to retrieve the shoes. Homerun is set against a historical backdrop of Singapore during the independence in 1965 but based on an international movie with a universal theme and while the film targets a mass local audience, it was produced for an international market. This is one of the first movies by Neo that under-uses Singlish so that international audiences can rely on its Mandarin language dialogue. However, while the film was nominated in regional film awards and was screened in Hong Kong, it failed to capture international box office attention. Indeed, the pursuit of international co-productions at the expense of constructing a local identity, of valourizing a Hollywood model over a homegrown industry, may fulfil economic goals, it will continue to jeopardize the development of a national cinema. To date, made-bySingapore box office success stories include Infernal Affairs II (2003), a crime thriller made by a SingaporeHong Kong consortium; Turn Left Turn Right (2003), a Singapore-Hong Kong-US drama; Song of the Stork (2002), a Vietnamese-Singapore drama; and The Eye (2002), a Singapore-Hong Kong horror film. These popular genre films, with no local content, religiously support Wildman’s theory that “… the more obviously domestic is the content, the poorer are its international prospects” (1995). While Media 21 may export Singapore’s film industry to broader markets, the implementation of film policy that favours globalism over localism, may potentially problematize Singapore’s national cinema. O’Regan (1996) explains this shortcoming is especially imprudent for young nations such as Singapore: New world societies define themselves in their emergence, as a perpetual becoming, a coming into being in the here and now, continually differentiating, incorporating and moving on. (O’Regan, 1996) O’Regan argues that Australian film, in the 1990s, has failed to foster its national cinema due to its insistence to

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be something else other than Australian––whether it be British or striving to be Hollywood––without focusing on the unity and diversity of its rich multi-cultural European roots. Similarly, Turner (1994) examines the Australian film industry and warns of the danger of jettisoning concepts of a national cinema as a result of economic rationalism. This is an industry which will disappear if solely economic considerations are allowed to prevail. Once its licence to represent the nation is withdrawn––and that seems to be happening––it is likely to lose its licence to operate at all. (Turner, 1994: 213) As Jacka (1998) reveals multinational capitalism is “dissolving national boundaries”, by breaking up the concept of the nation and the cultural function of the cinema towards the bureaucratic rationalization of communities (p. 122). Does the exclusion of Singaporean-ness in economic film policy constitute Hall’s idea (1996) that identity may be defined as much by what is excluded as what is included? This then begs the question: In this age of international co-productions, is there still a place for a national cinema in Singapore? Documentary evidence supports that there is still a demand by audiences and a desire by filmmakers to support Singaporean films about Singapore. With the success of films such as I Not Stupid and the international interest in 15 and Be With Me, is there an argument for second-tiered funding for independent filmmaking, where filmmakers are encouraged to make Singaporean films for Singaporeans, before moving onto the international arena? Indeed, could such a programme benefit and complement existing policies such as Media 21, legitimizing an already emerging national cinema, and a niche of progressive filmmakers, which are already attracting international audience? These questions emphasize the need to stimulate critical discourse surrounding the critical role that films play in the process of national myth-making in Singapore today. The definition of national cinema has proved to be problematic in both contemporary screen and cultural theory. Similarly, Media 21’s promotion of international coproductions may fulfil economic goals but jeopardize what Anderson (1983) calls the “imagined communities”––the collective belief in a shared history and the identification of comradeship. Is it possible to build a national cinema on a policy that does not necessarily have preference for films “made in Singapore for Singapore audiences”? In the words of Chamber’s, “nation” remains an “open framework, continually in the making” (1990). The challenge within Singapore is to ensure the framework remains open to the conception of a truly national cinema.

References Anderson, B. (1983). Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. London: Verso. Chambers, I. (1990). Border dialogues: Journeys in post modernity. London: Routledge. Goldsmith, B., & O’Regan, T. (2002). The policy environment of the contemporary film studio. Communications Research Forum. Retrieved on 16 January 2004 from www.ica.ogit. gov.au/papers02/ goldsmith%20o’regan.pdf.

Hall, S. (1996). Introduction: Who needs identity? In S. Hall (Ed.), Questions of cultural identity (pp. 1–17). London: Sage Publications. Higson, A. (2002). National cinema. Screen 30: 4, 1989, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Reported in C. Fowler (Ed.), The European cinema reader (pp. 132–142). London: Routledge. Jacka, E. (1988). Australian cinema: An anachronism in the ’80s? In S. Dermody and E. Jacka (Eds.), The imaginary industry: Australian film in the late 80s. Sydney: AFTRS Publications. Kaur, M. (2004), The Singapore indigenous film industry: The critical factors, film creators and the future of made-bySingapore films. Unpublished Master’s thesis, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Lee, K. (2004). Review: Rice rhapsody. Retrieved on 20 October 2005 from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0383388/. Lee, S. (2003, August 20). Fresh spin on the river. The Straits Times, L3. Lee, S. (2003). Small steps towards megahub. Straits Times Online. Retrieved on 20 January 2004 from http://www. straitstimes.com.sg/. Load-date 27 August 2003. Lee, S. (2003). Stepping out, in the thrust to become global media hub. Straits Times Online. Retrieved on 20 January 2004 from http://www.straitstimes.com.sg/. Load-date 4 August 2003. Lim, G. (March–April 2003). The underbelly uncovered: Royston rocks our world. The Arts Magazine, pp. 32–33. Media Corporation of Singapore. (2002). Develop arts, design and media as “creative cluster”. ERC panel. Retrieved on 20 January 2004 from http://www.channelnewsasia.com/. Load-date 25 September 2002. Ng, Y. (15 March 2004). Singapore cinema: In search of identity. Retrieved on 20 January 2004 from www.kinema. uwaterloo.ca/yvo011.htm. Oon, C. (2003, April 9). Not another teen movie. The Straits Times, L4. Oon, C. (2003, May 1). 15 bags another silver. The Straits Times Interactive. Retrieved in October 2003 from http://straitstimes. asia1.com.sg/moviemania/news/0,3946,186467,00.html. O’Regan, T. (1996). Australian national cinema. London: Routledge. Singapore Film Commission. (2005). Retrieved on 30 May 2005 from www.sfc.gov.sg. Soh, Y. P., & Tan, Y. S. (1994). The development of Singapore’s modern media industry. Singapore: Times Academic Press. Thinkquest. (n.d.). Film resources in Singapore. Retrieved on 4 October 2005 from http://library.thinkquest.org/21065/ singa/singa.htm. Turner, G. (1994). The end of the national project? Australian cinema in the 1990s. In W. Dissanayake (Ed.), Colonialism & nationalism in Asian cinema (pp. 202–216). Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Uhde, J., & Ng U. Y. (2000). Latent images: Film in Singapore. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Wildman, S. (1995). Trade liberalization and policy for media industries: A theoretical examination of mediaflows. Canadian Journal of Communication, 20(3), 367–388.

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Emerging ICT and Challenges for Education

The central suggestion of this paper is that emerging information and communication technologies (ICT) do not only change our relations with the world and how we do things but they also change how we think and carry on with productive intellectual activities, and at the same time they develop our cognitive capacity through gradual internalizations of features of an external activity carried in partnership with these technologies. This development in the capacity of psychological functioning means that individuals who are not provided with the opportunity to use appropriately design technology-based tools and resources might develop different intellectual capacity that is insufficient given the demands of the contemporary world. To maximize this opportunity for human cognitive development in line with the demands of the contemporary world and emerging technological innovations, educational institutions must ensure that technologybased tools and resources are appropriately designed and provided over available means to students in classrooms everywhere. At the same time, educational systems must be appropriately reformed in order to afford learning activities that promote relevant use of technology-based tools and resources.

DANIEL CHURCHILL Emerging ICT and changes in human praxis Recent human history has been dominated by developments in emerging technologies. Over the last decade in particular, information and communication technologies (ICT) gradually spread through many human lives and now they are changing our activities, for example, how we communicate; access vital information and data; engage in learning; write reflective journals; receive various services; entertain; create artefacts; market our products and skills; form relationships; and search for jobs. For example, ICT are now able to analyse our informational needs and deliver vital information that we need. In addition, this information might no longer be available only in traditional formats (e.g. text and pictures) but in multiple representational formats that utilize multimedia capabilities of technologies. Interactivity, information processing and dynamic visualization capabilities of technology for media creation and delivery allow representation of information and knowledge in new ways and this potentially empowers consumers to develop their intellectual capacity as never before in human history. All kinds of data have also become available over the Internet with the aid of associated technologies. Satellites can provide us, through the Internet, with aerial photographs of most distant places with information about human activities, land composition, weather change and pollution,

Daniel Churchill is Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at The University of Hong Kong. 28

for example. Submersibles can travel to great depths to collect samples and send data about unknown life forms. Telescopes can provide images of distant galaxies which can be used in the investigation of human origin. Intelligent machines such as Mars Explorer or Huygens can collect and send data about physical and chemical composition of atmosphere and soil from distant planets inaccessible to humans. Today, data that was previously unavailable or available only to a small population of scientists is often made available to everyone over the Internet. The power of ICT for representation and delivery of information is further multiplied by emerging extraordinary possibilities for information presentation and interaction, e.g. biometrics, natural language processing, augmented reality, brainmachine interface and “I Cyborg”1. Emerging ICT allow humans to engage in distant conferencing, collaboration and exchange of information. We are now approaching fusion of television, computing and communication into an emerging set of tools and services deliverable through the Internet over super-fast satellite and terrestrial connection and ultra-portable devices. Emerging technologies cause changes in fundamental operational concepts not just for education but for many other fields. For example, technology advances allow very low cost product manufacturing with quality acceptable to customers. This forces many companies to restructure and encourage innovation in order to survive in competitive markets. Technology allows small countries with limited human resources to be considerable powers in economical and political terms. Military organizations are transforming

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themselves into smaller technologically advanced rapid reaction forces capable of overpowering numerically larger enemies. Medical doctors are preparing for patients who enter their rooms with stacks of information collected over the Internet about possible causes to their health problems. Travel agents are changing businesses because airline companies and hotels are connecting directly to potential customers globally over the Internet. Even very traditional and ancient institutions are slowly abandoning some extreme claims that technology might be an invention of forces of evil and that they are adopting it to create virtual saints and places of worship. Behind any technology, there is always a person who is able to utilize it, work with data, consume information, create knowledge, solve problems and innovate. Technology in this context must be understood as a set of tools and resources that amplify individuals’ physical and intellectual capacity. As emerging technologies enter and change many aspects of human activities, it is becoming important for educational institutions to embrace these technologies and create opportunities for every student to develop towards being technologically empowered and contemporary relevant knowledge worker2. Knowledge workers are individuals whose central strengths include capacity to (a) work with data, information and ideas, create knowledge, solve complex problems and innovate; and (b) continuously advance their own intellectual capacity though lifelong learning and partnership with emerging technologies. These individuals, besides being the backbone of a knowledgebased society and the intellectual capital of their work places, are liberated and consistently employable, financially independent, and intellectually satisfied. This brief discussion intends to focus a reader’s attention on emerging technologies that change how we live and work, and unless education is reformed to accommodate to the new demands, we may find ourselves equipping students with the irrelevant knowledge. Possibly, we may discover that people will acquire alternative “knowledge of the modern world” through the available technologies such as games, movies and all kinds of websites. This can potentially lead to many kinds of more serious problems for societies.

Challenges for education Educational institutions must carefully examine what technology means in the context of creating relevant educational opportunities. They need to understand the nature of a problem which they want to solve by integrating technology in teaching and learning, and to have a corresponding strategy if this integration is to be a solution to that problem. The key challenge for educational institutions is to identify and implement a suitable strategy for technology integration in teaching and learning that does not force a solution on non-existent problems; that is, technology should not be made available without clear understanding of why it is there in the first place. With technology, the nature of educational activity must change because without change, educational institutions will find

themselves to be successful in moving their societies backwards rather than forward. In outdated education institutions, students were isolated individuals who competed for grades and places in future universities and job markets. They carefully consumed curriculum content delivered through lectures by educators and repeatedly practised in order to prepare for examinations. They were told what is right and what is wrong, and they were expected to accept and usually memorize the correct answers. This kind of education was suitable for individuals, societies and economies of the past because it selectively produced the required mixture of professionals, technical workers, labourers and so on. In a contemporary developed society, labourers are being replaced with machines; technical work is the sophisticated partnership between individuals and technology with high intellectual demands; and professionals are expected to provide leadership and create competitive advantages. Advancement of a contemporary relevant society is dependent to a considerable extent on the increase in its human capital and, in this context, national education plans must focus away from the development of the few to the development of everyone. Today, education must give every learner an opportunity to develop as technology-literate knowledge worker. This demands not just availability of technology tools and resources but also new ideas about teaching and learning, alternative and more authentic assessment methodologies and curriculum changes. Often strategies for technology integration in many educational institutions globally tend to overlook important issues of what and how students should learn today; and how teachers should create relevant developmental activities while these strategies unnecessarily increase costs and the complexity of required software and system architecture, and at the same time overwhelm teachers with fears of the limitations of their technical skills. In many educational institutions, directions for technology integration in teaching and learning have been dominated by acquisition of hardware and learning management systems, implementation of e-learning standards, and re-packaging of information into teacher-directed instruction with automated results collection for delivery on a 24/7 (twenty four hours, seven days) basis. Teachers are often confronted with unrealistic and unnecessary expectation to design courseware material. Assumptions are frequently made that as long as we have computers everywhere and instructional content placed online, technology integration in teaching and learning will be effective. Knowledge, that is, the human cognitive capacity to deal with the complex word and oneself, is often considered external to individuals and it is equated with electronically managed instruction and information. If a learner is able to reproduce information after learning from a technology-based instructional or informational product, it is assumed that knowledge has been successfully transferred. Removing learners from a complex world of activities and placing them into this kind of technology-based environment assumes that all that is needed for learning is an automated teacher capable of repeating information in a parrot-like fashion and to provide a list of computer-tracked 29

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quiz questions. These kinds of strategies for technology integration into education are based on outdated thinking about schooling and models which are unlikely to prepare students for the relevant world. Educational reforms and technology integration in education are not simply challenges for nations that lack resources to acquire software and hardware. Primarily, they are challenges to people in education and the relevant authorities who lack vision and the desire to bring changes to educational practices and modernize the culture of schooling. Bill Gates, one of the key technology entrepreneurs today, criticizes American education and suggests that: “Four out of 10 who do graduate lack the skills and knowledge to go on to college or to succeed in the work force. The economic ramification of that could be devastating to our country” (SCMP, 5 March 2005). While new technologies emerge in education, the effective use of desktop computers and notebooks alone is still not well understood despite huge investments in time, money and resources. Rich countries such as Hong Kong and Singapore invested heavily in technology in education since early 1997 (Singapore Ministry of Education, 1997; Hong Kong Education and Manpower Bureau, n.d.). However, as this is occurring, what is taught, how it is taught, how students’ learning is evaluated and the evaluation of teachers’ performance has changed insignificantly. There are many computers in schools (most of them locked in a few computer rooms) but many teachers are still reluctant to use them and cannot clearly foresee reasons for this technology within the current culture of schooling.

Towards learner-centred practice in education Effective technology integration in education requires broader reforms in how teaching and learning occur rather than just acquisition of a few computers, software and broadband access to the Internet. Any strategy for preparing individuals for the contemporary world requires a shift away from old-fashioned teacher-directed instructional approaches towards more relevant learner-centred

pedagogical practices. In teacher-directed practices, it is the job of the teacher to guide his or her students to think in particular ways and to arrive at “correct” answers (Carter, 1997; Tsang-Kozma, 2004; Smith, 2004). Learner-centred practices engage learners in mediated learning activities through inquiries and problem solving, and the use of technology in this context. Table 1 presents a comparison of learner-centred and teacher-directed practices. Learning in the learner-centred practice occurs in a learning activity. The central aim of the learner-centred practice is the development of students’ intellectual capacity. Technology in this context is a set of tools utilized to amplify the students’ capacity to complete learning tasks which are, at that stage, beyond their developmental level. Gradual internalization of features of activities involving these tools and resources might leads to a cognitive residue and further development of intellectual capacity. This development will likely mean that students provided with these kinds of activities, tools and resources will develop different cognitive capacity and thus will develop capability to deal with higher level intellectual engagements than students who did not have this opportunity. The opportunity to use technology-based tools and resources when engaging in activities which promote intellectual development (e.g. inquiries and problem solving) might potentially transform into the development of individuals’ intellectual capacities in line with demands of the contemporary relevant world, increased globalization, democratization and emerging technological innovations. Learner-centred practices also foster the development of communities of learners where individuals compete not for grades but for wisdom, recognition and the ability to function as autonomous members of their community. The individual student’s capacity is amplified, in addition to technology-based tools, by the joint intelligence of a group of learners which can be established in collaborative learning activities. New technologies permit the creation of virtual communities and collaborative environments, and this opens up a spectrum of relevant educational opportunities.

Table 1 Comparison of learner-centred activity and teacher-directed instruction Focus of learning-centred practice Learning activities, inquiries, problem solving, innovation design Authentic and interdisciplinary Working with information and data, exploring ideas and constructing useful knowledge Learning how to regulate own cognitive processes Collaboration and negotiation of meanings from multiple perspectives Learning with technology—technology as a tool that mediates learning activity 30

Focus of teacher-directed practice Instruction, lectures, didactic teaching materials Independent disciplines Receiving information Remembering, recalling and achieving the grade Individual effort Learning from technology—technology as a surrogate teacher and instructional resource

EMERGING ICT AND CHALLENGES FOR EDUCATION

Tools and resources for developing world The critical assumption of this paper is that the use of appropriate technology-based tools and resources within engaging learner-centred activities might result in cognitive residue which will contribute to the students’ overall intellectual development. Students not provided with the opportunity to develop through the use of technology-based tools and resources might likely be left behind and soon find themselves irrelevant to the demands of contemporary world. What about the progress of people in the developing world? Does this mean that people there will be left behind due to limitations associated with limited availability of technology and infrastructure? Perhaps, this is a valid concern that must be addressed at the relevant agencies which promote increased globalization and democratization of the world. It is important to consider that technology permits for creation and delivery of digital resources which might have serious impact on the development of human intelligence. Dynamic visualization, information and data processing, and interactivity allow creation of a new kind of educational resources: psychological tools (Vygotsky, 1978) which can potentially aid students’ activities beyond their existing developmental levels. As a student uses psychological tools, the properties of the tools penetrate into his or her consciousness and cause changes. Gradual internalization of the features of the activities and the psychological tools into the consciousness of the students will result in the formation of advanced kinds of cognitive capacity and subsequently to the development of a new social conscience. In order to promote and maintain global equality in respect to people development, we need synergy for the development and distribution of the psychological tool and other resources over available means; otherwise, in the future, we will witness increased difference in distribution of global intelligence and wealth, and hence increased inequalities. Human cognitive capacity will not develop because of the simple access to the latest models of computers but because of the intellectual partnership with carefully constructed tools and resources delivered through technology-based channels and made available to individuals as and when they need them (e.g. in work, study, scientific research, artistic creation, social interaction and play). In other words, tools and resources are the backbone of intellectual development involving technology; the channels and devices for delivery make this possible but they alone are just like libraries without books, cinemas without movies and satellites without data. The most promising technology for delivery of tools and resources in the developing world may not be a desktop computer or notebook but emerging and integrated set of tools in form of small, handheld mobile devices known as smart phones and mobile-enabled portable digital assistant devices. This technology merges the capacity of wireless data and voice network technologies with the power of a computer into a new device capable of supporting many kinds of human activities. These devices open a spectrum of opportunities for human development and with the difference from computers, their availability is consistently growing among the general population, in particular, in

the developing world. Keegan (2004) reported that there are one-and-a-half billion mobile phones around the world. For example, in China itself, the number of mobile subscribers stands at 200 million and Keegan underlined that this number increases at a rate of two million per month. Keegan suggests that this year, there will be one billion wireless Internet subscribers—people who will be able to access services, tools and resources on mobile devices. To support people in the developing world, this paper proposes an idea to explore a possibility for a collaborative activity to articulate a collection of resources and services which can be provided over mobile devices besides the computer. An interesting attempt to explore affordances of mobile technology for learning is India’s initiative to develop a low-cost portable device known as Simputer3; however, although this is a fantastic opportunity for people development, the key limitation of this initiative is the lack of principally developed resources deliverable over this technology. My suggestion is that the resources must be considered as national and international capital; funding should be provided for research and the development of resources can be shared across countries and continents, and utilized in activities leading to the development of the individuals’ cognitive capacity. At this stage, much of the resources available are not developed in a principal way to fully support such an objective.

Conclusion In any case, technology is becoming a common component in the learning environment in institutions across the modern world and often in developing countries; however, having this technology alone does not make a difference in the quality of teaching and learning. Neither does it mean that teachers will make use of technology just because it is available or just because they were trained to use it by some technical people. More than anything, technology is not here to make old educational activities more effective; rather, with technology, the nature of educational activities must change. Effective technology integration can be achieved only within the context of wider educational reforms; however, reforms in education are not just a technical thing of acquiring technology, training staff, and imposing new teaching and learning strategy. The reform demands a shift in thinking about the role of technology, students’ potential, learning and the nature of knowledge and assessment. This thinking challenges traditional assumptions about teaching and learning held by many teachers. The new challenge presented to them expects that they change their roles from a teacher as a dispenser of knowledge to a facilitator and partner in learning. This thinking similarly challenges traditional assumptions about schooling that many students bring to educational settings. This thinking means that students will learn to work together and advance their individual and collective knowledge rather than to zealously guard what they know for examinations. This thinking challenges the culture of schooling which includes not just teachers and students but educational management, parents, politicians and so on. In 31

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this paper, I suggest that effective integration of technology in education demands changes towards learner-centred pedagogical practices where the technology is a tool that amplifies students’ intellectual capacity. These practices and the corresponding utility of technology allow students to develop for the contemporary relevant world. Critical to this development is the access to principally designed tools and resources, and in this paper, I propose increased international collaboration for research and development of suitable tools and resources which could potentially be delivered over emerging mobile technologies.

References Carter, D. S. (1997). Information and communication technology in the professional practice of beginning teachers. Journal of Education for Teaching, 23(3), 294–296. Dracker, P. (November 1998). The future that has already happened. The Futurist,16–18. Hong Kong Education and Manpower Bureau. (n.d.). Hong Kong Government IT strategic plan information technology for learning in a new era five-year strategy 1998/99 to 2002/03. Retrieved on 5 September 2004 from http://www.emb.org. hk/emb/eng/archive/consult/it/toc.html Singapore Ministry of Education. (1997). Masterplan for IT in Education. Retrieved on 22 February 2005 from http://www. moe.gov.sg/edumall/mpite/ Smith, R. (2004). Student-centred learning. Retrieved on 15 January 2004 from http://www.gsu.edu/~mstswh/courses/ it7000/papers/student-1.htm

(continued from page 21) Vietnamese journalists I met seem up to the challenge but appear to be waiting patiently for an easing of restrictions on what they can write and report. They embrace the Web as a potentially liberating new media technology. The Web offers clear evidence that good reporters need to attract wide audiences both for profit and to produce journalism that meets their own professional standards. Stories must be interesting and content should be provided that serves the broad spectrum of Web readership worldwide. Even those working for government publications know that readers with a choice will move to more interesting news, entertainment or sports content and that packaging the news is as important as reporting it.

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South China Morning Post. (2005, March 5). Gates says US schools “ruining lives”. Reprinted in South China Morning Post Publishers Limited. Tsang-Kosma, W. (2004). Student-centred learning + technology = Rethinking teachers’ education. Retrieved on 15 January 2004 from http://www.gsu.edu/~mstswh/courses/it7000/ papers/student-3.htm Vygotsky, S. L. (1978). Mind in society. Cambridge, MA: Harward University Press.

Notes 1. 2.

3.

I Cyborg is an extraordinary research by Professor Kevin Warwick from the University of Reading. The term “knowledge worker” was coined by Peter Dracker in his 1957 book Landmarks of tomorrow. Dracker defines the knowledge worker as someone who creates value and solves problems by processing information and knowledge. Dracker (1998) suggests that the productivity of a knowledge worker will be the decisive factor for most industries in the developed countries. My argument is that in order for developing countries to be globally competitive and relevant, their people must be equally provided with opportunity to develop in this direction. For information about Simputer, check http://www. amidasimputer.com/

This paper was presented at the 14th AMIC Annual Conference on Media and Society in Asia: Transformations and Transition held on 18–21 July 2005 in Beijing, China.

I do not believe that writing for the Web differs significantly from the traditional “inverted pyramid” style of packing the news into the lead, following with good quotes and supporting sources, and generally anticipating what the reader wants to read and in what order he or she wants to read it. The qualities of integrity and accuracy remain constant. There is no cultural or nationalistic claim on any of these journalistic skills and values. A good journalist should be intelligent, resourceful, brave, curious, and should possess a social consciousness and maybe a sense of humour. In 20 years of teaching journalism in 20 countries, I have never failed to find good reporters or journalism students with the intelligence and drive to eventually compete in the world media market.

The Role of the Mass Media in the Formation of a Rally-based Pro-democracy Movement in Hong Kong This paper begins by discussing the historical background of democratization and the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong. The authors then go on to analyse the role the media played in the July 2003 protests that saw half-a-million people take to the streets to oppose the proposed imminent national security legislation.

FRANCIS L. F. LEE AND JOSEPH M. CHAN

H

ong Kong has experienced a wave of five large-scale protests within a two-and-a-half year period between July 2003 and December 2005. On 1 July 2003, 500,000 Hong Kong citizens marched on the street to protest against the then imminent national security legislation and general incompetence of the Hong Kong government in handling various social and economic crises. The pro-democracy demonstrations on 1 January and 1 July 2004 also registered the participation of about 100,000 and 200,000 people respectively. The number of participants in the 1 July demonstration in 2005 dropped to 20,000 amidst a much improved social, political and economic environment. Nevertheless, one week before the legislature had to vote on the government’s political reform proposal (which was considered by the democrats as overly conservative), about 100,000 citizens marched on the street again on 4 December 2005.1 Taken together, these rallies constituted the core of a new pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong. The role of the mass media in the formation of protests and the pro-democracy movement has been a highly prominent intellectual and political concern ever since the first 1 July protest in 2003. In fact, in the weeks before the protest in 2003, the leftist newspapers have attempted to undermine the protest by arguing that politicians and the media were trying to manipulate the public to participate in it (Chan and Lee, 2005a). Chinese government officials have even pinpointed specific news organizations and broadcasting programmes as the major mobilizing agents behind the protest.

Francis L. F. Lee is with the Department of English and Communication at the City University of Hong Kong. Joseph M. Chan is with the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the School of Journalism, Fudan University, China.

A set of important questions can therefore be raised: Were the media the mobilizing agents in the 1 July 2003 protest? Or did the media play a role different from that of the mobilizing agent? Did the role of the media change in the other protests afterwards? What were the social and political conditions that influenced the role played by the media? On the whole, how can we best describe the media’s role in the development of a rally-based pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong from 2003 to 2005? As Hong Kong is undergoing a process of constrained democratization in which the new rally-based prodemocracy movement is a central element, addressing the above questions would be a key to understanding the media’s role in the democratization process in the city. It should also give us insights into the possible roles that mass media can play in the processes of political transition. This article, therefore, aims at providing an analytical account of the relationship between the mass media and the new pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong. Empirically, this article draws upon various studies we have conducted over the past few years. Most important are the data from five on-site surveys conducted during the five protests mentioned above. In addition, we also draw upon evidences derived from three representative population surveys, a series of focus group studies and two studies of media discourses we conducted in the past three years to construct our arguments. The article begins by providing a brief discussion of the historical background of democratization and the prodemocracy movement in Hong Kong. It is followed by an analysis of the role of the media in the 1 July protest in 2003, as well as a discussion of the contextual factors that allowed the media to play the role. Then, the media’s role in later protests is discussed. The last part of the article states our overall conclusion and discusses the implications of the findings.

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Historical background of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong Democratization in Hong Kong began in the early 1980s as the British colonial government attempted to meet the challenges posed by rising popular demands towards the government and the Sino-British negotiation on the future of Hong Kong. Democratization in Hong Kong, in other words, was mainly a regime-led, top-down process at the beginning. The initiative of the colonial government provided an impetus for local pro-democracy social movements to arise. For example, more than 90 movement organizations in a wide range of sectors joined forces to form a pro-democracy alliance in late 1986 (Sing, 2000: 24). However, the strength of the pro-democracy movement throughout the 1980s was severely limited. First, the political opportunity structure remained largely closed for the prodemocracy activists. Although democratic elections of the district board (a local-level consultative body) began in 1982, direct elections of the legislature were institutionalized only in 1991, in which only 18 of the 60 seats were returned through the popular vote. Second, the colonial government was careful in handling the opposition from China on the issue of democratic reform. China could effectively impose constraints on how quickly Hong Kong’s democratization process could go under British rule by drafting the Basic Law, the constitutional framework of Hong Kong after 1997. In fact, the campaign for having direct elections of the legislature in 1988 failed largely because of opposition from China. These two factors, taken together, forced the prodemocracy movement to follow the path of other social movements in Hong Kong (Lui and Chiu, 2000) to launch their campaign mainly outside the formal political institutions. Protests and public rallies constituted the major activities organized by the pro-democracy movement. However, the organizations forming the pro-democracy movement did not have large bases of supporters. More importantly, public support for democratization was limited in the 1980s. Survey research in the 1980s has found that Hong Kong people tended to define democracy as consultation of public opinion rather than institutionalization of elections (Lau and Kuan, 1988; Kuan and Lau, 1995). Some scholars even regard political culture as an internal constraint on the city’s democratization process (Sing, 2004). Although the argument of a “backward” political culture constraining the development of political institutions in Hong Kong has been heavily criticized since the late 1990s (DeGolyer and Scott, 1996; Lam, 2004; Lo, 1999), the fact remains that the largest pro-democracy rally in Hong Kong throughout the 1980s was participated only by about 5,000 to 8,000 citizens (Sing, 2000:35). The situation changed abruptly after the events of 1989 in China. With two months of continual heavy doses of media coverage, Hong Kong people had their attention glued to the Tiananmen Square. Between 20 May and 4 June, at least seven major public rallies or protests were organized. The number of participants in these rallies ranged from 50,000 to more than one million (Wong, 2000: 66). The incident and its tragic ending led to a sudden surge of support for 34

quicker democratization in Hong Kong (So, 1999). The British government also seemed to have changed its approach to China on the Hong Kong question after 1989. The appointment of Chris Patten as the last governor of the city in 1992 and Patten’s controversial political reform proposal led to five years of heated debates between the two countries. Patten’s reform also meant a significant increase in opportunities within the formal political arena for the democrats. The most prominent pro-democracy activists joined to form political parties. The struggle for democratization was thus done under formal institutions. Movement organizations, without improving their ability to mobilize the general public, found little role left for them. Only a few hundred citizens participated in the largest pro-democracy public rally in the early 1990s (Sing, 2000: 44). However, political opportunities in the formal political system were reduced again in 1997 as the Provisional Legislature was set up. Although many democrats returned to the legislature in the direct elections in 1998, they continually constituted the minority in the council. Their power within the Legco was severely limited by the set up of the council and the voting system in place.2 It resulted in internal debates among the democrats on whether they should leave the formal political institution and “return to the street”. At the same time, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) government has been in a state of constant crisis since an economic decline began in late 1997. Occasional outbursts of social crises and political controversies, such as the bird flu outbreak and the right of abode controversy (Ku, 2001a and 2001b; Chan, Chau and Lee, 2002), further demonstrated the incompetence of the Tung Chee Hwa administration and the fragility of the “one country, two systems” formula. This state of affairs had a paradoxical impact on democratization. On the one hand, it led the government and the public to focus their attention on economic and social issues. Democratic reform was therefore “displaced from the public agenda” (Ku, 2002; Lee and Chan, 2004). On the other hand, economic and social problems also led to very low levels of public approval of the government. Many people were particularly discontented when Tung Chee Hwa garnered enough support for a second term of office in 2002 in spite of the problems Hong Kong experienced during his first term of office. This put a huge question mark to the legitimacy of the political system. The re-election of Tung probably was a point at which many Hong Kong people realized the problem of government in Hong Kong as rooted in the system rather than in specific leaders.3 Sociologist Doug McAdam (1982) has argued that social movements are often preceded by a moment of cognitive liberation: “Before collective protest can get under way, people must collectively define their situation as unjust and subject to change through group action” (p. 51). With the benefit of hindsight, we can argue that Tung’s re-election has had a “liberating” effect on many Hong Kong citizens. At the beginning of his second term of office, Tung initiated the process of national security legislation. The

THE ROLE OF THE MASS MEDIA IN THE FORMATION OF A RALLY-BASED PRO-DEMOCRACY MOVEMENT IN HONG KONG

legislation was highly controversial because of its potential negative impact on a wide range of civil liberties, including freedom of the press and of religion. The government was heavily criticized for not allowing enough time for public debate and consultation. The severe acute respiratory syndrome then hit Hong Kong in early 2003, leading to hundreds of deaths. The government, perceived to have tried to cover up the outbreak in the early stages, was again heavily criticized for its incompetence. The outbreak also further damaged the Hong Kong economy. By early to mid 2003, the confluence of crises led to an unprecedented level of public discontent. It is against this background that the historic 1 July protest in 2003 occurred.

Media and the 1 July 2003 protest This article centres on the role of the media in the formation of public rallies and protests in the recent wave of prodemocracy protests in Hong Kong. As mentioned earlier, some politicians and Chinese officials have argued that the Hong Kong media had successfully mobilized people to join the 1 July 2003 protest. But, what does it mean by the media being a mobilizing agent in a protest? Before reviewing the case of the 1 July 2003 protest, some conceptual discussion regarding the role and effects of the media is needed. Schudson (2003) and Gans (2003) have pointed out many conceptual ambiguities surrounding the study of “media effects”. One specific issue is whether a media organization can be regarded as the agent responsible for the effects of its contents and the extent to which it does this. If people join a protest after reading a newspaper quoting a social leader who calls upon citizens to act, can we say the newspaper has mobilized people? Or is the newspaper only the “messenger”? When media organizations cover an upcoming protest prominently, people are likely to become more concerned about the protest and the issues related to it. This may indirectly lead to increased likelihood of people participating in the protest. Can agenda setting and its subsequent results be considered as a form of mobilization? Our contention is that a distinction has to be drawn between the media serving as a facilitator of collective

actions and the media serving as a mobilizing agent in collective actions. For collective actions to occur, people have to be aware of the upcoming activities. Information about the plans of the collective actions has to be transmitted. The significance and goals of the collective actions have to be defined and communicated, and so on. All of these can partially be done through interpersonal channels. But for large-scale collective actions in large-scale societies, the media are likely to play an important role in these processes. Carrying out these functions makes the media the facilitator of collective actions. The media serving as a mobilizing agent, on the other hand, occurs when a media organization displays a clear attitude supportive of the collective action to be undertaken. The strength of support can be a matter of degree and the way the media present their attitudes can also differ. Some newspapers may try their best to remain “objective and neutral” in their news reporting and let the editorials express the organization’s standpoint. Others may exhibit a clear bias in their news reporting. Some, as in the case of Apple Daily in Hong Kong, may go as far as directly issuing calls to join the collective action on its front page.4 When the “attitude” or “bias” of the news organization influences its audience, we may argue that the news organization has acted as a mobilizing agent. In other words, a media organization is a mobilizing agent when three conditions are met: (a) the media organization has exhibited a supportive attitude or a “bias” towards a protest; (b) the supportive attitude or bias is perceived by the readers; and (c) the readers are influenced by this attitude or bias in their participatory decision. Based upon this distinction, it is arguable that the Hong Kong media, as a whole, have played a highly important facilitating role in the 1 July 2003 protest, while it is less clear if the media have been a mobilizing agent. Throughout June 2003, all local newspapers and broadcasters used large amount of news space and time to cover the national security legislation debate and the upcoming 1 July protest. The calls to actions issued by elites ranging from the Catholic Bishop to political party leaders were prominently reported. These helped set the public agenda, transmit relevant information and messages to the public, and generate discussions among

Table 1 Media use among protest participants

Reading newspaper every day Watching TV news every day Apple Daily readers Ming Pao readers Oriental Daily readers

1 July 2003 64.7% 72.5% 49.5% 15.7% 22.4%

Protest 1 Jan 2004 69.9% 83.1% 51.4% 19.1% 12.8%

1 July 2004 71.9% 76.2% 52.1% 19.8% 10.3%

Note: In a cross-tabulation analysis, a significant relationship exists between (a) newspaper reading and the rally variable (p < .02); (b) TV news watching and the rally variable (p < .05); and (c) most frequently read newspaper and the rally variable (p < .001). 35

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citizens. Reporting social leaders’ calls to action also helped “certify” (McAdam, Tarrow and Tilly, 2001) the protest as a legitimate activity to engage in. Moreover, both before and after 1 July 2003, the news media helped define the nature of the protest, the characteristics of the protesters and the solutions for the problems faced by Hong Kong. In two studies, we found that Apple Daily and Ming Pao have portrayed the protesters as rational and peaceful citizens who are capable of independently analysing public affairs. Apple Daily, in particular, has quickly pointed to democratic reform as a solution to the crises in Hong Kong after the protest (Chan and Lee, 2005a and 2006). Empirical evidences of the media’s facilitating role in the 1 July 2003 protest also came from our on-site survey conducted during the protest.5 First of all, the protesters were generally heavy consumers of the news media. As Table 1 shows, 64.7 per cent of the protesters in the 1 July protest in 2003 read newspapers everyday and 72.5 per cent watched television news everyday. The percentages were the same or even higher in the later large-scale protests. Regarding newspaper readership, about half of the protesters in 2003 were readers of Apple Daily, while about 15 per cent were readers of Ming Pao. It should be noted that Oriental Daily was the most widely circulated paper in Hong Kong, followed by Apple Daily. Ming Pao, being an elite-oriented newspaper, had only about 25 per cent of the circulation of Oriental Daily at the time. Table 1 thus shows that the protesters were disproportionately the readers of two papers which, in our media discourse analysis, were found to have covered the 1 July protest prominently and positively. This pattern is consistent with both the argument

of a facilitating role and that of a mobilizing role of certain media organizations in the protest. Another way to identify the facilitating role of the media is to examine where the protesters acquired certain “actionfacilitating information” regarding the protests. Here, what we call action-facilitating information is simply what political scientist James Lemert (1981) calls “mobilizing information.” Lemert defines “mobilizing information” as information that allows people to act upon their existing attitudes. It is different from persuasive messages, which aim at changing attitudes. In relation to a protest, the most basic “mobilizing information” would include information about the time and place of the protest. Knowing the time and place of the protest facilitates action but the information itself does not have any persuasive power. Given our distinction between the facilitating and mobilizing role of the media, it is more appropriate to employ the label “action-facilitating information.” Table 2 shows the sources of such action-facilitating information—for example, the time and place of the protest—for the participants in the 1 July 2003 demonstration. The respondents were allowed to select more than one source. Newspapers stood out as the most important source of action-facilitating information for the protesters (62.5%), followed by the two broadcasting media (41.5% and 41.2% respectively). This finding is particularly remarkable because Lemert (1981), in his study of the US media, has found that the media seldom carried such action-facilitating information due to concerns with objectivity and detachment. Yet, Table 2 suggests that the Hong Kong media have not refrained from transmitting

Table 2 Sources of action-facilitating information for the 1 July 2003 protest participants

Obtained from By participatory leadership: Leaders Co-participants Followers By time of participatory decision: Early deciders Late deciders

Newspaper 62.5%

Radio 41.5%

Television 41.2%

Internet 19.4%

Other people 32.5%

68.8% 65.7% 43.4%

42.9% 43.3% 27.3%

35.3% 45.7% 35.4%

21.2% 23.2% 11.1%

25.3% 38.2% 40.4%

68.2% 58.1%

46.4% 37.7%

37.8% 44.7%

21.0% 19.2%

28.5% 37.4%

Notes 1. Respondents who joined the protests with others were asked if they mentioned the idea of joining the protest first (participatory leader), their companions mentioned the idea first (participatory follower) or they and their companions had the idea at the same time (co-participants). Regarding time of decision, early deciders refer to people who made up their mind two weeks or more than two weeks before the protest. Late deciders were people who made up their mind to participate within two weeks before the protest. 2. In a cross-tabulation analysis, there is a significant relationship between participatory leadership and obtaining mobilization information from (1) newspaper (p < .001); (2) radio (p < .02); (3) Internet (p < .04); and (4) interpersonal channels (p < .01). 3. In a cross-tabulation analysis, there is a significant relationship between time of participatory decision and obtaining mobilization information from (1) newspaper (p < .02); (2) radio (p < .04); and (3) interpersonal channels (p < .03).

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Table 3 Perceived influence of various agents in the 1 July 2003 protest

Overall Influence of calls issued by/through: Newspaper editorials Newspaper column articles Newspaper news articles Radio phone-in talk shows Radio news Internet Television news Television public affairs programmes Family Friends, colleagues, schoolmates Religious leaders Political parties Individual social leaders Membership groups

3.93 3.85 3.97 3.99 3.94 3.70 3.84 3.78 3.61 3.98 3.45 3.40 3.41 3.26

Among readers of Apple Ming Pao 3.85 3.77 3.82 3.86 3.76 3.54 3.54 3.56 3.61 3.90 3.35 3.30 3.29 3.13

3.76 3.68 3.64 3.80 3.66 3.60 3.70 3.60 3.50 3.90 3.24 3.46 3.18 3.30

Others 3.95 3.87 3.96 4.00 4.02 3.81 3.96 3.86 3.64 4.05 3.54 3.45 3.47 3.37

Notes 1. Entries are mean scores on a five-point scale ranging from 1 = very unimportant to 5 = very important. 2. In ANOVA analysis, significant differences among mean scores exist in the cases of (1) radio news; (2) television news; and (3) television public affairs programmes.

relevant information in the prelude to the 1 July protest in 2003. The Internet and interpersonal channels were less important when the protesters were considered as a whole. However, the survey findings also suggest a classic two-step flow process. The participatory leaders (i.e. those who have asked others to participate with them) were more likely to acquire the information from media sources while the followers were particularly likely to acquire the information from interpersonal channels. Moreover, Table 2 suggests that the media not only transmitted the action-facilitating information, they also did that early in the formation process of the 1 July rally. As the bottom part of the table shows, people who made an early decision to participate were more likely to acquire such information from the media than people who made a late participatory decision. On the whole, Table 2 suggests that the media facilitated the 1 July 2003 protest by transmitting the information to the public early, thus kicking start a set of interpersonal communication processes which finally resulted in people’s protest participation.6 Finally, in the on-site survey, we also asked the respondents to evaluate the influence of the calls to action issued by or through various channels or groups on their decisions to participate in the protest. The first column of Table 3 shows that newspaper, radio, and “friends, colleagues, and schoolmates” were rated as the most

influential. They are followed by television, then by the Internet and social and political groups/leaders. On the surface, the question wording points towards a mobilizing role. But, to what extent were the protesters evaluating the mobilizing power of the agents? To what extent were they only evaluating the general importance of the channels of communication or groups in transmitting information to them? The last three columns give us insights into this issue. We separated the respondents into readers of Apple Daily, readers of Ming Pao and the other protesters. Since Apple Daily and Ming Pao were the two papers most positive towards the protest (Chan and Lee, 2005a), their readers should regard newspapers as more influential if their evaluation was indeed pointing towards the mobilizing power of the newspapers. But, Table 3 shows that all three groups of protesters regarded newspaper as highly influential. There is no significant difference between the mean scores when newspaper editorials, column articles and news articles are concerned. There are some significant differences among the three groups of protesters on the perceived influence of radio and television. Those who regarded the broadcasting media as more influential were those in the “other” group. These findings do not support a strong mobilizing power of the news media on citizens. Rather, the interpretation which fits the data better is that the respondents were actually evaluating the general significance of various channels and entities in transmitting 37

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relevant information and messages to them to help them make up their mind. It does not mean that we can completely deny the mobilizing power of certain media organizations. But, the results in Tables 1 to 3, when considered together, strongly suggest a very significant facilitating role of the media in the formation of the 1 July 2003 protest. The mobilizing power of the media, if there has been any, was only secondary in importance.

Conditions for the media’s role Studies on the relationship between media and protests in the West have seldom addressed the question of media as a mobilizing or facilitating agent. Since protests in Western countries are mainly organized by resourceful movement organizations through their own networks, the issue facing the media researcher is mainly which protests the media would report on and how the media would report on them (e.g. Hocke, 1999; McCarthy, McPhail, Smith and Crishock, 1999; McPhail and Schweingruber, 1999). On this latter question, many critical journalism scholars have pointed to the media’s tendency to support and reinforce the status quo by framing protest actions in specific manners, such as protests as disturbances to social order (Gitlin, 1980; Reese and Buckalew, 1995). The media are likely to have a more positive view on protests only when part of the elites is also supportive towards the protesters’ goals (Hallin, 1986). However, in a transitional society such as Hong Kong, the legitimacy of the “status quo” cannot be taken for granted. The relationship between media and a largescale society-wide protest movement also raises a set of somewhat different questions regarding the media’s role. The previous section has shown that the Hong Kong media have “supported” the 1 July protest in 2003 by acting as its facilitator. It is important to further explicate the contextual factors that make the Hong Kong media playing a strong facilitating role possible. The significance of the media in the formation of protests in Hong Kong is, first of all, partially a result of the weaknesses of social and political organizations. Lack of mobilizing power, as discussed earlier, has long been a problem of the pro-democracy movement since the 1980s and there has been little improvement in this respect over the past two decades. Our on-site survey in the 1 July 2003 demonstration asked people if they were members of social organizations which can be “religious, political or professional” in nature. Despite such a broad definition, only about 25 per cent of the protesters reported to be members of some groups. Among them, only about 30 per cent reported that they “frequently” or “very frequently” participated in the activities of the groups. In addition, only 4.2 per cent of all respondents reported that they participated in the protest with the group(s) to which they belonged. Weakness in the social movement organizations’ networking is further compounded by the Hong Kong people’s general distrust towards politicians and political groups (Lau, 1994 and 1998). In fact, in our focus group studies, some of the protesters have expressed their concerns

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of being manipulated by politicians. They are afraid that their participation would be interpreted by politicians in a way to serve the politicians’ own interests. As a result, the mobilization process for large-scale protests in Hong Kong is not likely to involve a top-down process with influence reaching out from the centre of the movement organization. Rather, the large-scale protests involved citizens’ mobilization among themselves, signifying a form of self-mobilization (Chan 2005; Chan and Lee, 2005b). Hence, media and interpersonal communications play particularly important roles in the formation of the 1 July protest in 2003. More generally speaking, the Hong Kong media have been performing a “surrogate democracy” function in the political communication process (Chan and So, 2004). The lack of a full democracy means that formal channels for communicating public opinions into the policy-making process are underdeveloped. The media thus take up added significance in providing forums for public debates, and shaping and communicating public opinions. Moreover, Hong Kong has a pluralistic and commercialoriented media system. Both professional journalists and common citizens believe in a liberal conception of the press. They emphasize press freedom, media independence from the government and the media being the watchdog monitoring the performance of power holders (Chan, Lee and Lee, 1996; Lee, Chan and So, 2005). Despite concerns about declining press freedom in Hong Kong, at least until the time of the 1 July 2003 protest, the Hong Kong media were largely free to criticize the Hong Kong government on local matters (Lau and To, 2002). There were undoubtedly news organizations which became more politically docile or depoliticized over the years. But, a number of highly critical media outlets also prospered as the popularity of the Tung administration went down. This is best reflected in the rise of radio phone-in talk shows (Lee, 2002; Lee, Chan and So, 2003). The outspokenness of these politically daring outlets rendered the reporting of political criticism less sensitive and problematic, thereby creating more breathing space for other media outlets in the city as a whole. Another important condition for the media to play a strong facilitating role is the existence of a social consensus. The general public was highly negative towards the government, and there was a wide range of social and political leaders willing to certify the protest and call citizens to action. It means that any media organization, simply by reporting the “objective facts” of public opinions and what public figures said, would have been conveying a huge amount of mobilizing messages to the public. In fact, this can explain why protesters who read neither the Apple Daily nor Ming Pao would still find newspapers an important source of influence to action (Table 3). Mobilizing messages constituted a significant part of the contents offered by most media organizations in Hong Kong at the time, regardless of the media organizations’ own attitudes towards the protest. Lastly, the facilitating role of the media can also be related to the lack of protest experiences among the Hong Kong public at the time. In the on-site survey, we found

THE ROLE OF THE MASS MEDIA IN THE FORMATION OF A RALLY-BASED PRO-DEMOCRACY MOVEMENT IN HONG KONG

that 50.0 per cent of the 1 July 2003 protesters have never participated in any demonstrations before. Another 37.1 per cent of the protesters have participated in three or fewer numbers of demonstrations in the past (for many, these are likely to be the protests organized during the 1989 Tiananmen incident). On the contrary, over 65 per cent of protesters aged 20 or above have voted in legislative council elections in the past. In other words, although the protesters constituted a group of politically active citizens, they were much more used to voting with their hands than “voting with their feet”. Demonstrations and protests have not been fully developed as items in Hong Kong citizens’ “repertoire of political activities.”7 More mobilization and facilitation efforts were therefore needed. Hence, there was also a larger room for media to play a stronger role in the formation of the process. In fact, as the next section illustrates, the media’s role would diminish as the prodemocracy protesters gained more experiences through repeated participation in the same type of activities.

Media and a sustainable protest movement The on-site surveys conducted in the protests in 2004 gave us clear evidences of a declining role of the media in the later protests in the new pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong. Table 4 shows how the participants in three different large-scale protests rated the influence of the calls

to action issued by or through various groups or channels on their decision of participation. The first column of Table 4 simply replicates the first column of Table 3. The other two columns reported data derived from the 1 January and 1 July rallies in 2004.8 When the findings are compared, the decline of the perceived influence of all channels and groups from one protest to the next is statistically significant in all cases except one, which is a non-significant decline of the influence of individual social leaders from the 1 July 2003 protest to the 1 January 2004 protest. However, the relative degree of perceived influence of different types of channels and groups remained more or less the same over the three protests. Newspaper, radio, television and “friends, colleagues and schoolmates” were consistently perceived to be most influential. They are followed by the Internet, family members, political parties and individual social leaders. Therefore, the decline of perceived influence of the media was not because an alternative, more powerful facilitating and/or mobilizing agent has taken its place. Rather, the pattern suggests that the protesters in the two latter rallies simply did not require much facilitation and mobilization. This point can be illustrated by looking at changes in the timing of the protesters’ participatory decision. As Table 5 shows, in the 1 July rally in 2003, only about 20 per cent of the participants made up the participatory decision about a month before the protest. There was a relatively even spread

Table 4 Perceived influence of various agents in three large-scale protests

Influence of calls issued by/through: Newspaper editorials Newspaper column articles Newspaper news articles Radio phone-in talk shows Radio news Internet Television news Television public affairs programmes Family Friends, colleagues, schoolmates Political parties Individual social leaders Membership groups

1 July 2003

1 Jan 2004

1 July 2004

3.93a 3.85a 3.97a 3.99a 3.94a 3.70a 3.84a 3.78a 3.61a 3.98a 3.40a 3.41a 3.26a

3.35a 3.40a 3.53a 3.69a 3.66a 3.16a 3.42a 3.52a 3.31a 3.47a 3.18a 3.39b 2.79a

— — 2.84a 2.80a 2.79a 2.51a 2.87a — 2.54a 2.93a 2.51a 2.52ab 2.26a

Notes 1. Entries are mean scores on a five-point scale ranging from 1 = very unimportant to 5 = very important. 2. There are some empty cells because not all questions were repeated in the 1 July 2004 on-site survey. Religious leaders were not included in both the 1 January and 1 July on-site surveys in 2004. 3. In ANOVA analysis, significant differences among mean scores exist in all cases. 4. Cell entries in the same row sharing the same subscript differ from each other significantly at p < .05 in post-hoc bonferroni tests.

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Table 5 Time of participatory decision in different protests

Today Yesterday Within a week About one week ago About two weeks ago About three weeks ago About one month ago Since last 1 July Do not know

1 July 2003 5.4% 8.7% 13.2% 25.1% 14.9% 8.4% 21.4% — 2.8%

Protest on 1 July 2004 3.35 5.6% 4.8% 7.0% 2.3% 1.8% 16.9% 55.6% 2.8%

1 Jan 2004 9.6% 7.6% 8.5% 13.7% 7.9% 5.0% 38.6% — 9.1%

1 July 2005 7.7% 7.3% 8.8% 7.7% 2.8% 1.0% 8.6% 53.4% 2.7%

4 Dec 2005 5.4% 5.0% 9.3% 16.2% 10.4% 9.7% 34.8% 7.9% 1.5%

Note: The answering category “since the last 1 July protest” was added to the question only since the 1 July 2004 on-site survey.

of people who made up their decisions at different points within the month before the protest. The pattern changed substantially in the 1 January protest in 2004. More than one-third of the protesters made up their mind about one month before. We suspect that the experience of participating in the

first 1 July rally has provided an impetus for people to continue to participate in later protests. In fact, research in the West has pointed to the importance of past protest experiences in generating a “protest norm” for continual participation (Opps, 2004). Lee (2006) has also suggested that participation in the 1 July protest in 2003 is linked to

Table 6 Impact of the 1 July protest experience on willingness to protest

Sex Age Education Income Newspaper reading Television news watching Internal efficacy Collective efficacy External efficacy Support for democratization Voting Participating in the 2003 July 1 protest Adjusted R2 N

March 2004 .04 –.04 –.03 .05 .12** .08* .13** .13** –.10* .12** .10* .37*** 34.0%*** 524

Survey conducted in September 2004 .05 –.11* –.09 –.04 .05 –.03 .15** .20*** –.12* .03 .07 .38*** 29.1%*** 373

September 2005 .06 –.06 –.12* .01 .07 .02 .13* .15** –.01 .18** –.07 .30*** 21.0%*** 329

Notes 1. Entries are standardized regression coefficients. 2. Only people who reported support for further democratization were asked about their willingness to protest. Thus the N is smaller than the actual sample sizes of the survey. 3. Detailed information about the surveys and measurements are omitted because of space concern. They are available from the authors upon request. *** p < .001; ** p < .01; * p < .05. 40

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increased levels of collective efficacy among the Hong Kong public, which could generate further political participation. Therefore, for many Hong Kong people who lacked prior experiences in protest participation, the experience of the 1 July protest in 2003 could have been akin to a “rite of passage” or an “ideological baptism”. Hence, in later protests, we added a new answering category “since the last 1 July protest” to the question on the timing of participatory decision. The result is that we found more than half of the protesters in the 1 July protests in 2004 and 2005 reported themselves as having made up the decision “since the last 1 July protest.” The percentage of protesters choosing this category dropped significantly in the 4 December protest in 2005. It suggests that organizing and participating in pro-democracy demonstration on 1 July, the commemoration day of Hong Kong handover and a public holiday, has become partially ritualistic to some protesters. But, on the whole, the figures derived from the 4 December rally are still very different from the figures from the 1 July rally in 2003. Instead, the 4 December rally figures were similar to those from the 1 January rally in 2004. More than 40 per cent of the protesters have made up their mind to participate at a very early stage (“either about one month ago” or “since the last 1 July protest”). Evidences on how the 1 July protest experience in 2003 generates further protest action are also available from three different population surveys the authors conducted in 2004 and 2005. Here, we report the relationship between participation in the 1 July 2003 protest and willingness to join further pro-democracy demonstrations as derived from a multiple regression analysis.9 Table 6 summarizes the results. Participation in the 1

July 2003 protest is one of only three predictors which have consistently significant relationships with willingness to join further protest in all three surveys. Also, when compared to the other two predictors (i.e. internal and collective efficacy), participation in the 1 July 2003 protest has substantially stronger impact on the dependent variable. It should also be noted that, in the regression analysis, media use, support for democratization, political efficacy and voting participation are all controlled. It means that the impact of 1 July protest experience cannot be regarded as merely the impact of a certain political attitude, a general interest in politics and public affairs or a general inclination for political participation. The findings from Tables 4 to 6 thus strongly suggest that the rally-based pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong has become self-sustaining to a certain extent. Experiences of protest participation led to the establishment of protests as an item within people’s repertoire of political activities. In this sense, a cultural basis for protest participation has developed. Moreover, the repeated occurrence of large-scale protests may also have produced a social basis for protest participation. Since the large-scale protests were prominent events, citizens, no matter whether they have participated in the protests or not, were likely to have received much information and formed opinions about the protests. Through interpersonal conversations, people would also come to know the opinions held by people around them. As a result, some protesters may find themselves embedded in a “supportive social network”, that is, they are surrounded by friends and family members who are supportive towards democratization and protest actions in general. The friends and family members may or may not participate in the

Table 7 Time of participatory decision in different protests Q: Do you discuss politics or public affairs with: Frequently

Sometimes

Rarely/Not at all

Your family? 29.3% 45.2% 25.6% 52.1% Your friends? Q: Do you think the political attitudes of your family/friends are the same as yours? Mostly the same

Half and half

55.5% 26.5% Your family Your friends 32.2% 48.3% Q: Do your family/friends support your protest participation? Your family Your friends

20.6% 22.1%

Mostly different 10.1% 9.4%

Agree

So-so

Disagree

71.7% 50.1%

14.5% 27.8%

2.6% 2.6%

Notes 1. “Rarely” and “Not at all” are two separate categories in the original question. It is combined here to simplify the presentation of data. 2. The percentages across a row do not add up to 100% because of the existence of “do not know” answers. 41

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protests themselves but as long as a protester perceives his or her acquaintances as supportive towards his or her action, the likelihood for the person to exhibit sustained participation behaviour should be higher. This argument led us to examine the extent to which protesters in the 4 December rally in 2005 were embedded in supportive social networks. Table 7 shows the data derived from the relevant questions. The vast majority of the protesters either frequently or sometimes discuss politics or public affairs with their friends. More importantly, the protesters reported substantial agreement between themselves and their family members on political issues. Similar to Lee’s (2005) study on political discussion among Hong Kong citizens in general, more political disagreement is encountered among friends. However, only about 10 per cent of the protesters reported that their political attitudes are “mostly different” from their friends. The amount of political disagreement the protesters experienced in their own social networks is much lower than the usual amount of political disagreement an average Hong Kong citizen would face (Lee, 2005). Even more interestingly, the protesters reported that their friends and family members are generally supportive towards their protest participation. It is notable that the percentages of family members and friends supportive towards protest action (71.7% and 50.1% respectively) are even higher than the percentages of family members and friends holding mostly similar political attitudes (55.5% and 32.2% respectively). Table 7 thus shows that the protesters in the 4 December 2005 rally were indeed embedded in supportive social networks. In fact, by cross-tabulating support for protest action from family members and friends, we can see that 79.1 per cent of the protesters had their protest action supported by either their family or friends (or both). On the contrary, among the 724 respondents in the 4 December rally on-site survey, only one single respondent reported that his/her protest participation was opposed by both family and friends. On the whole, we can argue that an important influence of the wave of large-scale protests from 2003 to 2005 on Hong Kong’s political culture is that they have helped developed the cultural and social bases for further protest participation. With past experiences and the cultural and social bases, the “protest participation thresholds” of many citizens were lowered. Facilitation and mobilization efforts in specific protests thus became less important. Nevertheless, it does not mean the protesters’ continual

participation can be taken for granted. After all, the number of participants did fluctuate from one protest to another. In our focus group studies, we also found that some participants in the 1 July protests in 2003 and 2004 refrained from participating in 2005 not because their political attitudes have changed or their general willingness to protest has declined but because they had different perceptions of the political environment at the time. This also implies that the media’s role would not become completely insignificant. How the news media define and construct the political situation of the time would still be an important factor behind individuals’ participatory decision.10 Even more fundamentally, it would remain important for the media to provide a fair, if not a supportive, coverage of the issue of democratic reform and the pro-democracy protests. It should be noted that the media scene in Hong Kong has experienced certain changes since 2003. In early 2004, the Chinese government took an active and leading role in the debate on democratic reform in Hong Kong, culminating in the National People’s Congress ruling out direct elections of the chief executive in 2007. The involvement of the Chinese government put pressure on the Hong Kong media to report on the issue carefully and strategically (Lee and Lin, 2006). It is probably not a coincidence that, in May and June 2005, the Commercial Radio decided not to renew contract with the two most prominent and critical radio phone-in talk-show hosts in the city.11 While Chinese officials have once recognized “one newspaper, one magazine and two mouths” as the major troublemakers within the Hong Kong media, the “two mouths” have already been deprived of their most important platform. Some local media scholars have argued that, in the face of political pressure after the handover, the Hong Kong media have turned increasingly to practices of objectivity as a self-defence strategy (Lee, 2000; Lee and Lin, 2006). It seems that changes in the political situation and the media scene since the 1 July protest in 2003 also led to increasing level of neutrality towards the pro-democracy protest. In the population survey in September 2005, we asked the respondents whether they perceived the media to be supportive of the three 1 July protests from 2003 to 2005. As Table 8 shows, most respondents remembered the Hong Kong media to have been supportive of the 1 July protest in 2003 (56.3%). But the media’s attitudes were perceived to have become increasingly neutral. Only 16.5 per cent of respondents thought that the media were supportive of the 1 July protest in 2005.

Table 8 Citizens’ perceptions of media attitudes towards the three 1 July protests

Media attitudes towards 1 July 2003 protest 1 July 2004 protest 1 July 2005 protest

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Support

Neutral

Oppose

Do not know

56.3% 33.6% 16.5%

27.2% 44.9% 55.6%

2.6% 2.8% 6.9%

13.9% 18.7% 21.0%

THE ROLE OF THE MASS MEDIA IN THE FORMATION OF A RALLY-BASED PRO-DEMOCRACY MOVEMENT IN HONG KONG

The perceived turn to neutrality means that the media certainly could not be regarded as having played a mobilizing role in the 2004 and 2005 protests. However, neutral reporting is not contradictory to a facilitating role. We believe the media remain a facilitator for large-scale protests in Hong Kong though its importance has gone down.

Concluding discussion In sum, drawing upon our on-site surveys and other evidences, our overall contention is that the Hong Kong media have played a highly important facilitating role and possibly a minor mobilizing role in the 1 July 2003 protest. However, after the first large-scale protest, social and cultural bases for continual protest have been developing among the politically active citizens. Protests have become part of citizens’ repertoire of political activities and continual protest participation has been partially driven by the existence of a supportive social network. In terms of the type of roles played by the media, there have not been many changes over the time period. The media are still significant in covering the protests and the issue of democratic reform; transmitting different opinions; serving as a forum for public debate; and conveying the endorsement of the protests (if any) by social and political leaders. In terms of strength of impact, however, the importance and centrality of the media has become weaker as the pro-democracy movement has gained a certain degree of self-sustainability. But, it does not mean that the media would become non-significant in the formation of protests. While we have pointed out that the political environment and media scene have undergone changes from 2003 to 2005, two basic conditions for the media to play a strong facilitative role remains. First, the Hong Kong media remain a significant part of the political communication process by playing a surrogate democracy function (Chan and So, 2004). Second, movement organizations remain weak in mobilizing power. A decentralized, bottom-up mobilization process is still a key to large-scale rallies in Hong Kong. The media are still important in facilitating this bottom-up mobilization process. What does the analytical account given in this article tell us about the role of media in the development of pro-democracy social movement and in the processes of political transition in general? As a concluding discussion, we would like to highlight a number of main points that should be pertinent to the study of media and pro-democracy movements both in Hong Kong and in other countries. First, it has already been pointed out that the relationship between the media and protest in transitional or democratizing societies is likely to be different from that in established democratic societies. In the latter case, with the political establishment enjoying a high level of legitimacy, the media may often serve to maintain the existing hegemony through negative portrayal of anti-government protests (Gitlin, 1980; Reese and Buckalew, 1995). In countries experiencing democratic transition, however, the legitimacy of the establishment is often highly questionable. Unless

the media remain state-controlled, there is no particular reason why the media have to denounce pro-democracy protests to uphold the establishment. In fact, the media in such countries, often in the process of changing from a state organ to an independent institution, may have incentives to provide active support for the pro-democracy movement. Professional journalists, who are often well educated and have wide exposure to international affairs, are also likely to be among the supporters for democratization. During the pro-democracy movement in China in 1989, for example, journalists constituted a major group of supporters joining hands with students asking for more freedom and democracy. Different from most democratizing countries, the Hong Kong media were not state-controlled enterprises fighting for independence. Rather, they were organizations struggling to maintain an existing independence. But in any case, they shared with the pro-democracy movement the concerns of press freedom and civil liberties in general. This is why the Hong Kong media were also generally suspicious towards the proposed national security legislation in 2002 and 2003. Even as they turned to neutrality later on due to professional and/or political concerns, professional journalists in Hong Kong are very likely to share the values underlying the pro-democracy movement. This provides a basis for a more positive treatment of the pro-democracy rallies by the media. Second, this article shows that the Hong Kong media played a highly important role at the beginning of a rallybased pro-democracy movement—it has facilitated the formation of the first historic rally. But, even in this first rally, the media could not be considered as a major mobilizing agent. The argument put forward in the previous paragraph has to be qualified. No matter whether the media and journalists are supportive of the pro-democracy movement in their hearts and mind, media professionalism requires them to follow a certain set of norms and practices. There may be media organizations going so far as to shed the appearance of professionalism and turn themselves fully into advocates but they are the exception rather than the rule. Nevertheless, the media could still facilitate large-scale protests even if they try to remain “professional”. As pointed out earlier, when there is a social consensus on the goal of a movement and when there is a wide range of social and political leaders willing to endorse protest actions, the media would convey a significant amount of mobilizing messages to citizens simply by sticking to their most fundamental role of reporting news “objectively” and covering a diverse range of opinions. In this case, what the media do is actually to serve as a platform for public opinions to be communicated and for various social forces to organize among themselves and mobilize each other. The media can serve as a public sphere not only in the conventional Habermasian sense of facilitating rational debate. They can also be the public sphere for the coordination and organization of collective actions. It also means that the media’s facilitating role would only be as strong as the social consensus existing in the society and the ability of various social forces to utilize the media

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to communicate their views and opinions. We have argued that, in the case of Hong Kong, the pro-democracy social and political organizations do not have strong membership and supporter bases. They do not have much mobilizing power in the conventional sense, that is, the ability to mobilize people to act through a top-down organizational network. However, what they can do is to strengthen their ability to handle the media and utilize media channels for the purpose of mobilization. At this point, it is also important to note that both prodemocracy and conservative forces can use the media to convey their views. If the media can facilitate the prodemocracy movement, they can also facilitate the formation of a conservative movement. In fact, the Chinese government has attempted to organize professionals, experts and academics with relatively conservative views in Hong Kong to counteract the pro-democracy social forces prominent in the Hong Kong media. The outcome of media facilitation is in the end largely dependent upon the social formation of a society. In the most general sense, the relationship between media and a pro-democracy movement in a society would have to be understood in terms of changing social and political conditions. Throughout this article, we do not treat the media role as the independent variable and protest as the dependent variable, or vice versa. Rather, we regard the role of the media in relation to pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong as evolving together under changing social and political conditions, including developments in political culture, changes in governmental leadership, changes in the economic conditions of the city, and so on. Certainly, in a single article, the account given is relatively brief and many details and nuances would be inevitably omitted. For instance, this article has not given substantive treatment of the Chinese government’s changing approach to Hong Kong affairs after the 1 July 2003 protest and how it affected media performance in subsequent events and debates. We also have not discussed the existence of various minor controversies surrounding the pro-democracy protests, such as debates about actual numbers of participants or the debate surrounding which social group is going to lead the march in the 1 July protest in 2005. These controversies probably have also affected media’s treatment of and citizens’ attitudes towards the protests. Nonetheless, with these limitations kept in mind, this article has presented a frame within which the relationship between the media and the rally-based pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong can be understood and further examined.

References Chan, J. M. (2005). The Hong Kong-styled “people power”: The mobilization patterns of the July 1 rally and the reconfiguration of public opinion politics. In C. H. Ng, T. L. Lui & E. K. W. Ma (Eds.), Hong Kong cultural studies (pp. 197–231). Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. (In Chinese)

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Chan, J. M., Lee, P. S. N., & Lee, C. C. (1996). Hong Kong journalists in transition. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Institute of Asia Pacific Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong. Chan, J. M., & So, C. Y. K. (2004). The surrogate democracy function of the media: Hong Kong citizens’ and journalists’ evaluations of media performance. In S. K. Lau et al. (Eds.), Indicators of social development (pp. 249–276). Hong Kong: Hong Kong Institute of Asia Pacific Studies. Chan, J. M., Chau, K., & Lee, F. L. F. (2002). Abstract principle versus concrete interest: A study of education and political opinion in Hong Kong. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 14(1), 54–72. Chan, J. M., & Lee, F. L. F. (2005a). Reconstructing political culture in an energized state of public opinion: Analysis of public discourse on the July 1 protest. Paper presented at the Conference on Cultural Politics in Hong Kong on November 2005 at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. (In Chinese) Chan, J. M., & Lee, F. L. F. (2005b). Mobilization and protest participation in post-handover Hong Kong: A study of three large-scale demonstrations. Occasional paper no. 159. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Institute of Asia Pacific Studies. Chan, J. M., & Lee, F. L. F. (2005c). Media use, looking-glass perception and majority rule principle: A study of perceived public opinion. Paper presented at the International Communication Association Annual Convention held on May 2005 in New York, USA. Chan, J. M., & Lee, F. L. F. (2006). Revision in political parallelism and media convergence during the energized state of public opinion: The case of the July 1 protest in Hong Kong. Manuscript in preparation. (In Chinese) DeGolyer, M., & Scott, J. L. (1996). The myth of political apathy in Hong Kong. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 547, 68–78. Gamson, W., & Modigliani, A. (1987). The changing culture of affirmative action. In R. G. Braungart and M. M. Braungart (Eds.), Research in Political Sociology, Volume 3. Greenwich, Conn.: JAI Press. Gamson, W., & Modigliani, A. (1989). Media discourse and public opinion on nuclear power: A constructionist approach. American Journal of Sociology, 95, 1–37. Gans, H. (2003). Democracy and the news. New York: Oxford University Press. Gitlin, T. (1980). The whole world is watching. New York: Cambridge University Press. Hallin, D. (1986). The “uncensored war.” New York: Oxford University Press. Hocke, P. (1999). Determining the selection bias in local and national newspaper reports on protest events. In D. Rucht, R. Koopmans & F. Neidhardt (Eds.), Acts of dissent: New developments in the study of protests (pp. 131–163). Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. Ku, A. S. (2001a). The public up against the state: Narrative cracks and credibility crisis in post-colonial Hong Kong. Theory, Culture & Society, 18(1), 121–144. Ku, A. S. (2001b). Hegemonic construction, negotiation and displacement: The struggle over right of abode in Hong Kong. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 4(3), 259–278.

THE ROLE OF THE MASS MEDIA IN THE FORMATION OF A RALLY-BASED PRO-DEMOCRACY MOVEMENT IN HONG KONG

Ku, A. S. (2002). Postcolonial cultural trends in Hong Kong: Imagining the local, the national, and the global. In M. K. Chan & A. So (Eds.), Crisis and transformation in China’s Hong Kong. New York: M. E. Sharpe. Kuan, H. C., & Lau, S. K. (1995). The partial vision of democracy in Hong Kong: A survey of popular opinion. The China Journal, 34(2), 239–263. Lam, W. M. (2004). Understanding the political culture of Hong Kong. New York: M. E. Sharpe. Lau, S. K. (1994). Public attitudes towards political leadership in Hong Kong. Asian Survey, 34, 243–257. Lau, S. K. (1998). Democratization, poverty of political leaders, and political inefficacy in Hong Kong. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Institute of Asia Pacific Studies. Occasional Paper No. 72. Lau, S. K., & Kuan, H. C. (1988). The ethos of the Hong Kong Chinese. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press. Lau, T. Y., & To, Y. M. (2002). Walking a tight rope: Hong Kong’s media facing political and economic challenges since sovereignty transfer. In M. K. Chan & A. So (Eds.), Crisis and transformation in China’s Hong Kong. New York: M. E. Sharpe. Lee, C. C. (2000). The paradox of political economy: Media structure, press freedom and regime change in Hong Kong. In C. C. Lee (Ed.), Power, money and media. Illinois: Northwestern University Press. Lee, F. L. F. (2002). Radio phone-in talk shows as politically significant infotainment in Hong Kong. Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, 7(4), 57–79. Lee, F. L. F. (2005). Ordinary political conversation and public opinion expression: Is the existence of discord necessary? Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 82(4), 891–909. Lee, F. L. F. (2006). Collective efficacy, support for democracy and political participation in Hong Kong. International Journal of Public Opinion Research. Lee, F. L. F., & Chan, J. M. (March 2004). Economics trumped democracy? Analysis of post-handover poll data. Twentyfirst Century (online edition), Vol. 24. http://www.cuhk. edu.hk/ics/21c/ (In Chinese) Lee, F. L. F., Chan, J. M., & So, C. Y. K. (2003). Contextualizing political talk radio in Hong Kong: A comparison of citizens’ and journalists’ views. Paper presented at the 2003 Annual Conference of the International Communication Association in San Diego, USA. Lee, F. L. F., Chan, J. M., & So, C. Y. K. (2005). Evaluation of media and understanding of politics: The role of education among Hong Kong citizens. Asian Journal of Communication, 15(1), 37–56. Lee, F. L. F., & Lin, A. M. Y. (2006). Newspaper editorial discourse and the politics of self-censorship in Hong Kong. Discourse & Society, 17(2), 331–358. Lemert, J. (1981). Does mass communication change public opinion after all? Chicago: Nelson-Hall. Lo, S. H. (1999). Citizen participation, political culture and governability in Hong Kong: A critique of the psychocultural approach. In J. Y. S. Cheng (Ed.), Political participation in Hong Kong (pp. 49–69). Hong Kong: City University of Hong Kong Press. Lui, T. L., & Chiu, S. W. K. (2000). Introduction – changing political opportunities and the shaping of collective action: Social movements in Hong Kong. In T. L. Lui & Stephen

W. K. Chiu (Eds.), The dynamics of social movement in Hong Kong (pp. 1–19). Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. McAdam, D. (1982). Political process and the development of black insurgency 1930–1970. Chicago: Chicago University Press. McAdam, D., Tarrow, S., & Tilly, C. (2001). Dynamics of contention. New York: Cambridge University Press. McCarthy, J. D., McPhail, C., Smith, J., & Crishock, L. J. (1999). Electronic and print media representations of Washington DC demonstrations, 1982 and 1991: A demography of description bias. In D. Rucht, R. Koopmans & F. Neidhardt (Eds.), Acts of dissent: New developments in the study of protests (pp. 113–130). Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. McPhail, C., & Schweingruber, D. (1999). Unpacking protest events: A description bias analysis of media records with systematic direct observations of collective action: The 1995 March for Life in Washington DC. In D. Rucht, R. Koopmans & F.riedhelm Neidhardt (Eds.), Acts of dissent: new developments in the study of protests (pp. 164–195). Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. Opp, K. D. (2004). “What is is always becoming what ought to be”: How political action generates a participation norm. European Sociological Review, 20(1), 13–29. Reese, S., & Buckalew, B. (1995). The militarism of local television: The routine framing of the Persian Gulf war. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 12(1), 40–59. Schudson, M. (2003). Sociology of news. New York: Norton. Sing, Ming (2000). Mobilization for political change: The prodemocracy movement in Hong Kong (1980s–1994). In T. L. Lui & S. W. K. Chiu (Eds.), The dynamics of social movement in Hong Kong (pp. 21–53). Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. Sing, M. (2004). Hong Kong’s tortuous democratization. London: Routledge Curzon. So, A. Y. (1999). Hong Kong’s embattled democracy: A societal analysis. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press. Tarrow, S. (1998). Power in movement. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (2nd ed.) Tilly, C. (1978). From mobilization to revolution. Reading: Addison-Wesley. Wong, P. W. (2000). The pro-Chinese democracy movement in Hong Kong. In T. L. Lui & S. W. K. Chiu (Eds.), The dynamics of social movement in Hong Kong (pp. 55–90). Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.

Notes 1.

2.

As in many places around the world, the number of protesters is often a topic of contention between the protest organizers and official organs. The exact number of protesters in the five rallies in Hong Kong has also been a subject of debate. Many academics and research teams were involved in estimating the number of protesters in the different rallies. Here, we state the rough numbers to which the results of most independent research teams come close. The council is currently divided into two halves, with 30 directly elected legislators and 30 legislators returned through functional constituencies in which only a limited number of people belonging to various sectors can vote. The set up of the functional constituencies, combined with

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the proportional representation system used in the direct elections, virtually ensure the presence of a majority of conservatives within the council. Moreover, when the legislature has to pass a bill initiated by a legislator, the bill has to get more than half of the votes among the directly elected legislators and also more than half among the legislators from functional constituencies. It makes the chance of the democrats initiating and passing any politically radical bills almost impossible. On the contrary, if a bill is initiated by the government, it only needs the support from half of the legislature as a whole. This gives distinct advantage to government-initiated bills over legislatorinitiated ones. We have not conducted or found studies on how Hong Kong people responded to Tung’s re-election in 2002. But, in summer 2005, we conducted a range of focus group studies to understand the protest participants’ opinions about democracy and politics in Hong Kong. Almost all focus group participants argued that they regard Hong Kong’s problem as rooted in the system. When asked about what made them realize the problem as being rooted in the system, some of them pointed to the re-election of Tung as a crucial moment. On 1 July 2003, for instance, the front page of Apple Daily carried a banner headline that read “Go to the street and see you there.” The sample sizes of the five on-site surveys range from 597 to 788. The five on-site surveys used more or less the same sampling method to spread the selection of respondents over time and space, and also eliminate the arbitrary decisions made by the on-site interviewers. However, because of space concerns, we cannot explicate the methods in details here. Information is available in Chan and Lee (2005b) and from the authors upon request. For more discussion on the extent to which a two-step flow process was involved in the formation of large-scale protests in Hong Kong, see Chan and Lee (2005b).

3.

4.

5.

6.

(continued from page 27)

Wildman, S., & Siwek, S. (1988). International trade in films and television programmes. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger Publishing.

Films Cited 15 (2003). Director Royston Tan. Zhao Wei Films, Singapore. Be With Me (2004). Director Eric Khoo. Zhao Wei Films, Singapore. Children of Heaven (1997). Producer A. Esfandiari. A. and writer/ director Majid Majidi. Miramax Films, Iran. Homerun (2003). Director J. Neo and producer D. Yun. Raintree Productions, Singapore. Infernal Affairs I /Wu Jian Dao (2002). Director Wai Keung Lau and Siu Fai Mak. 46

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

Social movement theorists have defined “repertoire of contention” as the set of contentious actions and activities that people within a society share. Historical developments of social movements are also closely tied to changes in repertoire of contention. See Tilly (1978) and Tarrow (1998) for more discussion. There are heavy constraints on the number of questions we can include in an on-site survey. Therefore, the same set of questions on perceived influence of various agents was omitted in the on-site surveys during the two rallies in 2005 as we turned to examine other conceptual issues and problems. Willingness to protest was measured in each survey with a five-point Likert scaled question which follows a supportfor-further-democratization question. Due to differences in the political situations surrounding the three surveys, the support-for-democratization question differs slightly across the survey. See Chan and Lee (2005c) and Lee (2005, 2006) for detailed information about the survey methods and measurements. Information is also available from the authors upon request. In the social movement literature, this is an issue of how the media help “frame” the social and political issues relevant to protest movements. See Gamson and Modigliani (1987 and 1989). As in most cases of suspected self-censorship, concrete evidences of political concerns behind the decision are not available. But the decision of the Commercial Radio did create a prominent controversy and serious concerns about press freedom in Hong Kong.

The work described in this paper was fully supported by a grant from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (Project no. cuhk4136/04h). This paper was presented at the 14th AMIC Annual Conference on Media and Society in Asia: Transformations and Transition held on 18–21 July 2005 in Beijing, China.

Infernal Affairs II /Wu Jian Dao 2 (2003). Director Wai Keung Lau and Siu Fai Mak. Perth: The Geylang Massacre (2004). Director Djinn and producer J. Foo. Working Man Films, Singapore. Rice Rhapsody (2004). Director K. Bei. Kenbrioli films, Singapore. Song of the Stork/Vu Khuc Con Co (2001). Director Jonathan Foo and Phan Quang Binh Nguyen. The Eye/Jian Gui (2002). Director Oxide Pang Chun and Danny Pang. The Teenaged Textbook Movie (1998). Director Philip Lim. Turn Left Turn Right/Heung Joh Chow Heung Yau Chow (2003). Director Johnny To and Wai Ka-Fai. This paper was presented at the 14th AMIC Annual Conference on Media and Society in Asia: Transformations and Transition held on 18–21 July 2005 in Beijing, China.

Covering Disasters and the Media Mandate The 2004 Tsunami The Western media have been accused of judging the extent of Asian disasters by the number of Europeans affected. Do such assumptions persist in panAsian publications, which now enjoy the benefits of increasingly globalized communications? Does the press suffer from disaster exhaustion, reporting the initial impact but losing interest as the spotlight of international coverage moves elsewhere? Do national priorities frame the reporting of other people’s disasters? This paper considers these questions by examining reportage of the 2004 tsunami by eight regional newspapers. The paper will analyse the themes adopted, the sources privileged and the issues pursued. It addresses the journalists’ responsibilities in such events.

ALAN KNIGHT Disasters Disasters impact on whole communities and wide geographic locations. They may involve thousands of immediate deaths, dislocation of communications, serious health problems and damage to local economies. A major accident such as a train derailment might result in a large loss of life but its impact may be relatively short-lived. A disaster like a tsunami will also have terrible short-term consequences but its shadow will fall much longer through the destruction of government and NGO services, the disruption of local and national economies, and the stress, hardship and lingering grief among affected populations. Disasters are more than mere accidents and should not be reported in those terms. Most important, accidents and disasters are different kinds of events. Collapsed buildings, train derailments or air crashes occur at one location and they don’t threaten a community or disrupt its ability to respond. Disasters disrupt communities and the systems that make them work. It may be hours, days, weeks or months before those systems are back in place. (Scanlon, 1998) The Indian government’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting issued a training paper, which said there were no “unique disasters” and therefore there was no blueprint for dealing with them. “Disasters happen when least expected, taking everyone by surprise,” the paper said. Meanwhile, media demands on government, reflected postdisaster demands on emergency services, “well in excess of usual”. Disasters, inevitably, are complex. They require effective inter-media and intra-media cooperation. Alan Knight is Professor and Chair of Journalism and Media Studies at Central Queensland University, Australia.

Yet, contrasting professional priorities often emphasize and exacerbate rather than eliminate organizational conflict. Consequently, the psychosocial needs of the bereaved, survivors, witnesses and rescuers can easily be subordinated to the priorities of the media. The media commands an extraordinary power to do good or bad because of its capacity to influence events and minds. But, the media is often regarded as searching, revelatory and persistent in its pursuit of vested interests. The media is also, in itself, powerful. Putting reality together, the media sets agendas, makes news and impacts directly on events as they unfold. By whatever means or forms the mass media revamps style and presentation; it remains fiercely conventional in content and representation. (Role of the media in the aftermath of disaster, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India, 2001) The ministry paper said that the personal and social impact of disasters quickly extended outside of those immediately and directly involved, affecting entire communities and concerned outsiders. “Invariably, they become public property,” it reported. The media played a critical role in the recording, responding, understanding and mitigation of disasters. The mass media had an important part of disaster prevention and management. Newspapers, television, radio and the Internet provided easy access to large public and often constituted a robust communication system which remained working even in cases of a partial breakdown of the infrastructure. On the other hand, sources dealing with the media know that the media can be difficult channels. There is no direct control over the content and form of information transmitted. Sources who want to communicate with the public have to deal with journalists who do not form a passive “information channel” but act as gatekeepers, interpreters 47

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and commentators. The media, hence, can support or obstruct the disaster management of government agencies and relief organizations (Natural disasters and the media, Hans Peters, http://www.chmi.cz/katastrofy/peters.html).

Questions about disaster coverage Mass media coverage of disasters, in particular Western mass media coverage of Asian disasters has been subjected to lengthy and detailed criticisms by journalists, academics, NGOs and government agencies. But, what is myth and what is based on contemporary reportage? It has been said that reporters do not bother to follow up on disaster stories written about Third World countries. It has been claimed that incomplete and sometimes inaccurate stories and the failure of reporters to cover the stories of survivors leave policy makers and the public illinformed, resulting in inadequate policy choices and assistance. (Bachmann, 1996). Foreign reporters of disasters often framed these reports in terms of domestic politics (Broinowski, 1999; Adams, 1986). Such frames failed to interrogate the underlying ideologies of reportage and legitimized dominant perspectives (Durham, 1998).

work to be examined along with previously dominant Western publications. This study examined the tsunami reportage of eight Asia Pacific newspapers over a three-week period. These were The Australian (Australia), The Times of India (India), The Jakarta Post (Indonesia), The Bangkok Post (Thailand), The New Straits Times (Malaysia), The Manila Bulletin (Philippines), China Daily (China) and The South China Morning Post (Hong Kong) (see Appendix A). Together, they produced 2,214 tsunami-related items, including news reports, editorials, opinion pieces, sports reports and letters. The material was retrieved from the Factiva database, using “tsunami” as a key word from whole articles, excluding re-published news, recurring data and obituaries, sports and calendars. The study began on Boxing Day 2004, the day tsunami hit. It concluded three weeks later. Figure 1 Combined tsunami coverage

In a disaster of course, it’s a huge challenge to get beyond the usual official sources (governments, private relief agencies) and the heart-wrenching misery of victims. Overwhelmed by misery, it’s hard to point up the positive (Bachmann, 1996). Western reporters of the tsunami were accused of engaging in a “corpse show”, abandoning restraints which might have been deployed when the victims were mostly white (Leach, 2005). Reporters were warned against assessing the tsunami in terms of a death count (Bernheimer, 2005). Insensitive reporting of disasters often backfired, exacerbating the survivor’s grief, provoking readers’ anger and burdening newspaper’s staff with self-doubt (Burroughs and Gyles, 1997). A Taipei newspaper even observed that “overstated and an inappropriate reporting,” could exaggerate the perceived disaster so that residents lost further money through “falling real-estate prices” (Taipei Times, 21 September 2004). Asian countries were said to be ignored by Western media until a major disaster occurred, after which the victims were portrayed as passive receivers of Western aid. (O’Malley, 1995) Within this pattern of low coverage, Western citizens saw more reports concerned with humanitarian aid, suggesting an information divide along income, education and regional lines (Bacon and Nash, 2004).

Newspapers Newspapers remain the dominant creators of news, providing source material for news agencies while framing issues and setting agendas frequently for television and radio. Since stories are now reproduced on their websites and contained in news databases, the content of Asian regional newspapers were available internationally, allowing their 48

The graph shows a rapid increase in reportage, which remained at a high level throughout the study period. Six of the newspapers allocated significant resources and space in the news-hole to the tsunami story. There were five reports on the day it struck, 17 the day after that and 70 on the third day. Three weeks later, the eight papers published 26 reports between them. The South East Asian Press Alliance observed that media coverage of the catastrophe (the tsunami) was swift and sustained. Global reportage was instrumental in mobilizing relief work, aid delivery, relief operations and assistance to victims in this calamity, the Alliance said: But, coverage and reportage of tragedies like this also has a downside. In the rush to give the public scoops and accounts of events, journalists sometimes tend to gloss over facts, abuse the use of statistics and oversimplify complex situations. Journalists who are sent to disaster areas are often unprepared for the job. They are overwhelmed and understandably shocked by what they have come to witness and chronicle but, at this, they can often be caught in superficial coverage, failing to deepen the world’s understanding of the phenomena, and unable to give context to their accounts (SEAPA, 2005).

COVERING DISASTERS AND THE MEDIA MANDATE: THE 2004 TSUNAMI

The Times of India, aided by time zones and distance from the epicentre, produced the first reports in this group. It reported that “waves of fury and destruction” had hit the Tamil Naidu coast, washing away 2,500 people. (26 December 2004) It noted that the tsunami had “caught the [Indian] government napping”. “Though the tsunami that hit Sumatra island took three hours to crash into the Indian coast, no measures to save life and property could be taken” (Times of India, 26 December 2004). By the following day, the tsunami story had been picked up by The Australian, The Jakarta Post, and The Bangkok Post. The Australian reported that the Cocos Islands, a remote Australian outpost in the India Ocean, had been hit by a half-metre wave apparently resulting from an earthquake. Unfortunately, The Bangkok Post, in a very early report, dismissed the waves as “not strong enough” to be called a tsunami. The Post claimed, “No danger odd tide will sink Phuket”. Coverage rapidly increased, rising to 158 items on 31 December. By that time, the extent of the devastation had become clear, the aid effort was getting underway and reports from outlying areas were indicating there was even more grief to come. The New Straits Times reported that the tsunami struck more than a dozen countries leaving behind death and destruction. The geographic scope was unprecedented. Entire communities, towns, fishing villages and farms have been wiped out. All tourism infrastructure vanished, particularly in Phuket and Sri Lanka, and with it, the livelihood of millions destroyed and literally washed away. To date, more than 120,000 have died, comprising more than 40 nationalities, and the number rising steadily by the hour. Many are missing and as yet unaccounted for. There is little way of knowing, for now, whether those missing have been killed or are merely cut off. Others may never be found. Millions have been left homeless and some with just the clothes on their backs. No funerals and no ceremonies for the loved ones. No one wants to prolong the agony (The New Straits Times, 31 December 2004). Reported items remained at a high level for much of the study period, which concluded on 16 January. Sharp declines in coverage, which occurred on 2, 9 and 16 January were explained by the absence of The Australian, The New Straits Times, The Times of India and China Daily, which did not publish on Sundays.

Newspaper coverage Coverage peaked with 165 items on 6 January, almost two weeks after the waves struck. Items were examined in terms of themes (Appendix B) and primary sources (Appendix C). By now, there were many reports on the relief effort (26%). The plight of victims continued to be stressed through a series of human-interest stories (20%). Charities contributing to that effort also were important (19%) while stories about economic recovery represented only 15 per

cent. Stories explaining scientific aspects of the tsunami were minimal (6%) while those concerned with the body count were negligible (4%). Figure 2 Themes on 6 January 2005

Journalists preferred government sources. If the police, medical authorities and the military were included, these accounted for 37 percent of primary sources, by far the single largest group quoted on that day. Figure 3 All Papers by Source

The New Straits Times Penang Bureau Chief Sarban Singh said that as the first news of the disaster broke, he immediately went to government agencies, which dealt with accidents and disasters: First, we checked with the police, the hotels along the affected stretch and then we went to the hospitals to check on casualties. We also called some police contacts. Then, we checked with other bureau chiefs. Then, we went back to the police (Singh, 2005). He said that trying to find out what had actually happened was “like looking for a needle in a haystack”. Even the 49

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government sources, preferred by so many journalists, seemed confused. The hardest part was getting information quickly. There were hearsay reports from survivors about whole families being swept away. We were told, “There are bodies here. There are bodies there”. These were all rumours. There were conflicting reports about casualties, which were thought to be much higher. The authorities were not quick in releasing the names of the dead. There was a lot of confusion around. If you ask me, they didn’t really know what was happening (Singh, 2005). Media contacted media, seeking information. The interconnected nature of globalized media was revealed which fed on each other, adding to the rumour and confusion. Singh said that while he was listening to reports from India, Sri Lanka and Sumatra, information from his own country, Malaysia was “trickling in”. I had friends and family calling me, asking me, “Is it true that so many people died?” I had calls from Tokyo, from Australia, from the UK, asking me, “Is the government trying to hide something? Why are the casualties so low [in Malaysia]? They thought it was a cover-up, trying to protect the travel industry. But, not one foreigner died in Penang (Singh, 2005). Non-government organizations (NGO), which might be considered as central to the relief effort, accounted for only 13 per cent of sources. Businesses which were largely engaged in providing services or raising funds represented 12 per cent of primary sources in the articles studied. Even though half of the newspapers examined were located in tsunami zone, eyewitnesses (12%) and relatives (3%) were relatively unimportant.

Contrasting themes and sources The China Daily had eight articles dealing with the tsunami on 6 January with 37 per cent of these dealing with Chinese charity efforts. The China Daily relied heavily on government sources, accounting for 37 per cent of primary sources. Benefactors were more commonly quoted (24%) than medical, military or relatives sources (all 13%). Chinese victims and science each accounted for 25 per cent of the themes covered.

The South China Morning Post, a privately owned paper which operated in Hong Kong under the “one country, two systems” policy also relied heavily on government sources (19%). However it ran more stories (19) and its sources were more diverse. NGOs also accounted for 19 per cent of sources and businesses (18%) were also widely quoted. Eyewitnesses (13%) and benefactors (13%) were also quoted. Charity was also the major theme reported by the SCMP (33%). Once again, however, the themes were more diverse with relief and victims (both 26%) being the next major sectors. The South China Morning Post editorialized that there was a desperate need for aid to be quickly made available, devoting 33 per cent of its coverage to charity. It reported that China’s biggest shipping company, COSCO, donated 10 million yuan to the China Red Cross and promised it would help arrange shipments of relief materials if needed. Meanwhile, more than 100 Hong Kong celebrities were to take part in a seven-hour Crossing Borders Fund-raising Show to raise money for tsunami victims, urging people to care about the earth. Action star Jet Li, who survived the disaster in the Maldives, also planned to attend (SCMP, 6 January 2005). The SCMP said that massive investment was needed to help communities rebuild their lives. The indiscriminate destruction caused by the tsunami has made many problems around the world seem insignificant, even petty. All that matters now is to ensure that the victims get help. But, the way in which the disaster has drawn people together could have repercussions extending beyond the relief operations—or, at least, we hope so. Two of the worst hit areas have the most to gain. The people of Aceh in Indonesia and those living in the north and east of Sri Lanka were already suffering before the giant waves struck. Both have endured decades of civil war between government forces and separatists. They have much in common, including the people’s deep distrust of the government. Both have battled the ravages of war and the misery it brings. Both areas lack development. Most of their people are poor. Now, they also share the much greater burden

Figure 4 Tsunami coverage by publication

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COVERING DISASTERS AND THE MEDIA MANDATE: THE 2004 TSUNAMI

of facing up to the devastation caused by the tsunami. But here, amid the ruins, lies a slim chance of a better future. The desire for peace and unity is one that the Indonesian and Sri Lankan governments should not miss (SCMP, 6 January 2005). C. K. Lau, the Executive Editor of The South China Morning Post, said that the tsunami was a major news story in Hong Kong, even though it was far removed from the former British colony. The SCMP did not consider itself “parochial”, he said: The Post has never been very parochial and sees itself as having a duty to report major happenings around the world. Any disasters that claim thousands of lives deserve proper coverage. This explains the Post’s extensive coverage of the tsunami attacks (Lau, 2005). The Australian, based in a country not directly affected by the tsunami, published the most articles overall (446) on the disaster during the three-week period. On 6 January, it published 23 articles. It focused on the relief effort (30%) and victims (26%). The economic impact of the tsunami, science and even the body count (all 9%) were seen as relatively minor issues. The Australian preferred government sources (40%) with NGOs also representing a major source (23%). Relatives and businesses were also quoted (both 9%). Unlike all of the other newspapers, The Times of India saw economic impact (25%) as the major story on 6 January. The relief effort, mainly reported in India (17%) and scientific aspects (14%) were also seen as important. Reports on victims accounted for only nine per cent of the reports studied. Charity and crime were of minor importance (6% each). Sources were diverse with government, while still the most favoured source, accounted for 22 per cent of primary sources. Business sources were also important (17%). Eyewitnesses (9%), benefactors (9%) and NGOs (6%) were seen as less important. The New Straits Times, based in Kuala Lumpur, in contrast, focussed on charity (32%) followed by relief and victims (both 22%). The economic impact of the tsunami accounted for only 9 per cent of stories. The New Straits Times had an unusually high number of eyewitness sources (20%), only a little less than government sources (27%). Business sources (13%) and NGOs (10%) were seen as less important. The Manila Bulletin ran nine tsunami stories on 6 January. Forty two per cent were concerned with relief while the economic impact accounted for 25 per cent of these reports. The Manila Bulletin had the highest reliance on government sources (60%). Stories about the relief effort represented 41 per cent of The Jakarta Post’s coverage on 6 January, reflecting the massive aid work underway in Indonesia. Reports on economic impact (17%), victims and charity (both 13%) were also important. NGOs were heavily quoted (27%) with government sources remaining the most popular (31%). The Bangkok Post stressed relief and victims (both 29%). The economic impact, particularly on the tourism industry

was also seen as important (18%). It made extensive use of eyewitnesses (30%), being the only newspaper to use them more extensively than government sources (14%). Business and NGOs were also less quoted (both 14%).

The coverage reviewed So what of the claims made by academics and analysts about media coverage of disasters? How should these claims be measured against newspaper journalists’ tsunami coverage? Clearly in the case of the tsunami, reporters and editors did not abandon the story after the initial impact. This, in part, may be explained by the nature of the story itself. The tsunami hit many countries with different communications infrastructure so that reports of its devastation did not globalize simultaneously. Secondly, the story’s many elements unfolded over a period; the wave’s first impact, the first photos, the tales of survivors, the obliteration of isolated communities, the relief effort, the work of international volunteers, the economic ruin, the fate of orphans and, in some cases, the political repercussions. However, the amount of space, reporters and resources allocated by most newspapers indicated a commitment to detailed reportage of the tsunami. The number and variety of stories (2,214 in eight papers over three weeks) should have allowed for a diversity of reporting which might help inform readers. The Times of India carried 37 reports in a single day (30 December 2004). Smaller newspapers such as The Jakarta Post carried fewer but much longer reports which included opinion pieces, editorials and analyses. The complex and confused magnitude of the event contributed to inaccuracies as journalists strove to find credible sources. The reliance on official sources, which themselves were sometimes misinformed or confused led The Bangkok Post to initially report that the waves were not a tsunami at all. As previously stated, the reports reviewed overwhelmingly prioritized government sources. This was the case even with The Australian, a privately owned newspaper located in a free speech country, which

Figure 5 Newspaper reports by words (6 January 2005)

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was largely untouched by the tsunami. The dominant perspectives of politicians and their parties were thusly endorsed ahead of the views of eyewitnesses. However, the plight of the victims was widely reported, if often through the relatively remote and other than disinterested eyes of government. Many journalists believed this coverage contributed to global support for the relief effort. The Jakarta Post editorialized that as a result, “the nation and the rest of the world” were with the victims. Thanks to global media coverage and the technology to bring the news and images of the disaster to people’s living rooms almost instantaneously, the cries for help from the people of Aceh, India and Sri Lanka—the three countries worst hit—were heard loud and clear all across the world. The scale of death, destruction and displacement of people is simply beyond the imagination of most people. But, one thing most can comprehend, to some degree, is the suffering that people go through after losing loved ones, their homes or their livelihood (The Jakarta Post, 6 January 2005). Figure 6 Origins of sources

Most of the reports studied, located their sources in each newspaper’s home country. This means that reports of this international story were overwhelmingly framed by each country’s domestic perspectives. Newspapers relied on local reporters and sub-editors rather than foreign correspondents or even international interviews. Even The Australian, located 55 per cent of its 6 January 2005 reports inside Australia, indicating that the tsunami was seen as a domestic story, even though the tsunami never touched Australian shores. Where were the foreign correspondents on that day? However, fears that reportage would be little more than a body count, appeared to be unrealized. By 6 January, stories leading with body counts represented only four per cent of those studied.

Journalists as victims Journalists who cover disasters can become victims themselves. Reporters and photographers attending a conference held in Guatemala City in 2004 to consider “Professional risks and covering disasters” complained of sleep disorders, eating poorly and difficulties in forgetting about work. According to the instructor … “They found poor time management in newsrooms; they were tired; 52

they also experienced stress and poor quality of life with their families and socially (they work too many useless hours and sometimes have exhausting down-time, and others are forced to redo parts of their stories); and assignments are thrown out by the editors because of lack of street knowledge and also the lack of planning for their stories that includes travel, which increases the risk of accidents, illnesses and stressful situations.” The Dart Centre for Journalism and Trauma reprinted US Army guidelines for troops exposed to corpses, stating they may be helpful to reporters and photographers covering the tsunami aftermath, as well as to editors back in the newsroom. The intense sensory experience, often combined with emotion-provoking thoughts, could form extremely vivid, painful memories that could become the seeds of post-traumatic stress disorder. It said: Being exposed to large numbers of dead bodies is not a normal part of human experience. Therefore, when you are exposed to bodies, you should not be surprised to feel things you are not used to … You may feel sorrow, regret, repulsion, disgust, anger and futility. Remember these are normal experiences given the situation in which you have been placed. Humour [sic], even graveyard humour, is helpful if it remains on a witty and relatively abstract level. It is unhelpful when it becomes too gross, too personal (e.g. comments or practical jokes which pick on members of the team who need support, not ridicule) or too disrespectful of the individual dead. Some members of the team may become upset at excessive graveyard humour and even the joker may remember it with guilt years later (Tips for Mass Casualty Disasters, Dart Centre, 2005). Journalists should try to stay fit, not ignore stress and talk to and support fellow team members, the Dart centre advised. Coverage of disasters tested the physical and emotional strength of reporters on the scene, according to the US-based Poynter Institute. Poynter cited BBC correspondent Jonathan Charles who referred to the long, gruelling days involved in covering people affected by the tsunami. After spending a day following a 28-year-old mother in search of her children, Charles wondered what he should say to her. “… [S]he was clinging to the belief her children would be fine. It’s clear from what I’ve seen that her optimism is unlikely to be realistic,” he writes. “… It’s that knowledge which makes it hard to cover this story.” “The days are very, very long,” he wrote. “As we all know, tiredness is the friend of PTSD (Posttraumatic Stress Disorder)” (Poynter, 2005). Cratis Hippocrates, the former head of journalism at Queensland University of Technology, studied what happened to reporters who covered a tsunami that hit Papua New Guinea in 1998. The tidal wave killed about 3,000 people. In a 1998 speech at Michigan State University, Hippocrates said, “Trauma in the newsroom exists. It’s a real thing.” He said journalists, especially news managers,

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had difficulty in dealing with that trauma. “Journalists have a history of denial. There is a perception that you are unprofessional if ‘you can’t handle it’,” Hippocrates said. “Journalists claim they are unaffected to their colleagues. But, this false bravado takes its toll” (http://www.notrainnogain.org/train/res/reparc/disaster.asp).

of local politics, language and practices. Previous studies of such foreign correspondents show that they fall back on official statements and each other’s stories as sources. Meanwhile, the distribution systems traditional media outlets, such as newspapers, are subject to are the same sorts of disaster-created disruption suffered by governments and NGOs in the affected zones. To be fair by journalists, they have to work against many odds in covering disasters. Events unfold by the minute and there is much confusion. Reliable assessments of damage are not always forthcoming, and some disaster sites are not easily accessible. In such situations, they have to improvise and make do with whatever is available and speak to whoever is contactable. In this process, distortions can occur (Nivaran, 2003).

Media mandates Journalists seek to inform, educate and entertain their audience but not necessarily in that order. The newspapers which covered the tsunami informed their readers about the unfolding social and economic impact of and responses to the tsunami. There was less emphasis on education about the waves, with minimal or even negligible reports on the scientific aspects of the disaster. But, there was a great deal of often prurient entertainment derived from images of the destruction, tales of suffering and even occasional reports of heroism. Journalists were expected to do more than merely report official versions of the facts. Mass media had the responsibility to safeguard citizens’ lives, according to a briefing prepared by the Indian Ministry for Information and Broadcasting. Reporters should seek the truth. The ministry said they should take care not to bring to light inaccurate, misleading or distorted material. However, journalists should also collect such information with discretion, even under such difficult circumstances. According to the Indian ministry, information should not be gathered through intimidation, harassment or persistent pursuit. Such demands fit within the guidelines established by the journalists’ code of ethics. But, disasters required special care. The ministry said that in cases involving grief or shock, enquiries must be carried out and approaches made with sympathy and discretion. The end-product must be handled sensitively. The mass media have to do the following.

Old technology, such as newspapers, the radio and television stations which are influenced by their news agendas, may lack the ability to swiftly certify and relay information which may be complex and regionally specific. Jan Schaffer, the Executive Director of the Pew Centre for Civic Journalism, said that Western journalists frequently saw themselves as watchdogs acting in the public interest. But, when it came to reporting disasters, they also needed to act as guide dogs. She said the media, in addition to covering the incremental advances in the day’s news, should take on the following roles:

•

•

Inform the living regarding disasters and safeguard measures. • Inform the citizens regarding the danger that confronts them and how they can save themselves. • Inform the citizens of preventive steps against such disasters. • Tell the citizens about the relief supplies available and the place of availability so that the disaster-struck can have direct access. • Assist the government and the non-governmental organizations providing relief supplies to the people. (Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India, 2001) These recommendations assumed that mainstream media journalists could collect vital information which even official sources might have been, initially at least, unable to supply. The ability to gather such information and assess it before it is authenticated for distribution is critical here. It is core to the journalists’ responsibilities, which electronic media with frequently less journalists at their disposal than newspapers have difficulties fulfilling. Parachute journalists who they drop into disaster zones to fill the holes in coverage may undermine attempts to provide informed reports by circulating stories, created in ignorance

•

•

• •

As a healer: Either in the news pages or in another civic space, being a forum where people can vent their emotions or share their grief and initiate the healing process. As a convener: Inviting people to gather, to meet and talk—to not be alone, to participate in what is, after all, one of the most old-fashioned ways of getting news and information—in face-to-face conversation. As a facilitator for deliberation or volunteering: The newspaper—in an expansion of its consumer news role—can give readers road maps for things they can do, some ways they might help out. As a synthesizer of ideas and solutions: The newspaper can help harness the community’s collective energy. As a framer: It can help report and imagine how the community can cope and move forward. (Schaffer, 1997)

It may be that Ms Schaffer was expecting too much of journalists. Newspapers provided limited space for public exchanges of ideas through letter-to-the-editor pages and occasional invited op ed pieces. But, in the aftermath of the tsunami, emotions, opinions and experiences were more widely shared on the Internet through Web postings, discussion groups and “blogs”. It was here on amateurcreated, -maintained and -controlled but internationally distributed sites where thousands met and talked. Websites globally provided updated information on where people could donate funds, provide support, contact NGOs and even contact missing relatives. Conventional media, staffed by traditional journalists, would have been hard-pressed to equal such efforts. 53

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Journalists, however, are trained to synthesize and present ideas. By publication through recognized channels, they become part of identifiable information brands and can be judged accordingly. Anonymous Web postings would, and on reflection, should not be granted similar credibility. Mainstream media framed this certified news in ways which news consumers could understand, comprehend and integrate. Ultimately, that is the mandate of professional journalists.

China Daily Business Weekly, The China Daily (Hong Kong edition), Shanghai Star, Beijing Weekend and 21st Century (China Daily). The Manila Bulletin was the Philippines largest circulation Englishlanguage newspaper. A broadsheet, it began publishing in 1901. The Philippines’ oldest existing newspaper, The Bulletin started as a shipping journal in 1900. In 1912, The Manila Bulletin expanded to include news of general interest. It later became Bulletin Today owned by Hans Menzi. In 1986, it resumed publication under new owner, Emilio Yap (Media Museum).

Appendix A—Regional newspapers The Australian is the Australian flagship of Rupert Murdoch’s USbased news group. Its journalists, photographers and artists watch Australia from nine permanent bureaux around the country, including one in every state and territory capital, and in Cairns. Overseas, it has more offices than any other Australian newspaper or newspaper group, with staff correspondents in Washington, London, Tokyo, Beijing, Jakarta, Bangkok, Wellington, Honiara, New York and Los Angeles (Factiva, 2005). The New Straits Times was established on 15 July 1845, making it one of the oldest English-language newspaper in the region. Originally known as The Straits Times, its name was derived from the Straits of Malacca, a busy shipping lane in the last century. It is published by the publicly listed New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd (New Straits Times). The Times of India is published in Delhi and nine other cities across India. The first edition of The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce, later to be called The Times of India, was launched in Bombay in 1838. After several years of change, evolution and growth in the paper’s character, Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd, the proprietors of The Times of India Group, was established with the principal objective of publishing newspapers, journals, magazines and books. The Times of India is the flagship brand of the Group. It is India’s premier English daily and world’s largest circulated English broadsheet daily (Benett, Coleman & Co Ltd, http://www.timesofindia.com/). The South China Morning Post began publication in Hong Kong in 1904, where it is the former British colony’s leading English language newspaper. SCMP Group Limited, through various operating subsidiaries, publishes The South China Morning Post and The Sunday Morning Post, SCMP.com and the Chinese editions of Cosmopolitan, Harper’s Bazaar, CosmoGirl!, Maxim and Automobile (SCMP Group). The Bangkok Post is a leading Thai Newspaper produced by the Post Publishing Company. The Jakarta Post was first published in 1983. Its publisher, PT Bina Media Tenggara, was founded in late 1982 as an independent newspaper institution privately owned by four competing Indonesian media groups publishing some of the leading national publications: Suara Karya, Kompas, Sinar Harapan and Tempo. Ten per cent of equity (later increased to 20 per cent) was provided as a collective share of all employees (The Jakarta Post). The China Daily, the only national English language newspaper in China, was established on 1 June 1981. The paper is printed in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, New York and Jakarta. Its circulation is 200,000, onethird of which is abroad in more than 150 countries and regions. As a newspaper group, The China Daily also runs 54

Appendix B—Themes Relief: These stories cover the application of aid, through the distribution of food supplies, the clearing of debris and the construction of key facilities. This included the provision of 1.2 million pairs of medical gloves to protect the relief workers (New Straits Times, 6 January 2005). Victims: These “human interest” stories are concerned with the experiences of the survivors. They include accounts of the immediate impact of the tsunami as well as the plight of those remaining in wrecked communities. Science: These include scientific speculation about tsunamis, research on the impact on wildlife and anthropological speculation about the fate of primitive tribes living in certain coastal areas. One report called for seismologists, geologists and other scientists to “hold hands”. Body count: Stories in this category focus on the progressive death toll. The toll could be that of an individual country or a total count. These approaches seeking to gauge the size of the disaster were dismissed by an Indian commentator as a “corpse count”. Charity: These stories refer to efforts to raise funds for the survivors. They include reports of Taiping prison inmates who pledged part of the allowances, an unemployed person in Hong Kong contributing to a charity auction and Chinese ship workers making individual donations. Celebrity: Celebrity stories are related to those referring to charity. However, they focus instead on the famous; film stars, pop singers and sports people engaged in the fund-raising process. In these cases, the fame of the participants creates the story rather than their charitable activities. Economic: Economic stories engage with the broader, long-term financial impacts of the tsunamis. They may refer to ruined fishing fleets, disruptions to tourism and the long-term damage caused by destroyed infrastructure. Crime: These included reports of looting and even a gang masquerading as charity collectors. Other: Stories here cover a wide range of themes. These might include tsunami warnings, or the roles the media should play in mega disasters like the tsunami. The disbandment of the “tsunami core group” established to coordinate aid fell into this category (Times of India, 6 January 2005).

Appendix C—Sources Government: Government sources in this instance can include prime ministers, ministers, regional governors, ambassadors and spokespersons. It includes official statements, cabinet papers and media releases. NGOs: Non-government organizations include national and

COVERING DISASTERS AND THE MEDIA MANDATE: THE 2004 TSUNAMI

international aid agencies. This category includes the United Nations and its various arms, as well as bodies such as the International Red Cross. Eyewitnesses: This category includes victims, tourists and even journalists who were involved in the actual event and its aftermaths. Business: Public and private corporations, and companies and their spokespersons Relatives: Families of victims Medical: Doctors, nurses, treatment centres, hospitals and their spokespersons Police: Police and security services Military: Local and foreign armed forces responding to the tsunami

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Nivaran, D. (2003, June 29). Going beyond body counts and helicopter journalism. South Asian Network for disaster mitigation. Retrieved on 5 April 2005 from http://www. duryognivaran.org/indexnew.php?id=38 Nivaran, D. (6–8 March 1996). Proceedings: Workshop on gender and disasters held on 6–8 March 1996. Retrieved on 5 April 2005 from http://www.ssri.hawaii.edu/research/ GDWwebsite/pdf/PakistanConf.pdf O’Malley, B. (19 May 1995). Hooked on disaster. Times Educational Supplement, no. 4116, p. VII. Retrieved on 4 April 2005 from Infotrac database. Ochberg, F. (Fall 1996). A primer on covering victims. Nieman Reports, 50(3), 21. Retrieved on 4 April 2005 from Infotrac database. Oil-stained legacy. (August – September 1994). National Wildlife, 32(5), 37. Retrieved on 4 April 2005 from Infotrac database. Oklahoma State University. (n.d.). Disasters (Oklahoma links). Retrieved on 4 April 2005 from http://www.cas.okstate. edu/jb/faculty/ketterer/disaster.htm Owen, N. (1 August 1998). What it’s like for a reporter to be there when news happens, not afterwards. Spectator, 281(8869), 24. Retrieved on 4 April 2005 from Infotrac database. Pambazuka News (weekly forum for social justice in Africa). (18 August 2004). Nigeria: Proposed law threatens media freedom. Retrieved on 5 April 2005 from http://www. pambazuka.org/index.php?id=24006 Peri, T. L. Y. (1 January 1998). Electronic journalism in segmented societies: Lessons from the 1996 Israeli elections. Political Communication, 15(1), 27. Retrieved on 4 April 2005 from Infotrac database. Peters, C. (September/October 2002). Eternal Washington. Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved on 5 April 2005 from http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3613/ is_200209/ai_n9131761/print Press Gazette. (Journalism matters. Every week). (14 January 2005). Has disaster reporting reached a turning point? Retrieved on 5 April 2005 from http://www.pressgazette. co.uk/?t=article&l=has_disaster_reporting Press Gazette. (27 January 2005). Emergency forum to learn Cumbria flooding lessons. Retrieved on 5 April 2005 from http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/?t=article&l=emergency_ forum Preston, P. (October – November 1996). Altering reality. IPI Report, 31. Retrieved on 5 April 2005 from Infotrac database. Purnick, J., Marro, A., Sill, M., & Burnham, D. (Spring 1998). For state and local governments, the key is sufficient resources. Nieman Reports, 52(1), 33. Retrieved on 4 April 2005 from Infotrac database. Questia: September 11 books and articles. (n.d.). Retrieved on 5 April 2005 from http://www.questia.com/library/history/ united-states-history/contemporary-u.s.-history/1950/september-11.jsp Research Reference and Training Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. (13 February 2001). Role of media in the aftermath of disaster, 44(30). Retrieved on 5 April 2005 from http://rrtd.nic.in/mediaintheaftermath. html RMIT University. (17 March 2005). The Fifth Estate, tsunami dominates media coverage. Retrieved on 5 April 2005 from http://fifth.estate.rmit.edu.au/blog/weblog. php?id=C0_3_l

Rudduck, D. (22 July 2002). The faces of service—84-yearold volunteer brings journalism expertise to Red Cross. American Red Cross. Retrieved on 5 April 2005 from http:// www.redcross.org/news/vo/profiles/020722crick.asp Sage Publications website. (2003). Pressures on the press: Reflections on reporting tragedy, (abstract). Retrieved on 5 April 2005 from http://jou.sagepub.com/cgi/content/ abstract/4/2/225 Scanlon, J. (Summer 1998). The search for non-existent facts in the reporting of disasters. Journalism and Mass Communication Educator, 53(2), 45. Retrieved on 4 April 2005 from Infotrac database. Schaffer, J. (5 April 1997). Pew Centre for Civic Journalism. Institute on the coverage of disasters and victims. Retrieved on 5 April 2005 from http://www.pewcenter.org/doingcj/ speeches/s_disasters.html Scholastic. (1989). Made for television tragedies. Retrieved on 5 April 2005 from http://teacher.scholastic.com/ researchtools/articlearchives/volcanoes/tvtrag.htm School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of North Carolina. (20 May 2005). Telling the story when natural disasters strike. Retrieved on 5 April 2005 from http://www.jomc.unc.edu/executiveeducation/disasters/ Shedden, D. (27 December 2004). Earthquakes (1995–2004). Poynter Online. Retrieved on 5 April 2005 from http://www. poynter.org/column.asp?id=49&aid=76250 Shepard, A. C. (April 2002). Preparing for disaster: Whether it’s terrorist attacks, hurricanes or school shootings, news organisations are much better off if they have detailed plans for covering catastrophe. American Journalism Review, 24(3), 52. Retrieved on 5 April 2005 from Infotrac database. Skynetblogs website. (3 March 2004). Rogue Bush backers prepare Super 9/11 false flag terror attacks. Alternate Press article. Retrieved on 5 April 2005 from http://alternate-press. skynetblogs.be/ Smith, C. (1992). Media and apocalypse: News coverage of the Yellowstone forest fires, Exxon Valdez oil spill and Lorna Prieta earthquake. Westport, Conn, & London: Greenwood Publishing Group. Smith, J. (July/December 1994). Eyewitness ethics: The moral meaning of watching suffering while reporting famine and war. Australian Journalism Review, 16(2), 31–45. Retrieved on 4 April 2005 from Informit database. Southeast Asian Press Alliance. 2005 SEAPA Journalism Fellowship—Covering disaster in Southeast Asia held from 1 May to 10 June 2005. Retrieved on 5 April 2005 from http://webandwire.com/storey1.htm, http://www.seapabkk. org/fellowships/fel2005.html Stakhanov, O., & Bowman, C. (Winter 1996). Russia at the crossroads. Nieman Reports, 50(4), 50. Retrieved on 4 April 2005 from Infotrac and Proquest database. Steele, B. (1 January 2001). Ethics in journalism and bio-terrorism. Poynter Online. Retrieved on 5 April 2005 from http://www. poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=3857 Storey, G. (n.d.). Thirty-six days out of London: Ships and foreign news in pre-telegraphic America. History of maritime journalism. Retrieved on 5 April 2005 from http://webandwire.com/storey1.htm

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Cultural Industries on the Global Stage The Evolution of a Global Discourse, Its Key Players and Its Impact in the Asian Region

As international trade has expanded and globalization has touched every country through all manner of trade goods, cultural products have gone global too, multiplying fivefold between 1980 and 1998. The Big Five (the US, Germany, China, the UK and France) accounted for 53 per cent of the world’s cultural exports and 57 per cent of imports by the end of the 20th Century. This paper addresses some of the activities taking place on the world stage relating to the dominance of the Big Five. It draws in part from a larger ongoing study of cultural industries and country responses, and from interviews conducted at UNESCO in April 2005.

JAN QUARLES Introducing cultural industries: The big picture The introductory comments for a recent (2001) UNESCO initiative aptly depict the groundwork and challenge for all who work in cultural industries or consume cultural products today. The cultural industries based on books, magazines, newspapers, CDs, records, cassettes, films, videos, crafts and design are key components of today’s world markets and domestic economies. Globalization and recent technological developments, including e-commerce, offer societies unprecedented opportunities to expand their cultural industries with cheaper and faster production/distribution systems as well as larger audiences. And yet, globalization is not benefiting all equally as the growing digital divide demonstrates. While creative diversity as expressed through cultural industries can be a strong contributor to sustainable development, current trends such as technological convergence, freer movement of goods, services and capital, as well as market mergers and acquisitions, often jeopardize potential growth, particularly in developing countries and those in transition. Cultural industries are increasingly concentrated among the few players who have advanced technical capacities for producing and distributing creative products. New technologies have also made piracy of cultural products easier and faster. While weak copyright legislation and enforcement force local industries to struggle against cheaper pirated products, cultural sector stakeholders from all countries suffer consequent losses of profits, jobs, Jan Quarles is Professor in the Department of Electronic Media Communication at Middle Tennessee State University, USA.

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revenue and investment (UNESCO Global Alliance Brochure, 2004: 2). As international trade has expanded and globalization has touched every country through all manner of trade in goods, cultural products have gone global, too, multiplying fivefold between 1980 and 1998 and serving as a central focus in the information economy. Today, the cultural industries noted above by UNESCO hold both promise and threat, commercial potential and considerable “soft power”. In 1996, cultural products became the largest US export ($60,200 million), surpassing for the first time all the traditional industries such as automobiles, agriculture or aerospace and defence. The “Big Five” (the US, Germany, China, the UK, and France) accounted for 53 per cent of the world’s cultural exports and 57 per cent of imports by the end of the 20th century. Within those countries, many aspects of cultural industries, from creation to distribution, are vertically integrated within a few large companies or conglomerates. Finding exact statistics on the true picture of international trade is difficult. UNESCO will produce a new report in the next year or so that will take into account factors not considered adequately in the World Culture Report 2000: Cultural diversity, conflict and pluralism or in other statistical reports. For example, figures have not adequately reflected cross-border flow of products and the fact that one master CD may travel across a border but thousands of copies may be eventually made and used. Also, data categories are defined differently around the world (Interview with UNESCO staff, April 2005). This paper addresses some of the activities taking place on the world stage relating to the dominance of the “Big Five”. It draws in part from a larger ongoing study of cultural industries and country responses, and from interviews at UNESCO in April 2005.

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What will be the impact of a flow of cultural products dominated by the “Big Five”? Consider imported television, part of that worldwide culture flow most often originating in the US, as it travels to developing countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia. Broadcast media generally, and television in particular, often play major roles in a country’s development of its contemporary culture. For countries like Indonesia, where broadcasting is seen as a means of “developing and preserving the nation’s culture” and building national unity, and Malaysia, where television has been described as a tool of the government for “inculcating a feeling of unity in a multi-racial society”, trade policies completely opening up those audio-visual markets threaten the sustenance of such national culture and unity (Australian Broadcasting Authority, 1999). To put this into context, consider what Peter Grant and Chris Wood (2004) have called the “900-pound gorilla of cultural trade” (the US) and its presence in the world in the “emotional potent media of television and entertainment” (p. 118). UNESCO in the 2000 World Culture Report notes the US share of the film market in 30 nations and in only three was it less than 50 per cent; in eight countries, it was more than 90 per cent (UNESCO, 2000). In India, the home of Bollywood, 70 per cent of the imported movies come from the US. MTV, owned by Viacom, one of the “big six” media companies, reached more than 314 million households in 83 countries in 1999, with its biggest market in Asia. Music, book publishing and radio are more diverse. Scholars, particularly in Canada, France and Australia, have written about the need for a way to preserve, indeed, to protect, their native cultures and cultural products from the invasion of primarily US goods (Slotin, 2002; Galperin, 1999; Acheson and Maule, 1996). For others, globalization and the opening up of trade markets provide great windows of opportunity for a new kind of culture world. Tyler Cowan (2003) writes of the “creative destruction” that is brought about by the free flow of cultural industries around the world, as the resulting hybridity that is build from collision of cultures can result in new forms. (Cowan recently served as the expert to the US delegation in the first meetings at UNESCO regarding the draft convention described later in this paper.) Mario Vargas Llosa (2000) admits that “the world in which we live will be less picturesque and imbued with less local color than the one left behind … but at the same time it opens up opportunities and constitutes an important step forward for a society as a whole”.

sector of audio-visual services and cultural industries due to their nature. What are these cultural industries? UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) defines cultural industries as a trade sector where “the creation, production and marketing of goods and services” are combined, and as a sector with a “special nature” based on the “intangibility of their cultural content, which is generally protected by copyright”. The sector covers film production, audio-visual services, the printed word and multimedia (Dossier, UNESCO.ORG). Unlike other goods as cultural products and services are traded, they carry with them additional power as they bring the ability to convey and construct, or obstruct, what is valued in a culture. The differences in the products in this trade sector led to vigorous debate over such concerns as those noted in a UNESCO document detailing the landscapes of the discussions. Enforcement of the GATT principles—in particular MFN and national treatment rules—on goods and services as well as on copyrighted products would undermine their cultural specificity (and unique status) in favour of their commercial aspects. Indeed, quite often, cultural industries (film and audio-visual ones in particular) survive due to import restrictions and other support mechanisms facilitated by certain public administrations, which consider it a priority to preserve domestic cultural industries. If subject only to commercial considerations, many local cultural industries would be quickly replaced by those with more financial muscle due to their multinational presence and monopoly position (UNESCO, 2003: 35–36). From these discussions and the Uruguay round where few countries made commitments to trade in audio-visual services, came the result that the round did not apply GATT rules to cultural products. In the years since, this scenario has been seen as the precursor to what some countries have defined as the “cultural exception”, based on the principle that cultural industries are unlike any other sector because they go beyond the commercial to convey “ideas and ways of life”. The French have been credited with introducing the concept to international trade (Lalumiere, 2000).

WTO activities and cultural industries

The Convention on the Protection of the Diversity of Cultural Contents and Artistic Expression

The 1986 to 1994 Uruguay round of world trade talks led to the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO), replacing the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT), and broadening the role of the WTO to deal with trade in services and intellectual property in addition to goods. In the final rounds of the Uruguay talks, some countries began to express concern that the principles of trade used for services—in particular “most favoured nation” and “national treatment” rules would not work for the trade

Since the Uruguay round, talks on audio-visual products and the cultural industries sector have continued but the focus of discussion on the treatment and trade of cultural industries shifted for a time to UNESCO, starting in 2003 as its 190 members began work on the Convention on the Protection of the Diversity of Cultural Contents and Artistic Expression. As noted in Article 12b of the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, the organization

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by virtue of its mandate and functions, has the responsibility to serve as a reference point and a forum where states, international governmental and non-governmental organizations, civil society and the private sector may join together in elaborating concepts, objectives and policies in favour of cultural diversity (The Global Alliance brochure, 2004). Discussions of audio-visual services and cultural industries are by no means dead at the WTO level (a discussion of the impact of the next round may be found in Wheeler, 1999) but the shift illustrates the feelings of many that discussions of culture belong in the forum for culture, not the forum for trade. However, it is the dual nature of cultural industry products that leads to such strong arguments from both “protectionists” and “commercialists”, and it is unlikely the discussions will die in either forum. UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura described the beginnings of the draft convention in his speech to the first meeting of delegates and experts on 17 December 2003. Consumer goods of all kinds (food, clothing, technology, entertainment) are now spreading a “globalized culture” throughout the world. It has penetrated almost all societies, merging with or being superimposed on local cultures, with varying degrees of success, sometimes marginalizing them or even leading to their disappearance. It was this fact that led the member states of UNESCO to adopt, in November 2001 at the 31st session of the general conference, the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity and its action plan, which was a solemn and renewed affirmation, in the same way as the constitution of UNESCO, of the importance of ensuring “the preservation and promotion of the fruitful diversity of cultures” in the era of globalization. It contains the four main themes around which we should organize our action in support of cultural diversity: pluralism, respect for human rights, promotion of creativity and the need for international solidarity. Although the declaration was a milestone, it was nonetheless not considered to be sufficiently effective by many member states in view of the very real threats facing cultural diversity (UNESCO speech, 2003). By June 2005, the convention, in draft form, had been debated three times in expert and intergovernmental meetings, and a draft convention determined as of 3 June 2005. The second session in early 2005 brought together 135 member states, six intergovernmental agencies (including the WTO, the World Intellectual Property organization [WIPO] and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development [UNCTAD] and 23 non-governmental organizations). The third similar session concluded in early June 2005 (US State News (2005) Third Session Meeting …). Alan Riding, in a February 2005 essay in the New York Times comments on the matter of the convention as “a 60

global culture war pits protectionists against free traders”, and captures the sense of that war between countries such as Canada and France, which obtained the “cultural exception” and the US. The proponents of the convention view the commitments countries would make in trade agreements as weakening the ability of those countries to pursue their own domestic policies to preserve cultural diversity. The US, Japan and India favour few trade barriers because they will suffer from increased restrictions on trade in the sector. A full examination of the dynamics of the draft convention (accessible at www.unesco.org/ and also at www. mediatrademonitor.org) is a paper unto itself and beyond the purview of this presentation but it is important in this context to note the battle of the forces seeking to protect culture in their countries from free trade rules as well as the activities, in the WTO and elsewhere, of those seeking to have cultural products and services traded in the most open manner without subsidies, quotas or other barriers. A brief look at the dynamics of the three meetings to discuss the draft convention (information on the meetings is summarized by the International Network for Cultural Diversity [INCD] at www.mediatrademonitor.org) shows that the Chinese delegation aligned with the European Union, Canada, India and Brazil in favour of the draft convention while Korea wavered. According to a Korean website (www.hani.co.kr), the wavering is due to ongoing bilateral negotiations on film quotas with the US and the wish not to alienate the trading power. Mexico, Japan and the US (which just rejoined UNESCO in 2003 after a 16-year absence) aligned in their concerns that the convention not impinge on existing agreements or the rights of states. Although the meetings were by no means transparent and a point-by-point transcript was requested (but not made available), some information can be gathered from a daily account of the second series of meetings posted on www. mediatrademonitor.org. A day-by-day examination of the actions and comments of the delegations shows consistency with those larger positions as China and the East Asian countries call for new principles of national sovereignty while the US argues against uses of the word “protect” in the convention language. As the final meetings drew to a close, the US delegation proposed additional negotiations and continued to challenge the convention’s wording as it felt the terminology could threaten continued free trade and existing agreements. Gary Neil (2005), executive director of the International Network for Cultural Diversity, commented on the outcome of the draft convention soon after the third meeting closed on 3 June 2005: If the objective of the new treaty is to declare the right of states to implement cultural policies and to establish a new foundation for cooperation, the Treaty has succeeded. If the objective is to carve out cultural goods and services from the trade agreements, the Treaty is inadequate at least in the short term (www. incd.org, 3 June 2005). One of the first news reports (Hankyoreh, 2005) on the completion of the draft convention and its forthcoming

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submission to the 33rd general conference in October, characterizes the split nature of the draft convention.

process, Jane Kelsey, explained the new plurilateral process:

Half reflects European demand that it has to be binding towards other conventions such as the World Trade Organization and half reflects the United States demand that it not hurt the rights and obligations of other agreements (Hankyoreh, 2005).

Groups of WTO members (among them a group making a request on audio-visual services) who have an interest in a particular sector can put a collective request to other WTO members asking for specific commitments in that sector … Any government that receives these requests must consider them. In theory, they can consider and then reject them. But it will be difficult for targeted governments to avoid direct discussions with the group making the demand. This means the pressure on governments to make commitments will be much greater than before ….

On 17 October 2005, the majority of the member states of UNESCO voted to approve the convention on cultural diversity. An IPI report states that “in the Thursday vote, 148 countries approved the convention, two—the United States and Israel—voted against it, and four abstained” (Godoy, 2005). The US continued to voice concerns that the convention could be used to restrict cultural exchange and individual freedom, and could be exploited to erect trade barriers (“United States opposes draft UN Cultural Diversity Convention”, 2005). While the text was approved by a majority of the 191 UNESCO member states, it must still be separately and formally ratified by 30 states and will enter into force three months after such ratification. As the January 2006 newsletter of the International Network for Cultural Diversity, a key group supporting the adoption of a convention from the inception of the movement (and a group to be examined later in this chapter), notes: The challenges of achieving ratification should not be underestimated. INCD has said before that the Convention must be adopted by 70 to 85 countries if it is to have a real impact. We know this is an ambitious goal but if civil society and supportive governments work together, it is achievable (www.incd.net). Some experts say the convention, if approved by 30 states, will have legal value of all. “This disposition, if properly used, can weaken the power of the general agreement on services at the WTO,” says Mohamed Lotfi M’rini, professor of international trade at the University of Laval, Canada. But he adds that this would not be “applicable to the rights and obligations contracted by countries under bilateral or multilateral trade agreements” (Godoy, 2005). M’rini also noted what he saw as the convention’s other flaws as he said, “For instance, its disputes mechanism has no real juridical standing. And the so-called Indian clause, added by the Indian government at the last minute of the debates, allows for non-ratifying countries to ignore the validity of the convention” (Godoy, 2005). Therefore, the WTO’s legal structure will remain the sole valid framework for resolving disputes concerning trade questions on cultural goods. To date, the topic of trade in audio-visual services remains under discussion by the World Trade Organization. In December 2005, trade ministers met in Hong Kong and decided on a new process for trade in services that “will directly affect audio-visual services and other sectors with major impacts on culture, such as telecommunications, computer-related services and logistics (including distribution services)”. A New Zealand professor and lawyer and INCD member who followed the Hong Kong

The main targets for these demands are expected to be Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia (not Venezuela), Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, ASEAN countries, China, India and Korea, plus OECD countries (INCD Newsletter, January 2006 at www.incd.net). In other news relating to the convention on cultural diversity, one of the most recent developments has been in South Korea. The government agreed to slash its screen quote to one-half of an original quota that allowed Korean film to flourish in its home market, and subsequently the US announced the launch of free trade talks with the country. A Korean Screen Quota Alliance news release reflects the reaction of film industry personnel there as it says: The present government … not only surrendered to trade pressure of the arrogant US but also betrayed the belief of the public, artists, cultural experts and film makers. We would call it a cultural coup d’etat … the decision to slash the screen quota represents a defeat for the UNESCO Cultural Diversity Convention adopted last October. The UNESCO Convention carries legal binding force to exclude the cultural field in the negotiation process by guaranteeing (the sovereign right of states) to establish and implement cultural policies as an international law … However, the (Korean) government seems to have decided to join hands with the US and Israel, turning its back on 147 nations, making itself a laughingstock in the international society and reducing itself to a US colony … (INCD newsletter, January 2006 at www. incd.net). As the convention awaits ratification, the global discourse is still high drama, pitting consumerism, economics and trade against questions of national identity and preservation of traditional culture. The balance of culture and commerce is delicate. What is being done on a global basis to address the balance? Are there answers beyond the diplomatic and political stages? And, because questions of cultural policy can change given the nature of cultural industries in a country, what impact do these activities have on the countries of the Asian region? To explore this question, the author will look beyond the responses of delegates to the convention to the activities 61

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of UNESCO, the alliances formed around the cultural industries, and the activities of groups in specific regions and countries.

to create and reproduce its own works for consumption. The practicality of the book publishing alliance is seen in a staffer’s comment: Not everyone starts with Dostoevsky. In many cultures, we would start with and encourage popular biographies, as people will read those, and from that some will go on to the classics (UNESCO staffer, April 2005).

What’s being done on a global basis? One of the central agents in the discussion noted above is UNESCO. Within the organization itself, there has always been an inherent tension between the area of culture that UNESCO has always dealt with effectively—heritage and the preservation of the old—and the area of contemporary culture (Interview with UNESCO staffer, April 2005). The Stockholm Conference on Cultural Policy in 1998 launched many of the discussions and activities regarding the safeguarding of contemporary culture. The Ministers of Culture, led by Canada’s Sheila Copps formed a network of government officials who dealt with cultural policy (the International Network for Cultural Policy) which also spun off a supporting NGO, the International Network for Cultural Diversity (INCD). Another player in bringing the question of cultural industries to the world stage included the Council of Europe. The increased voice given to the discourse on cultural policy led to the formation of a cultural policy programme within UNESCO after a general declaration of cultural diversity. The programme was bifurcated, with both a “universalist and generalist” approach (the draft convention) and a more pragmatic, non-confrontational approach establishing networks of people devoted to cultural diversity and protection, at first most particularly in the area of copyright. The two approaches, along with some new developments, now belong to different UNESCO offices. The draft convention is a concern of the Cultural Diversity Division of the Culture Sector, while the networking and other partnership approaches are based in the Cultural Industries Division, headed by Ms. Milagros del Corral, a central visionary. The Global Alliance for Cultural Diversity is an initiative promoting multilateral partnerships. It works with two main goals to develop cultural industries and to prevent piracy, and through the funding of the partners and a special UNESCO extra-budgetary fund. It began with a focus on the development of copyright in countries with no existing guidelines, and has broadened its role to the development of cultural industries in countries with little or no preexisting infrastructure for the development, production and promotion of their native cultural products. While the Global Alliance has few programmes in the Asian region to date (a small local project runs out of Phnom Penh), an example of one alliance shows how UNESCO works with its partners. As a UNESCO staffer worked to help develop a book industry in Senegal, he reached out to both government and private concerns, bringing library representative to meet with the Ministry of Culture. UNESCO brought together authors, editors, trainers and translators from various groups in Senegal and to begin, with proper copyright guidelines, a new national infrastructure for book publishing with authors, editors and a chain of distribution. (Interview with UNESCO Staffer 2, April 2005). Thus, on a small scale, Senegal will be able 62

UNESCO’s assistance in the alliance is in identifying all the stakeholders for cultural industries in a country and moving them to action. In addition to the Senegalese book publishing, Alliance projects include the following: • • • •

•

Thirty-nine projects bringing groups in more than 50 countries together. Artists in Development Creativity Workshop programmes to strengthen craft cultural enterprises. Work with film festivals and music festivals in Africa. Successful projects that have served as models for other countries. The book publishing reform project in Algeria inspired the Senegalese project noted above as well as projects in Cambodia, Guinea, Mauritania and the Portuguese-speaking countries of Africa. (Global Alliance Progress Report, 2004) A project in Cuba called “Creating opportunities for Cuban musicians to develop their professional capacities in optimal conditions” led to the creation of a study course of fundamental issues of copyright and contracts in the music industry. The teaching manual for this course will be used to develop similar courses in Latin America. (Global Alliance Progress Report, 2004)

The Alliance has drawn new partners in 2004 including the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) as well as support from the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Korea, Canadian Heritage, the Ministry of International Relations of Quebec, the Inter-American Development Bank and the Spanish Institute of External Trade (Global Alliance Progress Report, 2004). The Global Alliance openly calls for more potential partners, asking interested parties to write proposals for services or resources and then matching fields of activities (such as music, cinema, books and crafts) and individuals to work together. Another recent Alliance initiative designed to encourage cultural industries globally is the “Creative Cities” project. Selective cities that meet the guidelines and submit successful proposals can carry a UNESCO designation. The first city to be tapped as a “Creative City of Literature” was Edinburgh, the city that proposed the new initiative after writers banded together for projects celebrating the city’s achievements (and future). Milagros Del Corral has called this new project “local cities for global outreach” because the cities are spaces where artists, public officials and funding sources have already coalesced (Interviews with UNESCO staff, April 2005).

CULTURAL INDUSTRIES ON THE GLOBAL STAGE

What’s happening in the Asian region regarding these initiatives? As alliances and coalitions are only now coalescing, individual countries in the region have long had quotas and subsidies in place that attempt to address the dominance of US film and television products. The Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union commissioned a report in 1999 from the Australian Broadcasting Authority called “Trade Liberalization in the Audio-visual Services Sector and Safeguarding Cultural Diversity” which examines some of the quotas and policies in the region. The report notes quotas for television content in Australia, South Korea and Malaysia and quotas on film in South Korea (now in trade discussions with the US). In the discourse surrounding the development of the draft convention, many of the alliances were made by countries in the European Union and in Latin America. No true “bloc” of countries from the region coalesced, as previously noted, as China sided with the European Union while Japan aligned itself with the US in the convention discussions. However, there are numerous projects underway in the region and those projects will be of great importance on the world stage. For many in the region, the idea of the “contemporary as culture” is new. Numerous questions must be asked in cultures such as China, where the words “cultural policy” can have a different meaning. The authors of the National Innovation System team at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in the Spring 2000 CASS Bulletin note that the country’s “cultural production industry” is still heavily tied to the state and that piracy still remains a major issue. The group calls for the country’s formulation of “national cultural capacity” to resolve the problems of shortages of China’s own cultural products in its market and says “cultural zones” should parallel the successful “special economic zones”. Indeed, Jing Wang (2004) discusses the situation in China as it relates to cultural industries (and an evolving new nomenclature for creative industries, which he says assumes a free-market economy, intellectual property rights and a commercialized culture industries sector). Since the mid 1990s, administrative orders rather than the market principle have been driving frenzied media conglomeration and some convergence activities. Above all, the commercialization of cultural industries (especially television and news media)—state-owned to this day—is still a much-contested goal two years after China’s accession to the WTO (Wang, 2004: 12). Michael Keane (2001) notes the changes that are being wrought by the WTO accession. The government must now enforce legal reform and allow foreign media companies access to China’s audio-visual markets. Media governance will be challenged by copyright protection rules (TRIPS) and trade agreements. A symposium considering the issues for the region was held in Jodhpur, India in February 2005 (UNESCO, 2005). This symposium looked at the challenges presented

by changes on the world stage and the resulting need to “strengthen the cultural industries in developing countries as a way to counterbalance the information hegemony and thereby assure the countries in the region a more equal position in the world” (UNESCO, 2005: 7). The symposium presented information on the national studies currently being done to map cultural industries and create policy for more socio-economic development. Studies were identified in Australia, Japan, Singapore, Indonesia and Hong Kong in China, and the background document notes that: The emerging importance of creative industries is most evident in East Asian developing countries such as Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong (China) and, increasingly, China. And continues to relate: Arguably, the biggest change in the region is China, which is moving from an older, state-dominated focus on cultural industries (which includes a legacy of a wide range of skills) towards a more market-oriented pattern of creative industries, with the advantage of a huge and rapidly expanding domestic markets and links to a large and culturally familiar diaspora (UNESCO, 2005: 3–4).

Conclusion As the global economy continues to grow and as technology develops, the concepts of cultural industries and their special place at the intersection of free trade and cultural value are complex, often misunderstood and still evolving. In many countries, the impact of discussions in the WTO and the ongoing dialogue to draft the preliminary convention has been lessened because the issues have been underplayed, discussed behind closed doors or under-reported in the media due to their complexity. When the discussion is played out on the political stage, it is fraught with many additional concerns of power, prestige and profit. Perhaps the best hopes for developing countries in this area are the pragmatic practices of the Global Alliance that are helping creators in those countries sustain their works in a stronger, more global framework. But the Alliance is a relatively small project in an under-funded international organization and it needs resources from the major players whose very products often threaten those national cultures. A source of hope may be the changes occurring in the Asian region, with newly developed cultural mapping projects and a symposium designed to launch careful consideration and planning for the challenges the cultural industries in the region now face. But, the future is uncertain. Will commercialism win, with its transnational corporations, Western bias, technological sophistication and worldwide reach, or will the proponents of maintaining cultural traditions find a way to do so using old wisdom in new packages? Only time, and the market, will tell. Meanwhile, much research remains to be done as discussions only expand, leaving more at stake for citizens of the world at every turn. 63

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References Acheson, K., & Maule, C. (1996). Copyright, contract, the cultural industries and NAFTA. In E. McAnany and K. Wilkinson (Eds.), Mass media and free trade (pp. 351–379). Austin: University of Texas Press. (Acheson and Maule have written extensively on this topic and they are the authors of Much ado about culture: North American trade disputes, University of Michigan Press, 1999) Australian Broadcasting Authority. (1999). Trade liberalization in the audio-visual services sector and safeguarding cultural diversity. Sydney, Australia. Commissioned by the Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union. Retrieved from www.aba.gov. au/newspubs/speeches/documents/dfdiversity_99.rtf Galperin, H. (1999). Cultural industries in the age of free trade agreements. Canadian Journal of Communication, 24(1). Retrieved from www.wlu.ca/~wwwpress.jrls/cjc/ BackIssues/24.1/galperin.pap.html Global Alliance for Cultural Diversity Brochure. (2004). Obtained in April 2005 from UNESCO. Global Alliance for Cultural Diversity Progress Report. (2004). Obtained in April 2005 from UNESCO. Godoy, J. (20 October 2005). UNESCO adopts convention to protect diversity. IPS. Grant, P., & Wood, C. (2004). Blockbusters and trade wars: Popular culture in a globalized world. Toronto: Douglas and McInytre. Hankyoreh. (2005). Government vague about cultural diversity agreement. Retrieved on 5 June 2005 from www.hani. co.kr International Network for Cultural Diversity Newsletter. (May 2005). Retrieved from www.incd.net International Network for Cultural Diversity Newsletter. (January 2006) Retrieved from http://www.incd.net/ International Network for Cultural Diversity website. Retrieved from www.incd.net Keane, M. (2001). Broadcasting Policy, creative compliance and the myth of civil society in China. Media, Culture and Society, 23, 783–798. Lalumiere, C. (January 2000). The battle of cultural diversity. Label France, no. 38. Retrieved from accessed at www. fance.diplomatie.fr/label_france Llosa, M. V. (2000). The culture of liberty. Foreign policy. Retrieved from www.globalpolicy.org/globaliz/cultural/ llosa.htm Mulcahy, K. (1 January 2002). Cultural imperialism and cultural sovereignty: US-Canadian cultural relations. Journal of

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Arts Management, Law and Society. Retrieved from www. highbeam.com National Innovation System Team. (Sping 2000). The impact of entry into the WTO on the cultural affairs in China. CASS Bulletin. Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Riding, A. (2005, February 5). A global culture war pits protectionists against free traders. The New York Times. Slotin, I. (June 2002). Free speech and the visage culturel: Canadian and American perspectives on pop culture discrimination. Yale Law Journal, 111(8), 2289–2320. Third Session Meeting of the Preliminary Draft Convention concludes. (6 June 2005). US State News. UNESCO. (1999). World Culture Report 2000: Cultural diversity, conflict and pluralism. Paris: UNESCO Publishing. UNESCO. (2003). Culture, trade and globalization. Paris: UNESCO Publishing. UNESCO. (17 December 2003). Speech of Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura. Retrieved from www.unesco.org UNESCO. (2004). Preliminary draft of a convention on the protection of cultural contents and artistic expressions. UNESCO. (April 2005). Asia Pacific creative communities: Promoting the cultural industries for local socio-economic development—A strategy for the 21st century. Background documents; elements of a policy framework. Obtained in April 2005 from UNESCO. UNESCO. (n.d.). Dossier on Cultural Industries at www.unesco. org United States opposes draft UN Cultural Diversity Convention. (19 October 2005). US Fed News. Wang, J. (2004). The global reach of a new discourse: How far can “creative industries” travel? International Journal of Cultural Studies, 7(1), 9–19. Wheeler, M. (2000). Globalization of the communications marketplace. Harvard Journal of Press/Politic, 5(3), 27–44.

Interviews Interviews with UNESCO staff members in the Cultural Industries Division in April 2005. Interview with Milagros Del Corral, Head of Cultural Industries Division, UNESCO in April 2005. This paper was presented at the 14th AMIC Annual Conference on Media and Society in Asia: Transformations and Transition held on 18–21 July 2005 in Beijing, China.

The Analysis of News, the Culture of Celebrity and the Concept of Vortextuality The author first developed the concept of vortextuality for a study of media sports stars as an attempt to analyse the process whereby an intense, if temporary, focus by the media on a single event occurs. This paper presents a systematic account of the concept.

GARRY WHANNEL

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n the course of writing a book length study of media sport stars (Whannel, 2002), I developed the concept of vortextuality in an attempt to analyse the process whereby an intense, if temporary, focus on a single event develops. Since the publication of this work, several people have shown interest in the concept and it has been the subject of public discussion in seminars and conference sessions. It now seems appropriate to offer a longer and more systematic account. Two convergent issues framed and set the scene for this work, concerning respectively the analysis of popular culture and the analysis of news. In the last decade, these two cultural categories have been subject to a degree of leakage and convergence. News has become more concerned with modes of presentation that present news as entertaining, a process some dubbed infotainment. Popular culture has become more focused on celebrity, gossip and scandal. Reality television is rooted in the surveillance of unpredictable live events, offering drama and immediacy that was once largely the domain of sport and news. One approach to cultural analysis that emerged from the end of the 1970s, partly from the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies at Birmingham University and blossomed in the context of the Open University Popular Culture course (U203), argued that popular culture was not simply “imposed from above” by powerful capitalist corporations; but could not be regarded as “risen from below” in an authentic expression of “the people”. Rather, it was the site of struggle between contending forces and in the tensions and contradictions of that struggle that the state of political contestation in its symbolic form could be seen. Popular culture, from this Gramscian perspective, becomes the interface between everyday language and common sense, and organized political discourse (see Mercer, 1978; Hall Garry Whannel is with the Centre for International Media Analysis (CIMA) at the University of Luton.

1980; Bennett, 1981a 1981b and 1986). One problem with this model is that, in analysis, it tends to produce a premature politicization—everything had to have a political effectivity. Sometimes, it is necessary to acknowledge that not all aspects of popular culture are equally significant and that some things really are simply trivial. This mode of analysis was borne in the context of the important feminist insistence that “the personal is political”. A quarter of a century on, there appears to have been a peculiar shift in which “politics is the personal”. Feminism appears a less powerful influence on the young; personal advancement appears more important than changing the world; whilst the political sphere has become even more personalized and individualized than ever. In the context of tabloidization and the celebrity culture, the focus of attention has shifted to the private sphere—more attention was devoted to the Monica Lewinsky affair than to any other aspect of Clinton’s presidency. News itself has been transformed by technological innovation and by the expansion of outlets such as 24hour rolling news channels and by the Internet. The speed of circulation of information and the growth of modes of circulation such as the mobile phone and the Internet shortens the feedback loop, and modifies the gate-keeping and agenda-setting functions of the media. It was an attempt to analyse the elements involved in this process that led me to develop the concept of vortextuality.

Theories of news values One of the earliest common-sense conceptualizations of the social category of news was probably the precept that news is the unusual—“dog bites man” is not news but “man bites dog” is. Mass communications theory of the 1950s and media sociology of the 1960s and 1970s developed a range of concepts for the understanding and analysis of news values. The concept of gate-keeping, in which the news selection 65

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process means the media function as a cultural gatekeeper led to the development of the concepts of agenda setting, which is rooted in the principle that the media do not tell us what to think but what to think about. The influential Cohen and Young (1973) collection, The manufacture of news, focused attention on the social construction of news. Stan Cohen’s work on folk devils and moral panics also had immense influence on the analysis of news (Cohen, 1971). Galtung and Ruge (1973) drew upon the science of perception and of radio transmission and reception to draw up a framework in which frequency, amplitude, clarity, meaningfulness, consonance, unexpectedness and repetitiveness all played their role. They identified elite nations, elite people, personalization and negativity as cultural factors underpinning news values. Paul Rock conceptualized news as a cultural product with delineated categories and self-generated paradigms (Rock, 1973). The concepts of gate-keeping, agenda setting, the social construction of reality, folk devils and moral panics all continue to be useful and influential concepts. However, the transformation of the social category of “news” over that last 30 years means that there are aspects of the process of the construction of news that these concepts are not adequate to capture.

Transformations of “news” I would suggest that there are three key elements in this transformation. Firstly, there has been a progressive erosion of the distinction between public and private. Secondly, there has been a gradual erosion of the ability of states to censor and control information. Thirdly, the processes of personalization and individualization of news has contributed to the emergence of a celebrity-centered popular culture. Erosion of public-private distinction The distinction between the public sphere and private life in the media used to be much clearer. While there is nothing especially new about public fascination with the private lives of elite individuals, we learnt relatively little about such lives through the media. Politicians, royalty and stars of sport and entertainment were shielded by a degree of self-censorship; editors and journalists electing not to report stories that intruded on the private domain. During the 1930s, the relationship between Edward, Prince of Wales, and Mrs Simpson was largely ignored by the British media until the abdication crisis became a big story. The medical condition of American president Franklin D. Roosevelt received little media attention in the US. From the mid 1950s, the Western world entered another period of social liberalization—a “revolution in manners and morals” similar to that during the 1920s. The post-war baby boom, the growing popularity of rock and roll, the emergence of a youth culture, the decline of the culture of deference, and the transformation of style and fashion contributed to this transformation. The election of President Kennedy in 1960, the rise of the Beatles and their conquest of America, and the youth-oriented fashions spearheaded 66

by Mary Quant were taken as signs of the ascent of youth culture. A whole series of liberal reforms—civil rights legislation in the US, reform of laws on censorship, abortion and homosexuality in the UK—were enacted. The Profumo affair in which a British defence minister was revealed as having had an affair with Christine Keeler, who was also sleeping with a Russian naval attaché, broke decisively with the conventional concealment of the private peccadilloes of the rich and powerful. In an attempt at image building, the British royal family allowed cameras to film a fly on the wall documentary of their private lives, an event many commentators now view as the beginning of a process of destruction of royal mystique that has done little to strengthen the popularity of the royal family. The process of tabloidization has been one of the most significant elements in the transformation of news. The process of tabloidization has occurred at different speeds in different countries but typically has involved the introduction of new technology; the reshaping and re-designing of newspapers; the adoption of a more populist mode of address; and the construction of new relationships with the audience, inflected towards the entertaining and trivial. Three key events reconstructed the British newspaper: the tabloid revolution; the crushing of the print unions; and the introduction of new computer-based layout techniques. Together, these developments also contributed to the blurring of the division between the public and private spheres. The purchase of The Sun by Rupert Murdoch, and its relaunch as a tabloid in 1969 triggered off a tabloid revolution in which The Daily Mirror and The Sun competed for the working-class reader with more explicit pin-ups, sport and scandal (Murdock and Golding, 1978). The destruction of the power of the print unions in 1986, when Murdoch moved his four titles to Wapping, opened the way to a technological revolution (Goodhart and Wintour, 1986). Full computerization and colour printing accelerated the drift away from traditional page layout towards a collage style in which headlines and photo displays came to dominate. This, in turn, heightened the force and impact of stories about easily recognized star figures. Through a process of pushing the boundaries back, and aided by the eccentric, unpredictable and expensive nature of English libel laws, which discourage risky litigation, the clear division between public and private spheres has been blurred, and areas of life once resolutely private are now in the public domain. Much of the new sensation, scandal and gossip that has become a staple of tabloid content has featured sport stars, and has contributed both to a public fascination with the personality and private life of sporting celebrities; and to the construction of discourses of moral censure. The impact of the growth of the Internet has been the most profound factor in the erosion of public-private distinctions. First, the potential for instant publication and global access has enabled the very rapid circulation of gossip, rumour and sensation. Second, the growth of personal websites and the exposure of private lives via Webcams has provided a technological means of exposing the private. The fascination with Webcam-based websites was a major impetus behind the emergence of “big brother”.

THE ANALYSIS OF NEWS, THE CULTURE OF CELEBRITY AND THE CONCEPT OF VORTEXTUALITY

Reality television, the great television phenomenon of the last decade, combines elements of soap opera, the fly on the wall documentary, Internet Webcams and game shows. A new breed of game shows such as The Weakest Link introduced the element of belittling and humiliation of contestants. This, combined with celebrity culture, has in turn produced such shows as I’m A Celebrity and Get Me Out Of Here, which offer the voyeuristic pleasure of seeing minor celebrities punished for their desire for fame. Celebrities have endeavoured to protect their privacy by batteries of security staff and technologies, and by requiring staff to sign confidentiality clauses. However, a recent court case in which David Beckham and Victoria Adams attempted to prevent an ex-nanny from selling her story was rejected by the court on the rather troubling and contentious basis that those who court fame should not be protected from the consequences. The growing obsession with security and surveillance has spawned a massive expansion in the number of cameras that are pointing at and capturing everyday life. This material has generated new television forms that show the petty crimes and misdemeanours of ordinary people. Whole programmes are constructed out of film of motoring offences, car chases, crashes, drunken escapades in nightclubs and town centres. The combination of the new third-generation mobile phones and the Internet means that images of anyone, caught in an indiscreet moment, can be circulated globally and instantaneously. The sophistication of modern search engines also means that such material is also easily accessed, retrieved and re-circulated. The private now barely exists and between the tabloid press, the Internet, surveillance and the apparently strong desires of the audience, there now seems little that is taboo. Erosion of censorship and control of content There was a time when powerful traditional authorities, such as the church and the state, could keep a tight control on surveillance. Until the invention of printing, the Christian church, like many other organized religions, kept a tight grip on the extent of literacy, reinforced by the retention of the archaic Latin language. Once the social institution of cinema became established, the moving image became subject to a whole range of forms of censorship—such as the Hays Code in the US and the British Board of Film Censors in the UK. During the 1950s, many books now regarded as classics could not be published for fear of prosecution.1 Items of gossip about the royal family that appeared in continental magazines were removed prior to distribution in England. From the 1960s onwards, much of this apparatus of control began to fall apart. Even in states where strong regulatory and censorship mechanisms survive, the technologies of digital replication and distribution have made the control of the media increasingly impossible. In the UK, the 1959 Obscene Publications Act was undermined in 1960 when a prosecution of Lady Chatterley’s Lover collapsed after the defence called dozens of expert witnesses. Theatre censorship ended in Britain with the abolishing of the Lord Chamberlain’s regulatory role. (see Travis, 2000). The BBC’s

minimal attention to popular music was challenged by pirate radio ships, which flourished until the Marine Offences Act of 1967, and near simultaneous launching by the BBC of an all-day pop channel, Radio 1. Despite efforts to suppress their publication, the book Spycatcher and Kitty Kelley’s book about the royal family were imported on a large scale, and Spycatcher was eventually published in Britain. Public fears over violence and sexuality are characteristically condensed onto moral panics surrounding the appearance of a new medium or technology. The spread of domestic video recorders generated the 1984 Video Recordings Act in the UK, and fears over Internet pornography helped prompt the 1996 Communications Decency Act and the 1999 Child Online Protection Act in the US. Nevertheless, the rapid growth of domestic computers and digital exchange of information began to erode the power of the state to impose regulation. Bizarre intimate mobile phone conversations between Princess Diana and a lover, and between Prince Charles and Camilla somehow found their way into the public domain, and were made available on the Net. More recently, the circulation of a home video showing Pamela Anderson having sex and of naked pictures of Paris Hilton have demonstrated how readily the private can be reproduced, distributed and accessed globally. From “personalization” to “celebrity” The growing significance of what used to be termed “human interest” content has been striking. Content analysis of British newspapers between 1936 and 1976 revealed that there had been a significant growth in the percentage of newspapers devoted to the “human interest” category; and that such content attracted greater readership than news and current affairs (see Curran, Douglas and Whannel, 1980). Since this date, other developments have contributed to the de-centring of “news” in the popular press. There has also been an erosion of the distinction between information and entertainment. News presentation has drawn on new styles and methods of presentation—use of graphics, music, and techniques of dramatization—whilst entertainment programmes that draw on the news (UK examples include The News Quiz, Have I Got News For You, They Think Its All Over) have won regular slots. The growth and spread of television and its maturation as a medium has contributed to the emergence of a personalitycentred culture, as John Langer (1981) has outlined. Where Hollywood generated a star system, the more intimate, domestic and face-centred medium of television developed a personality system. The personalization and growing self-referentiality of the media has contributed to the production of a celebrity culture, as exemplified by the magazines Ola and OK, by the greater prominence of celebrity and lifestyle in a whole range of newspapers and magazines, and by the rise of celebritybased television. Over 40 years ago, Boorstin had already sketched the nature of a celebrity culture based around pseudo-events and people who were, in the oft-quoted phrase “well known for being well known”. But, the problem with 67

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Boorstin’s analysis is that it denied the meaningful content of celebrity culture, regarding it as essentially empty and ultimately meaningless. By contrast, many popular cultural analysts would regard the representation of celebrities as being of decisive significance, whether regarded as symptomatic or generative. Analysis of celebrity images provides both barometer and thermometer, enabling us to gauge the pressures and temperatures of a culture. They act as points of condensation onto which a whole range of social tensions will become inscribed. So, to sum up, the cultural practice of news production has been transformed by the rise of human interest content, tabloidization, the breakdown of public-private distinctions, and leakage between “news” and “entertainment”. The foregrounding of “personality” by television has also played its role in the rise of a celebrity culture.

The vortextuality effect My development of the term “vortextuality” grew out of research during the 1990s that resulted in Media sport stars, masculinities and moralities (Whannel, 2002), and specifically in the analysis of media coverage of David Beckham and Victoria Adams (Posh Spice). This research began as an examination of media portrayals of good boys and bad boys, and a critique of role-model theory, which led in turn to an engagement with discourses of masculinities and moralities. In representations of sport stars, the culture of celebrity appeared to combine with surveillance, to produce a process whereby exposure by tabloid press became a new form of discipline and punishment, with the tabloid press as the new village stocks. The period of the 1990s saw the rise and fall of lad culture, with English footballer Paul Gascoigne as its most emblematic figure. But, it was the sheer intensity of focus in the popular media on figures like Gazza, and Posh and Becks, that seemed to demand analysis. The concept of vortextuality was devised to label the phenomena whereby whole areas of the media become temporarily drawn into one central story. There are two key changes that together have produced the vortextual effect: the growth in the range of media outlets and media content; and the vastly increased speed of circulation of information. Growth in the range of media outlets and media content For many years after the Second World War, the expectation was that newspapers would decline in sales and in significance as the conventional wisdom is one of decline. However, the impact of the spread of new technologies of printing and layout, together with the growth of the consumer society gave a major boost to the industry. In the UK, for example, while overall sales remained the same between 1975 and 1995, the average size of papers doubled. Increases in advertising finance fuelled the growth of extra supplement sections in newspapers. Since the 1980s, the big growth sector has been in free newspapers—in the UK, 32 million copies per week were distributed in 1995. Newspaper front pages have a high impact—headlines and stories can be read at a distance, trains and buses littered with discarded 68

newspapers, and papers can be read at the doctors’, dentists’, hairdressers’ and waiting areas generally. Just 20 years ago, there were only four TV channels in the UK but during the 1990s, the spread of satellite and cable brought over 20 new channels, and digital television is adding dozens more. The last 25 years has also seen a big increase in broadcast hours with the gradual introduction of morning television, late-night television, and all-night television. Thirty years ago, there were just four BBC radio channels. Since then, the introduction and expansion of local radio and commercial radio meant that by the mid 1990s, there were 240 plus local channels and eight national channels. Television has spread around the globe. In 1970, there were 245 million television sets in households; by 1992, there were 725 million; and by 2003, probably 1,500 million. Video and DVD rental has grown massively. In 1986, there were 19 blockbuster shops worldwide; in 1990, there were 1,500; and in 2000, there were 6,800. After 30 years of calamitous decline, fuelled by the spread of TV, the cinema in Western countries began to revive in the mid 1980s. Investment in conversion and newly built multi-screen cinemas meant that in the UK, the number of screens rose from 1246 in 1984 to 1919 in 1994. In this period, audiences rose from 53 million to 122 million annually. The growth has continued since. Domestic ownership of media hardware rose rapidly during the 1990s, and the range of hardware expanded, whilst the growth of the Internet is possibly too familiar to need comment. Much of this media growth has been linked to the power of advertising and its constant tendency to seek new areas to colonize. I would note here the spread of giant posters in city centres, the growth of commercial sponsorship, the smothering of buses and coaches with advertisements, the spread of audio advertising in stores, and the rapid spread of junk mail and the give-away press. As well as constituting a new form of pollution, this growth also contributes to the omnipresent self-referential and inter-textual media landscape. In the magazine sector, the growth of a new style of men’s magazine has been the most spectacular growth area. The first wave of the men’s style press centred on The Face, GQ, Arena and FHM. Arena was launched in 1986. The launch and runaway success of Loaded in 1994 transformed the field of men’s magazines. All titles re-targeted themselves downmarket and soft-core pornographic imagery re-entered the mainstream of front covers. Loaded increased its circulation by 85 per cent during 1996 but the revamped FHM’s circulation went up 271 per cent to achieve monthly sales of 365,000. By 1997, it sometimes sold over half a million, giving it an estimated readership of over two million. This compared to a circulation of less than 50,000 in 1994, when it was acquired by EMAP and re-designed. EMAP spotted the middle ground between the laddishness of Loaded and the aspirational advertising-driven content of GQ. (The Guardian, 17 February 1997). So, summing up, there has been a massive expansion in the volume of media material. Vastly increased speed of circulation of information Not only has there been a massive expansion in the scope, range and reach of the media but the speed of circulation

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of information has also increased. Indeed, it has been in the technology of instantaneous communication that developments have been most rapid. The fax, email, mobile phones and the Internet have contributed to a culture in which contact with media organizations, information providers, and fellow citizens can be opened on a 24/7 basis. One impact of these developments has been that the feedback loop has become much shorter and more rapid. Up till the 1970s, public responses to events emerged mainly through letters. Stories built and developed at a relatively slow pace as public reactions emerged. Even official responses could be relatively slow. The development of the radio phone-in was the first significant popular form to enable a much greater crystallization of public response to events and contribution to discussion. The growth of regular news slots on radio, conventionally every 15 minutes, produced a pressure on the pace of official response to events. Rolling news requires rolling response. The public relations industry grew in response, providing routinized channels of access, along with new management. The craft of spin began to refine its techniques. Mobile phones took instant access into the great outdoors. Now, it was not necessary to be at home or at work to respond and contribute. And texting meant it was not necessary to get through to the recipient to offer instant communication. The Internet expanded the range of all this technologized instantaneity onto a global scale. The cumulative effect of all these developments was to make it much more likely that dramatic stories, whether momentous or ultimately trivial, could rapidly take over and dominate the news agenda. Indeed, the sheer speed of these processes meant news events acquired a momentum beyond the ability of the actors involved to easily control. It is no accident that the 1990s became the decade of spin.

Vortextuality The impact of the erosion of the public-private distinction, the declining powers of regulation and censorship, and the growth of celebrity culture, combined with the expansion of the media and the increase in the speed of circulation have produced the phenomenon of a “vortex” effect, which I term here “vortextuality”. The various media constantly feed off each other (selfreferentiality and inter-textuality). In an era of electronic and digital information exchange, the speed at which this happens has become very rapid. Certain super-major events come to dominate the headlines. It becomes temporarily difficult for columnists and commentators to discuss anything else. They are drawn in, as if by a vortex. Even columnists with no abiding interest in an event feel impelled to comment. There is a short-term compression of the media agenda. Other topics either disappear or have to be connected to the vortextual event. In the midst of a vortextual moment, cartoons, radio phone-ins, celebrity columnists, news magazines, cultural commentators and letter pages are all drawn into the central topic. I would argue that while a fascination with scandal, gossip and celebrity is not new, this intense vortextual effect

is a distinct phenomenon that has come into being in the last 15 years or so. Indeed, examination of earlier events that we assume to have dominated the media reveals that they did not attain anything like the volume and intensity of coverage we would now expect. For example, the England 1966 World Cup win only dominated the headlines for a day and was comparatively low key in its coverage. If one examines the media coverage of events such as the fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in Zaire (the so-called “rumble in the jungle”) and England’s world Cup win in 1966; what is striking is the ways in which they did not dominate the media. These events have indeed been heavily mythologized. Over the years since their occurrence, they have been constantly inscribed and re-inscribed into history. However, if one examines the media at the time, they did not dominate the cultural landscape as much as one might expect. Largely, this is because the scope of the media was so much less all-engulfing. In 1966, there were only three TV channels in the UK, and colour and slow motion were still to be introduced. There were only two to three news bulletins a day. Even in 1974, radio phone-ins were only just becoming established. The speed of response and re-circulation was not great enough to produce the vortextual effect. The issue of whether the media coverage of 9/11 can be considered an instance of vortextuality has been the subject of debate on more than one occasion. My gut reaction has been that it is not. There is a disjuncture between the enormous gravitas and serious long-term implications of the destruction of the World Trade Centre on the one hand, and the apparent exaggeration of the seemingly trivial that characterizes my own examples of vortextuality, on the other. The italics signify here a question that study of popular culture has always posed. In common sense terms, of course, the wedding of Beckham and Victoria Adams (Posh Spice) was a trivial event, and the attention paid it was exaggerated. Yet, it was consumed by many millions in a variety of forms. Like the destruction of the World Trade Centre, Kennedy’s assassination constituted a major news event that commanded the agenda by virtue of its weight as well as by the volume of its coverage. But, the much slower speed of circulation and more limited media landscape ensure that dramatic though it was, it did not produce the vortextual effect more characteristic of post-1990 media. Vortextuality is exemplified by Beckham’s wedding, by the death of Princess Diana, and by the announcement of the Michael Jackson trial verdict. Both triggered an intensity of media focus that in retrospect appears, to a greater or lesser degree, out of proportion. Clearly, some events by their sheer gravity and drama produce this effect—the destruction of the World Trade Centre is a good example. However, unlike the merely vortextual event such as Beckham’s wedding, the more solid substance and momentous implications of such events ensure that initial intense reaction gradually gives way to more sober reflection. What makes the vortextual distinct is the disproportion between event and attention—it is the speed and structure of information flow that produces this effect and not simply the gravity and weight of the event. Indeed it is the tendency to have volume without weight, prominence without 69

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gravitas that characterizes the vortextual event. Two quotes might help to illustrate this. In Evelyn Waugh’s Officers and Gentlemen (1955), a character comments “Captain Crouchback has gravity—he’s the ball of lead which in a vacuum falls no faster than a feather” (Waugh, 1955). English columnist Robert Robinson commented on the Miss World Competition: “all through, you’d had the feeling that if anyone had sneezed hard enough, the whole event would have been blown away” (Robinson, 1965). Vortextual events have a not dissimilar character—occurrences like the Beckham wedding and the death of Princess Diana seem all important at the moment they happen, and yet after a few years have lapsed, they appear far less important than they did, and people wonder what all the fuss was about. It is noteworthy, for example, that the anniversary of Diana’s death, while marked in various quarters, is not a big media event, and one senses a slight collective embarrassment about the way in which so many were caught in an act of mass irrationality. This is not, of course, to argue that vortextual events are insignificant—indeed, the very intensity of the reaction is a sure sign that significant elements of widespread concern are being condensed onto a single dramatized iconic moment. All I am suggesting is that one characteristic feature of a vortextual moment is that, given the perspective of time, the initial reactions can appear disproportionate. The effect I have been tracing has certain similarities with the deviance amplification model. But, the distinction is that in the deviance amplification model, the initial primary definitions tend to come from authoritative sources and only subsequently do various forms of reaction through feedback intervene. Consequently, the original phenomenon can change in form as a result of the changed perceptions or actions of the various actors involved. In the vortextual effect, by contrast, the whole process is so compressed that primary definitions, secondary circulation, public reaction and reciprocal feedback effects are all happening almost from the start of the phenomenon. This gives the story, temporarily, a far greater intensity. It also seems to make early burnout a greater likelihood. After one to two weeks, everyone has had their say, has become bored and want to move on to another issue. I do think, though, that there is a relation between deviance amplification and the vortextual effect. It is possible that a vortextual event might well provide the moment of crystallization of a new folk devil, triggering, in turn, a new moral panic. The murder of a policeman in Manchester, which gained massive media attention, has been followed by the apparent crystallization of an emergent folk devil, the “terrorist/asylum seeker”. By the end of the January, a grotesque new moral panic seemed to have been generated by extremely vicious press campaigns most notably in The Sun under new editor Rebecca Wade. Of course, in any media phenomenon that supposedly unites or addresses the whole audience, there are always, in practice, limitations. The specificities of focus—of nation, national identity, gender and sexual orientation—limit the hegemonic force of most messages, and even the most dramatic of vortextual events does not command attention from the whole nation, let alone the whole planet. 70

Many people of republican or anti-monarchist sympathies were doubtless left cold by the Princess Diana death, although it is one of the features of vortextuality that even such people will often feel impelled to contribute articles, columns, letters and phone-in contributions. Similarly, many women and some men are turned off by football, whilst many men and many women are probably disinterested in celebrity weddings. Again, it is a vortextual characteristic that, even in deriding the apparent importance given to such utter triviality, people contribute to the intensity of the vortextual moment. Even events like academic conferences can become part of the secondary circulation of celebrity fascination. An understanding of these vortextual processes does, it seem to me, provide a way of thinking about the political effectivity of forms of opposition. In the last 25 years, there has been a marked transition from the mass demonstration to the cleverly staged media event, manifest in Greenpeace, eco-politics and the anti-globalization movement. It is easy to see why. Mass demonstrations require a considerable effort of many people to organize. They need costly advance publicity, energy and commitment and attention to the logistics of organizing transport. Yet, if peaceful, the yield in terms of media attention is often very disappointing. Marching with 100,000 people only to discover the event did not make the TV news and only merited a few inches on the inside pages of newspapers can be demoralizing and demotivating, despite the moral boosting sense of being part of a collectivity with shared values. By contrast, a well-organized media event, involving comparatively few people, can sometimes temporarily seize the media agenda. The very speed of the vortextual effect can, at least potentially, undermine the well-established and structured frames of reference that the media mobilize to interpret the world. There is scope, however limited for a counter hegemonic message to advertise itself, albeit briefly. Major media sport events have an almost unique power to command media attention. It will be a surprise if in the next decade, there is not a re-emergence of a “politics of gesture” in the spirit of the 1968 black power salute at the Mexico Olympics.

References Bennett, T. (1986). Introduction: Popular culture and the turn to Gramsci. In T. Bennett, C. Mercer and J. Woollacott (Eds.), Popular culture and social relations. Milton Keynes: Open University. Bennett, T., Martin, G., Mercer, C., & Woollacott, J. (Eds.) (1981b). Culture ideology and social process. London: Batsford. Bennett, T. (1981a). Popular culture: Defining our terms. In Popular culture, Open University course U203, unit 1. Milton Keynes: Open University. Cohen, S. (1971). Folk devils and moral panics. London: Paladin. Cohen, S. & Young, J. (Eds) (1973). Manufacture of news. London: Constable. Curran, J., Douglas, A., & Whannel, G. (1980). The political economy of the human interest story. In Newspapers and democracy. London: MIT Press. Galtung, J., & Ruge, M. (1973). Structuring and selecting news.

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In The manufacture of news: Deviance, social problems and the mass media. London: Constable. Goodhart, D., & P. Wintour. (1986). Eddie Shah and the newspaper revolution. London: Coronet. Hall, S. (1980). Cultural studies: Two paradigms. Media Culture and Society, 2(1), 57–72. London: Academic Press. Langer, J. (1981). Televisions personality system. Media Culture and Society, 3(4). London: Academic Press. Mercer, C. (1978) Culture and ideology in Gramsci. Red Letters, 8, 19–40. Murdock, G., & Golding, P. (1978). The structure, ownership and control of the press, 1914-1976. In G. Boyce, J. Curran & P. Wingate (Eds.), Newspaper history: From the 17th century to the present day. London: Constable. Robinson, R. (1965). Inside Robert Robinson. London: Penguin. Rock, P. (1973). News as eternal recurrence. In The manufacture of news: Deviance, social problems and the mass media. London: Constable. Travis, A. (2000). Bound and gagged. London: Profile Books. Waugh, E. (1955). Officers and Gentleman. Second part of the

Men at Arms Trilogy. London: Chapman and Hall. Whannel, G. (2002). Media sport stars, masculinities and moralities. London: Routledge.

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Interviews

Survivors. Public right to know vs. survivors’ privacy. Retrieved on 5 April 2005 from http://journalism.uts.edu.au/subjects/ oj1/oj1_a2001/survivors/public.htm University of North Carolina. Telling the story when natural disasters strike. Retrieved on 5 April 2005 from http://www. jomc.unc.edu/executiveeducation/disasters/Disasters.pdf Van Acker, E. (December 2003). Protecting our borders: Ministerial rhetoric and asylum seekers. Australian Journalism Review, 25(2), 103–119. Retrieved on 5 April 2005 from Informit database. Village Voice. (27 December 2004). Disasters natural and unnatural. Retrieved on 5 April 2005 from http://www. villagevoice.com/blogs/bushbeat/archive/000614.php Voice of America. (8 March 2005). Journalists, government officials cite challenges in covering disasters. Retrieved on 5 April 2005 from http://www.voanews.com/english/ About/health-journalists.cfm Walters, L. M., Wilkins, L., & Walters, T. (Eds.) (1989). Bad tidings: Communication and catastrophe. Hillsdale, NJ: L. Erlbaum. Williams, G. (n.d.). Campaign for press and broadcasting freedom, two disasters, two responses. Retrieved on 5 April 2005 from http://keywords.dsvr.co.uk/freepress/body.phtml?ca tegory=freepress&id=932

Notes 1.

Examples include James Joyce’s Ulysses and D. H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Homosexual and lesbian fiction, such as Radcliffe Hall’s The Well of Loneliness, and most of Jean Genet’s work was suppressed, as were works of “deviant” sexuality such as The Story of O, and the work of the Marquis de Sade. Much of William Burroughs work including The Naked Lunch also remained unpublished in England until the 1960s. The Paris-based publisher The Olympia Press specialized in English language editions that could be smuggled into Britain (see Travis, 2000).

This paper was presented at the 14th AMIC Annual Conference on Media and Society in Asia: Transformations and Transition held on 18–21 July 2005 in Beijing, China.

E-mail interview with C. K. Lau, Executive Editor, South China Morning Post, on 22 February 2005. Telephone interview with Sarban Singh, Penang Bureau Chief, New Straits Times on 16 May 2005.

Websites Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd, http://economictimes.indiatimes. com/dmd/htmls/aboutus.htm Media Museum, http://www.comcentrum.ph/mediamuseum/ thehall/the-hall-living.htm Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India, http://rni.nic. in/ SCMP Group, http://scmpgroup.com/press_20050401.html The China Daily, http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/static/ aboutchinadaily.html The Jakarta Post, http://www.thejakartapost.com/about/about_ history.asp The New Straits Times, http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/ NST/about_html This paper was presented at the 14th AMIC Annual Conference on Media and Society in Asia: Transformations and Transition held on 18–21 July 2005 in Beijing, China. 71

The Peaceful Path of Jihad Nasyid Revolution in South East Asia

In this paper, the author looks at what he describes as the “Nasyid Revolution” in Southeast Asia. Nasyid is a popular form of Islamic music that is being employed to promote Islamic values. The paper addresses the emergence of Nasyid into the mainstream music industry, its role in the Islamic revivalist movements, its social impact, and its significance for the theories of cultural imperialism and cultural theory.

KALINGA SENEVIRATNE

V

ery often, when people talk about the impact of MTV (music television) on developing-country societies, it is common to describe the process as a form of cultural imperialism, which would destroy local musical industries and traditional culture, and westernize the local youth. To test this theoretical perspective, I have chosen for a PhD1 a study examining the impact of MTV on the youth culture of Malaysia and Indonesia, two Muslim nations in South East Asia. In the study, one of the areas I am focusing on is the popularity of a genre of Islamic music in the region known as nasyid and its relationship to the MTV-generated musical formats, formulas or cultural trends. Thus, in the course of this research, I interviewed many nasyid musical groups in Malaysia and Indonesia who have gained pop-star status in their countries. One such group was Snada, an Indonesian nasyid group whose latest album “Neo Shalawa” (released in 2004) has sold over 400,000 copies. “We’re involved in jihad” (Snada, 2004) was the response to my first question about the role of nasyid music. Perhaps I may have raised my eyebrows at that statement, because their leader quickly added: I know what you are thinking about … no, we are not in the business of killing non-believers like you. We use music in dakwah (propagation), to spread the word of God. He then went on to explain to me how they use music to convey the Islamic message and values to youth in their country. In this paper, I will look at how the “nasyid revolution” in South East Asia is providing a peaceful way of propagating Islamic values, mainly within their own Islamic communities. Kalinga Seneviratne is Senior Research Associate at the Asian Media Information and Communication Centre, Singapore. 72

Jihad and dakwah Jihad is an Arabic word which comes from the Arabic root word jahada which means “exerting utmost effort” or “to strive”. The word connotes a wide range of meanings, from an inward spiritual struggle to attain perfect faith to holy war (Wikipedia free encyclopedia). Jihad literally means “a struggle” and Muslims often refer to two types of jihad (citing hadiths2 recorded by Imam Baihaqi and al-Khatib al-Baghdadi): the inner (greater) jihad and outer (lesser) jihad. Inner jihad is the struggle of personal self-improvement against the self-based desires and outer jihad is a military struggle or holy war. It is the latter definition of jihad which has exclusive military dimensions that is often associated with this word today. Yet, the tradition identifying interior struggle as “greater” jihad appears to have been profoundly influenced by sufism, an ancient and diverse mystical movement within Islam, which use music and poetry, quite extensively, in the practice and propagation of Islam. A member of the Indonesian nasyid musical group Izatul Islam (Pride of Islam) said, We try to make Islam respectable in Indonesia by involving ourselves in jihad. So jihad can be implemented by singing (2004). The emergence of Islamic revivalist movements in South East Asia, especially in Malaysia in the 1970s was popularly known as dakwah. As Shamsul (1997: 210) observes, “one consequence of the dakwah movement’s development was that Islam came to be highlighted as the pillar of Malay identity”. He describes the dahwah movement as a revivalism of Islamic identity with an attempt to “restructure the past in a form relevant to contemporary social interests”. Shamsul lists six intentions as the motivation for the dakwah movement in Malaysia, which has also influenced other Islamic communities in the region. These are as follows:

THE PEACEFUL PATH OF JIHAD: NASYID REVOLUTION IN SOUTH EAST ASIA

• • • • • •

To overcome the pressures of or construct a reply to modernization To express anti-imperialist or anti-hegemonic sentiments To promote spiritual renewal from within a given religion, such as the move to “re-Islamize knowledge” To counter the influence of societal rationalization To resolve how to live in a world of radical doubt through the re-formulation of traditional symbols and systems of meaning To reinvent and reconstruct tradition, thus allowing a re-definition or reassertion of ethno-religious identities in a plural society (Shamsul, 1997: 211)

Snada (2004) argues that traditionally in the course of dakwah, people usually talk and try to convince others to do something good. There was no alternative to talking but now they are trying to do the same through nasyid songs.

Role of music in Islam There is much debate nowadays as to whether music is forbidden (haram) in Islam or not. Since the founding of Islam in 622 AD, music and dance have flourished in many Muslim societies, for example in Arabia, Persia and later in India and South East Asia. However, this has often been accompanied by hostility exercised towards music and dance by orthodox clergy and Islamic scholars. Because of opposition from religious leaders, Islamic music has been relatively restricted to forms of poetry, the call to prayer or the cantillation of the Quaran3. Opponents of music have argued that the cantillation of the Quaran is technically distinct from singing. So, what is accepted as “Islamic music” has been closely tied to poetry with very little instrumental accompaniment. After centuries of debate and argument, four main groups have emerged in the Islamic world, whose attitude towards music can be listed as follows (Britannica, 1981: 973): • • • •

Uncompromising purists who are opposed to any musical expression Religious authorities admitting only the cantillation of the Quaran and the call to prayer Scholars and musicians favouring music, believing there to be no musical difference between secular and religious music Muslim sects such as the Sufis, for whom music and dance are a means toward achieving unity with God

In recent times, the debate surrounding the role of music in Islam has intensified. The Malaysia pop musical group Raihan (as discussed later) has elevated nasyid singing to a new level. In Pakistan, quawali singers, such as the late Fathir Ali Khan, made this form of Islamic music into a modern concert performance genre. Currently, British-based Pakistani music group Junoon has transformed quawali into what they call “Islamic rock music”. Al-Munajjid (2002) argues that singing or the reciting of poetry that is not accompanied by any music is halal (acceptable) as long as the lyrics are Islamic and promote taqwa—faith in Allah (God). He also adds that most scholars

agree that singing accompanied by the duff (tambourine or hand drum) is halal and that a combination of both is allowed during celebrations such as weddings. In the Islamic music world, there is the great tradition and the little tradition argues Fakharia Lokman (2004), a Malaysian musicologist and Islamic scholar. The great tradition is influenced by the Quaran and the hadith, which are “divine and has a lot of beautiful sound arts”. The little tradition is when Islam arrived in a new country and absorbed some of its traditional music into the Islamic musical culture while preserving the great tradition. Azyumardi Azra (2005), president of the Syarif Hidayatullah Islamic University in Jakarta, argues that music has been a part and parcel of Muslim life in Indonesia and this is one of the most distinctive characters of Indonesian Islam. It is not seen as a forbidden thing there.

Nasyid revolution and MTV The most important development in Malaysian pop music in the last decade was the establishment of nasyid Islamic pop music groups as part of the mainstream musical industry. Starting with the group Rabbani, the nasyid movement reached unprecedented heights with the arrival of the four-member group Raihan in the late 1990s. Their first album “Puji Pujian” outsold every other musical group (including Western) in the Malaysian market, thus making them the biggest selling recording artists in Malaysia’s history (Kamin, 2003). Their singing of Islamic religious poetry, accompanied by the Malay traditional percussion instrument rebana, has given rise to a large number of replications across Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, including a few all-female groups who sing dressed in the traditional Islamic garb (Harrison, 1999). Over the last few years, Raihan has toured many countries including Indonesia, Singapore, UK, Brunei and South Africa. They have also appeared on MTV’s worldwide channel. Raihan (Idris, 2004) describes its musical style as “taking a little bit of music and throwing in accapella or percussion” to convey the Islamic message through music. They will prefer to leave it to the Islamic scholars to decide whether it is haram or not. Observes Tan (2003: 97), Video clips of nasyid pop show almost no narrative. Images, which are conducive for prayer and meditation are arbitrarily employed in the song and are usually not connected to the lyrics. Black and white segments are juxtaposed with coloured clips of singers lip-synching in continually changing settings. Backdrops include the mountain, river, sunset, mosque, padi field and the desert (as though one were in the Middle East). Often, singers play the Malay rebana or kompang (frame drums) as well. Cinta yang Suci (Pure Love) shows the Raihan singers lip-synching in the padi field and in the vicinity of the mosque. In Zapin Syuhur (Zaping of Thanksgiving), images of the hijjaz singers lip-synching and playing kompang are superimposed on footage of gamelan instruments, clouds, coconut trees, the sea and mosque. 73

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Nasyid—which in Arabic means raising the voice when reciting verse and making the voice sound beautiful and gentle—is, according to some Islamic scholars, acceptable as long as it does not use forbidden musical instruments (Al-Munajjid, 2003). Yet, others argue that nasyid groups could use instrumental music as long as this music is not associated with the negative image of pop music, such as drugs, sex and dancing. Says Lokman (2004), If you sing in pop style, it is borrowed culture, not associated with [the] Muslim way of life. Nasyid groups have lyrics, which have religious connotations, but [the] sound is more known to youth, so that it attracts them. Islamic sound has to be closer to Quaranic sound, which means its Arabic sound … nasyid songs should have not only Islamic lyrics, but as purveyors of Islamic messages, they should have a Quaranic sound. In Indonesia, the legendary dangdut4 singer Rhoma Irama (2004) tried to introduce nasyid lyrics to his pop music and it did not succeed. He argues that nasyid is an exclusive type of music in Indonesia, listened to only by religious people who have usually gone to Islamic boarding schools. Thus, Irama, who is now an Islamic cleric, tried to take nasyid to his audience who are more into secular pop music with a “lower Islamic awareness” because he felt that he had “an obligation to Allah to promote Islam through my music”. The attempt did not succeed because people listen to dangdut for entertainment and to dance. Often, they are intoxicated as well. Says Herdi Hidayat (2005), producer of high-rating weekly television programme Digoya Dangdut in Jakarta’s TransTV, Two years ago, we had Rhoma Irama singing nasyid during Ramadhan5 in our programme but rating was very low. Irama is known as a dangdut singer. Now, he claims his dangdut is “dakwa” dangdut but what he is performing is pure dangdut. In “Nada Ramadhan” two years ago, we tried to mix dangdut with Arabian style music every week for one month and Rhoma was the singer. Dangdut is for fun, not for praying or promoting religion. So ratings were not good. Dangdut cannot be mixed with nasyid because dangdut makes audience dance but nasyid is about moral values. Dangdut’s image is sexy—the costumes and looks—and audience come for dangdut to get drunk and dance. How can you listen to religious values while you are drunk?

Role of nasyid in dakwah Nasyid’s role, both in the struggle to promote Islam (jihad) and as a missionary (dakwah) activity among Muslim youth in the region, has been its ability to package these songs as part of a contemporary cultural reawakening. Recalling its beginnings in mid 1990s, Raihan (Idris, 2004) says that its members did not go out to become pop 74

stars. It was a time Muslim youth were facing a number of social problems in Malaysia. So they set out to give them “an alternative way of thinking”, using music “to give them advice”. To get their attention and their trust, Raihan packaged itself in the form of a contemporary pop group, even adopting the MTV production formula to produce their first video clip of the song “Sukur”, which was broadcast worldwide on the MTV network. It was a black-and-white video clip featuring the singers and images of Muslims as familyoriented, respecting the elders and helping the poor. Raihan caught the attention of the Islamic cultural foundation Mountain of Light run by Yusuf Islam (former British pop star Cat Stevens) and they were invited to sing at the Edinburgh music festival where Prince Charles was much impressed by their performance. Later, in 1998, they performed at the closing ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, which gave them worldwide exposure. Raihan (Idris, 2004) wants to create a new understanding of Islam through music and they also want to convey the message to the youth that nasyid is not just for old people. They feel what is special to Raihan is that it has been able to get commercial exposure while at the same time promoting religion to youth. During focus group discussion (Kuala Lumpur, 2004), Amdan, a 18-year-old female undergraduate said nasyid “gives me moral support, sometimes it helps us to praise our God, sometimes it reminds us of our mission, it reminds us that if we have done sins, go back to our teachings”. Another student, 20-year-old male Yusof (Kuala Lumpur, 2004) said that before Raihan came onboard, nasyid was underground music. “Raihan promoted it using MTV, putting their face on cover. Before that, nasyid groups never put their face on the cover. They put a lot of money into promoting it. Now, nasyid songs and groups have grown. It has now become popular music. Lot of people love to hear it. We think it’s contemporary music.” Tan (2003) observed that nasyid songs get a lot of air play in Malaysia because it fits in with the government’s attempts to disseminate Islamic values to the people. Thus, many live performances of nasyid are telecast. Since September 2003, the new Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi has been promoting his vision for Malaysia “Islam Hadhari”, which has as its central theme, the unifying focus that “Islam is a religion for development” (Sim, 2004). According to the PM, this vision of Islam stresses moderation in all aspects of life—an Islam that is progressive, dynamic and capable of handling contemporary challenges. This Islam embraces modernization and globalization while encouraging the individual to become honest and hardworking Muslims by imbedding Islamic values and knowledge in them. The nasyid revolution in Malaysia seems to fit very well into this vision of a moderate and progressive Islamic society. Since the phenomenal commercial success of Raihan’s first album, replications have spread fast and wide in Malaysia. Initially, Raihan itself admits that the Muslim clerics were not very supportive of nasyid groups. Now,

THE PEACEFUL PATH OF JIHAD: NASYID REVOLUTION IN SOUTH EAST ASIA

some mosques and mainstream Islamic organizations sponsor nasyid concerts because they see it as clean Islamic entertainment for youth. “In Islam also we can have entertainment, not only go to mosque and listen to sermons, we can have knowledge through entertainment”, argues Raihan (Idris, 2004). In Malaysia, the lyrics of any nasyid song, which will be recorded or sung in public, need to be approved by a council of Islamic clerics (Rahim, 2004). There is no such requirement in Indonesia. There have been nasyid groups in Malaysia before Raihan, such as Rabbani and Hijjaz, but it was Raihan’s commercial success which gave this music genre a new lease of life. It was mainly due to the fact that Raihan’s music label was Warner Music, a multinational company with wide experience in marketing music. Explains a marketing executive of Warner Music Malaysia (Azlan, 2004), Before Raihan, there were many nasyid groups but they did not promote themselves by going to radio for radio play so this time, we tried. We treated it like a normal pop album. We used normal marketing tools like TV, radio, then magazines. Before that, popular magazines won’t have pictures or write about artists of “underground” nasyid groups. They were the first ones, and when they hit big, everyone wanted to invest in it. Before this, nasyid songs were marketed on cassettes which were sold as underground music in stalls at mosques on Fridays. Thus, the wider public was not aware about its existence. Once Warner Music started promoting it and radio stations played them “10 to 20 times a day” not as nasyid songs but pop songs, “it was like a phenomenon, everybody everywhere were [sic] playing” (Azlan, 2004). When Raihan started selling their albums in the hundreds of thousands, other multinational recording companies operating in Malaysia such as EMI and PMG started signing up groups such as Rabani and Hijjaz (Rahim, 2004). Lately, nasyid groups have started producing karaoke videos and VCDs, where young people can sing along. One of the first nasyid karaoke videos was produced by Raihan, which was focused on Quaranic readings via singing for small children, similar to the old nursery rhymes. Today, in campuses across Malaysia, nasyid festivals take place regularly, especially around Ramadhan (Muslim fasting month) and Prophet Muhammad’s birthday. Hijjaz and a number of other groups in Malaysia are also taking the nasyid “dakwah” movement one notch forward. In addition to setting up their own music entertainment companies, they are also setting up nasyid singing training programme in universities and schools, aiming to produce at least one new national nasyid artist a year. When that is achieved, these artistes go over to EMI to market their albums. “We want to get young people involved in nasyid, the same way they get involved in football or dancing” (Rahim, 2004). While a huge nasyid movement has developed in Malaysia, in neighbouring Indonesia, where the world’s largest Muslim population (of over 190 million) lives, this religious music fervour has not caught on at the same level.

Argues Snada (2004), Development of nasyid in Malaysia came from the grassroots and grew up. Malaysian culture is very conducive to nasyid. In Indonesia, it is seen as ideology. Akeu (2004), 18-year-old student and a female nasyid singer from Bandung says that nasyid is not popular in Indonesia because “any music attached to religion is regarded as backward kampong (village) music. So, they think it is not representing modernity”. Adds her classmate and fellow nasyid singer Netty (2004) that some young people associate nasyid with dakwah, “not to do this and that” so while they are aware about the message, they are afraid to join nasyid groups if they feel they can’t practise the teachings. Though they have sold over 400,000 copies of their latest album, yet Snada can only sing at religious festivals and sometimes “people look at the watch” (Snada, 2004) when they sing. Izatul Islam (2004) also agrees that nasyid is not as popular in Indonesia like it is in neighbouring Malaysia, and it restricted to religious festivals and does not go on evening television. Yet, during my field research in Jakarta in November 2004 during the Ramadan period, I found a nasyid competition on evening peak-hour television, where both male and female groups sang nasyid songs. The show, modelled on the American Idol formula, had a three-member judging panel and SMS voting. At the end of the four-week season, the show produced a winner. While the programme is believed to have rated well, and perhaps helped to bring nasyid more into the mainstream, one Malaysian Islamic scholar told me that it would rate as a haram (forbidden) programme. “This type of show will discredit Islam. How can you judge who is the best at communicating the will of God?” he asked. Snada (2004) says that after the success of their album, music industry’s scepticism about nasyid is waning. They now think that this music has commercial appeal and it is not restricted to devout Muslims. To make sure this popularity grows, Snada performs everywhere and anywhere they are invited to without a charge. “Producers are now competing to get our new album,” they claim.

Nasyid’s social impact Initially, most nasyid songs were about God or in praise of God. Lately, many new groups in Malaysia, of young university students, such as Saujana, have started singing about social issues. Saujana (Amrin, 2004) describes their songs as “singing about love, not between boy and girl, but love between families, love towards our parents and friends”. They even sing about marriage, relating it to Islamic teachings. They argue these songs are meant to give a motivational and inspirational message. Saujana is made up of five university students—all male. Two of them study medicine, another law and two others, computer sciences. Their songs are accompanied by a variety of beats, even R & B, pop, Malay-traditional and ballads 75

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to suit the musical tastes of teenagers and students. Malaysian Islamic scholar Zulkiple Abdul Ghani (Baharin and Jamaludin, 2004: 22) argues that those who want to develop an Islamic popular culture need to do experiments. He believes Muslims are far too inclined towards taking a defensive approach, rather than a proactive path in developing popular culture. He notes, We’re far too defensive ourselves from the attacks of popular culture from outside. But, we’re not seriously putting an effort to build our own popular culture. We need to think of this problem seriously and find alternatives. Saujana says that they are trying to create this alternative, but people are not yet ready for nasyid rock or Islamic rock, though they are hungry for new sounds. So, when they produce a new album, they use MTV to promote it. “We are exposing positive messages via MTV to people who are viewing us” (Amrin, 2004). Zulkiple (Baharin and Jamaludin, 2004) argues that one of the major drawbacks to developing an Islamic popular culture is the lack of exposure for students in arts institution in the country to the Islamic view on arts and culture, while they get a good dose of the Western view. When you come to Islamic studies, he notes that the approach taken towards music, singing, dancing and film is in the form of fiqiyah (punishment). With this approach, Muslims will always live in a vacuum, he warns. The development of the nasyid movement in Malaysia, Zulkiple believes, is a good example of a careful nurturing of an Islamic pop culture. In the early days, no one dared to move one’s body on stage but it is different now. Also the involvement of recording companies have made it possible for many nasyid groups to stay alive for longer, as well as provide avenues of distribution for quality products. The success of the nasyid revolution has been its ability to make this genre of music acceptable not only because of its lyrics but its wider role in the community. As Zulkiple observes, the pop culture nasyid has created is not only restricted to its lyrics but also a behavioural pattern reflected by the individuals and groups that present it. Saujana (Amrin, 2004) claims that they know many troubled youngsters who have listened to nasyid from time to time and been able to develop positive thoughts to improve themselves. Sociology student Banu (focus group, Jakarta, 2004) listens to nasyid when his “soul needs it” and when he thinks “he needs to repent for his sins” because the songs help him to understand Islam better. Many focus group participants in both Malaysia and Indonesia expressed similar sentiments, while an equal number also said that they do not listen to nasyid because it is too religious. The latter view was more common in Indonesia. But, at the same time, they said that if the music were modern, they would listen to it. Today, the nasyid revolution is at a crossroad. In Malaysia, during the peak period, Raihan was able to sell between 200,000 to 600,000 copies of their latest album. This phase is more or less over because there are many groups now marketing to the same audience. Thus, the market share has 76

diversified and industry sources say if you come up with a new album, anything between 20,000 to 60,000 copies could be sold in Malaysia. The style of presentation and the message is also changing. Raihan mainly sang in praise of God but, today, the newly emerging groups like Saujana are singing about social issues from an Islamic perspective. Some young people commented in focus group discussions that the time could be ripe for Islamic rap or hip hop. As Tia, a senior high school student (focus group, Bandung, 2004) put it: “I’m very impressed with Black hip hop music which has messages. It can be very inspirational for us. I’ve heard that there are Muslim songs in hip hop, like TooFat from Malaysia sings a hip-hop song with Muslim messages. It is very good.” Raihan, which has been a trendsetter in developing Islamic pop culture in the region is now trying to push the markers further. Initially, they introduced rhythms to nasyid singing, which made it possible for nasyid to graduate from “not very attractive” label towards pop music. In their new album Allahau, Raihan is doing a duet with Malaysian rock singer Awie titled Dari Tuhan (From God). Raihan member Abu Baker Yatim (Baharin and Jamaludin, 2004) says that in the early stages, their focus was on small children but now, they are focusing on those who are into rock music—the teenagers and youth. In another song, they have also included Bollywood (Indian film music) rhythm because Indian movies are very popular among the Malay adult population in the region. This commercialism of nasyid worries some Islamic scholars who fear that the message may be lost to the beat and the image. Even some youth with strong Islamic values, such as law student Shazeera (focus group, Kuala Lumpur, 2004) complains: “I object to the fact that you can dance to nasyid music. I have been to a concert and everybody was moving to it.” The question here is, in order to qualify as Islamic pop culture, has it got to satisfy all the Muslim elements, which are considered to represent that culture? Abu Baker (Baharin and Jamaludin, 2004: 21) believes that there is a very narrow perception of what is popular Islamic music in the society. “Many people think that if a song is sung with some other cultural music, it is not Islamic anymore. And when they hear songs in Arabic, they think it is an Islamic song and it has messages. When a song is in Arabic language, it is not always a song with Islamic messages. It may have love concepts among humans and the video clip may have seductive dancing.”

Cultural imperialism, cultural theory and dakwah There is no doubt that nasyid has made an impact on the youth culture in Malaysia and, to a lesser extent, Indonesia. In the process of appropriating production and marketing techniques from the Western pop music industry such as MTV, has the nasyid music industry succumbed to Western cultural imperialism or turned it on its head? Petras (1993) describes the effect of cultural imperialism,

THE PEACEFUL PATH OF JIHAD: NASYID REVOLUTION IN SOUTH EAST ASIA

In the political sphere, cultural imperialism plays a major role in dissociating people from their cultural roots and traditions of solidarity, replacing them with media-created “needs”, which change with every political campaign. The political effect is to alienate people from traditional class and community bonds, atomising and separating individuals from each other (1993: 30). He was referring to the impact of Western cultural products on the cultures and people of the developing world. In respect to the development of contemporary nasyid music in South East Asia, has MTV and its associated pop musical culture “dissociated people from their cultural roots and traditions of solidarity” as argued by Petras? If so, what has it been replaced with? The answer tends to be “no”. In fact, the local musical groups have made use of MTV and its associated pop musical formula, to re-package and brand nasyid as contemporary Islamic pop music. The political effect has been to strengthen community bonds, rather than separate people from each other. Today, nasyid festivals bring young people together and help them to identify more closely with their culture. As indicated during focus group discussions, nasyid also helped them to feel that this culture is a modernizing influence, not a backward one. According to the Marxism-influenced cultural theory, popular culture is largely produced by capitalist corporations which, assisted by mass advertising, creates consumer products as popular culture. It is usually mass-produced cultural products by the culture industries. Thus, contemporary popular culture is, primarily, a commercially produced one. Argues Barker (2003: 69), “Popular culture is constituted through the production of popular meaning located at the moment of consumption.” Hall (Barker, 2003: 69) has argued that popular culture is an arena of consent and resistance in the struggle over cultural meaning. It is the site where cultural hegemony is secured or challenged. He also argues that popular culture plays a role in the politics of power within the wider social formation. Nasyid groups in South East Asia have adopted an Arabic brand of traditional Islamic poetry into their own culture by translating them into Malay and given it an undeniable local flavour by using traditional instruments like the rebana. Though this music has not yet been produced by capitalist corporations, yet their advertising methods have been used to create nasyid into a popular cultural product. As mentioned earlier, it also plays a role in national politics in Malaysia, though an indirect one, by providing a form of cultural expression to the Islam hadhari campaign. Many young people said in the focus group discussions that nasyid represent their culture and their identity because it sings about their religious values in their own language. Thus, it has become a symbol of how they might represent themselves. When Raihan makes overseas tours, for example, they are representing a Malay Islamic culture to the outside world. Yet, they may not be representing what is considered

“traditional Malay culture”. On the other hand, they may be globalizing the dakwah movement begun in Malaysia via nasyid music. As language could be a barrier in this respect, recently, Raihan has recorded songs in English and Urdu (Pakistani language), and they are planning to record Mandarin songs to take the message to the Muslim community in China. On the other hand, critics may argue that the Western pop culture invading the region, via MTV and other sources, have made local popular culture adapt to it. As Al Islam (Baharin and Jamaludin, 2004) observed, Muslims are now accepting this culture, when, for example, Muslim women wear body-hugging tops and tight pants, along with the tudong (Islamic veil). While, the latter emphasize their Muslim identity, this process may be, what cultural theorists call, “hybridization” or “creolization” (Barker, 2003: 174) of popular culture. The question is, can this be accepted as contemporary Muslim popular culture? Or is it not acceptable as Muslim culture until all the Islamic elements are satisfied?

Conclusions In today’s tense international political climate, the word jihad has been associated with terrorism and Islamic extremism. But, as discussed in this paper, in South East Asia, the nasyid movement is showing us the peaceful path of jihad. In the process, they have also shown that MTV need not be a culturally imperialistic and destructive force, only if local musical groups know how to use it to re-package and market their own products with a strong local flavour. On the other hand, adopting the American Idol formula to promote nasyid on prime-time television in Indonesia also reflects the danger of copying Western formats without thinking carefully whether it would have a negative impact on the religious or the cultural elements of the product. These questions, however, will continue to be debated as a Muslim pop culture is developed in the region. As Hijjaz (Rahim, 2004) explains both as entertainers and jihadists, they could have a dual identity: People look at nasyid musicians as good people. We try to exercise our good intentions first. After getting the message through, we try to do good in our lives. People look up to us because we come on radio, stage and TV. So, we are a role model to the people, who wants to get good things from us and the effect is more if we behave well.

References Baharin, O. N. S., & Jamaludin, N. (June 2004). Fokus—Budaya Pop Muslim (Focus—Muslim Pop Culture). Al Islam, 19–31. Malaysia. Barker, C. (2003). Cultural studies: Theory and practice. London: Sage. Dufford, S. (2003, March 12). Now for Islamic “sound arts”. The New Straits Times. FatwaBank. (2003). Listening to Music. Retrieved from Islamonline.net 77

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Hamzah, J. (2001, December 21). Taking nasyid to new heights. Bernama. Hall, S., & du Gay, P. (1996). Question of cultural identity. London: Sage. Harrison, F. (1999, May 17). Women’s band sings pop for Allah. Guardian. Kamin, A. (2003, February 5). Simply a strong force. The Star. Petras, J. (1993). Cultural imperialism in the late 20th century. Third World Resurgence, 37, 28–37. Penang: Third World Network. Raihan’s message of faith and hope. (2003, February 9). The New Straits Times. Ramly, A. S. (2004, February 2). Has Raihan lost that uplifting feeling? The Malay Mail. Shamsul, A. B. (1997). Identity construction, nation formation and Islamic revivalism in Malaysia. In R. Hefner & P. Horvatick (Eds.), Islam in an era of nation states: Politics and religious revival in Muslim South East Asia. University of Hawaii Press. Sim, R. (2004, June 26). Islam hadhari and PM’s aspirations. The New Straits Times. Tan, S. B. (2003). Musical exotica and nostalgia; “Localizing” Malaysian music video? Wacana Seni, Vol 2. Penang: Penerbit Universiti Sans Malaysia.

Interviews Interview with S. M. S. Al-Munajjid on ruling on music, singing and dancing in 2002. Retrieved from islam-qa.com Interview with Che Amarin Bin Idris, group leader of Raihan, conducted on 13 April 2004 in Kuala Lumpur. Interview with Syed Azlan, Warner Music Malaysia Marketing Executive, conducted on 14 April 2004 in Kuala Lumpur. Interview with Mohammad Suffian Amrin conducted on 19 April 2004 in Kuala Lumpur. Interview with Adly Shairy Rahim, member of Hijjaz, conducted on 21 April 2004 in Kuala Lumpur. Interview with Izatul Islam conducted on 16 July 2004 in Jakarta. Interview with Rhoma Irama conducted on 16 July 2004 in Jakarta. Interview with Snada conducted on 17 July 2004 in Jakarta.

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Interview with Fakharia Lokman conducted on 16 October 2004 in Kuala Lumpur. Interview with H. Hidayat conducted on 15 March 2005 in Jakarta. Interview with Azyumardi Azra conducted on 16 March 2005 in Jakarta. Interview with Syed Hussein Alatas conducted on 25 March 2005 in Kuala Lumpur.

Discussions Focus group discussion held on 15 April 2004 in Kuala Lumpur. Focus group discussion held on 9 July 2004 in Jakarta. Discussion with Akeu & Netty conducted on 10 July 2004 in Bandung. Focus group discussion held on 10 July 2004 in Bandung.

Notes 1. 2. 3.

4.

5.

The PhD is done at the Centre for International Communications at Macquarie University, Sydney. Hadiths are sayings of Prohphet Muhammad recorded in the Koran and other Islamic texts. Muslims believe that the Quaran is the literal word of God and the culmination of God’s revelation to mankind, revealed to the Prophet Muhammad over a period of 23 years by the Angel Jibreel (Gabriel). The Quaran consists of 114 suras (chapters) with a total of 6,236 ayat (verses). Dangdut is a popular genre of Indonesian pop music often played on radio, television and discoteques. It is mainly a form of dance music which is a blend of Malay folk, Indian pop (especially from Bollywood film industry), urban Arab pop, Portuguese folk and modern rock music. Ramadhan is the Muslim holy month of fasting which is usually the ninth month of the Muslim year. One of the “five pillars” or absolute requirements of Islam during this period, Muslims are expected to refrain from eating or drinking and sexual intercourse from dawn to dusk.

This paper was presented at the 14th AMIC Annual Conference on Media and Society in Asia: Transformations and Transition held on 18–21 July 2005 in Beijing, China.

Insights on the Education Needs of Aspiring Advertising Professionals With the creative industries anticipated to be the drivers of growth for most modern economies, the Media Development Authority (MDA) of Singapore announced its Media 21 vision in 2003, to invest S$100 million over five years in order to cultivate a vibrant media industry. This initiative hopes to position Singapore as a digital media hub and gain greater international recognition for domestically produced media products, such as film and TV content. This study explores how creative manpower in Singapore, in particular advertising professionals, can be nurtured to support the creative industries through the academic programmes provided by higher educational institutions. It also explores whether these institutions are adequately preparing students with the necessary know-how to perform well in their future advertising careers.

KATHERINE FRITH AND JAMES CHEN

T

he creative industries have been envisioned to be the drivers for growth in most modern economies (Florida, 2002). This phenomenon had swept most countries in identifying their creative industries and launching effective strategies to grow and build this industry to achieve economic success. Countries in the Asia Pacific region have turned to their creative industries for new growth opportunities. South Korea has effectively revitalized its economy on the strength of cutting-edge industrial design by chaebols like Samsung and LG and in digital media like video games and animation. Thailand has successfully developed a film industry riding on the wealth of creative talents in the Thai advertising industry. It is clear that a vibrant creative cluster is no longer an ideal state but increasingly a must-have. In line with the Media 21 vision, the Media Development Authority (MDA), Singapore had announced in July 2003 that it would invest S$100 million over five years to cultivate a vibrant media industry. This initiative seeks to position Singapore as a digital media hub, exchange and grow Singapore’s media talent pool, and encourage the creation of more internationally recognized made-bySingapore media products, such as film and TV content. The strategy recognizes the need to generate ideas and create content to contribute to the economic development of the country. This can take place either via the exportation of Katherine Frith is an Associate Professor in the Division of Public and Promotional Communication at the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information (WKWSCI), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. James Chen is a Master’s student at WKWSCI, NTU.

creative products such as movies or the attraction of foreign companies looking to the country as a possible location for a foreign office to create media products or services. While the former seeks to bring the Singapore brand to foreign shores, the latter serves to create additional foreign direct investment in Singapore and in the process also increase jobs for the local workforce. Significance of the study This study poses questions on how the creative manpower in Singapore, in particular the advertising professionals, can be nurtured to support the creative industries through the academic programmes provided by higher educational institutions. It will also explore whether the current higher educational institutions are adequately providing and preparing students or aspiring advertising professionals with the necessary know-how to ensure professional competence when they embark on an advertising career in the near future. Research questions The study aims to provide a guide for enhancing higher education institutions with invaluable insights provided by advertising practitioners, both from the creative and media-planning companies. This paper sets its sights on answering the following research questions: • •

What are the personal and educational backgrounds of top creative professionals in the advertising industry? What are their opinions of the relevance their formal education experience in advertising?

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• • • •

From their perspective, what consists of a well-rounded education in the creative areas of advertising? From their perspective, what consists of a well-rounded education in the non-creative areas of advertising? What are the top advertising-related programmes in local education institutions? How can higher education institutions cultivate prospective advertising professionals?

Literature review “Creativity is the thought process that gives rise to out-ofthe box solving techniques, creating a unique approach to questions that will almost certainly result in answers that differ from the others. What stands out is that answers, though unconventional, are related to the core issue at hand” (Chen, 2005: 26–27). Creativity in relevance to advertising Smith and Yang (2004) says there are three different types of creativity related to advertising. Firstly, there is the creative team who develops and implements the creative strategy by producing the advertisement. Secondly, there is the level of creativity that the advertisement is perceived to possess by the target market. Thirdly, there is the level of creativity in the audience members who are exposed to the advertisement. Regardless of levels, creativity has been approached from a variety of perspectives in the marketing and advertising literatures. Creativity in advertising is usually defined as having two characteristics: divergence and relevance (sometimes called effectiveness). For example, Amabile (1983) suggests that a “product” or response will be judged creative to the extent that it is a novel and appropriate, useful or valuable response to the task at hand. This line of reasoning leads to the conclusion that creative advertisements are those that are perceived to be divergent and relevant. Table 1 Conceptualization of advertisement creativity in chronological order Source

Divergence factor(s)

Relevance factor(s)

Jackson and Messick (1965)

Unusualness

Appropriateness

Sobel and Rothenberg (1980)

Originality

Value

Amabile (1983)

Novelty

Appropriate, useful, valuable

Smith and Yang (2004) had also mentioned about the need to consider creativity in advertising from a number 80

of different perspectives. • • • • •

Creativity in the communication process Creativity in the management process Creativity as a societal process Creativity as a group process Creativity as a personal process

This interface between creativity and advertising provides a much broader conceptual domain. The landscape of advertising education Advertising is usually considered to be more art than science. The message itself is largely a work of art. However, a fair amount of statistical analysis is used to ensure a person reading an advertisement, watching a commercial or hearing a message is from the intended target audience. In a study on “Advertising Practitioners’ Opinions” on related programmes conducted in the US by Lee and Ryan (2005), 51 per cent of their respondents mentioned that securing a Bachelor’s degree in advertising is at least “somewhat valuable” in preparing them for a successful career in advertising. The findings disclosed that there are at least 49 per cent who do not see advertising education as an important aspect in ensuring career success in the advertising profession. The emergence of academic tradition and industry innovation often results in a clash of cultures, especially in this era of technological change. The resulting curriculum changes, which reflect these shifts, are often inordinately lengthy due to institutional bureaucracy and thus unable to keep pace with the ever-changing landscape (Department of Advertising Faculty, the University of Texas by Austin, 2000). The greatest challenge taking place in the field of advertising education is that the larger domain of advertising is in a state of fundamental change and that advertising is constantly being redefined, re-mediated and reassessed by the industry and the culture at large. Educators are asked to redefine and assess their expertise and approach to the field as such fundamental shifts occur. This creates a framework for, at best, phenomenal innovation and growth of knowledge, and in the worst case, such change leads to confusion, mediocrity in teaching and research, and a professorial cohort losing their common vision of the field. Most advertising school’s curriculum has two areas of emphasis for advertising majors: management or creative. The management track teaches strategic planning, advertisement media placement, research and campaign promotional idea generation. The creative track is designed for students interested in the written and visual components of the advertising strategy, including copywriting, print and broadcast production, traffic and creative services. This thus leads in to the prevalent issue of where an advertising programme should be housed. Lee and Ryan (2005) stated that 39.2 per cent of the respondents preferred a journalism/communication programme, followed by 25.5 per cent of the respondents who preferred an independent/a

INSIGHTS ON THE EDUCATION NEEDS OF ASPIRING ADVERTISING PROFESSIONALS

stand-alone department in a university. 21.6 per cent of the respondents prefer the programme to be housed in a business/marketing programme. Widespread interests in advertising as a field of study often divide the resources of the university and set up competing entities. Business and marketing programmes, for example, often offer advertising courses with comparable content to that provided in an advertising department or programme, usually paring away aspects of communication theory and strategic thinking and execution. Interdepartmental jealousies and conflicts within student cohorts often result. Moreover, schools and departments of journalism—often the home to advertising sequences—seem to have difficulty tolerating advertising as a scholarly discipline and as a fellow discipline with the communication domain. This situation parallels the often strained relationships inherent in balancing objectivity and profit in traditional editorial/advertising department discussions. When such antagonism becomes institutionalized over decades, the result is often seen in lack of funding, lack of respect and lack of resources for the discipline of advertising (Department of Advertising Faculty, University of Texas by Austin, 2000).

The local advertising educational habitat A main thrust in the quest for creativity and innovation has been the growing commercialization of education since the mid 1980s. The manifestation of this trend has been increased school autonomy and increased school competition (Tan and Gopinathan, 2000). In order to prepare and build media exposure and experience for aspiring media professionals in their career, MDA had also introduced the Media Education Scheme and Capability Development Scheme. This scheme aims to provide education and training for existing students and professionals in the media industry. MDA will also work with the Ministry of Education to embed media training into school curriculum through creative writing and drawing at pre-school, primary and secondary levels. Focusing on the development of creative

skills will drive the nation’s growth to the next level and ensure that Singapore will become a truly global city. The Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts (MICA) will advance Singapore’s creative capacity with the establishment of The Arts School. The school will nurture a new generation of talent who use technology to deploy creativity on top of a strong arts foundation covering visual, performing and literary arts. The school will offer a six-year academic and arts programme and is targeted to start in 2007 (Media Development Authority, 2002). Other initiatives include the Creative Community Singapore (www.creativecommunity.sg), which seeks to facilitate the expression of creativity and ideas from creative talents. The project is an initiative of MICA, which was officially launched by the Minister, Dr Lee Boon Yang, in 2005. Its aims of creating new opportunities and inspiration in the creative industries, by attracting bold, fresh projects that inspire creativity in others and promote community entrepreneurship (Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts, 2005). One of the initiatives launched by the government to ensure economical competitiveness and the transition to a knowledge economy is one that focuses on university admission criteria. The committee on university admission system recommended in its 1999 report that the admission criteria move beyond considering only the results obtained in the General Certificate of Education (Advanced) level examination. Instead, students’ results in the scholastic assessment test, their results in project work at school and their participation in extra curricular activities will also be considered. Hence in Figure 2, it is evident that the Singapore’s government had also taken constructive steps in embedding the concepts of creativity into the Singapore’s educational systems, especially in the secondary school and junior college levels. Such moves would at least ensure that students are fundamentally trained to exercise their creative minds before they even enter into higher tertiary institutions or even their workplace.

Figure 1 Ecosystem of creativity in Singapore

Develop iconic products and services

Flagship School of Art, Media and Design Enhance Design Education at Polytechnics and Art Schools Research and Experimentation facilities

Enhance professional recognition and continual development with a national award, quality standards, code of practice

Source: Creative Industries Development Strategy, Report of ERC 2002

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Figure 2 Drive to foster a creative culture in Singapore

Expert: Arts for employability, new career opportunities Offer visual arts, design and media education at university level. Specialized arts and design in secondary schools.

Expert

Enrichment: Arts for individual and inspiration Expand base of schools offering music and arts electives. Renew emphasis on literature. Restructure tertiary education to allow broadbased education before specialization

Enrichment

Embedded: Inculcating a creative mindset Encourage use of arts, design and media as teaching tools. Enhanced design curriculum in business and engineering courses.

Embedded

Everywhere: Enhancing Singaporeans’ artistic and cultural quotient Arts everywhere, in all public areas. Lifelong learning for arts and culture.

Everywhere

Source: Creative Industries development Strategy, Report of ERC, 2002

Methodology

Response rates

The methodology used in this study is a quantitative survey performed via a pen-and-pencil questionnaire. A questionnaire survey was designed and conducted with people in both the creative and non-creative fields of advertising.

These were divided into two areas, with the first being the response rates of the approached organizations. Five out of the 50 contacted advertising and media agencies participated in our study. The response rate of 10 per cent and was acceptable as the respondents were solicited from organizations and not individuals. The response rate of the individuals working at these firms was 84 out of 100. This included incomplete survey forms.

Questionnaire development The questionnaire was pre-tested through a pilot study. This was further refined based on the input of the respondents from the pilot study. The actual survey comprised a list of 23 questions. In the introduction part, we spelt out the objective of this study clearly, which was to investigate how people in the advertising industry viewed the value of their education and to assess the importance of a tertiary education in advertising.

Data analysis We used SPSS for the statistical analysis as well as for the relevant charts, tables and histograms. All these were made available by the Survey Monkey site, which allowed the storage data to be transformed into MS Excel format. This allowed data to be exported to both MS Excel and SPSS, which were compatible with the data format.

Sampling of respondents Quota sampling was used for the purpose of this survey. From the official guide to agencies in Singapore, the Advertising Directory of Singapore 2005, a solicitation email was sent to the 4As member agencies (Association of Accredited Advertising Agencies Singapore). We contacted 50 agencies in this list, which represented at least 20 of the world’s major international agencies and over 40 local advertising agencies. 82

Demographics of respondents Of the 84 practitioners who completed the survey, 38.1 per cent (N = 32) of them were male. One of the respondents was aged below 21, while 45.2 per cent were within 21 to 30 years old (N = 38). The other 35.7 per cent (N = 30) were within the 31 to 40 age range, with the final 17.8 per cent (N = 15) aged above 40 years old (Refer to Figure 3).

INSIGHTS ON THE EDUCATION NEEDS OF ASPIRING ADVERTISING PROFESSIONALS

Figure 3 Age group of respondents

Education profile of respondents A total of 10.7 per cent (N = 9) of the respondents came from education backgrounds at the secondary school level or lower. 36.9 per cent (N = 31) of them were either from the diploma or junior college level. A total of 44 per cent (N = 37) of the respondents held undergraduate degrees, while the other 8.3 per cent (N = 7) possessed graduate degrees (refer to Figure 4). A total of 64.3 per cent (N = 54) received their formal education in Singapore, while 35.7 per cent (N = 30) were educated overseas. Of the 54 respondents who received tertiary education, 44.4 per cent studied a communications major, 20.3 per cent of them majored in design and the remaining 35.3 per cent of them came from a business-related background. These 54 respondents also included the diploma holders, as they were also classified as tertiary graduates (refer to Figure 5). Figure 4 Education level of respondents

Findings and discussion Evaluations of personal education experience A total of 46.4 per cent (N = 39) of the respondents ranked their education experience as valuable in relation to the current jobs that they hold in the creative or media agencies. 34.5 per cent (N = 29) of the respondents were neutral about their education experience while the remaining 19.1 per cent (N = 16) of the respondents found no relevance of their education in the context of the current job responsibilities that they are holding. Relevance of an undergraduate degree Six per cent (N = 5) of the respondents found that having a degree was very valuable to do well eventually in a creative-related position. For the rest of the respondents, 26.2 per cent (N = 22) ranked having a degree as valuable, 28.6 per cent (N = 24) were neutral about having a degree in creativity, 17.9 per cent (N = 15) of the respondents found a degree in a creative-related field not valuable. Some of the respondents had an even lower opinion of the relevance of a degree in a creative-related field as 21.4 per cent (N = 18) of them felt that a degree was not valuable at all. However, the findings were different in terms of having a degree in a non-creative position in an agency. This includes roles such as client servicing or media planning. A total of 14.3 per cent (N = 12) of the respondents felt that a degree would be very valuable, with another 47.6 per cent (N = 40) of the respondents finding it valuable. Some 27.3 per cent (N = 23) of the respondents were neutral toward having a degree. A total of 8.3 per cent (N = 7) of the respondents found that a degree would not be valuable, with another 2.4 per cent (N = 2) of the respondents finding that a degree would not be valuable at all. Perceptions towards creative-related competitions

Figure 5 The type of specialization of respondents (Singapore)

Work profile of respondents A total of 42.9 per cent of the respondents (N = 36) were currently in creative-related work, while the other 57.1 per cent (N = 48) of the respondents were in non-creative work. 35.7 per cent (N = 30) of the respondents held management positions and higher while the other 64.3 per cent (N = 54) were either creative professionals or were executives in their respective organizations.

The majority of the respondents 76.2 per cent (N = 64) did not take part in any creative-related competitions as a student while 23.8 per cent (N = 20) of the respondents took part in either the Crowbar (Singapore) or other creative-related competitions. The Crowbar Awards are creative awards open only to Singapore students and was first held in 2001. A total of 16.7 per cent (N = 14) of the respondents felt that such competitions were very valuable, with 38.1 per cent (N = 32) of the respondents finding them valuable. A total of 34.5 per cent (N = 29) of the professionals were neutral regarding the benefits of such competitions. Six per cent (N = 5) of the respondents found that these competitions were not valuable while the remaining 4.8 per cent (N = 4) of the respondents found that such advertising competitions were not valuable at all. Views on the usefulness of having a completed portfolio Only a small minority of respondents found that having a portfolio was not useful. This constituted 7.1 per cent (N = 6) of the respondent sample. A total of 22.6 per cent (N = 19) of the respondents were ranked neutral towards the 83

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usefulness of having a portfolio. The majority of industry practitioners acknowledged the usefulness of having a creative portfolio. A total of 38.1 per cent (N = 32) of the professionals interviewed found it useful, whereas 32.1 per cent of the respondents (N = 27) felt that it was very valuable. Thoughts about student internships Quite surprisingly, only 31 out of the 84 respondents had undergone industrial internships during their schooling education. This accounted for 36.9 per cent of the respondents. Of those who had done for their internships, 93.5 per cent of the respondents had internships for between one to six months. Respondents who had internships spanning one to three months and four to six months were 54.8 per cent and 38.7 per cent respectively. In terms of relevance of the internship to their current job, only 9.7 per cent (N = 3) of the respondents who had student internships found it not valuable. A total of 12.9 per cent (N = 4) of the respondents were neutral towards it, whereas an overwhelming percentage of respondents, 77.4 per cent (N = 24) of the 31 respondents who had internships found the experience positive. Regarding the ideal duration of a student internship, most of the respondents were in favour of an internship between four to six months (67.9 per cent, N = 57). Interestedly, the next most preferred duration was 10 to 12 months. This consisted of 16.7 per cent or 14 of the respondents. An internship of one to three months was the next most preferred (10.7 per cent, N = 9) while 4.8 per cent (N = 4) choose seven to nine months. Aspects of improvement in which academics can improve the delivery of advertising programmes The industry practitioners interviewed felt that students should also work towards improving their employability while studying and before seeking employment in the industry. Among the steps that they could take would include seeking internships in their area of interest (N = 70). Developing of their own creative portfolios was ranked second (N = 49). This was closely followed by participating in industry competitions (N = 40). The total number of responses was more than the 84 industry practitioners who were interviewed as the respondents were asked to tick all options that they found applicable. Some other open-ended responses were also provided by the interviewees (Refer to Table 2). The respondents who had mentioned the need to gain relevant experiences had mentioned that working in a creative agency in Singapore was a necessity for students and companies to gauge the students’ suitability in the chosen area within the industry. They had also cited that overseas exposure would be invaluable in terms of understanding the workings of the advertising industries in different countries. However, they had also acknowledged the costs considerations as well as the fact that not all overseas companies might be willing to hire an overseas student for the sole purpose of an internship.

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Table 2 Classification of comments Description Internship is important Develop personality and character Getting a mentor for guidance Understand and be involved in creative work Gaining relevant work experience Having passion and the willingness to learn Integrate marketing knowledge with advertising

Frequency 2 2 1 2 4 5 1

Respondents, when asked on how to better train future advertising professionals, felt that adopting a multidisciplinary approach towards advertising was the way to go (N = 66). The second most important aspect was the provision of internships (N = 65). Thirty-six of the responses were directed towards having advertising-centric courses (Refer to Table 3). Other responses are found in Table 2.

Table 3 Classification of comments Description Getting experienced industry practitioner to teach Specializing in a certain area of advertising Getting regular guest speakers from industry Integrate academic and industry creative works; more realistic curriculum Focus more on new media Encourage creative thinking Focus on more practical aspect Understanding consumer behaviour and market trends Have longer and different internship/ overseas internship programme Tie up with industry partners for projects

Frequency 3 1 2 4 1 2 3 1 3 2

Based on the feedback of the respondents, it was found that a degree was relatively more important for the noncreative aspect of advertising, as compared to the creative aspect of advertising. From the rankings (Refer to Table 4), it can be seen that non-creative professionals who had gone for internships found it slightly more useful than the degree. This can be seen from the higher mean that the internship has.

INSIGHTS ON THE EDUCATION NEEDS OF ASPIRING ADVERTISING PROFESSIONALS

Table 4 Relative importance of factors in non-creative education Ranking Median 1 Non-creative degree/ Internship (Valuable) 2

Mean Internship (4.1) Non-creative degree (3.6)

Table 5 Relative importance of factors in non-creative education Ranking 1 2 3 4

Mean Internship (4.1) Portfolio (4.0) Competition (3.6) Creative degree (2.8)

However, when measuring relative importance of the educational attributes among non-creative individuals, based on the mean, we can see that internship is ranked first, followed by portfolio, competition and creative degree. (Please refer to Table 5) The education requirements for creative and non-creative education are similar but not identical. For example, a basic degree is more important for non-creative professionals as compared to creative individuals. There are also more components that constitute a positive schooling experience for creative as compared to non-creative professionals. For non-creative professionals, the important factors in order of priority were as follows: 1. A relevant non-creative degree like communications or business 2. An internship for students to obtain an insight into the workings of a company in the advertising industry On the other hand, the number of components as well as the priority was slightly different for creative education. For education catered for undergraduates, the essential factors are as follows: 1. An internship in order to gain invaluable on-the-job experience 2. A completed portfolio to demonstrate to prospective employers one’s creative potential and learn the design creation process first hand 3. Participating in advertising competitions 4. A creative-related degree The first four points refer to informal education as they are not done during the normal classroom hours. More importantly, they reflect a practical learning approach, in which industry practitioners view is the most important to creative education. In the open-ended section of the survey

questionnaire, the most notable and common responses were inviting industry practitioners to conduct classes, undertaking real-life industry projects and obtaining a global perspective via the engagement of renowned international advertising professionals or going for overseas internships, if possible. As previously mentioned, we also found that most of the interviewed respondents did not have the privilege of undergoing an internship (63.1%). For those who had an internship, their attachment duration was between one to three months (54.8%). However, they felt that to benefit more from the attachment experience, the duration should be extended to between four to six months (67.9%). These points summarize and provide the rationale as to why a degree is considered as more important to non-creative as compared to creative professionals. Thus, in order to increase the employability of graduates in advertisingrelated courses, it is vital for institutions to skew creative education in the direction of a heavy practical emphasis. This hands-on approach would ensure that graduates of such courses are rigorously challenged before making the plunge into the industry.

Conclusion Limitations of the study Although the study has highlighted important issues pertaining to the knowledge transfer and learning approach for the higher education institutions to integrate into their respective course curricular, the study is not without its limitations. Industry players interviewed were selected only based on those who had replied positively to the invitation to participate in the study. The next limitation is that more non-creative professionals answered the questionnaire rather than creative practitioners themselves. This was due to a two-fold reason: the organizational structure of these companies, which meant more non-creative staff, in particular clients servicing, as well as the creative professionals at these firms have a comparatively higher workload as compared to the non-creative employees as a resultant effect of the first reason. Finally, due to the relatively small sample of respondents (N = 84), the results of the study is limited in its ability to formulate generalization about the views of the entire advertising industry in Singapore The general findings should therefore be treated as a preliminary till a more exhaustive study on a wider range of creative industries is carried out to verify the research findings. Managerial implications The most apparent implication is that schools should ensure that a formal internship programme is in place for students to receive on-the-job training as well as learn skills not commonly taught in schools. Examples of these include project management and the actual brainstorming process in the idea-generation stage of the creative process. An

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industrial attachment would also be very useful for students as it would provide them with a means to evaluate whether they are actually interested in the area or if there is another job within advertising that provides a more suitable fit. Among the feedback included suggestions to have yearly internships to ensure relevance to the industry trends. The university could also take a multi-disciplinary approach towards the creative process. This includes other areas of design such as multimedia production, which includes forms of new media. Educators can only do so much in the knowledge-transfer process to enrich the learning experience of the students, who are themselves ultimately responsible for their own employment, such as seeking internships in areas and at companies that they are interested in. They should also be able to take their own initiative in applying for advertisingrelated competitions as well as seeking to complete their own portfolios if these are not mandatory in their respective educational institutions. According to the industry practitioners interviewed, a practical education experience is a key factor in securing a job in the advertising industry. However, recruiters also look for other aspects when hiring fresh graduates. Three points stood out in this aspect: passion, the willingness to learn and the courage of being different. Passion in one’s work is a strong indicator of interest towards an area and thus gives prospective employers a demonstration that if hired, the person would be engaged in his or her job. The willingness to learn is also another trait deemed important to top executives as it is also a sign of passion and, more importantly, it shows the humility of that person. Having a different outlook is in essence what creativity is about and it is thus befitting that it is one of the qualities that the industry looks for. Research implications It is recommended that the current study serve as a springboard to a more exhaustive study in the advertising industry within Singapore as well as in comparison over a cross-section of countries. This study’s analysis gives an insight into the trends, different supporting factors and conditions for creativity in relation to the advertising industry. Thus, further analysis on the other areas of Singapore’s creative economy (for example, art and theatre) can be carried out in tandem with other countries so as to assist Singapore in developing a unique identity and nurturing its creative manpower within a education system that best suits its needs.

References Amabile, T. (1983). The social psychology of creativity. New York: Springer-Veclay. Centre for Cultural Policy Research. (2003). Baseline study on

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Hong Kong’s creative industries. Centre for Cultural Policy Research. Hong Kong. Chen, J. (December/January 2005). Weaving the threads of creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship into a technicolour dreamcoat. The British Journal of Administrative Management, 26–27. Coy. P. (2000, August). The creative economy: Which companies will thrive in the coming years? Those that value ideas above all else. Businessweek. Economic Review Committee Services Subcommittee Workgroup on Creative Industries (2002). Creative industries development strategy: Propelling Singapore’s creative economy. Singapore. Florida, R. (2002). The rise of the creative class: And how it is transforming work, leisure, community and everyday life. New York: Basic Books. Hair, J. F., Anderson, R. E., Tatham, R. L., & Black, W. C. (1998). Multivariate data analysis (5th ed.). New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. Jackson, P. W., & Messick, S. (March – December 1965). The person, the product and the response: Conceptual problems in the assessment of creativity. Journal of Personality, 33, 309–329. Lee, B. Y. (2003). Speech at the Opening Ceremony of the Singapore International Advertising Congress. Singapore International Advertising Congress 2003. Lee, T. T., & Ryan, W. E. (2005). Advertising practitioners’opinions on professional training and advertising programmes. School of Journalism and Communication, Washington. Marcus, C. (2005). Future of creative industries: Implications for research policy. Brussels: European Commission. McCain, J. (2005). The status of advertising education in the new millenium. University of Florida, USA. Media Development Authority, Ministry of Communication and the Arts, Singapore. (2002). Media21: Transforming Singapore into a global media city. Ministry of Education, Singapore. (2004). Nurturing every child: Flexibility and diversity in Singapore schools. Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts, Singapore. (2005). Unleash your creative potential through Creative Community Singapore. Smith, R. E., & Yang, X. (2004). Toward a general theory of creativity in advertising: Examine the role of divergence. Marketing Theory. 4 (1/2), 31–58. Sobel, R. S., & Rothenberg, A. (November 1980). Artistic creation as stimulated by superimposed versus visual images. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39, 953–961. Soutar, G. N., & Turner, J. P. (2002). Students’ preferences for university: A conjoint analysis. The International Journal of Education Management, Bradford, 16(1), 40–45. Tan, J., & Gopinathan, S. (Summer 2000). Education reforms in Singapore: Towards greater creativity and innovation? NIRA Review, 5–10. University of Texas, Austin. (2000). Thoughts about the future of advertising education. The Faculty Department of Advertising, University of Texas, Austin.

Voices for Change Media Literacy and a Case Study on Designing of Opportunities for Learning Internet Radio in Malaysia

This paper is concerned with the importance of developing media literacy and skills among young people in Malaysia. Taking a case study of the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) Radio Project, the authors report on the project’s initiatives aimed at enabling students to create alternative media able to give expression to a diverse range of voices and interests of young people.

SHANTHI BALRAJ AND KHOO SEOK WAH

T

he modern electronic technologies—the telephone, the television and the computer—have become prominent technologies in the lives of young people. In order to make learning relevant to the lives and experiences of young people, electronic technologies must become a part of learning to promote literacy, specifically at a time when young people today are bombarded by information that has been processed by television, film, radio and a variety of computer programmes. It is important to stress here that in today’s evolving and challenging world, the goals of literacy are changing … learning takes place meaningfully where students are able to use a varied set of symbolic forms, multiple discourses and cognitive processes. As educators, we must encourage communication students to do their disciplines—to act as communicators … problem solvers, using a range of strategies to influence the way they engage with the personal and public realms their lives (Ambigapathy, 2001). This paper highlights the importance of developing media literacy and skills among young people in Malaysia. Taking the case study of the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) Radio Project, the paper reports the project’s initiatives to enable students to create alternative media which can express a diverse range of voices and interests of young people. The paper presents a discussion which is divided into two parts. The first part of the paper looks at the rapid growth of private radio stations and the expanding commercial interests, even in the government-controlled radio stations. The second part of this paper then goes on to describe the USM Radio Project to enhance critical media literacy and to use the texts to get something done constructively in the community. Shanthi Balraj is Associate Professor in the School of Communication, Universiti Sains Malaysia.

The Malaysian society Malaysia is witnessing a period of unprecedented changes in the media landscape, which brings with it not only exciting opportunities for the future but also sets of concerns with regard to young people’s involvement and participation in building a better and more peaceful world. Given that young people are growing up in today’s globalizing and conflicting environment, it is important that their voices and concerns are articulated on various issues like youth needs, survival and protection, education and health as well as promotion of youth development through information in the media. Malaysia is, today, one of the most culturally and ethnically divided country in the world. Generally, Malaysians live in harmony and are economically stable and technologically advanced. There have been no major political upheavals, wars or riots in the past 30 years. The Barisan Nasional (National Front) coalition has held power since independence. The economy since independence was racially fragmented by the British who advanced a “divide and rule” policy in governing the Malaysian society. Malaysia today is a multi-ethnic society and is made up of Malays and other indigenous groups (62%), Chinese (26%), and Indians and others (10%). Islam is the official religion. However, the constitution assures the freedom of worship and practice of other religions. Constitutionally, all Malays are considered to be Muslims while the Chinese and Indians adopt various faiths like Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Taoism, Christianity and Islam. The people of Malaysia are free to celebrate cultural festivals. Malaysians generally identify themselves as believing in a religion and most public discussions as well as policy matters are intermingled with issues on ethnicity and religion, specifically related to the interests of Malays or Islam. The Malaysia scenario is currently in the midst of a series of dramatic and closely interconnected transformations. It 87

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is widely propounded that Malaysia would leap into the information age, driven by private capital and would see the making of independent “webs” of collaborating private companies as well as the embracing of foreign capital, companies and skills for mutual enrichment. A leading arena in this transformation involves new information technologies and communications media. Malaysia envisages that this could even become the largest product in the world of e-commerce, and the information superhighway is itself widely touted as the basis for a new economic and social revolution. Information and communication technologies are not only powerful tools carrying messages and ideas; they are also mediums for networking and can create new business opportunities. In the drive towards industrialization and informatization, ICT has become a key factor in the economic growth of the nation, and recognized as a strategic enabling tool to support the growth of the Malaysian economy as well as enhance the quality of life of the population (Eighth Malaysia Plan, 2001–2005). The creation of an information-rich Malaysian society has led the government to invest heavily in ICT expenditure in sectors like banking and finance, education and research, government machinery, manufacturing, transportation, utilities and home and personnel. In this light, Malaysia has won worldwide acclaim as its poverty rates have dropped dramatically since 1957 while employment rates and labour costs have risen so much. Interestingly, while Malaysia has experienced rapid and strong economic growth since independence and has become an advanced developing country, it has also become a tightly controlled one, especially under the Mahathir rule. The growth of an authoritarian culture took root in Malaysia as Mahathir believed that local media have a vital role to play and that this is to positively project the government’s development plans so as to entice international capital flows and foreign investment. The fast growing economy has so far subsumed many elements linked with freedom of expression, as many people of the Malaysian society are happy with the slice of the economic pie given to them (Syed Arabi Idid, 1996).

The development of radio in Malaysia The Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Act (CMA), which came into force on 1 April 1999, requires certain Internet and other network service providers to obtain a license under the CMA. In December, the government stated that it did not intend to impose controls on Internet use but it would punish the “misuse” of information technology under the CMA, which, while prohibiting censorship, provides for “legal action against those who post defamatory and false information on the Internet”. The government has not used licensing provisions under the CMA to interfere with Internet access or to restrict Internet content. During the year, government officials made several contradictory comments about the desirability of censoring the Internet. In September 2002, the then Deputy Home Affairs Minister announced that his ministry was drafting a new law that would allow legal action to be taken against those believed

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to be responsible for spreading “misleading information” and pornography via the Internet. However, in the same month, the Information Minister said that the government had no plans to censor the Internet. The minister in the Prime Minister’s Department responsible for legal affairs stated in September that while the Internet would not be censored, users remained subject to the law and anyone who defamed another over the Internet or made seditious comments still could legal face action (Human Rights Report, 2002). The ruling government owns and is closely associated with most government and commercial media. It controls most of the major mainstream newspapers and electronic media such as The New Straits Times, The New Sunday Times, Malay Mail, Sunday mail, Berita Harian, Berita Minggu, The Business Times, Shin Min Daily News, and radio and television stations like TV1 TV2, Minnal, Nasional FM, IKIM and KL FM. There are many commercial stations aligned with the ruling parties; these include ERA, red 104. 9, Hitz FM, Mix FM, Light n Easy and Thr. FM. Radio has become important as it conveys a range of ideas, images and makes sense of the real world in selective ways. Both private and public broadcasting stations run programmes mainly in the Malay, Chinese and English languages. There are also several radio channels in Tamil and Hindi. Like their press counterpart, critical questioning of the media, government policies, and the interests and concerns of authoritative groups are strongly discouraged; instead, the broadcast media have appeared to give more prominence to entertainment programmes with more music and less news talk shows. The electronic media is restricted more tightly than the print media. Radio is almost uniformly laudatory of the government and many programmes that support the status quo. As in many countries, there is a movement towards more music and human-interest stories than hard event-based news. At the same time, some radio organizations have focused on narrower and narrower affluent audiences willing to pay for certain types of information (Budd, 1999). The discussion on radio has not attracted much public attention. When profit consciousness emerges as the main concern, many industries have concentrated on making their programmes respond to the market in the narrowest ways. For example, radio provides information but does not give any in-depth or detailed treatment to these stories. Often, interpretation is done in a shallow, narrow point of view as in the debates on road safety, gender stereotyping, drug abuse, Aids and other social problems presented in the Malaysian societies. The social responsibilities of media remain vague and there appears to be little debate on the delivery of timely and meaningful information, interpretation of news reports that engage a range of perspectives, enhancement of a diversity of political, social and cultural values. Further, the lack of minority and dissident views serve to push to the margins the need for the media to provide multiplicity and richness of views and ideas on social issues. Today, there are many major trends influencing the growth of radio in Malaysia. Firstly, there is an evident growth towards ownership concentration and financial

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matters like sales, expenses and investments within the radio industry as in the case of Astro’s radio stations. Most of these radio stations target young people. Secondly, there has been increased emphasis on the marketing perspective where increased competition for audiences and advertisements led radio stations to tailor their programmes to the interests of their preferred audiences that have big spending money. Linked to this is a sense of profit consciousness that dominates most radio organizations. The earnings of radio organizations are used to fund new products, new technologies, new markets and the upgrading of facilities. Hence, there is a tendency to ensure that sizeable profits are made for the operations of the radio organizations. The third trend is the most exciting and challenging one, that is, the dramatic advancement in the radio technology. Radio business and activities are now increasingly connected worldwide with the touch of a computer key. Digitalization of recording and production has transformed the sound media. The changes in technology have been rapid and profound, and have created new possibilities for the kind and amount of information that can be presented. The above trends have in turn posed major challenges to Malaysian communication and media studies programmes at institutions of higher learning.

Media literacy In this part of the paper, we document some of the first steps toward media literacy and critical thinking in teaching radio courses in Universiti Sains Malaysia. It all started when a few of lecturers interested in the study of radio often felt less successful as radio lecturers. The students at the undergraduate programmes were churning out the same kinds of stories that did not demonstrate their capability in writing and producing for radio. The students’ works did not focus on social issues like marginalization, difference, social problems and social action. We started to examine some of the experiences and perceptions on the study and practice of radio, and noted some of the major challenges facing the study of radio in Malaysia The profession of radio producers and deejays has shifted in its prestige and credibility throughout the 20th century. But, especially in recent years, the profession has come under fierce attack not only from media critics but also from the general public. In this ever-changing political and economic environment, radio struggles to define its role in newly democratized societies. It has outperformed other institutions, especially in prestige among the people but sometimes adaptation to the new times has not been easy. The main argument evolves around the notion that media education should aim to train radio producers and journalists-to-be in basic skills without a medium-type specialization with an emphasis on critical awareness of their changing social, cultural and professional context and role in society (Alvermann, 1999; Baynham, 1995; Halloran, 1987). Antagonism between industry and academia in Malaysia is a vicious cycle. The industry criticizes the university and the university criticizes the industry while both find

ways to ignore crucial issues like freedom of expression and the social responsibilities of the media. Scholars say the divisions are not a problem, arguing that distance or separation between academia and the working press is healthy, since the role of academia in society goes far beyond simply serving the industry with qualified and skilled workers. They even seem to enjoy this “critical distance”, not realizing the downside that they are too far away from the real and practical problems of radio production. Forming part of the vicious circle, the industry’s antagonism towards communication and broadcasting schools also works against its own interests. It contributes to worsen the already poor quality of media education. Consequentially, some media companies feel obliged to devise their own methods for re-educating communication graduates who have just received degrees. The term “reeducating” applies best in promoting self-censorship because of the main issue concerning press freedom in Malaysia. By distancing themselves from the universities, the industry misses a vital opportunity to tap into the academic resources that could help them cope with the uncertainties created by today’s rapid political, economic and technological changes. The quality of media education would benefit if the vicious cycle was broken and replaced by a virtuous cycle of dialogue, cooperation and synergy between both sides, all within a framework of independence and mutual respect.

Critical literacy The glamour in appearing in radio programmes is so lucrative that it seems to be a powerful force in recruiting mass communication students in Malaysia. There are several communication programmes at public and private institutions of higher learning in Malaysia that offer communication and media studies. This is an area of specialization that is enormously popular with the students—they usually want to specialize in media for developing potential career skills as radio/television broadcast journalists or as programmes hosts. We have to take account of the position of young people in institutions of higher learning and the sorts of media spaces that they engage in and the role of radio educationalists in developing spaces where young people can take a variety of critical stands on a variety of media-related issues. Many mass communications students cannot wait to realize their dreams to appear on radio and television simply because it is glamorous. This is the problem faced by the local universities in facing the challenge of detaching the glamour from the media. Responsibilities have to be bared and ethics have to be followed by the future mass communications graduates because working in the industry demands hard work and a lot of skills to succeed in this line. Our young people are consuming a lot of media and they are very influenced by what they hear and see. If this is going to be a mode of education for them, then they need to see how those messages are put together, to develop some critical thinking skills, and gain some background knowledge about the how’s and

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why’s of the media. We should aim to equip them with critical awareness about media and, in a participatory process, attempt to discover ways of strengthening their response towards the media. We are missing the chance to offer young people suitably critical relationship with important aspects of the media, of their society and of themselves and we should broaden the role of practical work as we design the spaces for critical literacy in radio studies. The study of literacy cannot be detached from learning about life—it is linked to engaging learning as part of social practice. Investigating radio as part of critical literacy involves the integration of listening, speaking, reading, writing, critical thinking and numeracy (Baynham, 1995; Fairclough, 1992; Masterman, 1985). It refers to the understanding of and competence with radio, including its aesthetic, social, cultural, psychological, educational, economic and regulatory aspects. It also includes the cultural knowledge, resources and facilities developed at the home and school settings that enable a speaker, writer or reader to recognize and use language appropriate to different social situations (Hilton, 1996; Luke, 1998). Appropriating critical literacy to radio experiences will not only equip learners with skills and competence but will also engage learning as part of social practice and as an area for questioning television and their representations that are taken as obvious arrangements of things or as “common sense”. The development of critical literacy does not only refer to the learning of the techniques of production and the vocabulary of the media but it is also a process by which we come to understand much more fully than before the nature of their own experiences as users of radio.

Practical work Practical work in a variety of forms will be an important, indeed an integral, component of any worthwhile course in television studies. As Masterman (1985: 26) argues, “If students are to understand television texts as constructions, then it will be obviously helpful if they have first-hand experience of the construction process from the inside.” But, he also expresses the need for educators to establish the link between practical work and analytical activities. It is something that needs to be worked out for this is where the educators teaching practical courses should be confident of offering practical training that goes together with critical analysis (Buckingham, 1998). His cautionary concern that much practical work in television studies is still culturally reproductive and often imitates dominant practices that do not demystify but make radio content more opaque demands serious attention. “Practical work” according to Masterman, “is not an end to itself but a necessary means to developing an autonomous critical understanding of radio. Without this informing purpose, practical work becomes a form of cultural reproduction in which dominant practices become naturalized” (p. 27). Masterman’s current work continues to remain significant in these media-saturated times where democracies require the development of new media 90

literacy competencies if democratic rights and values are to be cherished in the coming years. It is imperative that there is growing interest in radio studies that give serious attention to practical work to illuminate the importance of understanding the multi-facets of radio literacy and the issues involved in literacy practices.

Experimenting with Internet radio in Malaysia: A case study on YnCR (Youth and Community Radio, USM) A group of lecturers engaged in a conversation of their teaching experiences in radio and the learning outcomes that have merged in their courses. It was noted that the radio courses seem to enable students to make their voices heard through the production of their radio programmes. Students chose their own topics and interacted with their peers. Frequently, they produced pieces that are full of stereotypes and bias as they replicate radio shows that they have heard. We noted that students discuss and debate social issues in their group meetings but, during the production, they talk about ideas, messages and stories that are “flat and lifeless”. We posed several questions for our own inquiry. • • •

How could the instructors help the students see the value of their personal experiences? How can we blend their personal experiences to the wider cultural and social world? How can the radio courses guide students to use radio as a tool for analysing and constructing social worlds?

Instead of recording life events, we wanted students to see their radio texts as a form of social action. We wanted to develop students’ works as not only a recording of personal interests and enquiries but also a form of social action—a connection between the personal and the social. By this, we mean that students disrupt the commonplace by questioning taken-for-granted assumptions in their personal lives, interrogating multiple viewpoints with regard to specific experiences and issues, and connecting this to wider cultural and social issues; and that they construct programmes that promote social justice and a better world. We started our project by doing a survey with the students who took the radio course. The main purpose of this survey was to gather information on the students perception on issues related to radio. The findings of the radio survey are presented in the following section. Surveying students There were 60 students in their second year, who had to do the audio production paper as part of their broadcasting programme. Out of the 60 students, 50 completed the questionnaires. The background of the students were as follows. Table 1 above shows that among the 50 students, 88 per cent (44) are Chinese, 6 per cent (3) are Indians, 4 per cent (2) are Malays and 2 per cent (1) Others—this was an Indonesian student.

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Table 4 Radio channels that the respondents often listen to

Demography Table 1 Ethnicity Ethnicity Malay Chinese Indian Others Total

Number of respondents 2 44 3 1 50

% 4.0 88.0 6.0 2.0 100.0

Table 2 Gender Gender Male Female Total

Number 6 44 50

% 12.0 88.0 100.0

The 50 students comprised of 6 males and 44 females. This is a typical scenario in Malaysian communication programmes where there are many more female than male students. Table 3 below shows that most of the students were youths between the ages of 21 and 23. Table 3 Age Age 19 21 22 23 Total

Number of respondents 1 18 20 11 50

% 2.0 36.0 40.0 22.0 100.0

Consumption of radio There are several government radio channels in different languages: Radio 1; Radio 3; Radio Pulau Pinang; Radio 4; Radio 5; Radio 6; and private channels like the Malay language Era Musik, Time Highway Radio which presents Raaga, FM in the Tamil language, Radio Music, Red FM, Hits FM 9 (in English language), Mix FM Light and Easy, three Chinese language channels like My FM, 98.8 and Wow FM in Chinese. The respondents noted the radio channels that they listen to most frequently. From the Table 4 above, no respondent chose Radio 1, Radio 3 and Red FM among the radio channels listed. Radio Pulau Pinang, Radio 4 and Radio Music were only chosen by 1 respondent respectively as the radio channel they often listened to.

Radio channel Radio 1 Radio 3 Radio Pulau Pinang Radio 4 Radio 5 Radio 6 Era Musik Time Highway Radio Radio Music Red FM My FM 98.8 Wow FM Hits FM Mix FM Light & Easy

Number of respondents — — 1 1 8 3 5 5 1 — 38 32 10 19 15 9

% — — 2.0 2.0 16.0 6.0 10.0 10.0 2.0 — 76.0 64.0 20.0 18.0 30.0 18.0

Sixteen per cent (8 of the total respondents) of the respondents said that they often listen to Radio 5; 10 per cent (5 of the total respondents) of the respondents listen to Era Musik; 10 per cent (5 of the total respondents) listen to Time Highway Radio; all 3 Indian respondents listen to Radio 6, it being the only Tamil radio channel; 20 per cent of the respondents (10 of the total respondents) listen to Wow FM. My FM and 98.8, the two private channels in Chinese are the most popular among the respondents. Seventy-six per cent of the respondents (38 of the total respondents) said that they often listen to My FM and 64 per cent of the respondents (32) said that they often listen to 98.8. It is worthwhile to note that the students’ own language, which in turn is linked to ethnicity is an important factor in listening patterns; the Malays listen largely to Malay-language channels, the Chinese to Chinese-language channels while the Indians listen to the Tamil-language radio channels. The English channels are popular among all the ethnic groups. Hits FM targets young listeners, thus, it is not surprising, Table 5 Time spent in listening to radio a day Duration Number of respondents Less than 30 minutes 8 30 minutes to 1 hour 12 1 to 2 hours 10 2 to 4 hours 16 More than 4 hours 4 Total 50

% 16.0 24.0 20.0 32.0 8.0 100 91

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38 per cent (19) of the respondents often listen to it and this is higher compared to the other two ASTRO English channel: Mix FM (30% or 15 of the total respondents) and Light & Easy (18% or 9 of the total respondents). From the above table, we can conclude that duration that most of respondents listen to radio is between 30 minutes to 4 hours. There were 16 per cent (8 out of total of 50) of the respondents who listen to radio less than 30 minutes a day and on the extreme end, there were 8 per cent (4) of the respondents who listen to radio more than 4 hours a day.

children and want to know more about them” and “very interesting”. Twenty-two per cent (11 of the total respondents) said that they like “Other” programmes. These include talk shows (4 respondents), radio dramas (3 respondents), games (2 respondents), travelling programmes (1 respondent) and horoscope (1 respondent). Figure 1 Reasons respondents listen to radio

General listening patterns Table 6 Programmes that respondents like to listen to Programmes Number of respondents Music/Songs 49 News 17 Radio magazines 16 Entertainment information 26 Interviews 14 Children programmes 3 Others 11

% 98.0 34.0 32.0 52.0 28.0 6.0 22.0

Table 6 above shows that music/songs programmes were popular among the respondents. Ninety-eight per cent (49 out of the total respondents) said that they liked music/songs programmes in radio. The reasons given were as follows: “Relaxing and soothing” (most of respondents said so), “entertaining”, “interesting”, “get to know information about new releases”, “to listen to songs that we do not have” and “to listen to songs that we like”. Thirty-four per cent (17 of the total respondents) liked news programmes so that they can keep up with general knowledge and current affairs, and some said that “because radio news is short and precise”. Thirty-two per cent (16 of the total respondents) liked news programmes, and the reasons given were “to get more information about certain topic” and “certain topic are very interesting to listen to”. Besides music/songs programmes, entertainment information programmes were popular among the respondents. Their reasons are as follows: “curious about certain topics being discussed”, “as a chit chat topic with friends”, “entertaining”, “relax and gossip”, “interesting” and “to know more”. Twenty-eight per cent (14) of the total respondents like to listen to interviews because, according to some of them, they can gain some new knowledge and some topics being discussed are very interesting. Only 6 per cent (3) like to listen to children’s programmes and reasons given by them are “funny and entertaining”, “I love 92

Figure 1 above shows details of the reasons respondents listen to radio. Most of the respondents, 98 per cent (49 of the total respondents) said the reason they listened to radio is to entertain themselves. The second most popular reason was “to get information” which was chosen by 76 per cent (38 of the total respondents) and “useful for my study” which was chosen by 38 per cent (19 of the total respondents). Only 1 respondent said that it is for “personal development”. Views on radio programmes The students were asked to indicate the most important role of radio in contemporary societies.

Table 7 Roles of radio channels today Roles Number of respondents % To entertain 50 100.0 17 34.0 To report on current affairs Others 8 16.0 Table 7 above shows that all the respondents agreed that

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radio today takes the dominant the role of entertainment. Less than one-third of the respondents (17 respondents) were of the opinion that radio today plays the critical role in reporting current affairs. Eight of the respondents also chose “others” (open-ended) as their answers. Eight respondents were of the opinion that radio channels today have become primarily a medium to promote/sell products on a commercial basis. Internet radio Several radio channels can be listened via the Internet. The respondents indicated that they engaged with the following radio websites: Hitz, UFO, Voice of Taipei, Taiwan Radio, Radio Hong Kong and BBC. The reasons given by them on why they visited other Internet radios were “convenient”, “listen to how other DJs present”, “to get entertainment information”, “listen to other countries’ radio channels besides Malaysia’s” and “to get information to do my assignment on foreign news”.

Although 66 per cent (33 of the total respondents) were of the opinion that radio played a better role in public service broadcasting when asked about the role of Internet radio in the same light, Table 9 shows a more pessimistic data. Only 34 per cent (7) of the total respondents have the opinion that Internet radio has the potential in playing this important role of public service broadcasting. The reasons given by them were “Internet radio is cheaper and convenient”, “number of people using Internet radio are increasing”, “visual and audio at the same time, can get information and comments immediately”, “Internet radio is accountable to make good programmes” and “Internet radio able to influence listeners”. Sixty-six per cent (33 of the total respondents) were of the opinion that Internet radio did not have the potential in playing the important role of public service broadcasting. This is because most of them (22 out of 33 respondents) felt that not many people have access to Internet radio even right now and some Internet radio only have very few audiences. Making radio programmes

Table 8 Role of radio in public service broadcasting Radio’s role in public service broadcasting Yes No Total

Number of respondents 33 17 50

% 66.0 34.0 100.0

Youth radio Figure 2 The most critical problems facing youths today

Fi

na 8% ncia

l

Social 30%

Table 9 Role of internet radio in public service broadcasting Role of Internet radio in public service broadcasting Yes No Total

Number of respondents 17 33 50

% 34.0 66.0 100.0

Missing, 6%

Table 8 above shows that 66 per cent (33 of the total respondents) are of the opinion that radio played a better role in public service broadcasting. Most of the reasons given were “radio managed to deliver information immediately”, “many people listen to the radio no matter where”, “radio is the easiest and most convenient way of delivering messages” and “popular DJs are able to deliver and influence messages to listeners”. However, 34 per cent (17 of total respondents) were of the opinion that radio does not play a good role in public service broadcasting. The reason, according to some of them, was “radio only can play a role in entertaining”, “radio is solely for commercial purposes nowadays” and “television can play a better role in this because it involves both audio and visual”.

From Table 10 (next page), when respondents were asked what kind of programmes they would like to produce if they were to produce a radio programme, 16 out of 50 respondents said that they would like to produce programmes that were related to entertainment like music and entertainment information. From here, we can deduce that the emphasis falls on radio as a medium for entertainment. Other programmes that they like to produce were programmes on youth and teenagers, critical issues, health, relationship, daily life information, school, college and university, talk show, politics, movies, local singers and programmes which enabled the sharing of opinions and experiences, for example.

Relationship 28%

Family 12% Drugs/ecstasy 16%

Figure 2 above shows the respondents’ opinion on the most critical problems faced by youths of today. 30 per 93

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Table 10 Kind of programmes respondents would like to produce Type of programmes & reason why Entertainment/music/entertainment information – “young people prefer entertainment” – “to entertain” – “to get entertainment information” – “to make listeners stay tuned and not get bored” Sharing opinion & experience – “people like to share and listen to others’ sharing” Some critical and yet entertaining issues – “it will attract listeners and at the same time provide space to criticize some political issues” Teenagers – “listeners are teenagers” Health –“people still lack health knowledge” Love and relationship – “important topic concerning youth” Related to daily life – “link programmes to ‘love our planet’ and ‘love our culture’” Drama and story that present relationship between people – “give advice through stories” Human rights – “people still not clear about their rights” Weird and mystery cases of the planet – “new and attractive” Radio magazine about life in school, college and university – “lack of programmes that question the status quo” Transcendentalism – feng shui, horoscope, astrology – “people like them” Talk show plus “call-in” – “informative” Latest trend – “more challenging and provide the fast and precise news” Programmes that can spread the seed of love – “the only critical entertainment programmes” Public talk which focus on stories (motivation) – “attract more audiences and more interesting” News – “provide information” Youth interests – music, beauty and care – “youth concerns” Purely new songs – “to introduce local singers” Politics – “audiences like to listen and are concerned about Malaysian politics” Movie – “interesting and able to keep up with latest movies” Do not know what to produce Total 94

Number of respondents 16

% 32.0

4

8.0

3

6.0

3

6.0

2

4.0

3

6.0

2

4.0

1 1

2.0 2.0

2

4.0

1

2.0

1

2.0

1

2.0

1

2.0

1

2.0

1

2.0

1

2.0

1

2.0

1

2.0

1

2.0

1

2.0

2 50

4.0 100.0

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cent (15 of the total respondents) were of the opinion that social problem was the most critical problem faced by youths of today. Examples of social issue given by them were “youths today are easily influenced by friends/peers pressure” (most examples), followed by “gangsterism and vandalism”, “difficult to deal with others”, “ways of communicating to others”, “lack of socializing”, “fear to face public”, “jobless”, “lepak culture”, “lack of love, care and attention”, “rape”, “robbery”, “murder”, “lack of moral”, “violence” and “youth feel that they seems stupid in adults’ social world”. Twenty-eight per cent (14 of the total respondents) were of the opinion that issues of relationship were the most critical of problems faced by youths today. Examples of relationship problems given by the respondents were “love problems” (most of the respondents addressed this as the most critical problem faced by youth today) and it was followed by “problems with friends”, “sex issues”, “divorce and third parties”, “problems with family”, “poor EQ and communication skill” and “too free and openminded towards members of the other sex”. Besides social and relationship problems, some respondents also felt that addiction to drug/ecstasy (a psychotropic substance) were critical problems faced by youths of today. Examples of the problems given by them were “youth nowadays easily influenced by friends”, “youth too much involved in night life”, “lack of knowledge on the dangers of drugs”, “lack of love, care and attention” and “take ecstasy to reduce tension”. Family and financial issues were also critical problems faced by youths according to a smaller percentage of the respondents. Family problems such as “lack of love and care”, “parents too strict”, “divorce cases”, “generation and communication gap”, “family that are not sensitive towards youths’ needs” and “conflict in family” were examples of family problems given by the respondents. Examples of financial problem faced by youths were “financial sources limited”, “do not have enough money to spend”, “pocket money too little”, “problems about scholarships and loans”, “do not know how to spend money wisely” and “do not know how to manage financial problem”. Table 11 Opinion of respondents on whether current radio programmes content are relevant to youths’ lives Respondents’ opinion Numbers of respondents Yes 34 No 14 No comment 2 Total 50

% 68.0 28.0 4.0 100.0

From Table 11, 68 per cent (34 of the total respondents) were of the opinion that the current radio programmes content was relevant to the youths’ lives. Twenty-eight per cent (14 of the total respondents) thought otherwise. Content which they thought were relevant but getting little

attention on radio channels include those on moral, love and relationship, health, beauty, lifestyle, youth line, family education, finance and entertainment. Table 12 Opinions of respondents on whether current radio programmes are sufficient in addressing youths’ problems Respondents’ opinion Yes No No comment Total

Numbers of respondents % 6 12.0 40 80.0 4 8.0 50 100.0

When asked whether current radio programmes were sufficient in addressing youths’ problems, only 12 per cent (6 of the total respondents) were of the opinion that they were sufficient. On the contrary, 80 per cent of them, the majority of the respondents, felt that current radio programmes were not sufficient in addressing youths’ problems. The following responses were recorded: “normally information given in radio programmes about youths is not deep enough to cover the whole issues” (8 respondents felt so). Besides that, some respondents felt that most radio programmes “do not really focus on youths’ problems but cater to a more general audience” (7 respondents), “just for entertainment and nothing else” (7 respondents). Other areas which were not sufficient according to the respondents were “the programmes are not open-minded enough in addressing sensitive issues concerning youths, may be controlled by the government”, “the programmes do not provide criticism towards issues—no freedom of expression especially in politics”, “the programmes are not directing/advising youths to do things in the right way” and “lack of discussion in current issues”. Table 13 Producing youth radio programmes Producing youth programmes Yes No Total

Number of respondents 42 8 50

% 84.0 16.0 100.0

When asked whether they will take youths’ problems into consideration in producing their programmes, Table 13 above shows that 82 per cent of the total respondents will do so. Programmes that they wished to produce were of the type that address youths’ problems and varieties such as youths call-in programmes where they can share their problems with experts; discussion on the problems youths faced and their associated solutions; youth and their 95

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achievements; sports; programmes about social problems; sharing and counselling; preparation before entering the rat race; youths’ stress and tension; consumerism; trend and implications; information about education and study; critical programmes; space for youth to talk about politics; and what’s new on youth interests, love and relationship problems, forums and talk shows. The above survey was conducted to explore the students’ interests and views on the role of radio. The findings are not meant for making generalizations of students’ engagement with radio but to unveil their thoughts on the role of radio and their patterns of listening. The survey revealed that many of the students were exposed to commercial radio that presents entertainment and that they were not exposed to the more productive purposes of radio in the social development of society. At this point, we felt the students were capable of more when it comes to working with radio programmes. We thought that the students should be encouraged to not only reflect upon their personal lives but also the new understandings about themselves and the world around them, especially when they were fully aware of the many social problems encountered by young people today. In the next section, we share our story of a year-long project that induced some changes in the type of radio programming the students produced as they learnt to bridge their personal lives and social issues.

Project YnCR—Youth and Community Radio (Internet Radio, www.usm.net.my/yncr) The increasing significance of marketing of ideas and products through the old and new radio and the influence of the radio in reaching homes, leisure sites and workplace have altered the way we live and work. In this light, we felt that students should be exposed to alternative ways of making radio programmes. YnCR was set up by the Film and Broadcasting Programmes, School of Communication in June 2004. We wanted to introduce a sense of purpose in the radio course so that students can enhance knowledge and a range of skills to confront texts and discourses in their social lives. We attempted to advance a critical approach that allows students to question the assumptions that they took for granted, to explore social issues through multiple viewpoints and to take action to promote social justice. Interestingly, the course induced complex and challenging conversations in designing the programming schedule. Rather than replicating existing radio channels that have news segments, entertainment programmes, weather forecasts and so on, we decided to work around themes. Each group selects one theme and works around the different facets of the selected social issue. We talked about issues that the students observed from their daily lives. The students then focused on and discussed the things they felt strongly about. The students’ interests and engagement in the conversations demonstrated to us that the students had many concerns about their world in and out of the campus. 96

The students then constructed their programmes and the content of their programmes were analysed for story structure, themes, the use of language and representations of systems of power. For this, the multi-literacies framework advanced by the New London Group (Kalantzis and Cope, 2000) was a useful one to apply to the radio course. Kalantzis and Cope pointed out that we need to think about literacy in new ways as societies change and reveal increasing social and cultural diversity. We adopted the multil-iteracies framework for our radio project as it encompassed the key elements of knowledge and skills advanced by critical communication scholars. Knowledge processes and the construction of the lesson The multi-literacies framework as advanced by Kalantzis and Cope (1999) highlights the following four orientations to ways of thinking, acting and learning: • • •

•

Experiencing – The learning activities focused primarily on personal knowledge, concrete experience, evidence, data from students’ own lives and their communities. Conceptualizing – This referred to defining concepts and putting them together so that the concepts can be named or categorized. Analysing – In this part, analysis of purposes and human intentions involved in the knowledge is conducted. The students explore in whose interests the messages are constructed and interpret power relationships, personal and cultural perspectives to discuss the points of view represented in the programmes. Applying – At this stage, the students apply the knowledge in a creative or innovative way.

The above framework was used to ground the students’ work. Students, three in a group, were required to broadcast an hour per week for nine weeks in a semester. Broadcast time was from 5.00 p.m. to 11.00 p.m. each day. Students established the contents of the programmes. Over a period of 10 weeks, the students produced various segments with multiple viewpoints on their selected theme. Some of the projects that emerged were focused on the following themes: health, human rights, beauty, women’s issues, relationships, environment concerns, alternative films and music, and the local music and film industry. In the next section, we highlight one student project that was constructed and presented for broadcast on Internet radio. Each week, the students would invite experts who would talk about the development, challenges and the way groups can organize activities to enhance debate and action in the related areas. All the above is done in a systematic way. Student project—beauty and grooming in your life The Malaysian people are categorized along lines of gender, ethnicity, class, religion and age. These aspects of social identity help structure the people’s living experience as well as influence the distribution of the society’s socialcultural and economic resources. Interestingly, Malaysia in the past century has witnessed unprecedented changes in

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relation to the gender dimension where the role and status of women and men have experienced shifting currents. Gender research has highlighted the critical role that the media plays in providing materials that are linked to our making sense of our identities and has revealed the social construction of gendered hierarchies and practices that do not favour the diverse interests in women’s lives. In this project, the students worked on the theme of beauty and grooming, and how both men and women are trapped in a consumerist culture that bombards young people with a range of messages on beauty and the importance of grooming oneself so that they can be successful in their lives. Focusing on young women, the students were frustrated with the structures in the Malaysian society that associate a beautiful woman as one who is successful at home and at the workplace; where she is presented as complete, powerful, secure and serious. The students wanted to look at the assumptions underpinning beauty and success and how these concepts are defined by society, specifically young people. Using the multiliteracies approach, they started exploring their personal experiences and began questioning these assumptions. Over the nine weeks, they invited many experts to give multiple viewpoints and they attempted to connect these with the power structures in society. The students used the following four levels to engage productively with this theme. The first three levels were research-based and at this developmental phase, the students worked on their scripts and identified the relevant persons and groups who would be able to contribute critical perspectives and multiple viewpoints on this matter. Experiencing The first part of the framework attempted to bring young people to talk about the concept of beauty. The students sought various views from campus students if they had any interesting experiences linked to the above matter. They carried out short questionnaires and focus group discussions to explore the students’ perceptions. They found out that young girls want to look beautiful and this meant being thin, fair-skinned, having long hair, attractive physical attributes (for example, big eyes, high cheekbones, full lips and thick eyebrows), doing plastic surgery to enhance certain parts of the body, entering beauty pageants and being acknowledged by society and being fashion conscious. Conceptualizing Students explored different definitions and dimensions of beauty; common and dominant meanings of beauty; the media’s construction of beauty; daily routines that people keep to look beautiful; physical disabilities; and the myth of beauty. • • •

What is beauty? Who creates the texts and messages on beauty? How is it put together in advertisements? What creative techniques are used in media and cultural artefacts on beauty? What do young people think and feel about media texts on beauty? What might other people (women groups) think about this text? What are the dominant forms of stereotyping?

• •

What lifestyles, values and points of view are positioned in these forms and messages? Why were these messages sent? Who are the target groups? In whose interests do they work?

Analysing Following the conceptualizing phase, students proceeded to analyse assumptions underpinning numerous issues such as stereotypes, ideology, advertising, film and television images, identity, femininity, exploitation of women, gender discrimination, popular culture, the beauty myth and commercialism. The students then linked these issues to a wider feminist politics. There was an interest on the part of the students to challenge cultural preoccupations and routines concerning beauty, relating this to wider questions of power distribution within societies. Applying All the above information was presented in the form of DJ talk, interviews and vox pop on the students’ radio programmes over a period of 10 weeks. Guests who were invited included beauticians, doctors, NGO’s, women groups and students who participated in the students’ radio project to give perspectives on the construction of beauty in Malaysia. Issues like beauty pageants, increasing interests on plastic surgery among women, healthcare, nutrition, the role of media and peer pressure among young girls were some of the issues raised in these broadcast sessions. For example, in one segment, students conducted interviews with a beautician and a medical doctor on plastic surgery— which were the most popular plastic surgery of late, types of plastic surgery and its risks and side effects—with focus on liposuction and breasts enlargement. The above conversations were done in an entertaining way and there was also shoutcast where listeners could also send in their comments and views via the Internet. A shared sense of purpose began to change the atmosphere of radio courses. All the above activities not only enhanced the students’ understanding and knowledge of broader cultural issues but also allowed the students to practise critical media literacy by placing them both as critical consumers of culture as well as producers of radio programmes who can participate, inform and direct alternative constructions of knowledge on radio.

Conclusion The impact of radio in our daily lives is considerably underestimated. It is encountered in many ways; we watch advertising permeates our thoughts and provides ideas, norms, values, role models, lifestyle images and icons of personality. Radio engages people in practices that enable us to participate in public discussions and decisions on the construction of pleasures, meanings, identities and social realities around us. The place of media in the lives of young people intersects with classroom life. Media literacy cannot be separated from the rest of what goes on in our educational system, nor from what goes on in our own society. It is important to enable young people to use media resources to link their 97

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daily activities in the private, schooling, working and public lives. The above study is a contribution to the current debate on the role of media study in critical literacy education. In recent years, information technology has been widely advocated as an important part of smart learning in Malaysia. This study raises the concern for critical awareness and the need for communication and media education programmes and materials to include matters to sustain the critical edge, specifically in the area of radio, especially at a time where we are confronting major changes at both the global and local levels. What is vital is the development of media literacy—debates that would lead to critical and systematic ways of interpreting and constructing media messages and meanings. The main concern of activists and educationalists interested in the literate future is the building of critical autonomy of young people. A major task facing those interested in developing young people’s media is to reassess the assumption that media artefacts produce value-free information and entertainment that can be consumed innocently. The lines between fantasy and reality are becoming blurred with new superficial and smooth production techniques, which aim to captivate the attention of the young people as audience (Budd et al., 1999). Expressions of popular culture are also channelled through implicit and explicit ideological messages that accept the common sense understandings in media representations. For example, the experience of gender, ethnicity and class emphasize what is deemed important and not as well those whose points of view are accounted for and whose narratives are marginalized or excluded. It is useful to stress that media messages including radio have an economic purpose and it is essential to securitize the construction of hopes and fears of young people, specifically in the area of advertising and marketing. A small elite group can become powerful arbiters who manipulate insecurities, and provide information and images that are seen as normal and desirable (Luke and Elkins, 1998). It is important then to enable young people to understand things and social relationships in society so that they can focus on their interests and needs rather than the wants and desires of other people. Young people themselves must also be ready to take the responsibility for their own rights and the rights of others. Young people have a great capacity to speak out on things that are not seen or are conveniently excluded,

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to explain their experiences and to contribute to a better world. As young people grow, so does their capacity to make decisions. They deserve to have their voices heard on the issues that affect them. This is a basic right that all people share: the right to express views and to have those views taken seriously and respected.

References Alvermann, D. E., & Moon, J. S. (1999). Popular culture in the classroom: Teaching and researching critical television literacy. Newark International Reading Association. Ambigapathy, P. (2001). Advancing literacy in the new times: Happenings in contemporary Malaysia. In A. Pandian. & M. Kalantzis (Eds.), Literacy matters: Issues for the new times. Australia: Common Ground Publishers. Baynham, M. (1995). Literacy practices: Investigating literacy in social contexts. New York: Longman. Buckingham, D. (1998). Teaching popular culture: Beyond radical pedagogy. London: University College London Press. Budd, M., et al. (1999). Consuming environment—Television and commercial culture. New Brunswick Rutgers University Press. Cope, B., & Kalantzis, M. (Eds.) (2000). Multi-literacies. Literacy Learning and the Design of Social Futures. London: Routledge. Fairclough, N. (1989). Language and power. London: Longman. Halloran, J., & Jones, M. (1987). Learning about the media: Media education and research. Paris: UNESCO. Hilton, M. (Ed.) (1996). Potent fictions: Children’s literacy and the challenge of popular culture. New York: Routledge. Idid, S. A. (1996). Press freedom and responsibility in a developing society. Media Asia, 23(3), 146–156. Luke, C. (1998). Pedagogy and authority: Lessons from feminist and cultural studies, postmodernism and feminist pedagogy. In D. Buckingham (Ed.), Teaching popular culture: Beyond radical pedagogy. London: University College London Press. Luke, A., & Elkins, J. (September 1998). Reinventing literacy in “new times”. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 42, 1. Masterman, L. (1985). Teaching the media. London: Comedia. This paper was presented at the 14th AMIC Annual Conference on Media and Society in Asia: Transformations and Transition held on 18–21 July 2005 in Beijing, China.

Traditional Culture and Avant-Garde Cartoons in China Chinese traditional culture and art are in danger of losing root among the young generations. Avant-garde cartoons that have appeared in the late last century have shown a trend of adopting Western classics rather than Chinese traditional art, while other entertainment imitates Western culture without a thorough understanding of it. To redirect development, one suggestion is to teach Chinese traditional culture properly in schools with a comparison of Western classics.

HONGYING LIU AND ALFONZ LENGYEL

W

hile the authors of this paper lived in the US, Chinese events were quite rare in the area they lived so that anything relating to Chinese affairs would excite them. They remembered how once the “Yellow River” piano concerto broadcast from one American radio station almost made them cry. In late 2003, one of the authors of this paper (HongYing Liu) returned to China and began to teach in a university for the first time after living abroad for 18 years. In class, during the discussion with her freshmen students about Chinese culture, she asked who had read the four famous ancient novels (Water Margin; The Three Kingdom Legend; The Journey to the West; and The Dreams of the Red Chambers). To her surprise, no one among the near 400 students raised their hand. There was further convulsion finally when one student stated that, according to her family, those classics in question were just garbage that could not be brought to the table. In the eye of a foreigner, as long as China and Chinese people still exist, Chinese traditional culture would stay forever and even develop somehow; and those who attempted to learn or study Chinese culture thought that what they needed to do was to come to China—it should just be that simple. If the young generations continue to think about the Chinese literary masterpieces and other traditional culture in the same way as these students, to say that the Chinese cultural mainstream is facing a serious crisis of disappearing is not an overstatement.

HongYing Liu is from the School of Culture and Communication, Zhejiang Wanli University, China. She holds a PhD in Mass Communication from Temple University, Philadelphia. Alfonz Lengyel is Advisory Professor at Fudan University (Shanghai) and Consulting Professor at Xi’an Jiaotong University. He holds a PhD in Art History and Archaeology from the University of Paris.

Brief background of Chinese cartooning In the past, the Chinese usually took moral cultivation as a goal in their lives. Today, personal enjoyment and freedom, especially for the youngsters, are valued above everything else, including morality. To recognize one nation’s characteristics and its culture, which has had a significant impact on the country’s development, it is important to see whether they still remain active in society. It can be judged in four areas: first, to see if this culture is still considered seriously by people who would continue this culture and pass it onto the younger generations; second, to see whether the social structure still exists that carries the culture forward as a whole; third, whether this culture’s basic values are still influencing people’s serious decision making in daily life; and fourth, whether the specific language produced by the culture exists, which is expressing important ideological thoughts and deep feelings in literature and art (Jiu TouNiao, n.d.). If one or more of the aspects listed above have been weakened or have disappeared, it would indicate that the culture in question is having some serious problems or no longer exists. Since the new cultural movement in the early 20th century to the so-called “Cultural Revolution” in the middle and the open-door policies at the end of the century, Chinese traditional culture can be seen to have been greatly replaced by the cultures from the Western world, while the remaining part of it is under severe attack in today’s environment of media globalization. Among the many types of art, this paper takes cartoon art as the main topic for discussion. Its artistic presentation in China has not been fully recognized as a powerful device in mass communication due to its special functions over the past 80 years or so (Liu-Lengyel, 1993). When Chinese cartoons became an independent form of art in the early 1900s, China was in a situation where the world powers were fighting over its division and domestic warlords were having territorial wars to segment the nation. The newly established 99

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newspapers and magazines later on became the cradle for cartoon development. The cartoons were closely connected with the political situation at that time, concentrating on revealing the real intention of the foreign powers’ division of China and on its political affairs. Thus, they were called “current pictorials”, “satirical pictures” or “emblems” until the term “cartoon” (man hua) was initiated when Feng Zikai’s art series were published in Shanghai in 1925. During World War II and the civil war that followed, a group of famous cartoonists were actively using their art to fight against the Japanese invasion and government corruption. Well-known cartoonists at that time, such as Ye Qianyu, Zhang Guangyu, Ding Cong, Zhang Ding, Liao Bingxiong, Zhang Leping, Hua Junwu, Shen Tongheng and Hong Huang, created a great many excellent cartoons which played a significant role in the development of Chinese cartoon art, in addition to their inspiring role and mobilizing power to the depressed. After the People’s Republic of China was founded, the cartoons were mainly targeting foreign political policies, especially the US’s, and the world’s political situation; domestically, they criticized bad human behaviour while praising the good and new social phenomena in the newly established socialist system. More outstanding cartoonists joined with the older ones, such as Mi Gu, Fang Cheng, Zhan Tong, Xu Jingda, Wang Shuchen, Wang Dazhuang, Wang Fuyang, He Wei, Miao Di, Bi Keguan, Ying Tao, Zhang Yaoning, Zheng Xinyao, Shen Tiancheng and Chen Shubin. All these cartoonists’ contribution to the construction of the People’s Republic of China should never be forgotten. One of the unusual points that needs to be highlighted is that the Chinese cartoonists were not making a living in this specific profession, but almost all were working in other fields. Among them were newspaper and magazine editors, workers, peasants, teachers and medical doctors. The most frequent cartoon publishers in the mainland numbered about 500. Many of them had their personal cartoon collections published (Zhang, n.d.).

margin, in one of his nationwide well-known cartoons, “Wu Da Lang’s restaurant”. This hero in the classical novel was known as an unusually short man, and in Fang’s cartoon, the tall man in a job interview was told that the owner of the restaurant did not like to hire anyone who was taller than he was. In reading it, everyone would understand immediately that in today’s society, many superiors do not like to employ people who are more capable than they.

Traditional cartoons as a means of mass communication

Fang and some other cartoonists pioneered the experiment of brush-and-ink cartooning in the late 1990s, which gained a higher reputation for cartooning as part of the fine art within the Chinese tradition. With this traditional artistic method, cartoons could finally be hung on the wall for appreciation in the same way as traditional Chinese paintings. This served a social function and brought cartoons closer to the people. Actually, in the 19th century, the French cartoonist/caricaturist Honore Daumier (1808–1878) introduced such works as fine arts. However, such meaningful, humorous and refreshing cartoons are little seen now; the specially made billboards in streets for displaying cartoons have been replaced by advertisements; few cartoons dare to point out the worst social behaviour and fake products that ruin and kill people today. Thus, the traditional cartoons have quit the scene, where they had, for years, served a social function with their pointed satire. The mass communication function and mobilization power of cartoons is diminishing in today’s commercial-oriented society.

Chinese cartoons from the beginning have been used to laud good social behaviour and criticize social ills, which was not quite the same as cartooning in other countries. In addition to editorial cartoons, most were called “social phenomena” cartoons, while the rest was purely humorous and series cartoons (or comic strips). The long history of Chinese literature and operas has roots in the people’s psyche, which has been used as a creative basis by Chinese cartoonists in reflecting today’s affairs. This has been one of the most outstanding specialties in cartoon creation and the audience has enjoyed finding the rich meanings behind the graphic presentation. As one of most respected cartoonists, Mr. Fang Cheng (n.d.), puts it, Chinese cartoons’ traditional characteristics cannot be just understood as brush plus rice paper; the key is to present it in the national artistic ways most appreciated by the audience. Fang used one of the best known figures, Wu Da Lang in the classical novel Water 100

Figure 1 “Wu Da Lang’s Restaurant” by Fang Cheng

TRADITIONAL CULTURE AND AVANT-GARDE CARTOONS IN CHINA

Foreign influence in Chinese cartooning Since the 1990s, while the older cartoonists have retired and younger ones are caught in the transition in this art form, cartoons from Japan and other economically powerful countries have flooded the Chinese markets. They have stimulated Chinese readers’ desires and attracted a great many youngsters. This cultural invasion developed so rapidly that it pushed Chinese cartoon creators and publishers to follow the Japanese style in cartooning as it seemed to have a larger audience and this would enable them to sell their cartoons quickly and easily. It is obvious that these young cartoonists and their audience both grew up with Japanese-style art presented on TV and in cartoon books. Among these relatively young cartoonists who are strongly influenced by Japanese cartoons in creational and artistic styles, few were trained professionally, in contrast to those highly trained Japanese cartoonists who had much richer experiences and cultural background. Thus, other than imitating the big eyes, long hair and sharp chins in the cartoon figures, Chinese cartoonists today lag behind in all areas of cartooning, including figure creating, storyline writing, and message composing and transforming. In recent years, Japanese culture through cartoons, music, food packaging, fashion design and advertising has become increasingly popular in China. In addition, the Japanese have targeted Chinese traditional cultural products by re-packaging them in Japan and marketing them back to China and the rest of the world. In 2004, for example, a Japanese cartoonist made a well-researched cartoon series, A story of Peking opera (Mei Lanfang, n.d.). The traditional cultural resources have never before been researched by any Chinese cartoonist. Another important point is that among the many cases where foreigners used Chinese classics to create entertainment programmes, some of them distort Chinese history and culture and these, in turn, have influenced the Chinese youth’s perception and knowledge of Chinese tradition and culture. The best example perhaps is Disney’s Mulan animation film, based on a traditional

Chinese story. Could it be one of the reasons that resulted in the statement that Chinese famous literature was too shallow to be brought to the table?

Avant-garde cartoon creation It seems that in the struggle between the traditional and the modern, some of the Chinese youngsters began to experiment with new art forms. In the 1990s, the artwork by a group of young people calling themselves “avant-garde cartoonists” has, more than once, won awards in foreign countries. Ironically, few native Chinese knew about them and their artwork. Neither has their work been recognized by the rare domestic competitions. Most of these “avant-garde cartoonists”, who are different from the young cartoonists who specialized in traditional Chinese cartooning, were professionally trained in technique and their artwork requires more time and energy due to its detailed designs and heavily applied colours in comparison with the traditional cartoons of mainly line drawings (with some by brush). However, because of these details, it was not cost-effective to publish them in newspapers so these works were shown at specially arranged exhibitions, which provided less opportunity for mass appreciation as did the traditional cartoons. Upon examination, there is no indication that these artists have attempted to follow Chinese traditional culture and art, much less traditional Chinese cartoons. A few, such as Figures 3 to 5, are in imitation of Western mastepieces. None of the cartoons influenced by the Japanese cartoons or the so-called “avant-garde cartoons” can be described as adopting Chinese traditional culture and art. While there are attempts to imitate some Western classics, their creation appears to lack creativity and tend to imitate the style of the original work too much.

Figure 3 Untitled painting by Liu, Manhua, following the style of Georges Braques (1882–1963)

Figure 2 “The Wedding” by Xu, Tao

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Figure 4 “Music Score” by Xia, Lichuan, copying Eduard Manet’s (1832–1883) “The Flute Player”

Figure 5 “The Same Love” by Yu, Liang, following Louise Elizabeth Vigee-Lebrun’s (1755–1842) “Mother and Child”

Conclusion

References

To the issue of the disruption of traditional culture, we strongly suggest that courses in the history of art in Chinese culture in middle schools and world art history in high schools be developed, as well as a degree programme in art history at university level for those who will become art history teachers in middle/high schools or will work in the museum and archaeological field. These courses should include a module on the comparison between European, American, African as well as other countries’ art and the Chinese arts so that young Chinese generations would be able to see the differences and be proud of their own cultural heritage. This would encourage and provide a foundation for them to create meaningful and positive messages in art in the case of cartooning and the related artistic genres.

Fang, C. (n.d.). Understanding of the contradictories. Retrieved from http://gb2.chinabroadcast.cn/1015/20037-1/[email protected]/050215. Jiu TouNiao Culture Media website. (n.d.). Chinese culture faultage [in Chinese]. Retrieved from http://www.9wh. net/Article_Show.asp?ArticleID=847/050217 Liu-Lengyel, H. Y. (1993). Chinese cartoons as mass communication [in Chinese]. Ann Arbor: UMI. Mei Lanfang in Japanese cartoon. (n.d.) [in Chinese]. Retrieved from http://games.tom.com/050218. Zhang, Y. N. (n.d.). Chinese cartoons [in Chinese]. Retrieved from http://www.bandaonews.com/news/showdetail. asp?id=13450/050217

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This paper was presented at the 14th AMIC Annual Conference on Media and Society in Asia: Transformations and Transition held on 18–21 July 2005 in Beijing, China.

In Search of Cultural Resemblances The Consequences of Media Consumption Among Young Adults in Malaysia

It is without a doubt that the global media are having an increasing effect on Malaysian communities. Concerns about changes in the local media industries framed the assumptions that guided this study, which entails content analysis and focus group discussions with young adult television audiences. The study’s findings hope to shed some light on the role of television in the everyday lives of young adults in Malaysia.

LATIFFAH PAWANTEH

T

here is today a heightened sense of connectedness and familiarity with people, events and cultural ways in distant places due to the capabilities brought about by advancements in information and communication technologies. The television, in particular global media, has made possible the interaction with other cultures through the availability of global communicative networks and social structures. These media organizations not only support the sending of distant images and content from one part of the globe to another within seconds but they make it possible. These immediate mediated experiences have led to the reduction in distance between individuals, society and nation states in terms of both time and space (Giddens, 1991). Inadvertently, this process plays a significant role in cultural globalization by providing an extensive transnational supply of cultural media products from an international media culture and presents a challenge to existing local and national cultures. The proponents of cultural imperialism and media imperialism have long argued that global media with their continuous supply of Western-based cultural content and their extensive structure promote a restructuring of cultural and social communities in developing countries (Ali, 1990; Schiller, 1991). As such, the global media is purported as having a crucial role in cultural globalization with their tendency toward homogenizing communities. Nevertheless, to assume cultural globalization as replacing the local ways of living is to presuppose the lack of resilience and creativity on the part of local cultures and also to overstate the role of the media technologies in shaping societies. It cannot be denied that, of late, there is an ever-growing increase and tendencies towards the consumption of transnational

Latiffah Pawanteh is from the School of Media and Communication Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

economic and cultural products. It is inevitable that the future will see a greater struggle between the tensions toward globalization and the attempts to maintain and consolidate national communities (McGrew, 1992). It is without a doubt that global media have impacted the local communities for decades and more so in the past 20 years due to the shift in international relations and economic situations that necessitates local policies to change in order to benefit and be included in the global scenario. With the ongoing transformations of the local mediascape that provide for increasingly greater access to transnational media consumption of various cultures and languages, the looming question of foreign media content and their impact on local young adults and subsequently, local cultural identities come into view once again. And what (if any) are the changes that have occurred in the local media industry? These concerns framed the assumptions that guided the study, that is, the content analysis and focus group discussions of young adult television audiences. The social constructionist approach is the theoretical framework that underlines this study. Within this view, it was felt that the “interest is on programmes and programming but not as texts studied in isolation from their usage as an element in everyday life” (Alaasuutari, 1999: 6–7). This view also pays particular attention to and attempts to understand more about the mediascape. Through the content analysis of the television programmes available locally and focus group discussions with 60 young adults (20 to 25 years old), it is hoped that the findings presented in this paper will shed some light on the role of media (television) on the everyday lives of young adults in Malaysia.

Media consumption in everyday life Although the various global and local media players provide multiple channels, genres, languages and a programming 103

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schedule that caters to the differences in time zones and everyday lifestyle of potential audiences, this does not readily translate into a transfixed and maximum number of audiences across all continents and cultural groups. This is due to the apparent fact that the average young adult has limited number of hours designated as “TV watching time”. The rest of the hours in the day are filled up by other relevant, necessary, unexpected and unavoidable events that take them away from their television sets. Inasmuch as there are “couch potatoes” who practically live in front of the television set, the average young adult tends to have episodes of everyday routines that range from sleep, lectures, work, social outings, shopping, driving around, exercise, hobbies and other routines relating to daily living needs that goes beyond sitting in front of the television. Hence, the multiple channels and programme genres have resulted in the practice or, even to an extent, the art of channel surfing which makes each viewer the target of competition between channels eager to have top-billed programmes so as to satisfy the advertisers. Currently, the multiple options in both channels and programme genres available to audiences everywhere have resulted in changes in audience viewing behaviour that leads to a broader change within the cultural context. This change links media consumption to the process of acquiring knowledge, pleasure and identification of the audience, whereby the audience’s selection of channels and programmes are attributed to their gratification in either one or more of the variables cited. Numerous scholars including McLuhan (1964) and Meyrowitz (1986) have studied the role of television in the dissemination of knowledge. McLuhan (1964) lauded the television era as the critical optimum moment for the dissemination of information to mass audiences. McLuhan’s contention was that society should focus on the ways the medium disrupts tradition and reshapes social life. He asserted that the focus ought to be on the ways the media extended our senses and altered our social world as an extension of the human senses. He further propagated the notion that the electronic media can facilitate and reconnect the senses that have been fragmented by the print media. Thereby, within this perspective, he brought forth the notion of a “global village” based on the wonders of communication technology. However, today we know that such a proposition oversimplifies the complexities of the media processes. Meyrowitz (1986) on the other hand, suggested that the electronic media and in particular television have the propensity to allow people to escape from traditional placedefined groups. And here, his emphasis was not on place as the physical setting but rather on information or social knowledge that people have about themselves and others. With television, one can be at a particular place such as a trial, sports events or an Indian village without actually being there. Numerous people all across the globe can have this mediated experience simultaneously. All at once, audiences gain knowledge with a click of the remote in the comfort of their homes in the company of familiar faces. This view of the media with its focus on places indicates the role of the media in our lives and in creating the situational 104

geography of social life (Meyrowitz, 1994). Furthermore, Wilson and Gutierrez (1985) claimed that during its early inception days, the television was an agent for creating a common culture through the dissemination of news and entertainment throughout the various parts of a country or the world. Simply put, it meant that one “brand of knowledge” was disseminated throughout the various cultural groups, thereby having a homogenizing effect. Today, the media industry acknowledge the presence and significance of minorities whether they are cultural, ethnic or social groups, and thus, through the multiplicity of channels, programme genres and content have made it possible to cater to diverse needs and audiences. And this may actually lead to reinforcing differences and diversity. This may not be altogether negative for it will most certainly be the avenue for local cultures through their local media industry to negate the impending threat of foreign cultures via the foreign media. Corner (1999) outlined a typology for television audiences and the pleasures derived from television viewing. The typology identifies five categories of pleasures: visual pleasures, pleasures of para-sociality, dramatic pleasures, pleasures of fantasy and pleasures of routine. For each moment that an audience views the television programme, any one or several of these categories of pleasure may be fulfilled. These categories may occur by itself or may occur in conjunction or complementary with one or two or several categories simultaneously. The effect is, of course, a fully gratified audience who may return to view that similar programme genre on that particular channel again. And, should none of the categories satisfied at that viewing moment, then either the audience may zap to another channel or programme genre, or tune off the television set for that particular day. In any event, it showed that there is something to be derived from viewing television other than just to pass time. Finally, as suggested by Barker (1999), the media in an era of globalization participates in the construction of cultural identities whereby audiences may or may not relate to the representations that emerge on screen. Yet, this process is important since it circulates a bricolage of representations of class, gender, age, race and sex. Television, in particular due to its visual and audio capabilities is an important site for both the construction and contestation over meanings. What is more compelling today is that in lieu of globalization that has resulted in massive movements of people and greater influx of mediated distribution of culture throughout the world, it has also contributed to the making of hybrid cultural identities within the context or spectrum of existing identities such as ethnic and religious. In line with Meyrowitz (1986), the notion of the blurring of geographic identities tied to a geographic location global media today not only contributes to the dislocation of cultural identities from specific localities, it is also a resource for complex multiple and competing identities.

Local mediascape As of 1985, when the first private television station TV3 began its services, the local media industry began to undergo

IN SEARCH OF CULTURAL RESEMBLANCES: THE CONSEQUENCES OF MEDIA CONSUMPTION AMONG YOUNG ADULTS IN MALAYSIA

changes. These changes included the rise in production houses that generated more local production of various genres, more trained personnel in the industry whether as broadcasters or production personnel, and more foreign programmes that led to the demand for higher quality programmes (local and foreign) to be aired on the two public stations. These changes have continued till today with the licensing of more private stations. Malaysian television audiences today have the option of satisfying their viewing palate daily from either one of the six free-to-air stations (RTM 1, RTM 2, TV3, NTV7, 8TV and Channel 9) and one satellite station. The satellite station ASTRO today offers subscribers a total of 40 television channels and two pay-per-view channels. In mid 2005, MiTV, an Internet protocol television operator offering over 40 channels was launched as a competitor for the lucrative pay-television market (MiTV enters fray, 2004). In less than 20 years, the commercialization of the media industry have seen various players such as those with government funding, backing or political affiliations to relatively new and unknown young entrepreneurs, as with MiTV. All of these media players including the two government-owned stations RTM 1 and RTM 2 have, since their inception, strived to have the competitive edge through creative programming so as to have a share of the local audiences. These stations have brought forth various programme genres that are either locally produced, imported wholly or adapted locally. By adapting, we meant the copying of popular genres and genre formats from foreign programmes into the local languages. These programmes are either franchised or copied materials. Nevertheless, they appealed to the local audiences just as they did with their original audiences. The various local stations broadcast programmes in several languages, that is, Malay, English, Chinese (dialects included), Indian (dialects included) and others including Indonesian Malay, Spanish, Japanese, and Korean (with subtitles). RTM 1, being the national broadcasting station, airs predominantly programmes in the Malay language while

RTM 2, its counterpart, was identified as the vernacular national station and therefore airs in Tamil, Chinese and English. The commercial stations, TV3, NTV7, 8TV and Channel 9, airs in Malay, English, Chinese and Tamil with a smattering of other foreign languages. Meanwhile, the satellite station ASTRO airs in six different languages, that is, 24 channels are in English, nine channels in Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), three channels in Malay, one channel in Tamil, one channel in Japanese and two channels in Arabic.

The social context of media consumption: A content analysis Ever since television became a part of the household and took an important position in most homes, some offices and even restaurants throughout the world, episodes of everyday life are organized around it. The television schedules provide a semblance of order and routine to the daily existence of most people. Television sets are designed to blend with the interior finishing of various homes and apartments so that the sets are seen as part of the household furniture. In addition, programming catered to the diverse lifestyle of office workers, executives, students and housewives by segmenting specific hours and parts of the day, evening and night and airing programme genres that appealed to their needs. Studies have revealed that television programming is shaped by cultural practices and rituals that revolved around the family unit (Spigel, 1992). As such, media planners and programming experts have to pay attention to the rituals in most households in the place they operate so as not to offend and subsequently lose viewers. In fact, since maximum viewership is their goal, media planners have been known to rigorously promote and rationalize particular programming time slots to reshape cultural and family routines to be compatible. A content analysis of all available television channels was conducted for a one-year period beginning in January 2004.

Table 1 Genre analysis of television programmes (weekdays and weekend) Time

Morning Afternoon Evening Prime time Late night After midnight Total

News (%)

Drama (%)

Documentary (%)

27 15 20 23 3 12 100

8 16 47 18 7 4 100

27 9 37 9 9 9 100

Genre Magazine Musical (%) (%) 10 37 10 21 11 11 100

28 10 28 21 3 10 100

Sport (%) — 14 29 — 43 14 100

Reality show (%) 20 — 20 60 — — 100

Talk show (%) 40 — 20 20 — 20 100

Movie (%)

Cartoon (%)

— 14 29 14 43 — 100

96 — 4 — — — 100

* Morning (6.00 a.m. – 12.00 noon); afternoon (12.00 noon – 2.00 p.m.); evening (2.00 p.m. – 7.00 p.m.); prime time (7.00 p.m. – 10.00 p.m.), late night (10.00 p.m. – 12.00 midnight), after midnight (12.00 midnight – 6.00 a.m.) 105

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The study sampled programmes that aired every Monday, Wednesday and Sunday for four consecutive weeks of the third month that is, January, April, July and October. Data presented were for the months of January, April, July and October 2004. As shown in Table 1, prime-time news is on at 8.00 p.m. on all channels. This is the time when most heads of households are in and it is just before or after dinner (depending on ethnic dinner-time routines). In the mornings, between 7.00 a.m. and 9.00 a.m., the entertainment genre, that is, the talk shows and information format is on. This slot is packaged to accommodate the office workers (to be updated prior to going to the office) and housewives. Issues aired such as health products for married couples, adoption for childless couples, maid problems and house renovation issues are meant for them. This genre is liken to reading the morning newspapers and hence, the audience will be updated with current events for the day. In the afternoons, social dramas and movies occupy the on-air screens of both free-to-air and satellite television. The early evening hours are filled with cartoons and dramas to cater to both the children and the tired office workers. After prime time news, the best programme of various genres that have been identified as popular are aired till past 11.00 p.m. Since television viewing became part of everyday family life, members of the family including the adults, young adults and children would gather at specific time to focus on the television set that have been placed either in their living room or television room for those with the luxury of space. Inasmuch as the closeness of family members occur as a result of physical proximity and programme sharing, however, the blurring of “childhood and adulthood” as a consequence of the information flow through both audio and visual means have had some controversial results (Meyrowitz, 1985; Croteau and Hoynes, 2003, Latiffah et al., 2002). In reference to Table 1 above, it can be noted that most channels air dramas and talk shows in the mid-mornings, afternoons and during prime time. Through television, young people everywhere can get an insight into the lives of adults whether at work, their romances and infidelities, politics, humour, violence and sexuality. Studies have indicated that young people do learn from the television but do they comprehend the meanings as the adults present or intended in the programme itself? And what about the cross-cultural consequences, for instance, of children and adolescents viewing a love scene that have slipped through the local censorship unit? Or to listen to a discussion on sexuality such as the topic of Down Low that was discussed on Oprah at noon in July 2004. This topic discussed the sexual preferences of African American males who were bi-sexual and preferred sex with other males merely for sexual gratification. They described themselves as distinct from homosexuals. If such a topic appeared difficult for an adult to grasp, then imagine how a 15-year-old would respond to it. In most Malaysian homes where two working parents are the norm for families, then the adolescent would be at home either alone or in the company of a maid. Who is there to prevent him or her from watching the programme or to clarify the issue with 106

him or her after the programme? (Gunter and McAleer, 1997; Mullen, 1997) Although the debate on censorship is an ongoing one and there is censorship, yet there are still numerous scenes and dialogue that seemed to slip by the censors. Many adults and young people alike have lamented their discomforts at sexually suggestive scenes when viewing programmes with other family members, especially those of the opposite sex. Although they are fully aware and accept it as a natural part of adult life, they find its inception into programmes aired during prime time which is regarded as family time and in the mid-mornings and afternoons to be insensitive to the lifestyle and values of the locals (Latiffah, 2003 and 2004). There are also, in addition, concerns by many adults that the messages or images portrayed maybe contradictory to what has been conveyed to the children either as cultural stories or parental guidance. And in such instances when this occurs, how is the discrepancy to be resolved for it threatened to either undermine the cultural values or parental instructions or reject the current information which seemed incomprehensible to a young person. As Toffler (1980) predicted that with global transformations, the role models in societies will change from the teacher, the priest and family to those in multiple channels such as the mass media. In comparison, the three major networks in the US, ABC, CBS and NBC, filled their mornings with talk shows, cooking and gardening shows as well as fitness programmes (TV Guide, July 2004 and March 2005). The NBC’s Today Show is the equivalent of the morning newspaper (Croteau and Hoynes, 2003). In the afternoons, the soap dramas take over with repeated themes of love, romance and infidelities. Similarly, late afternoons feature cartoons and programmes suitable for the young. Prime-time programmes include sitcoms, crime and science-fiction dramas, reality shows of the romantic, shows on exploration, sorts and entertainment type are on. Movies and talk shows are aired later in the evening. As such the scheduling of programme genres of both the American and Malaysian television stations has similarities. These rather coincidental similarities in programming schedule make one wonder if the prominent global media players do not have a hand in this. Again, the issue of programme scheduling that seemed to provide a structure to the everyday lives of common people everywhere arises once again. It has been noted by many scholars that people, who in turn are audiences, organized their daily activities around television programmes. The concern here is that perhaps, this structuring of programmes that is patterned after the American channels and lifestyle may not necessarily be suitable or convenient for another culture, in this case, the Malaysian society (Spigel, 1992; Silverstone, 1994; Latiffah et al., 2004; Samsudin and Latiffah, 1999). As for the languages in which these programmes are transmitted, a look at Table 2 that depicts only data for the free-to-air stations reveal that although English is the predominant language of broadcasting, Chinese language is on the increase. And this has yet to include the nine channels in Chinese language on ASTRO or MiTV.

IN SEARCH OF CULTURAL RESEMBLANCES: THE CONSEQUENCES OF MEDIA CONSUMPTION AMONG YOUNG ADULTS IN MALAYSIA

Table 2 Language analysis of television programmes Languages Malay English Chinese Tamil Hindi Filipino Spanish Indonesian Japanese Total

RTM1 (%) 86 14 19 9 3 3 3 1 6 100

RTM2 (%) 36 27 7 2 17 1 1 10

Channel TV3 (%) NTV7 (%) 51 16 37 51 27 39 4 15

100

Although RTM 1 airs 86 per cent in the Malay language, RTM 1 happens to be the least watched television channel in the country (Latiffah et al., 2002, 2003 and 2004). In addition, the focus group data revealed that most informants including Malays spend about 50 per cent of their total viewing time on Malay language programmes. Chinese viewers spend almost 75 per cent of their time on Chinese programmes while Indians divide equally between English, Malay and Indian language programmes (Latiffah, 2003 and 2004). Furthermore, although the percentage of Malay language programmes is high, they are mostly news, magazine, musicals, game shows and a few dramas and sitcoms. As such, today, the Chinese language programmes which are mostly dramas rival the English language programmes (American-based). The popularity of Chinese language programmes also seemed to cross the ethnic boundaries since both Malays and Indians also enjoy the Chinese dramas. It is the plot and storyline that appeals to them and they rely on the subtitles to get through the shows. It should also be noted that ASTRO offers specific packages of various genres aired 24 hours a day such as Emperor and Dynasty in the Chinese languages. These packages are the most popular in ASTRO. This would significantly increase the Chinese language content for local viewers considerably.

Implications on norms and values: Focus group discussions In order to understand further the role of television programmes in the everyday lives of their audience, 60 young people were gathered in small groups of five to discuss the issues. Guided by the social constructionist viewpoint on doing reception studies of audiences, the discussions were further defined by looking at the entire interaction as the object of analysis. The informants make up a natural group since they shared homogeneity factors that bring them together. Thus the discussion sessions were more like a “conversation” where I as the interviewer receded

8TV(%) 13 55 10

Channel 9 (%)

100

100

35

2

100

100

into the background as the informants began to talk back and forth, asked questions, sought clarification from each other and continued the conversation. I would interject only to encourage further talk or to elicit clarifications, or when I felt that they have wandered off the issues. Gathering of informants Twelve groups of young people between the ages of 20 and 25 were formed in six states, namely, Selangor, Malacca, Perak, Penang, Pahang and Johore. The informants were selected based on several criteria including age, gender, ethnicity, family socio-economic status, locality, satellite television (ASTRO) subscription and the availability of all other free-to-air stations either direct or through ASTRO services. This particular attention to the criteria of receiving all channels is important so as to ensure that all informants have the same potential with regard to selection of channels and programmes. All informants have minimum STPM or A levels equivalent educational qualifications. One third of the informants are attending the public universities, one third are attending private universities and colleges while the remaining one third are working. Focus group interviews Each group has five informants with a combination of either two males and three females or three females and two males. Three groups are divided according to ethnicity, that is, one group of Malays, Chinese and Indians while the other three groups are inter-ethnic in characteristic. The reason for these two sets of ethnic groupings is merely to allow for more free flow of discussions between the various informants and it is also to ensure that informants are not restrained to express themselves with the other ethnic groups. Two sessions are conducted with each group. For the second session, the groups are rearranged such that those that were previously within one ethnic group are now part of the multi-ethnic group and vice versa. The focus group discussions are conducted using a 107

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thematic-based interview guide and each session was between 40 to 50 minutes. The data gathered is transcribed and organized according to the frame of analysis that is constructed based on the assumption statements that are derived from the research questions. Frame of analysis For this study, data were organized into two categories: media use and media content. It is felt that these categories make up the components of media consumption. The media content, especially in the information part comprises information that the informants’ have gained and have included into their everyday lifestyle from any media content. It also included their aspirations and assumptions. The data was therefore organized according to the following categories: • •

Media use: duration, time, location Media content: channels, genre, languages, information

Construction of meanings: The analysis The group of 60 young people revealed that various media and communication gadgets such as the radio, mini compos, Discman, television, personal computers with Internet, and handphones are common features in their personal everyday lives. Every one of them owned a handphone, a radio or mini compo, shares the television with other family members and either share the personal computer with siblings or uses the personal computer at cyber cafés or colleges. The usage of these items is on a daily basis. As for television viewing, the informants mentioned that they have reception for all the available channels. Media use The informants either live at home with their parents and siblings or reside in the dormitories of the local universities. For those living at home, television viewing is in the living room in the company of family members. However, there are times when they watched a programme with their friends, as was the case in the recent EURO 2004. For those residing in the universities, daily viewing is at the colleges or libraries in the company of peers. During the weekends and term breaks, they would watch television with their family members. On an average week, these informants noted that they spend between three to four hours a day in front of the television. The number of hours increased slightly during the weekends from between four to six hours. About three hours at night only In between my work at the library maybe 1 hour and 1 hour or so at the dorm I’d say four hours and more if there is a sports event Sometimes five hours but not at one stretch … two hours and break 108

As mentioned earlier, informants watched television at home with other family members and at the colleges with their peers. Many remarked that it is more comfortable watching certain programmes with their peers. Mostly, I watch TV with my parents especially the 8.00 p.m. news, then drama with my mom and brothers. I prefer watching the dramas with my friends in college because of the love scenes, gets to be uncomfortable with my father and younger sisters. Sometimes, even in the afternoon on weekends, the Hindi or American programmes show acts that are so embarrassing, like women sitting on top of men and moving their hips … we know what that means even on Hallmark dramas like last Sunday at 9.00 p.m. Watching TV is a family time for us … half the time, we talk and do other things like eating, even dinner, while watching it. Ever since I was small, I watch TV with my mom, my dad sometimes and also with my brothers. Yes, I agree that the sex bits are most uncomfortable and, worst, my dad would change channels … more obvious actually. It is interesting to note that although violence is a concern of Western audiences, these local young adults seemed oblivious to the violence on screen. Perhaps, the editing fingers of the censorship board have left their “patent” on these segments and what is aired on screen is less violent. It is the sexual content that leaves much to be desired. Media content: Genres, channels, languages and information There are several genres that are popular with these young informants. These include the sitcoms; documentaries; reality of musical, sports or romance theme, action and investigative and the movies. Cartoons surprisingly are not just for kids anymore but rather a popular choice among these young people. [nest start] Amazing Race, Fear Factor, Ripley’s, Survivor and local ones too like the Explorace. I like the comedies as they make me happy after a tiring and sometimes boring day … like Phua Chu Kang and Senario. I only watch ASTRO so I watched Discovery, Travel and all the Chinese channels for the dramas, sitcom and movies cartoons like Samurai Jack, Disney ones and even cow and chicken. Me too … Chinese channels like Wah Lai Toi Phoenix, Shuang Xing II, TVB 8. Mostly the Chinese channels because I like watching shows in my language. TV 3 is my favourite … new shows of all types in English and Chinese TV 3, Vaanavil and all the HBO, Cinemax, Hallmark … the movies and dramas NTV 7 and TV 3 for the new shows in English and Chinese but for

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Chinese shows better for the ASTRO package. Sorry to say…but I don’t watch the Malay shows except for Phua Chu Kang. That’s not Malay but English in Malaysia, lah. Overall, these informants all have a preference for programmes in English that are imported from the US rather than those from Britain. Many remarked that other than the comedy Mr.Bean, many just do not get the humour in the British comedy. They attributed it to their limited command of the language and knowledge of the English culture. Many felt that they know more about the US, having gained the information from the television programmes, magazines and the newspapers. All informants from the three ethnic groups seemed to agree on this point. However, they differ along ethnic lines when asked to list their top programmes as well as their top channels. The Malay informants identified TV3 as their favourite channel with NTV 7 and the ASTRO’s SWR, RIA, PRIMA and the movie channels. The Indians listed NTV7, TV3, Vaanavil and ASTRO’s SWR, Discovery, AXN and the movie channels. The Chinese informants, on the other hand, listed ASTRO’s Wah Lai Toi (drama) and TVB 8 (entertainment) as their popular channels followed by NTV7 and ASTRO’s movie channels. It is noteworthy that all the informants seemed to agree that TV3 and NTV7 are their two most popular channels. However, the Chinese informants pointed out that their preference for NTV7 is not just for the English language programmes but more so for the Chinese language programmes. This view is unlike that of the Indians and Malays whose preference for TV3 and NTV7 has more to do with the English language programmes and several Malay ones such as 999 and Res Q. I like NTV7, the Western, but more the Chinese. I don’t watch any Malay drama or show … no reason. I watch Hindi movies a lot because of the dancing and the beautiful actresses and actors. I also watch English language drama and a little of Malay. Mostly, Chinese and then English. In the library, I have no choice because the Chinese drama is on so I just watch and it’s good. In addition, the Chinese informants expressed their satisfaction with the Chinese language programmes especially the drama, sitcom and musicals since they cater to their need for cultural information and to be entertained by their favourite international Chinese artistes. Many informants felt that they learn many new cultural stories and practices from the dramas. However, when asked whether they would prefer to reside in those countries or not, they responded with a firm “No”. Given a choice, they would reside in either Australia or United States. I know more about my culture now from the TV dramas and I feel that we Chinese here do not know culture. I agree, now I want to visit China and Taiwan to compare. The real customs are from China and I feel

proud to be Chinese because of those drama I like Western shows also but, any time, I prefer watching in my language. I am English-educated but I enjoy Chinese movies, songs. It’s about my culture. I know more about their current affair than what’s here … No, I prefer to live here anytime. Me too, only to visit.

Media consumption and implications on norms, values and beliefs: A discussion Malaysia, with her multi-ethnic population, prides herself in being able to sustain the delicate balance between the three majority ethnic groups that is the Malays, Chinese and Indians through the enactment of several policies, laws and acts that run throughout all levels of the society. There are also numerous campaigns and efforts at national and local levels to promote and instil a harmonious way of living amidst the diversity. Although, the tranquillity was disrupted momentarily in 1969 and on a smaller scale as recent as in 2000, the nation’s record as an exemplary multi-ethnic society is certainly much better than most other nations. Today, spearheaded by the Wawasan 2020, that is, the current policy aimed at creating an informed and knowledgeable society within the framework of local values and spirituality, all policies and institutions are therefore geared towards achieving this goal which will move Malaysia to the status of a developed nation by the year 2020 (Latiffah, 2001). Inasmuch as it may sound appalling to many that our everyday lifestyle and routines are patterned by the scheduling of television programmes, it may also be well received by numerous others who appreciate the order and structure that exist on account of that programming. However, as revealed by the data in Table 1, the scheduling of the local programmes and selected genres are in line with their counterparts in the US. Now, this data is unable to ascertain whether this is coincidental or a strategy of the global media players or not. Nevertheless, what can be inferred is the tendency towards homogenizing of daily episodes across various societies. That is, the ordering of our daily routines follows the American norms, for example, in the mornings between 7.00 a.m. and 9.00 a.m., Selamat Pagi Malaysia, which is in a similar format and genre as the Good Morning America Show, is shown. And the genres remained similar throughout the day and night. And although this may not be altogether bad for everybody, it may also not be altogether good for anybody because our local needs, priorities and necessities differ from those of the American. However, due to the reordering or replacing of our routines as an indirect result of the programming, we have had to alter or downplay our episodes of living so as to accommodate the “window to the world” in our homes. If we do not as most informants mentioned, “we feel left out and what if there is something really important … can’t risk not being part of it all …” This is a rather sad note that indicates how our young adults view themselves as being in this spiral of connectedness or worst, the quicksand. 109

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It is obvious that with the increasing number of channels, programmes, genres and languages, the young adults have the opportunity to select according to their personal preference and omit anything they deem as irrelevant. Prior to the 1990s, almost anybody with a television set will have to listen (whether they want or like to) to the local news, events and public policies that gets coverage either as news, documentary or drama items. In a sense, these implicit national integration agenda gets passed on. Today, it is a totally different scenario since most of the young adults do not tune in to RTM 1 or RTM 2, or view local productions except for those of the reality and entertainment genres. Their eyes, ears and subsequently their minds are tuned outwards if not to the US, then it is to China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea and the Latin American countries. To the earlier concern of media imperialism of Western cultures, a look at the local programming revealed that although programming is scheduled in line with their American counterparts, the many genre slots are increasingly being filled with either local, Asian or other non-Western programmes. These non-Western shows are popular, especially those in the Chinese languages (all genres). Dramas in Indian, Indonesian, Korean and Latin American languages are popular with local audiences. In a focus group study of television audiences (Latiffah, 2004), not understanding the language is a non-issue for although they comprehend the Malay language, they still opt not to view local Malay drama programmes. It is instead the themes, plots, storyline and quality of acting and production that appealed to audiences. They found in these Asian and Latin American dramas an alternative to Western, in particular American, soap dramas where the storyline carried values and concerns that are beyond their simple comprehension as well as the realities of their daily lives. It is in the recurring themes of these dramas that relate to their norms, values and concerns that became the appeal factor. The informants cited instances in particular dramas such as Winter Sonata (Korean) where the love relationship between a young couple was carried on, similar to how they would have done it. Similarly, Simplete Maria (Latin American) showed the struggles of a young woman from a poor background. The plot as well as the scenes depicted was readily absorbed by local audiences as they similar to life in Malaysia. Prior to the airing of such foreign dramas, local audiences had no choice but to view American soaps like Dynasty, Dallas or The Bold and Beautiful with storylines that are beyond their grasp at times. As such, the global media conglomerates have through their partnerships with various local networks throughout the world brought into Malaysia programmes from various other cultures, i.e. Asian and Latin American. These programmes are popular and rival their American counterparts since they provided local audiences with their recurring cultural themes. Thus, making this foreign content somewhat familiar and personal to local audiences. In addition, the aggressive global media industry have led to the growth of the local industry, that is, with

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the establishment of more private stations, international partnership of the satellite station as well as the increase in local production houses that today generate more local programmes. As a consequence, there are today more quality programmes in Malay, and although the genres may be patterned or adapted from the Western, as with, for example, game shows, reality shows, magazines, documentaries, the popularity of these programmes have made Malay once again the medium for broadcasting. Prior to 1985, Malay was more often than not heard only during prime time news especially by non-Malay viewers. Popular programmes as revealed by the ratings of Nielsen Media Research 2004 showed that the top 10 programmes (not including ASTRO) included local productions in Malay such as 999, ResQ, Explorace, Majalah 3, Akademi Fantasia, Malaysian Idol, Misteri Nusantara and the prime-time news on TV3. So, what does this generation of young people have to say about everyday living as Malaysians? To most of them, this is a taken-for-granted fact of life as one young Chinese lady remarked, “we are here … isn’t that enough?” Or as another young man quipped, “I thought we are supposed to be looking outward, you know global minded … so what’s the big deal about national identity.” “I know who I am …” That statement may be true but in the quest to be part of the global community, are we also unknowingly in the process of rupturing that which we have worked and sought to build for decades? In particular, the growing number of young Chinese adults who openly declare their admiration and interest for China, Taiwan and Hong Kong is astounding. Given a choice they want to live their lives just like their counterparts in those predominantly Chinese countries. They felt that their Chinese ways are unauthentic and look towards China and Taiwan as the purveyor of true Chinese culture. Hence, their preference to view programmes in the Chinese language is understandable within these cultural needs. There is an increasing need to learn more of their culture, in terms of customs, rituals, religious beliefs, political system, places, events and people of significance. In short, they are interested in everything Chinese; that which would give them a better sense of being Chinese. Perhaps, the quest to be one of the global players and be part of the developed nations have made us lose sight of what is important and still very much in need of attention in this young nation of ours: connectedness between ourselves and not just with the rest of the world. The unending distrust and suspicion of the Western media and their threat on our local cultural ways have caused us to turn a blind eye to the possible harm in the guise of familiar and recurring cultural allies. One that is just as capable of disrupting our local ways (intentional or not). Perhaps, it is about time that we re-look at some of our local ways that may have hindered or made one of our own feel unwelcome. Such patterns of identification with any foreign cultural community needs to be addressed within the local communities themselves so as not to alienate or isolate particular communities that may result in cultural enclaves within our local communities. It would be a setback for ethnic integration and disrupt the path towards the realization of Wawasan 2020.

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Conclusion The shift in media policy from one of protectionism against global media to one of direct involvement in the local media industry either through subsidies, quotas of local content, partnerships in the industry as well as providing a conducive environment for the growth of local production houses and television stations has been a workable move for Malaysia. Today, there are more production houses and television stations than ever before, thus offering more channels and programme genres to the audiences. Although, many in the local communities still regard Western-based media with suspicion and as a bad influence on the young, one must recognize the fact that the media is but one of the many factors affecting cultural change in any society. In light of the country’s vision to be a developed nation by 2020 and the opening of the Multimedia Super Corridor that encourages the growth of the ICT-related industry, a continued protectionist policy on broadcasting that curbed the growth of local industry and their foreign partnerships after 1985 would have detrimental effects on the society as a whole. The situation would have been an unbalanced one whereby there is “open skies” for the Internet and “close-in” with the media. Instead, the increased interactions with global media have led to a more vibrant growth of the local industry and the opportunity for local audiences to view programmes with similar cultural flavour (Chinese, Indian, Korean, Japanese, Indonesian, and Thai), and in a way, minimize the homogenizing tendencies of Western media globalization and move towards regionalization or Asianization.

References Alasuutari, P. (1995). Researching culture: Qualitative method and cultural studies. London: Sage. ——— (1999). Introduction: Three phases of reception studies. In P. Alasuutari (Ed.), Rethinking the media audience. London: Sage. Ali, S. S. (1991). Mass media of communication and cultural imperialism. Journal of Development Communication, 1, 76–82. Barker, C. (1999). Television, globalization and cultural identities. Maidenhead: Open University. Corner, J. (1999). Critical ideas in television. Oxford: Claredon.

Croteau, D., & Hoynes, W. (2003). Media society: Industries, images and audiences (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge. Giddens, A. (1999). Runaway world: How globalization is reshaping our world. London: Profile. Gunter, B., & McAleer, J. (1997). Children and television. London:Routledge. Jandt, F. (2003). An introduction to intercultural communication: Identities in a global community (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage. McLuhan, M. (1965). Understanding the media: The extensions of man. New York: New American. Meyrowitz, J. (1986). No sense of place: The impact of electronic media on social behaviour. London: Routledge. ——— (1994). Medium theory. In D. Crowley & D. Mitchell (Eds.), Communication theory today. Stanford: Stanford University. MiTV enters fray for lucrative pay-TV mart. (2004, June 5). The New Straits Times. Mullan, B. (1997). Consuming television. Oxford: Blackwell. Pawanteh, L. (2001). Cyberspace interactions: Implications of a growing lifestyle among adolescents in urban Malaysia. Paper presented at the AMIC 10th Annual Conference on Asia’s inforcomm future: Building core values, competence and capacity held on 27–29 June in Manila. Pawanteh, L., et al. (2003). Media consumer satisfaction research. Kuala Lumpur: MCMC ——— (2004). Media consumer satisfaction research. Kuala Lumpur. MCMC. Schiller, H. (1991). Not yet the post-imperialist era. Critical Studies in Mass Communication, 8, 13–28. Servaes, J., & Lie, R. (2000). Shapes of the future: Global communication in the 21st century. Paper presented at International Communication Conference held in 2000 in Taipei. Silverstone, R. (1994). Television and everyday life. London: Routledge. Spigel, L. (1992). Make room for TV. Chicago: University of Chicago. Toffler, A. (1980). The third wave. New York: William Morrow. Wilson, C., & Gutierrez, F. (1985). Minorities and media; Diversity and the end of mass communication. Newbury Park: Sage

This paper was presented at the 14th AMIC Annual Conference on Media and Society in Asia: Transformations and Transition held on 18–21 July 2005 in Beijing, China.

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Issues and Challenges for Media and Education in Asia This paper is a personal exploration of some of the issues facing media education in Asia. The author touches on themes such as the dichotomy between theory and practice; tensions between administration, production and academia; and the new contexts of globalization and technical developments.

USHA VYASULU REDDI

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ery soon after I sat down to prepare the groundwork and to do the research for this paper, I realized the complexity of the task. I could either write a simple paper outlining the media’s role in education or I could explore the theme further. I chose the latter course and what follows is my own exploration of the theme. What is the relationship between media and education? Is it the capacity building of future and present media professionals to meet the needs of the burgeoning industry? Is it the creation of awareness of media potential and limitations among the different communities—parents, users and other advocacy groups—so that they become more perceptive users of media and media content? Is it the effective use and integration of media in the educational and developmental processes, so as to accelerate the process of development? Or is it to contribute to the process of theory and research in a growing discipline? Other questions also came to mind. What do we mean by media and at what level of analysis should one address the questions. Are we referring to media we know and understand, i.e. print, radio, television, and films; or the information and communication technologies—computerand Internet-based? The level of analysis also proved to be not so simple. Should I address cognitive, expressive and behavioural processes at an individual level—or is it patterns of change in group behaviour that I should focus on. These questions went on and on in my mind, making my search for literature on the topic increasingly difficult and the resultant analysis even more confused. To simplify matters, I chose, therefore, to proceed to undertake an analysis of my own academic and professional experience in

Usha Vyasulu Reddi is Director of the Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia in New Delhi, India.

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the hope that I could address the interfaces between media in a more coherent manner. I hope you will forgive me for being highly personalistic or for rambling a bit as I reflect over three years of academic and professional work.

Being autobiographical Armed with a liberal arts degree in political science, I began an exploration of career opportunities. The degree led me nowhere and I realized that I had to add some “work or vocation-oriented” qualifications to the liberal arts degree. This led me to explore various courses and I finally found journalism and communication. Many others have also done the same and followed the same path. I have spent the last three decades in the field of communication, engaged as a teacher, practitioner and administrator in roughly equal proportions during this time. Research and academic publications has been the one cross-cutting feature across all three decades. In the first decade, my primary focus was on teaching future media professionals. My students would, as all students do, ask not just “how” but “why”. “How” was easy to explain; answers were there in earlier theories and in the craft of communication. “Why” was more difficult and I realized quickly that I had to unlearn what I had studied in my own coursework because it did not reflect the reality on the ground. To understand the “why”, I turned to a study of social psychology. There, I found the parent disciplines of communication and some of the questions of “why” were addressed. I also found a book, an old one today, which examined communication from the perspective of all the disciplines from anatomy to zoology. During those years, I too was victim of my own discipline, often critiquing the content of media without recognizing some very important lessons I was to learn later during the second decade of my career, where I added the practitioner’s

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perspective to the teaching and research. Given the task by my university of setting up one of India first six educational media centres, I thought my task would be easy. Educational communications, that is what educational technology, I believe, is all about. I understood media and like many others, thought a media centre was but a natural extension of a teaching department of communication and journalism. It was with this simple and naïve understanding of the field that I approached the establishment and administration of an educational media centre. From my perspective as a teacher of communication, I looked at this field as one which should be the monopoly of media experts, and I thought, back in 1984, that it would be a simple one-two-three task to set up and run such a centre. My illusion of simplicity was quickly shattered and I learned that the practice of communication was far removed from any theory which I may have learnt or taught. And as I learnt through trial and error, through excitement and anguish, through motivation and frustration, I found that this is a field in which no two days are alike, and one which calls on all the senses, all the alertness and creativity I could command from myself and my colleagues. The craft of communication is very different from the study of theory and from teaching. It has much more to do with skills, creative, writing and technical. And it has to do with a blending of those skills with the in-depth knowledge of both the medium and the technology used to develop content products—newspapers, magazines, radio, television, film, and, today, computer-based and Web-based content. Let me give you an example to illustrate my point. When we review a finished product—a film, a book or a multimedia product—our assessment is based on our understanding of what we see, that is, the manifest content and we make our judgement based on this manifest content. We rarely understand the internal process by which the product was developed, planned and produced, and the post-production elements. We debate on the final shot or text chosen but not on why it was chosen. A review of any content without knowing the process is incomplete. The lesson I learnt is that there is a dichotomy between teaching and practice, and I will explore this dichotomy a little later. The third decade of my work has been much more in the area of educational and media administration. Work here has been concerned largely with the global and macro-level policy and perspective planning; on consulting and advising on media choices; project design and implementation. To a much lesser extent have I been involved in micro-level production and research efforts but work has involved the identification and recruitment of institutions, individuals and facilities. Administration distances one from the field experience and from academics because, very often, the choices made are based on other factors, including experience. But, it does have a serious impact on the way initiatives and projects are managed and an administrator does have to keep an overview of the field in mind to be effective. Involved as I have been with the application of media for education, it has been essential that I continue to scan

the field of media, and to identify new developments in technologies, new opportunities, issues and challenges. What my own scan has told me will not vary substantially from what all of us know. The explosion of technologies with the growth of the World Wide Web, globalization with its demand for soft skills such as communication ability across cultures much more than the hard skills needed for engineering and the sciences has transformed the nature of the subject that we used to call communication. Communication has come to centrestage. Policy and decision makers and donor agencies, with the active support of vendors and providers of media services, have suddenly begun to see media to be the “one-size-fits-all” solution to problems of development. This has spawned a huge demand for human resources in the media, and established colleges and institutions and fly-by-night operations have, all of a sudden, found the teaching of media to be a popular and profitable business. I am particularly drawing your attention to the last decade where the changes in the global scenario have outstripped our ability to cope with them. Changes are also rendering our understanding of familiar concepts and themes meaningless unless we recognize and redefine them. That is why I will now turn my attention to some of the ways in which we have understood “media” and “education”.

The new contexts Liberalization, privatization and globalization constitute the current social, economic, technological and political space within which all media have to exist, survive and function. Revolutions in information and communication technologies have reduced national boundaries to meaningless lines drawn on maps. Football in Europe affects Kolkata residents; violence in Iraq touches the villagers in Philippines—the irate Filipino public to force their country to withdraw troops. The fear psychosis caused by global terrorism and reported in the media makes us wary of our shadow and distrustful of those whom we find different in religion, ethnicity, appearance or apparel. This is the liberalization process in full swing—a questioning and a shaking loose of cultural values that were long held dear and protected by individual societies as their cultural inheritance. Changes in attitudes and behaviour by young people are often inspired from media portrayal of the consumerist society. Any parent of a teenager will attest to the tremendous impact that media have had on norms and values. Today, many countries have loosened the government’s hold on broadcasting. While privately owned terrestrial channels have been permitted in some countries, satellite and cable TV channels are commonplace in almost all countries. At the same time, economic reforms in many countries have led to reduced state funding support and subsidy for the public media, forcing these organizations to raise their own revenues; while technology has made it possible to create new media institutions with comparatively small investments. The effect of this new economic reality has been very substantial. Clearly, competition and

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commercialization characterizes the media environment in almost all countries today and has a major effect on the content of the medium and on media education.

Redefining our terms What, then, do I mean by the terms media and education. A definition of media is simpler and one we are all familiar with. We continue to talk of media content—that is mass produced but individually received and reacted to—by media institutions (that include all forms of print, broadcast and non-broadcast media, films), to which we now add electronic and Internet-based media. There is, however, fuzziness in the definition of Web-based media—for instance, is a personal Web page or a Web blog to be part of a media definition? More problematic is a definition of education. The current global understanding of education, especially in the context of development is very different from the traditional understanding of education. In his book Development as Freedom, Amartya Sen (1999)1 argues that in individual freedom lies the capacity for political participation, economic development and social progress. The goal of all development is the enabling of the exercise of such a freedom—the freedom to make a choice and consequently the empowering of an individual so that he or she is able to make the choices that determine the quality of life. The freedom to make the choices depends upon having access to and benefiting from knowledge and skills. In turn, educational access and opportunity becomes a critical engine driving this process of empowerment. Education is also no longer about literacy—reading, writing and numeracy. It is much more and even the most literate can be victims of what may be called multiple illiteracies. Let me explain. Even though I may be highly educated, I suffer from computer illiteracy. It is therefore essential that we clearly define the links between the terms “media” and “education”. Media education can mean the capacity building of human resource in the discipline, whether in terms of theory or practice, as much through induction training that is given in the many departments of communication in the developing world and also through in-service training and skill upgrade of media professionals, training in the pedagogy and grammar, and processes of the media needs to be actively encouraged. Such capacity building is essential for the effective practice of the field and most of us are engaged in this endeavour. Media education can also mean an ongoing dialogue with various stakeholders in the process. Anna Turley, the Women and Media Programme Officer at the World Association of Christian Communications has argued that “Today, there are many number of media education activities aimed at a variety of constituencies—school children, university students, religious communities, women’s groups, teachers, government officials and policy makers. These efforts have led to a greater awareness at both the individual and community level of the promise and perils of modern media. The development and success of efforts at media monitoring, the establishment of ‘media-watch’ 114

groups and media councils can be attributed to the success of the worldwide media education movement.”2 Educational media refers to the systematic application of media processes and products for the purpose of education, whether for formal, non-formal or developmental purposes. The extensive use of media for education has resulted in the development of a field known today as educational technology or educational communications. Within Asia, there have been a number of publications that have explored the use of educational media and information and communication for education3. I would strongly endorse your reading of the publications to familiarize yourselves with developments in this field over the last two decades. Media for education/development also refers to the application (not always systematic) of communication processes for the purposes of broad-based education and development or as a specific ingredient in the process of education/development. Called by different names by as many authors, this area refers specifically to media applications where communication strategies or tools have been used by different agencies to support their efforts. This area of applications includes media campaigns such as polio or malaria eradication. It also includes the development of media products—audio, video, computer and Web-based— as part of the project outputs and processes, for example, in agriculture, health and literacy and women’s development programmes throughout the developing world.

The role of media professionals Let us accept, at the outset, that media and education are related phenomena and cross paths at a field called educational communication, and include the concepts of formal structured learning and informal unstructured learning through and with the support of many and varied communication processes and products. In the current global scenario, where the world has committed itself to the Millennium Development Goals and the Dakar Education For All targets, the critical role of communication can neither be ignored nor underestimated. All and every tool must be used to achieve the targets that governments and the international community have committed themselves to. In relation to education in particular and development in general, the role of communication practitioners, scholars and researchers becomes one of providing the insights and inputs required to address broad and specific educational and developmental goals. This is indeed a task that communication has been providing for most of its existence as a discipline. Yet, the urgency is greater today, given increasing demands and the apparent inability of systems to address or cope with such demands. Communication professionals need to come out of the confines of their own discipline and engage in four different types of roles and activities: advocacy, capacity building, applications and knowledge generation. Advocacy This refers not merely to the promotion of meaningful and appropriate application of communications systems and

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technologies but also to an ongoing dialogue with various stakeholders in the process. To date, much of communication debate and discussion has remained within the community engaged in the study of this discipline. It is time that an ongoing dialogue be actively promoted and enhanced with other communities of policy and decision makers in an interdisciplinary approach. Capacity building Both through induction training that is given in the many departments of communication in the developing world and also through in-service training and skill upgrade of media professionals, training in the pedagogy and grammar, and processes of the new technologies needs to be pursued actively and encouraged. Such capacity building is essential for the effective practice of development support communication. Applications Using communication strategies and tools, it is necessary that a variety of applications be continuously tested so as to develop a body of theory and pedagogy on the role of media on the processes of development. It is no longer relevant to quote the pioneering studies and work of Schramm, Lerner and others to justify today’s realities. If indeed we are talking about a “new” form of engagement with media, especially the new media, then it is only through the applications of the new technologies that we will understand them. And to do this, one has to go beyond theory to applications. Knowledge generation The documentation of experiences, both as process documentation and as research results from the various applications and the creation of a shared repository of knowledge resources is an area of activity that can be effectively organized and supported by regional agencies as they scan the field from a cross national and cross cultural perspectives. This will assist us in gaining both a macroas well as a micro-perspective on the relationship between media and education.

disciplines or have been aggressively promoted by vendors and suppliers of media content. As teachers who have chosen to remain within our own ivory towers, we are at fault and are responsible for the failure of communication scholars and practitioners to be at the centre of activity. Practitioners, on the other hand, are responsible for the many instances of experiments that have not worked because they have failed to draw existing expertise into their efforts. As a result, there have been many misconceptions about media capability, ignorance about issues such as reach and access; participatory processes of communication; formative, process and summative research; design faults and funding imbalances in communication-based initiatives. Such faults, once in a project, cannot be undone and there are many situations where a project is complete but has not succeeded in meeting its intended objectives. Preliminary findings of global research show that many e-learning initiatives are the latest in a long history of failures for precisely these reasons. The euphoria is not borne out by available evidence. At the end of this presentation, the questions in my mind still remain. I certainly am not trying to find fault but to explore the intricate relationship between media and education. The relationship remains extremely complex and delicate. It involves the coming together of several disciplines—technical and social—with the development of multi-disciplinary teams as a prerequisite for understanding the theoretical and skill elements of the field. Unfortunately, caught as we are in our daily pressures within our own work, we have few opportunities to sit back and review the theme in its entirety. And that is what makes conferences such as this extremely useful and relevant. For without the opportunity provided by this platform, I would probably wait until my retirement when I would have the time to scan and review the field. By then, it will be too late for me to apply what I have learnt from three decades of experience. This is why I would like to thank the organizers for this opportunity to review and reflect on a field of great importance.

Notes 1.

In lieu of a conclusion At the beginning of this presentation, I raised some questions about the relationship between media and education. I then explored these questions through the looking glass of my own experience in all three areas: academic, practice and administration. Elsewhere in this paper, I spoke of a dichotomy between the teachers and practitioners of communication. Many of us who have been teachers of communication and have seen this as a core discipline find ourselves on the fringes of the applications of communications. To a large extent, applications of media technologies for education have been usurped by people with strengths in different core

2.

3

Sen, Amartya (1999), Development as freedom, New York: Alfred A Knopf. Retrieved on 19 June 2005 from http://www.wacc.org.uk/ wacc/publications/media_action/archive/248_nov_2002/ pathways_beyond_critical_media_education Meta-survey on the use of technologies in education in Asia and the Pacific 2003–2004 (2004), edited by Glen M. Farrell, Bangkok: UNESCO, retrieved on 19 June 2005 from http://www.unescobkk.org/index.php?id=2069; Educational media in Asia (2005), edited by Usha V. Reddi and Sanjaya Mishra, retrieved on 19 June 2005 from http://www.col.org/PSedmediaasia/index.htm

This paper was presented at the 14th AMIC Annual Conference on Media and Society in Asia: Transformations and Transition held on 18–21 July 2005 in Beijing, China.

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Channel News Asia’s Position, Strategy and Vision in the Global Media Marketplace An Interview with Woon Tai Ho, CEO of Channel News Asia Mr Woon, the CEO of CNA, clarifies the meaning of CNA’s slogan of “Asian perspectives”. He asserts that differences in journalistic style derive from localizing universal journalistic values and that Asia is not a cultural but a geographical concept. Situated in and concerned with Asia, CNA is interested not only in events but also processes and impacts of events on life in Asia, much as American media concern themselves with aftermaths of hurricanes and earthquakes. In this interview, Mr Woon also highlights some strengths (e.g. single time zone, multilingualism) and challenges (programmes in the second half of the hour) faced by CNA.

SIM SOEK-FANG

C

hannel News Asia (CNA) consists of two channels, a Singapore channel CNA(S) and an international channel CNA(I), established respectively in 1999 and 2000. CNA(S) is broadcasted locally while CNA(I) can be watched in hotel rooms of many Asian cities, Australia and in selected countries in the Middle East. CNA also provides online news that is updated throughout the day in English and Mandarin. In October 2006, a Nielsen Media Research reported that CNA has bucked the general trend among news organizations of declining audience for the second year in a row, recording a near two per cent increase and reaching out to nearly 1.6 million viewers and establishing itself as the channel most watched by professionals, managers and the working population between 25 and 39 years old. CNA is wholly owned by MediaCorp News, the television news arm of MediaCorp Pte Ltd. CNA(S) broke even in 2004, thanks to resources inherited from Singapore Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) and Television Corporation of Singapore (TCS), who have been making news since 1965. CNA(I) is expected to break even in 2010. CNA is modeled after CNN in terms of professional values offering of objective and balanced information but CNA differentiates itself by offering Pan-Asian content, style and perspective. CNA identifies itself as a station by Asians for Asians, seeks to offer “insights from inside” and to provide Asian perspectives. This is achieved in part by stationing foreign correspondents in major Asian and Western cities to collect stories behind the headlines, ensuring the news coverage on CNA goes beyond headline news gathered from wire agencies.

Researchers have raised some questions about this “Asian perspectives” mission of CNA. For instance, Natarajan and Hao (2003) noted that top administrators of CNA are often unable to explain what is Asian about CNA news, commenting further that having Asian foreign correspondents is insufficient since the CNN and BBC do this too. The following interview took place on 27 June 2006 at Channel News Asia (CNA). In this interview, the question of “Asian perspective” constitutes the underlying theme, although often, the best and richest insights about what constitutes Asian perspectives comes from seemingly unrelated questions and especially requests to Mr Woon to contrast CNA with CNN and BBC. Given that the slogan of “Asian perspective” is an important, though not only, strategy for product differentiation in the global market, considerably attention is also placed on how CNA envisions its future in the global media marketplace. Finally, a quick note on how to read the interview. The questions and answers are organized chronologically, as it occurred during the interview. Secondly, given the selfreferential and inter-textual nature of a conversation, it is inevitable that the meaning of certain words and phrases is larger than the local sentence can convey. To ensure the accuracy of the meaning of the interview rather than of actual utterances, I have inserted referential notes by Mr Woon in curly brackets and notes from myself in square brackets. I would like to thank Mr Woon for looking through the following transcript and for giving me permission to publish it.

The Interview Sim Soek-Fang is Visiting Fellow, Asian Communication Research Centre, Nanyang Technological University and Assistant Professor at Macalester College in the United States. 116

Interviewer: What is the relationship between CNA and other news channels in Singapore? Mr Woon: You have to think of CNA as a part of MediaCorp News. MediaCorp News provides news to Channel 8

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(Mandarin), Channel 5 (English), Channel U (Chinese) and Tamil news to Central. All these channels are owned by MediaCorp and CNA are paid for this service and also part of the [bigger] whole machinery that does news. So CNA leverages on Chinese expertise developed over the years by Chinese news, leverages on English news that is developed over the years, (and) we have our Malay and Indian colleagues. Interviewer: What is Asia for CNA and for BBC and CNN? Mr Woon: When I think of CNA as a channel, I divide Asia into three parts—chopstick Asia (East Asia), Southeast Asia and South Asia (India). We have a lot of help from Chinese colleagues in chopstick cultures; we have a lot of help from Malay colleagues in Southeast Asia; and we have a lot of help from Indian colleagues in India. If you compare us to BBC and CNN, you are really comparing apple and oranges. CNN’s vision is world news and they divide the world into five. They have South America, America, Europe, Africa and Asia. So we are just one of the five [pieces]. We are focused on Asia. In some sense, our focus is a strength. For instance, when something big happens in Europe, we look at how it happened in Europe but we also look at how it affects Asia. Ninety per cent of our programming is about Asia or how international developments affect Asia. For instance, when the Pope died, it is very telling for us because we suddenly realized that there are so many Catholics in Asia, starting with Korea, of course the Philippines, and huge populations in China. Our correspondents were able to look at that and put out something that CNN would not be interested in. CNN was basically interested in Rome, whether it’s white smoke or dark smoke that’s coming out of the chimney. For us, it is a revelation about Koreans and Philippines ... So, we do look at it differently. Interviewer: Does CNA have a long-term ambition to compete with CNN? Mr Woon: It’s not our vision; it will be a partial thing, meaning that we want to develop into the first stop for news about Asia. If someone wants something to do with Asia, CNA will be the first stop because we will have the footage, we will have the day-to-day aspect of living and working in Asia. CNN will not have that. For instance, during SARS or tsunami, CNN and BBC, they divide the world into five. They decided that for that particular period, the world was one [piece] and that is Asia. They converged all their resources and so suddenly, everyone round the world was watching Asia. Of course, we were watching Asia as well. But, when SARS became more or less the same thing [prolonged] and other stories became more important, CNN and BBC left the SARS story. Because we are headquartered here and all our correspondents are here in different parts in Asia. When SARS stop, for instance, it was big news because people went back to work. When SARS was on, businesses could not operate because people didn’t know whether they could go to the office, what they should wear, should they wear

masks, whether they could travel. But, when SARS ceased to be a problem, it meant that businesses could resume and life would get back to usual. We also look into the cause of SARS and what different countries learnt from SARS. If you tell the editor of BBC that SARS is over in Asia, let’s do a story on this, he will say stop. So, it is very important, we have the daily record of what it is to be being, working and being part of this whole continent called Asia. Like BBC and CNN, we have only 24 hours a day. Our advantage is that we are a one-time-zone channel. We don’t have the problem of what to show to the other side of the world. In the morning, we can show what has been on at night, e.g. the World Cup. Singaporeans who are not die-hard fans can wake up in the morning and find out the score. Or find out that a company in the West has been sold to a Chinese company, for example. We are a one-time-zone channel and that gives us our advantage. If you say that is rivalry, yes, because they want to say they are covering the world/global, of course they are. But, their Asia coverage will not be as steeped and comprehensive as ours. More and more people are becoming global. There is no point for us to fight the CNNs and BBCs because they are global and we are not. We do provide news like AlJazeera. Al-Jazeera provides news from a Middle Eastern perspective, why do they want to fight with BBC if its starting point is that? So, our starting point is that we provide news from an Asian perspective. Interviewer: Do you think so? Compared to CNA, AlJazeera has a political burden because the people in the Middle East are being demonized. Perhaps not all regional media are content to stay regional? Mr Woon: To quote you, they are being demonized. The very fact that they are from the Middle East gives them a whole lot more cache than us. You talk to any newsperson or even layperson in the West or around the world, the word Al-Jazeera is known because they are from the Middle East. We are not known that much because, for the lack of a suitable word and again quoting you, we are not demonized. But, when you are at the other end of the spectrum, you have an advantage and you can use that advantage to gain eyeballs because you can say, “Fine, even if you think we are not much but please be open to another point of view out there. And by the way, we in the Middle East constitute so many per cent of the world’s population and our view cannot be wrong. There is no right or wrong, only different points of view.” So, I think they have a whole lot more advantage than we do. Interviewer: What makes a news media global or local? Mr Woon: What is genuinely global or accurately global? CNN and BBC are global because they do reach out. At the moment, the West does dominate the world in terms of them being quoted. There are a whole lot of Westerners living in Asia and different parts of the whole and these people figure a fair bit in the political and business world and they do come from the West. They would only believe in the BBC and CNN because they think that the BBC and CNN are privately own, and they are, to some extent. Because 117

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of that and because of colonial legacy in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and South America, the colonial legacy means that people speak the language and are receptive to their views, especially the BBC. But, they are also not so global because they only still use the English language. For instance, I don’t know if they have that extensive a bilingual or a local language channel. They use to have it in Japan, CNN in Japanese. CNN still does not have a Chinese channel. It has a Spanish channel and that is only because it makes economic sense. In Europe, I don’t know if they have a German channel. I say it because both of them are predominately English and being English, you are already, by the very definition, Western. The language is Western. Language is important. If you have English and you speak Mandarin, your world is already double the size because language makes your world bigger. It opens up your mind to another world where there are keys to understanding the world. For instance, if you are a Chinese speaking Chinese, when you are in a marketplace, bus or hotel where people are speaking Chinese, there is a subconscious understanding of the surrounding that if you don’t speak Chinese, you wouldn’t have. So for the monolinguals of the world, people who always speak English, they can tell you however much that they understand China, but they don’t. Even the BBC, no matter how well intentioned they are. My feeling is that if you don’t speak the language, you are a few layers removed from the core of truth. Our strength in Asia is that while we speak English, we are Asians. Our correspondents, when they do a piece into the camera in English, they also do a piece to camera in Mandarin for our Chinese channel here. Interviewer: So all the correspondents have to be bilingual? Mr Woon: Almost all of them are bilingual. We know that the BBC and CNN don’t have that prerequisite when they hire. There is also a huge difference between decision makers and people that are headquartered in the UK or Atlanta. Here we are not only bilingual but very, very multicultural. If you walk down the street, there are Indians, Chinese, Malays—a whole plethora of other races because one in five of us is an expatriate. It reflects more so in our newsroom. It is more so because our correspondents are from Korea, China, Taiwan and Bangkok. We have the most correspondents in one place compared to anyone else. Interviewer: You mean in Asia? Mr Woon: Yes, in Asia. And we also use freelancers but they report for us. So we already have a strength and that strength is that they do see the world differently. So you can have a very well intentioned and very seasoned reporter that only speaks English and they go into the middle of India, they cannot be by themselves. They will be antiestablishment, go for the underdog because that is their brand of journalism; there is no other way. We are headquartered in Singapore and working from Singapore environment, you learn also to walk very lightly on this very sensitive 118

issue of the relationship between countries, and you learn to walk very lightly on this whole thing called “guanxi” (meaning “relationship” or “networking”). So in the end, we are wired very differently. Take, for instance, the pollution problem from the river, from Heilongjiang. We know; we have been there. I think the instinct—and I say instinct and there is nothing wrong with instinct—the instinct from BBC perspective will be that the authorities have done wrong, this is one of their many vices, of chasing the development trophy, of neglecting the details, of not ensuring that safeguards are important. It goes on and on and the authorities are to be held responsible. And if they even have a whisker of a chance, they will be running with their cameras after the person who is in charge, ensuring that the person is putting his hands over his eye; the extreme, that will be one ideal. The other ideal will be to put the light on Hu Jintao, “what now, what do you say of this catastrophe?” Our instinct is probably sometimes the same because it is a horrible catastrophe. Our instinct is also to interview Hu Jintao, to go to Heilongjiang and go to Northern China, go to the part that is very close to Inner Mongolia, we ask, “How are you going to solve the problem?” or “You know, what are you going to do now?” Because we feel that solving problem or how they are going to solve the problem is paramount and we do not put authorities on the defence. And it’s our way because it’s our guanxi with them. We know that China is an emerging power, the people that grow out in Asia probably knows that reporting in Asia need a different tact. In the end, you still get the facts out but not probably in that sensational “Back to you, Rob” newsroom style … I think [that] style of doing journalism is a whole lot easier. If we do that, we know that next time, we won’t get any interviews, we won’t get into the inner sanctum of their privacy and therefore we won’t get what we get. You can call it the Buddhist approach; you can call it the Chinese approach; the Hindu approach or the Asian approach, whatever you want to call it. Interviewer: Why not call it the business approach? Mr Woon: For us, that is the way that we have build the relationship and the relationship is important for getting to the news. We will not sacrifice the relationship and of course, somebody in there will say “Aha! Isn’t that relationship business-related? You will not jeopardize your business relationship.” I can turn around and say, Rupert Murdoch will fire a journalist if he destroys certain business for him. Every business agency in the West will fire somebody as well. So, all in, I think it’s just different business practices. In some sense, you can say that, when the truth gets out, it is a triumphant day. So let’s say, BBC manages to uncover something or pushes through something that is covered up, it unravels and allow for better corporate governance. I use the example of Worldcom. The press caught it up and showed Ken Lay to be who he really is and the whole corporate slay of CEO and consultants to be what they are really up to. It’s probably good and it opens things. But there are other ways of opening up.

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Interviewer: How do you think scandals like WorldCom would have been covered if it happened in Asia? Mr Woon: It has happened many times in Asia. It has unravelled in Asia as well. For instance, recently, the Chinese took a government person to task because they have been squandering the government’s money. It would be reported in the press as well. The Taiwanese and Filipino press and probably many aspects of the Taiwanese press is not any different from the Western press, there are many elements of that all over Asia and it will always be. Interviewer: So, does CNA distinguish itself from that type of journalism? Mr Woon: No. It will try it’s best to unravel as well but it is probably not rests on that. For instance, it’s not looking for the next Watergate. Interviewer: What about coverage of human rights issues? Mr Woon: For the US media, there is a certain amount of mainstream fashion … When they bite on something, they don’t let go, especially when the public has taken a very popular romancing of it. For instance, they think that China’s biggest problem is Tibet because Richard Gere is there; the Dalai Lama has been there. Everyone knows that China’s biggest problem is Taiwan and its second biggest problem is probably its internal rich-and-poor divide and its pollution. Tibet ranks outside of even the 10 most important issues in China. China might do the cursory and occasional act of putting up the next Dalai Lama but Tibet is not an issue for China at all. What is important is the 2008 Olympics, how people are relocated and problems with the poor. Interviewer: Do you think CCTV-9 [the English language channel of Chinese Central Television] can give CNA a run for its money? Mr Woon: They already have. CCTV-9 is very lucky in the way that America is lucky. It comes from a huge country. What America and what BBC and CNN enjoy is the American diaspora or the English diaspora, meaning that there are millions of Americans around the world. When they are outside, there is always this need to know what is happening at home. So, when there is news about their home, this diaspora will follow it, especially pop news. America is a huge exporter of pop culture and the world is riveted by its pop culture, Hollywood. So, you always get America when you watch CNN and there are enough English, colonial speakers who will gravitate towards the BBC and nothing else. China enjoys this similar advantage; it has millions of people working outside China. Some of them speaks English, others want to learn English yet want to know what (is happening in China) … So you can’t fight that. CCTV fascinates. And CCTV-9, by the very definition that it is from China, will be watched by people who want to know about China. Our only advantage is that we are not China; we are Asia. A lot of people think that Asia is China or Asia is

India. It is a huge advantage because while people may try to decipher the first half hour, they may see it as Chinese news and therefore totally from a China perspective. It is the second half of the hour that is posing the biggest threat. They have Channel 1 to Channel 9. All the programmes and the second half of the hour is what we are weak in. We are strong in the first half of the hour; we provide Asian news. They provide Chinese news from a Chinese perspective in English. We provide Asian news in English. In the second half, that really is our biggest competitor. They say, “if you speak English and want a key into China, watch the second half because it’s all the cultural programmes and talk shows.” And it’s very, very good. And China has the money and it is their strongest, for the lack of a better word, publicity platform. Interviewer: How significant is the drop in audience from the first to second half hour? CNA seems to be doing interesting documentaries, how is that faring as content for the second half of the hour? Mr Woon: Firstly, there are more people watching news than people who watch current affairs so you will have a drop anyhow. People want to get news. At this point in time, our second half of the hour is still quite Singaporecentred and [it is not appealing] unless you have been to Singapore or you want to keep in touch with Singapore. A fair amount of people do—they consider Singapore as a good expatriate, Singapore is known; people like to work in Singapore because it is easy to get out of here. There is interest from people who had some links to Singapore. Beyond that, I find that if you are in a different country, what happens in your backyard is a whole lot more important; it resonates with you more. For instance, they say that India is going to change this law. If I am in India, I am more interested in seeing a long discussion of what’s happening there than watching Get real Singapore. But CNA is trying to do now is to be true to Asia’s underbelly and Asia’s backyard. Let me explain that, because that is again our strength and isn’t the strength of BBC and CNN. Get real is a programme about Singapore. It looks at social problems and cultural issues. It does not engage the authorities; that is its mission. It does not go [to] the authorities to get their side of the story. It looks at people, how people talk about their problems among themselves, how do they see it. It is real from that perspective. The presenter is Diana Ser and she goes around, mingles with the people. Topics like streaming in school and impacts on children, teenage suicides, extramarital affairs with maids, foreign talent of a different sort and that means prostitution, old men and women and their problems, sexual problems, incest, all these things. It talks about them in a very real way. It’s called Get real Singapore. We are now approaching India to do a Get Real India, it is coming out from the underbelly of India and it is only India. When that gets accepted, we will work on Get real Bangkok, Get real Manila, Get real Shanghai, Get real Beijing, Get real Seoul, Get real Taipei. The whole idea is really to let them talk about their problems from their perspective. And there are … people say “Oh, I like Get real Korea, I like Get real … whatever”. Also, there are programmes like Japan Hour, featuring 119

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the quirky and funniest part of Japan. We are now creating a programme called Dynamic Korea, where we want to know why Korea for its sheer size has made such an impact in this last few decades, even in football, pop culture [and] calligraphy. If that is successful, we will do another hour, the India Hour or something. By doing such things, we try to be very different in our programme in our second half of the hour and weekend programming and therefore, be, if we have the money, a truly dye-in-the-wool channel that really reflects Asia and not only have the occasionally half-hour bulletin on Asia on CNN or half-hour bulletin on BBC on Asia Tonight. It’s not just news because news always looks at the sensational, at something that has happened. But, it is also the continuous events that continue to happen. It’s not something that has happened that is news, but what is continuingly happened that you don’t know about. For instance, we are also coming up with a series of documentaries that shows Asia in a totally different light, not the mystical Asia that people see in the West—Asia as a land full of cheap products, a land where women are easy and men are short and stupid. All of us have different perceptions of each other. For people living in China, they will have very unreal perception about what is the dark continent of Africa. For instance, we are coming up with a series of documentaries to debunk [these perceptions of Asia.] There’s a documentary that we have been doing called Beautiful Tears. It looks at professional mourners, people who mourn for a living. That’s one example. The second story is a documentary called The Colonial Hangover. We feel, for instance, that when a hospital is set up in Philippines, Bangkok, Singapore and Singapore, there is a real case, they will look for staff. For some reasons, someone from Berkeley or Cambridge with a certificate is a more employable than Asians, people from their own stock from the same place or their own university because there is this prejudice. So you have this example of people who are running the department who is less qualified than people under them, just because they come from the West … Because it’s not alternative Chinese medicine, it’s a ward with a Western name. It percolates into a lot of things, it percolates to women in Asia who has this idea that a Eurasian look is better.

socially, economically, not politically because when they were colonizers, they were untouchable. Today, they are no longer untouchable and they infiltrate in a more real way, thereby influencing you to the core. This documentary hopes to talk about disadvantaging Asians in their own land in a very real way, so it is called The Colonial Hangover. There is a third story about the dilemma of being a modern Islamic woman. The tudung and the whole idea that if I am educated in English or if I am educated person, where I fit in. Like you say, there is a certainly demonizing of the Islamic world so where do the moderates come in?

Interviewer: The Pinkerton syndrome?

References

Mr Woon: Yes. So this whole idea is—the West has stopped colonizing Asia but has the legacy of being part of this colony gone? Or is it in fact, much more pervasive

Natarajan, K. & Hao, X. (2003). An Asian voice? A comparative study of Channel News Asia and CNN. Journal of Communication, 53(2), 300–314.

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Interviewer: How do you ensure that journalists operate with an Asian perspective? Do you train or hire them in special ways? Mr Woon: We have had problems with correspondents who came from CNN and worked for us. For instance, there was this Democracy Free Walk and the correspondent wanted to walk down with the protesters and I have a problem with that. On top of that, he only talked to protestors about how the protesters feel, he didn’t talk to Donald Tsang. Interviewer: That’s unusual given how much time they would give Bush. Mr Woon: When they are here, it’s a very underdog thing which is not a problem but it didn’t occur to him to talk to Donald Tsang. He merely looked at the hundreds and thousands on the street, and that’s where the action is. And therein lies the subtle difference in approach. Me: And what is this difference? Woon: [pauses]. No, I think if there is a huge demonstration in Washington DC, they would do the same thing but they would find a quote from Bush as well or at least say this is what Bush says versus this is what the street people said. In the case of this correspondent, he didn’t get the chance or he didn’t think he would get a chance to talk to Donald Tsang and so he only covered the candlelight and the vigil. We thought it was a huge problem because Hong Kong is part of China and it’s just a very Western approach. It’s what they would do.

Information for contributors General 1.

2.

3.

Media Asia publishes articles that deal with any aspect of media and communication in Asia. Contributions are accepted from the perspectives of both academics and media practitioners. An academic treatment should be around 6000 words in length whilst a perspective piece may be shorter. The minimum length is about 3000 words whilst the maximum is 8000. All submissions should include an abstract of around 150 words and a short paragraph (~20–50 words) of biographical data for each author. Please also indicate any contact details that you want to be published. If previously published materials are to be included, written permission from the publisher must be obtained and a copy of the letter of permission must be submitted to AMIC.

10. Essential notes should be inserted as footnotes OR endnotes, don’t mix the two. Lengthy notes should be avoided. 11. Citations should follow APA style. References should read thus: Wang (1977: 60-66), or (Wang & King, 1978). Use ‘et al.’ when citing work by more than two authors, e.g. Wang et al. (1980). The letters a, b, c etc. should be used to distinguish citations of different works by the same author in the same year, e.g. (Wang, 1985a, 1985b). All references cited should be listed alphabetically and presented in full after the notes, in the following style: Articles in journals

Martin, D. G., & Sengupta, S. (1998). Turning the ‘domino theory’ upside down in Asia: Advertising and Singapore’s cultural evolution. Asian Journal of Communication, 8 (2), 148-166.

File format

Articles in daily newspapers; No author

4.

A day of devotional frenzy. (1995, September 22). Hindustan Times, p. 1.

5.

6.

Articles should be submitted as softcopy by email attachment to [email protected]. MSWord and Rich Text Formats are acceptable; please enquire about other formats. Tables should be collected at the end of the document or in a separate file, with each presented on a separate page. They should all be numbered and given a short title. Indicate their position in the main text with the words “Table X about here” with a line or dashes above and below and separated from the adjacent text by a clear line return. Images and illustrations may be embedded in the document for initial submission. If your paper is selected for publication you must be prepared to supply the original hi-resolution files for any photographs and the native files for any illustrations. Figures should be numbered and labelled as for tables.

Formatting 7.

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The document should be formatted in single-line spacing for A4-sized paper with adequate margins. Twelve point type should be used. Pages must be numbered. A maximum of three levels of heading should be employed. The first page of the document should include the title of the article and the full names and mailing addresses of the authors (for mailing the journal to you). The second page should include the abstract, and the third should present the biographical data of the authors mentioned in point 2 above.

Style 9.

Spell out acronyms the first time they appear in the text followed by their abbreviated form in parentheses.

Articles in daily newspapers; Named author

Yeo, G. (1999, May 10). Rail network to cover all of S’pore. The Straits Times, p. 1. Books

Ratnam, J. P., & Richard, T. F. (1985). A sociology of violence. New York: John Wiley. Contributions to books

Lozare, J. B. (1989). The concept and values of Socioplay. In A. B. Cheong (Ed.), Social values in development (pp. 1-150). Chicago: Chicago University Press. Unpublished works

Anwar, S. E. (1968). Modernization and youth. PhD dissertation. Bangladesh: University of Dhaka. Internet Resources Electronic reference formats recommended by the American Psychological Association. (2000, October 12). Retrieved January 3, 2001, from http://www.apa. org/journals/webref.html 12. Do not use abbreviations, except author’s initials, in references; check information against the original article for accuracy, and ensure each reference is cited in the text by author’s surname and year of publication. Any reference not cited in the text will be deleted. Ensure that the spelling of the author’s name and year of publication in the text matches the information provided in the full reference.

Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC)

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AMIC is a non-profit mass communication organization serving Asia and the Pacific from its offices at the School of Communication Studies, NTU in Singapore. AMIC is engaged in communication research, documentation, training, consultancy services, institutional development, and publication. Membership is open to individuals and institutions involved and interested in the study and practice of mass communication.

Established in July 1992, the School of Communication and Information is the newest of 10 Schools in Nanyang Technological University. It offers a four-year programme leading to an Honours degree in Communication Studies. The School consists of five Divisions: Journalism & Publishing, Electronic & Broadcast Media, Public & Promotional Communication, Communication Research, and Information Studies. The school also offers post graduate programmes leading to master’s and doctoral degrees.

For further details, contact: AMIC, Jurong Point PO Box 360, Singapore 916412. Tel: (65) 67927570. Fax: (65) 67927129. http://www.amic.org.sg/ email: [email protected]

For further details, write to: School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University, 31 Nanyang Link, Singapoe 637718 Tel: (65) 67991339. Fax: (65) 67913082. http://www.ntu.edu.sg/sci/ email: [email protected]

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