State-controlled Media Research Articles

The Chinese Media Reciprocity Act, public diplomacy and the US–China relationship

In 2011, the US Representative Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) introduced the Chinese Media Reciprocity Act (H.R. 2899). The legislation seeks to amend American immigration law to ensure that the United States does not issue more visas to journalists working for China's state-controlled media in the United States than China issues to journalists working for the US government-funded broadcasters in China. This article contends that while highlighting disparities in the number of visas issued to journalists working for state-owned media operated by the two countries makes for compelling political theater, actual passage of the legislation would be counterproductive. Analysis presented here suggests that although the Act's passage would have little effect on the news Americans get about China, it would destabilize the US–China bilateral relationship, threaten the United States’ international reputation as a supporter of global press freedoms and ultimately result in a net loss for American public diplomacy efforts worldwide. Alternatives for tackling visa disparities and other issues related to both public diplomacy and American concerns about press freedom in China are considered.

Journalists’ roles and ethics in turbulent times: contemporary controversies in Ukraine

The collapse of the Soviet Union started a new era of media transformations in Ukraine. The end of state-controlled media associated with censorship and informational isolation, first lessons of transition to market-driven media system, political turbulences and pressures, and the emergence of journalism professional values, new rhythms dictated by technologies – they all caused significant and rapid changes to journalism culture and media practice. This article is devoted to the issues of media freedom in contemporary post-Soviet Ukraine. Based on the interpretive and visual (collage elicitation) research, it suggests looking at the phenomenon of journalists’ freedom through the journalists’ considerations and as a part of individual ethics, and explores how journalists see their role within the media practices they experience. Ukrainian journalists cannot play the role of agents in democratic change. Justifying the experienced pressures by different, usually external, reasons, Ukrainian journalists tend to adjust ethical norms to existing practices. It causes further conflict between normative standards and their interpretation and implementation in practice that is, according to Voltmer and Dobreva (2009), typical for new democracies in which old structures and values coexist with new democratic norms. In this paper, first, a review of the path of journalism evolution in post-Soviet and contemporary Ukraine and the forces behind the pressures journalists experience. Further, I will refer to the particularities of normative and individual journalism ethics as they are discussed in theoretical works and, finally, present the results of qualitative study showing how journalists interpret their ethical choices and decisions, and, more importantly, perceive their professional roles when they discuss their experienced practices.

Multimedia Quake Poetry: Convergence Culture after the Sichuan Earthquake

AbstractThis article examines a wave of Chinese poetry sparked by the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. “Quake Poetry” was published online before being re-circulated through digital, print and live media. Multimedia adaptations of one poem are examined to investigate the relationship between the authors of Quake Poetry, the different media platforms, and the people and institutions involved in its proliferation. Media convergence enabled Quake Poetry to fulfil several functions in the aftermath of the earthquake. Most prominently, it served as an emotional outlet for those affected by the quake, while giving its netizen-producers a sense of creative agency as they engaged in participatory cultural production. Members of the contemporary poetry scene cited Quake Poetry as evidence of poetry's ongoing hold over the Chinese national consciousness. Finally, certain poems were appropriated and promoted by China's state-controlled media to propagate a politically expedient image of Chinese unity in the face of tragedy.

Internet Politics and State Media Control: Candidate Weblogs in Malaysia

This article underscores the importance of online research in illuminating the social processes underlying Internet effects on politics. It is an empirical study of the effect of blogs on the 2008 general election in Malaysia. Using the population of electoral candidates in the 2008 general election (N = 471), the author estimates a logistic model predicting the effects of having a blog on winning a Parliamentary seat. The results show that opposition candidates benefit significantly more from having a blog than do non-opposition candidates, as blogging provides opportunities denied to them by Malaysia's state-controlled media. Bloggers are more than seven times as likely to win an election compared to non-bloggers, controlling for incumbency, party membership, and race. In addition to being an alternative avenue of information distribution, blogs' potential for building interpersonal relationships and their role as mobilization tools in media-controlling states are discussed using qualitative examples.

An exploration of Iranian communication to multiple target audiences

State-controlled media use similar message techniques to target specific publics that counterparts in democratic societies use. We explore talking points (attributes) and themes (frames) through content analysis in state-produced propaganda directed at two different audiences. Domestic and internationally targeted propaganda ( N = 1491) from Iran regarding the issue of regional security was reviewed. Results indicated Iran emphasized different attributes and frames based on audiences. Themes about enemy correlated, and relationships between officials and themes were explored.

Agenda–setting versus Freedom of Speech

The most important issue of this paper is contained mostly, though vaguely, in the title. What is agenda-setting and how it is related with freedom of speech domain? In further part I will try to present those, theoretically distant problems. I will also try to present how political and business organizations can affect on daily agenda, so in fact how thy can create access to free speech. There are some situations in mass media world, when those practices can be considered as internal or external censorship. In this paper I specific cases, all selected from American political and media systems. I think that US system is full of contradictions, from law confl icts (state vs federal law, First Amendment), owners of mass media competition (corporations, FCC) and finally state controlled media on the contrary to free speech (censorship).

Internet Politics and State Media Control: Candidate Weblogs in Malaysia

This paper underscores the importance of online research in illuminating the social processes underlying Internet effects on politics. It is an empirical study of the effect of blogs on the 2008 general election in Malaysia that demonstrates the significant positive effect of having a blog on the likelihood of winning a Parliamentary seat, independent of controls. Theoretically, I expect that use of the Internet is a sound political strategy for disseminating information, given the Malaysian government’s censorship of traditional print and broadcast media. Using the population of electoral candidates in the 2008 general election (N=471), I estimate a logistic model predicting the effects of having a blog on winning a Parliamentary seat. The results show that opposition candidates benefit significantly more from having a blog than do non-opposition candidates, as blogging provides opportunities denied to them by Malaysia's state-controlled media. Bloggers are more than seven times as likely to win an election compared to non-bloggers, controlling for incumbency, party membership, and race. This analysis also makes an exploratory effort to identify social mechanisms that can explain the effect of blogs. In addition to being an alternative source of information, blogs' potential for building interpersonal relationships and their role as mobilization tools are discussed using qualitative examples

Maintaining Popular Support for the Chinese Communist Party: The Influence of Education and the State-Controlled Media

Literature on public opinion in China suggests that public support for the Chinese Communist party (CCP) is quite high. No matter how survey questions regarding regime support are phrased, the results are the same. The obvious question arises: how does an authoritarian regime, such as the PRC, garner the support of the vast majority of its citizens? I argue that the exposure-acceptance model best explains the high level of public support in China. This model suggests that educated citizens, who are politically aware, display high levels of political support within an authoritarian regime, but citizens at the highest levels of education are more resistant to political messages and tend to have lower levels of support. However, in a developing country such as China there are unequal educational opportunities for rural and urban citizens. This has a significant influence on how education affects regime support. Despite lower levels of support among the most educated citizens, the CCP still manages to maintain a high level of popular support through strict control over the media and education system.

A Response to “Transnational Corruption in Weapons Procurement in East Asia”: Using Network Analysis to Better Explore Patterns of Corruption

Cotruption a persistent problem all over the world (Rose-Ackerman 2004): As the pace of international economic integration has quickened, corruption has increasingly carried transnational dimensions. Major multinational firms use their extensive networks of connections for economic gains and frequently disregard the moral implications of their behaviors. Transnational corruption has become a global issue with significant negative impact on the world economy. Rose-Ackerman (2004) estimated that in 2003 US$1 trillion was paid in bribes out of a $30 trillion world economy. However, sociological understanding of transnational corruption and the role of multinational firms in corruption rather limited. We know little about interconnections between major multinational firms and theit corruptive practices in various countries, especially in Asian countries (Elliot 1997). It necessary to extend our knowledge base through both quantitative and qualitative studies, especially in-depth case studies that can reveal what major causal factors affect the cortuption process. The timely study by Professor Sung begins to fill the current gap in the sociological literature. Sung listed some major factors that contributed to the transnational corruption case in Taiwan. First, China's constant push to deprive Taiwan of breathing space in the international arena and Taiwan's urgent need for advanced weapons to protect itself created an opportunity for arms sales and corruption. Second, the prolonged authoritarian rule by the Nationalists in Taiwan and its secretive unmonitored weapon procurement system were important contributing factors. Third, the emergence of the opposition party (the Democratic Progress Party) and lessening media control contributed to Taiwan's gradual progress toward democracy and made the revelation of cotruption cases possible. Finally, the judicial system in Taiwan was not fully independent and affected the outcome of the criminal investigation. Sung also examined the causal factors in France. He concluded that transnational corruption may occur but can certainly be reduced and controlled, and that Taiwan is now better equipped to prevent the repetition of a similar scandal because of a more transparent weapons procurement process and the Bush administration's support of Taiwan's need for advanced weapons systems. The study has contributed to the literature on transnational corruption in the following ways. First, it a challenging task for researchers to conduct solid studies of cross-country corruption, because they have to overcome language and cultural barriers to obtain necessary information (Gupta, De Mello, and Sharan 2001). In addition, access to the appropriate data a major stumbling block for researchers. Secretive transactions between corrupt officials and businessmen are unlikely to be open for public view, unless the involved parties are exposed by the media or are under criminal investigation. Even if the case under investigation, cultural contexts may affect how much information open to the public. Due to the gradual relaxation of media control and constituents' desire for more political participation in Taiwan, Sung was able to obtain relevant information from various sources in Taiwan. However, some Chinese officials were also actively involved in the scandal, but we have no information about their involvement. China's state-controlled media and nontransparent legal system are unlikely to reveal any detailed corruption information that may negatively affect the party's image. The author has overcome many obstacles to get necessaty information. Second, the case study methodologically appropriate. It allows the researcher to examine the complicated case in great detail. The author screened a large amount of information, placing it in context to examine the complicated incident of transnational corruption and to assess the impact of various social, international, and political factors on transnational corruption. …

From mouthpiece to public service: donor support to radio broadcasters in new democracies

The radio can help to stimulate better governance. However, state-run broadcasting organisations in the South are usually ill-prepared for their public-service role in new democracies. They are often poorly funded compared to their new, commercial rivals and often still bound by the same ‘rules of the game’ that governed them prior to the democratic era. Broadcasters typically remain accountable to government and not to their listeners, and promote the interests and agendas of the political elite. This paper focuses on the experiences of DFID support to a radio programme in northern Nigeria that sought to improve communication and debate between the government and the electorate. It argues that there are legitimate circumstances for development partners to engage with state-controlled media outlets, not least in rural areas where commercial broadcasters lack the financial incentive to establish stations and provide programming that has relevance to the poor. The authors critically examine the lessons learned from DFID's support and identify measures that could assist similar initiatives in the future.

Voices of the New Arab Public: Iraq, al-Jazeera, and Middle East Politics Today

Voices of the New Arab Public: Iraq, al-Jazeera, and Middle East Politics Today. By Marc Lynch. New York: Columbia University Press, 2006. 293p. 18.50 paper.Marc Lynch provides a comprehensive overview of the historical rise of new Arab media and public spheres, in which Arabs attempt to break stereotypes and represent themselves, giving voice to views and ideas that are usually absent in both their state-controlled media and Western media. Building on Jürgen Habermas's (1992) The Structural Transformation of the Bourgeois Public Sphere, which traces the rise of the bourgeois public sphere in eighteenth-century Europe, Lynch examines whether Arab countries are developing liberal public spheres of information, debate, and consensus. Using Habermas, Lynch identifies progressive features of the new Arab public spheres, but also indicates limitations.

Bravely Stating the Obvious: Egyptian humor and the anti-American consensus

Over slightly more than the past decade a number of mass mediated Egyptian comedies have depicted and criticized the United States. American. journalists report on these productions with regularity, usually labeling them as straightforward manifestations of anti-Americanism, and often conflating anti-American, anti-Israeli, and anti-Semitic speech of all types. Many of these reports argue that anti-Americanism is unrelated to American and Israeli actions, and is actually caused by mass media, or at least inflamed by it to the point that whatever actual objections Egyptians may have to American policies are irrelevant. This argument is particularly salient in American neoconservative publications over the past decade. American neoconservatism has in turn become closely allied with Zionist—particularly Likudist—political positions. Neoconservative/Zionist organizations actively seek to shape American perceptions of undifferentiated anti-Americanism in Middle Eastern media through well-funded media monitoring operations such as the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). A few years ago Egyptian media portrayals of the United States were a topic of great interest for many Americans and Europeans, or at least I thought so because I was often asked to comment on it. More recently requests for information or analysis on the topic of anti-Americanism in Egyptian media seem to have subsided. There are a number of possible reasons for this. One of these is that attributions of anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism in Egyptian media have become so normative for Americans that the issue has simply receded into the background as a form of received wisdom. In other words, the neoconservative/Zionist narrative of state-controlled media instilling anti-Americanism is so dominant that nobody thinks to question it. Hence it no longer qualifies as a "story" for journalists or political scientists. Another possibility is that perhaps the Iraq war has simply displaced all other issues raised by American relations with countries of the Middle East. Perhaps the question of "what do Egyptians (and Arabs) make of the United States" no longer seems pressing due to the intensity of American engagement in Iraq.

Guiding Public Opinion through Social Agenda-Setting: China's media policy since the 1990s

Guidance of public opinion (yulun daoxiang) became the buzzword of the Chinese government's media policy from the 1990s. I illustrate this idea through borrowing the concept of agenda-setting from media studies. Partly, its introduction was a response to the crisis of the propaganda model in the mid-1980s. Recognizing its declining ability to control what people think, the party state shifted its focus from political ideology to social agenda. The guidance of public opinion is indirect, flexible and subtle in nature. It allows the state-controlled media to address people's daily concerns. Also, it realizes that responsiveness to public opinion is the key to guiding that opinion effectively. The media need to guide public opinion ‘correctly’, so as to promote political unity, social stability, and boost morale. An argument is advanced that the party state seeks to accomplish attention management through agenda-setting.

Blogging the new Arab public

Blog enthusiasts pinning great hopes upon the transformative impact of online personal Web logs have often seemed to run ahead of political reality.[1] A few years ago, in fact, Arab blogs could easily be written off as a fad, fueled by the novelty of some outspoken female Saudi bloggers and the prominence of some English-language Iraqi blogs in the American political blogosphere. There are still plenty of reasons to believe that blogs will never live up to their hype.[2] Blogging remains the activity of a tiny elite, as only a small minority of the already microscopic fraction of Arabs who regularly use the Internet actually write or read blogs. Blogs reach only a fraction of the audience of Al Jazeera or even of tedious state-dominated newspapers. Where bloggers have been politically influential, such as Egypt and Bahrain, repressive regimes have been able to crack down on them. From this perspective, it is highly unlikely that blogging will induce wide political change in the Middle East. While a healthy skepticism is wise, it would be wrong to conclude that blogging has no role in Arab politics. Arab political blogging is changing and becoming more politically relevant. Bloggers have had a discernible impact in a wide range of Arab countries, including their role in the Kefaya movement in Egypt (see Rania Al Malky in this issue), political protests in Bahrain (see Luke Schleusener), the turbulent post-Al Hariri period in Lebanon (see Sune Haugbolle), anti-corruption campaigns in Libya (see Claudia Gazzini) and the 2006 Kuwaiti elections. While political opportunities usually come first—around elections, national scandals, or contentious elite debates, for instance—blogs can be catalysts for previously unlikely political mobilization.[3] A raft of recent articles have begun to explore the new politics of Arab blogs, especially their role in facilitating new forms of political activism.[4] Mainstream Arab media have taken note as well, as in a breathless segment on Al Jazeera last year dubbed Blogs: the New Opposition Voice in Arab Politics in which veteran journalist Mohammed Hasanayn Haykal declared himself the greatest reader of blogs.[5] Do blogs represent a revolutionary new tool for Arab political mobilization? Can they break the filter of state-controlled media and give both non-Arabs and Arabs themselves direct access to real Arab voices? Can they provide the foundations for a new Arab public sphere?

Views of Europe among Serbian political and cultural elite in late 20th and early 21st century

On the basis of his own previous research the author examines views of Europe held by the Serbian political and cultural elite in the late 20th and early 21st century. Unable to meet the challenges of the historical moment, this elite has brought Serbia into open conflict with its closest neighbors and exposed its citizens to international sanctions. War-mongering propaganda of the major state-controlled media was developing feelings of xenophobia and frustration among citizens. The collusion between authoritarian government and war profiteers was systematically destroying the lives of Serbian citizens, bringing them to the brink of material impoverishment and spiritual misery. The process of dissolution of the common Yugoslav state is coming to its end in the first decade of this century. Just as it lacked wisdom political will or strength to prevent armed conflicts and crimes, the Serbian elite today is unable to condemn war crimes, to face disastrous consequences of its own policies, and to help Serbian citizens find their way to prosperity.

The Role of Trust in Channels of Strategic Communication for Building Civil Society

In these turbulent times, development communication is a growing and important area of both academic research and practice. This article explores the role of strategic communication channels in the development of civil society in Bosnia. This case study reports the results of a survey that asked Bosnians about their levels of trust in government officials, alternative media, and state-controlled media outlets. The findings suggest that shortly after the war Bosnians had medium levels of trust in their communication channels, and when it comes to obtaining important information, it appears that alternative media were considered more trustworthy than either the state media or local government officials. Finally, political affiliation and ethnicity affect trust in communication channels in complex ways.

The Role of Trust in Channels of Strategic Communication for Building Civil Society

In these turbulent times, development communication is a growing and important area of both academic research and practice. This article explores the role of strategic communication channels in the development of civil society in Bosnia. This case study reports the results of a survey that asked Bosnians about their levels of trust in government officials, alternative media, and state-controlled media outlets. The findings suggest that shortly after the war Bosnians had medium levels of trust in their communication channels, and when it comes to obtaining important information, it appears that alternative media were considered more trustworthy than either the state media or local government officials. Finally, political affiliation and ethnicity affect trust in communication channels in complex ways.

Media, Crisis, and SARS: An Introduction

At times of crisis, non-state-controlled media thrive, while state-controlled media are usually rewarded for creating an illusion of normalcy. Overall, media reporting plays a key role in the perce...

Media proliferation and democratic transition in Africa: The case of Madagascar

Summary State-controlled media have historically dominated press outlets across much of Africa. Yet recently, economic and political liberalization, together with new communication technologies, have triggered rapid growth and increasing private sector involvement, changes which hold potentially important implications for development and governance. This paper explores the origins and impact of recent private sector media growth in Madagascar, where over 90 private radio stations and 15 private television stations have begun operation over the past decade. The resulting profusion of private media has played a key role in improving governance, most recently in the hotly contested presidential election of 2001.

A textual enactment of community: On discourse analysis, the news media and a social housing project in Tunisia in the 1990s

Regimes like the post-colonial Tunisian government have often been qualified as ‘neo-patriarchal’ with little analysis of actual state practices. Focusing on a specific aspect of government policy in the 1990s in Tunisia, the present article examines a housing programme which removed over a thousand families from unsafe housing in old central neighbourhoods of Tunis to new estates on the western edge of the city. The programme acquired a high profile in the local, state-controlled media, where it was referred to as the Projet Oukala, mashrū' al-ūkayil, an oukala being the shorthand term used by Tunis urban planners for unsafe, overcrowded housing in the old city or médina. Although at the level of the local state, the Oukala Project represents a significant departure in housing provision, the present article is concerned with the analysis of a set of representations of the project, assembled by the present researcher, rather than with the evaluation of policy content. Through a piece of policy aiming at the satisfaction of basic needs, the Tunisian nation-state establishes a persuasive narrative of successful government action, thereby seemingly strengthening its moral hegemony. The article explores the discursive functioning of a myth, that of the all-seeing, generous leader and the grateful people. It is a case study of a small corpus of media writing in Arabic and French about a high-profile low-cost housing project. In methodological terms, the article is thus concerned with the usefulness of critical discourse analysis (CDA) as a tool to approach the creation of subject-positions in media writing. The press reports figure a unified discursive community. But beyond the media texts, further research suggests a more nuanced approach to urban policy.