"Governments in parts of Asia and media scholars have alluded to a form of journalism that should reflect ‘Asian cultural values’ rather than defer to media practices and media cultures of the West. These are commonly attributed to a cultural preference for consensus rather than confrontation, o
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rder and stability versus chaos and conflict, community good rather than individual rights, deference to authority, and respect for elders. This book premises that journalism is a product as well as a producer of the environment where it operates. Bridging the perceived journalistic cultural gap between Asia and the West, relies less on asserting one form of journalism is better than the other, but more on how journalism as understood, conceptualized, taught and practised in Asia and the West can be richer through a blending of the essence that makes each form peculiar to its environment. Theoretical explications are complemented by reflective commentaries from Asian journalists and interviews with media trainers." (Back cover)
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"The book’s narrative structure intentionally uses minimal theoretical academic abstractions. Instead, it adopts a pragmatic approach – journalistic to an extent – to speculate what works best for journalists in Asia given the political constraints and resource limitations that many are compel
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led to work under, and which journalists in richer developed countries would take for granted. As the title of the book implies, speculative discussions, commentaries and interviews with journalists aim to rediscover “development journalism” as a viable model for working out the recognisable benchmarks of best practice in the Asian context. Case studies and interviews were mainly conducted with English language newspapers – excluding the local language community radio, which is arguably the most influential medium in developing societies – for no other reason than language accessibility." (Prologue, page xv)
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"Long before the descriptor “citizen journalism” became a topic of research interest in academia, Indonesia’s Radio Elshinta (www.elshinta.com) in Jakarta had already opened its airwaves for listeners, most with no formal journalism training, to call in their stories. This paper contextualises
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Elshinta’s experience with Asia’s top online citizen media portal Ohmynews (english.ohmynews.com) in South Korea to identify their common and divergent characteristics. The case study is complemented by interviews with journalists from Elshinta and Ohmynews. The study concludes that despite relatively unreliable access to Internet facilities in Indonesia, the main catalysts for Elshinta’s engagement with its listeners are (a) the predominantly oral culture in Indonesia; (b) low literacy, thus their reliance on radio as the primary source of information and entertainment; and (d) the popularity of mobile phones for formal and informal communication. Indonesian television and newspapers, however, have been slow in catching up with people-initiated journalism because of (a) fear of losing its reputation and credibility, and thus its commercial base; and (b) conflict between unedited reports by untrained reporters with the professional practice standards and the Press Law. Other obstacles to people-initiated journalism in television and newspapers are the slow uptake of amateur handycam images by TV stations, poor Internet access, lack of writing skills and lack of interactivity in existing online news sites." (Abstract)
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