"Internet freedom has declined for the sixth consecutive year, with more governments than ever before targeting social media and communication apps as a means of halting the rapid dissemination of information, particularly during antigovernment protests. Public-facing social media platforms like Fac
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ebook and Twitter have been subject to growing censorship for several years, but in a new trend, governments increasingly target messaging and voice communication apps such as WhatsApp and Telegram. These services are able to spread information and connect users quickly and securely, making it more difficult for authorities to control the information landscape or conduct surveillance. The increased controls show the importance of social media and online communication for advancing political freedom and social justice. It is no coincidence that the tools at the center of the current crackdown have been widely used to hold governments accountable and facilitate uncensored conversations." (Page 1)
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"International trade in creative industries showed sustained growth in the last decade. The global market for traded creative goods and services totaled a record $547billion in 2012, as compared to $302 billion in 2003. Exports from developing countries, led by Asian countries, were growing faster t
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han exports from developed countries. Among developed country regions, Europe is the largest exporter of creative goods. In 2012, the top 5 creative goods exporters included Germany, France, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Belgium. Exports of creative goods from developed economies grew during the period 2003 to 2012, with export earnings rising from $134 billion to $197 billion. Among developing countries, China is the largest exporter of creative goods. In 2012, the top 5 exporters were China, Hong Kong, China, India, Turkey and South Korea. Exports of creative goods from developing economies grew during the period 2003 to 2012, with export earnings rising from $87 billion to $272 billion. Developing countries are playing an increasingly important role in international trade in creative industries." (Executive summary)
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"While a decade ago much of the discussion of new media in Asia was couched in Occidental notions of Asia as a "default setting" for technology in the future, today we are seeing a much more complex picture of contesting new media practices and production. As "new media" becomes increasingly an ever
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yday reality for young and old across Asia through smartphones and associated devices, boundaries between art, new media, and the everyday are transformed. This Handbook addresses the historical, social, cultural, political, philosophical, artistic and economic dimensions of the region's new media. Through an interdisciplinary revision of both "new media" and "Asia" the contributors provide new insights into the complex and contesting terrains of both notions." (Publisher description)
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"Respondents believed that their primary role was to monitor and scrutinize political leaders, followed closely by reporting facts as they are. Yet only half found either of these to be ‘extremely’ or ‘very important’. They were also keen that everyday people should be allowed to express the
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ir views through the national media, and that the media should broaden the readers’ horizons. To promote tolerance and cultural diversity was an important journalistic role as well, concomitant with Singapore’s conscious and consistent effort to foster harmony among the diverse races and religions that constitute the population. At the bottom end of the table, respondents did not see that providing advice for daily life, entertainment and relaxation was a significant journalistic role. These are, perhaps, values more associated with lifestyle magazines, and this may reflect a division of labor in the minds of the newsworkers." (Journalistic roles, page 1)
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"The Handbook of International Crisis Communication Research articulates a broader understanding of crisis communication, discussing the theoretical, methodological, and practical implications of domestic and transnational crises, featuring the work of global scholars from a range of sub-disciplines
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and related fields. It provides the first integrative international perspective on crisis communication; articulates a broader understanding of crisis communication, which includes work from scholars in journalism, public relations, audience research, psychology, political science, sociology, economics, anthropology, and international communication; explores the topic from cross-national and cross-cultural crisis communication approaches; includes research and scholars from countries around the world and representing all regions; discusses a broad range of crisis types, such as war, terrorism, natural disasters, pandemia, and organizational crises." (Publisher description)
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"This volume captures the domestication of mobile communication technologies by families in Asia, and its implications for family interactions and relationships. It showcases research on families across a spectrum of socio-economic profiles, from both rural and urban areas, offering insights on chil
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dren, adolescents, adults, and the elderly. While mobile communication diffuses through Asia at a blistering pace, families in the region are also experiencing significant changes in light of unprecedented economic growth, globalisation, urbanisation and demographic shifts. Asia is therefore at the crossroads of technological transformation and social change. This book analyses the interactions of these two contemporaneous trends from the perspective of the family, covering a range of family types including nuclear, multi-generational, transnational, and multi-local, spanning the continuum from the media-rich to the media have-less." (Publisher description)
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"Internet freedom around the world has declined for the fifth consecutive year, with more governments censoring information of public interest and placing greater demands on the private sector to take down offending content. State authorities have also jailed more users for their online writings, wh
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ile criminal and terrorist groups have made public examples of those who dared to expose their activities online. This was especially evident in the Middle East, where the public flogging of liberal bloggers, life sentences for online critics, and beheadings of internet-based journalists provided a powerful deterrent to the sort of digital organizing that contributed to the Arab Spring. In a new trend, many governments have sought to shift the burden of censorship to private companies and individuals by pressing them to remove content, often resorting to direct blocking only when those measures fail. Local companies are especially vulnerable to the whims of law enforcement agencies and a recent proliferation of repressive laws. But large, international companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter have faced similar demands due to their significant popularity and reach." (Page 1)
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"The rapid development of the information society has accentuated the importance of digital divides, which refer to economic and social inequalities among populations due to differences in access to, use of, or knowledge of information and communication technologies (ICT). This book discusses the cu
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rrent state of digital divides, ranging from global." (Publisher description)
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"This report gives forecasts for online video spend and consumption, where available, for 40 markets in which online video is at varying stages of development. From markets such as Singapore, where 85% of the population claims to access online video (according to GlobalWebIndex, 2014), to countries
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where online video is still in its early stages of growth, what we see is that online video consumption has risen sharply over the past few years and has begun to attract budget-switching from TV advertising. TV remains, of course, the world’s most popular advertising channel, and will be so for some years yet. Nevertheless, networks and studios are having to adapt to the new importance of digital." (Introduction, page 1)
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"Video games have become a global industry, and their history spans dozens of national industries where foreign imports compete with domestic productions, legitimate industry contends with piracy, and national identity faces the global marketplace. This volume describes video game history and cultur
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e across every continent, with essays covering areas as disparate and far-flung as Argentina and Thailand, Hungary and Indonesia, Iran and Ireland. Most of the essays are written by natives of the countries they discuss, many of them game designers and founders of game companies, offering distinctively firsthand perspectives. Some of these national histories appear for the first time in English, and some for the first time in any language." (Back cover)
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"This study contributes to the limited literature on race and crime in a multicultural Asian context. Based on a survey in Singapore, where multiracialism is a fundamental political pillar and yet discourse about race is mostly shunned, the findings suggest a relationship between media consumption a
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nd racial perceptions. Respondents who consume more race-specific media have less negative racial perceptions of their own race, and more negative racial perceptions about other races. Respondents who consume more crime-related media content on TV, newspapers, and social networking sites tend to be more racially prejudiced against other races. Those who pay more attention to crime-related media content hold more negative racial perceptions of other races, and have harsher criminal culpability judgments of other races while holding a diminished culpability judgment of one’s own race." (Abstract)
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"As only Japanese comics output has received close and by now voluminous scrutiny, Asian Comics tells the story of the major comics creators outside of Japan. Lent covers the nations and regions of Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, the Philipp
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ines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. Organized by regions of East, Southeast, and South Asia, Asian Comics provides 178 black and white illustrations and detailed information on comics of sixteen countries and regions – their histories, key creators, characters, contemporary status, problems, trends, and issues. One chapter harkens back to predecessors of comics in Asia, describing scrolls, paintings, books, and puppetry with humorous tinges, primarily in China, India, Indonesia, and Japan." (Publisher website)
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"Leading media scholars from nine Asian nations focus on three main questions: How frequently do Asians use social media to access and discuss political information? Does the use of social media increase political participation? What political, social and cultural factors influence the impact of soc
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ial media on political engagement in each nation? To answer these questions, contributors first analyze the current state of social media in their nations and then present the findings of a cross-national survey on social media use that was conducted with over 3,500 Asian respondents. By employing a comparative approach, they analyze how social media function and interact with the cultural and political systems in each country - and how they might affect political engagement among individual citizens." (Back cover)
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"Internet freedom around the world has declined for the fourth consecutive year, with a growing number of countries introducing online censorship and monitoring practices that are simultaneously more aggressive and more sophisticated in their targeting of individual users. In a departure from the pa
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st, when most governments preferred a behind-the-scenes approach to internet control, countries are rapidly adopting new laws that legitimize existing repression and effectively criminalize online dissent." (Page 1)
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"Internews’ research reveals a confluence of conditions in ASEAN that make the present time a critical moment for Freedom of Expression / Right to Information (FoE/RTI) interventions in the region. As donor support dwindles, and threats to FoE increase, there is a danger of a severe roll-back of t
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he rights and freedoms in the region that underpin thriving democracies. The backdrop to this scenario – ASEAN integration along with various other regional synergies – has created an opening for dialogue on key social issues such as FoE/RTI that connect countries within the region." (Conclusion)
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"Losing Control: freedom of the press in Asia takes us right up to the end of this tumultuous century. It deals with the Chinese media cranking up its latest propaganda campaign, this time against the Falun Gong. It discusses how the Indonesian media lost its way in reporting the tragedy in East Tim
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or. And it comments on how the Cambodian media-or at least parts of it-surprisingly reported the allegations that the Prime Minister's wife had her husband's movie star girlfriend assassinated. The book adopts a country-by-country approach dealing with all the countries in Northeast and Southeast Asia. It does not attempt to sweep across to the sub-continent. It would not be possible to do justice to any discussion of freedom of the press in that region by sandwiching it in between the pages of a book about East Asia. The methodology is based on an underlying assumption: that journalists are best placed to provide the most up-to-date analysis of their own industry. Where possible, local journalists have contributed the country chapters. In some cases a more useful outcome could be achieved by employing foreign correspondents and commentators. Authors have written their chapters using journalistic research tools, such as first hand interviews, as well as more conventional academic methods." (Page 14)
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