commbox East Asia

A New Responsible Power China? China's Public Diplomacy for Global Public Goods

Ines Sieckmann, Odila Triebel (eds.)

Stuttgart: Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (ifa) (2018), 85 pp.

"Is China's engagement in the global governance of global public goods (GPGs) credible in terms of China's projected image as a new responsible power? Only through global cooperation can GPGs such as climate and security be effectively provided. International decision-making structures are currently ... more

Indigenous Knowledge for Climate Change Assessment and Adaptation

Douglas Nakashima, Igor Krupnik, Jennifer T. Rubis (eds.)

Cambridge; Paris: Cambridge University Press;UNESCO (2018), xx, 298 pp.

"This unique transdisciplinary publication is the result of collaboration between UNESCO’s Local and Indigenous Knowledge Systems (LINKS) programme, the United Nations University’s Traditional Knowledge Initiative, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and other organizations. Ch ... more

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Western Missionaries and Origins of the Modern Chinese Press

Yuntao Zhang

In: Routledge Handbook of Chinese Media

Gary D. Rawnsley; Ming-Yeh T. Rawnsley (eds.)

London; New York: Routledge (2018), pp. 67-78

"For over a thousand years, Chinese journalism was dominated by the official gazette called DiBao (Peking Gazette). This organ of the imperial state comprised edicts, news of government appointments and court affairs, and served a small privileged readership. It was not until 1815 that what could be ... more

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Buchmarkt China (2018)

Peking: Buchinformationszentrum (BIZ) Peking (2018), 20 pp.

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Digital News Report 2018

Nic Newman, Richard Fletcher, Antonis Kalogeropoulos, David A. L. Levy, Rasmus Kleis Nielsen (eds.)

Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (2018), 143 pp.

"The use of social media for news has started to fall in a number of key markets after years of continuous growth. Usage is down six percentage points in the United States, and is also down in the UK and France. Almost all of this is due to a specific decline in the discovery, posting, and sharing o ... more

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Chinese Media Engagement in South Africa

Dani Madrid-Morales, Herman Wasserman

Journalism Studies, volume 19, issue 8 (2018), pp. 1218-1235

"China’s footprint in Africa’s media sector over the last decade has reached dimensions that make it impossible to go unnoticed. In South Africa, one of the countries where this imprint is most diversified, Chinese media have been engaged in a varied range of activities, including content produc ... more

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Japan's International Democracy Assistance as Soft Power: Neoclassical Realist Analysis

Maiko Ichihara

London; New York: Routledge (2018), xiii, 149 pp.

"Most of Japan's civil society assistance targets media. JICA's policy guideline on peace-building assistance regards media assistance as one of the target categories of Japan's democracy assistance (Japanese International Cooperation Agency JICA, 2009). The International Peace Cooperation Council ( ... Kokusai Heiwa Kyoryoku Kondankai), which was established within the Cabinet Office. recommended boosting Japan's media assistance in its report published in December 2002 (Council on International Peace Cooperation 2002, 42). Japan has assisted media through grants, technical assistance, expert dispatch, expert training, and the provision of materials related to broadcasting (JICA 20046, 50). Japan has provided media assistance mainly to TV and radio stations. According to Masakazu Sakashita (2006, 122), 127 TV media assistance projects and 56 radio assistance projects had been conducted by September 2005, while Japan has never provided media assistance to print media such as newspapers and magazines. This is because Japan regards telecommunication and broadcasting technology as its comparative advantage and thus focuses on those projects that require it. Indeed, the chief characteristic of Japan's media assistance is that it focuses on facilities such as information and telecommunication networks instead of media content. Project contents include the improvement of production capacity and broadcasting skills, repair of ground communication systems, and provision of studio equipment. Seminars are provided to teach how to use and maintain the equipment provided through such projects as well (JICA 20046, 50). Expert training has been conducted for countries such as Indonesia and Sri Lanka in addition to broadcasting infrastructure assistance, which provided training for program production. However, this training tends to be a mere supplement to broadcasting in frastructure assistance projects (Sakashita 2006, 122). Within JICA, while it is the former Public Policy Department and the current Industrial Development and Public Policy Division that is in charge of democrac y assistance, the Information and Telecommunication Technology Division is in charge of media assistance. This shows that Japan's media assistance is conducted mainly as broadcasting technical assistance rather than democracy assistance, as Sakashita (2006, 122) notes. Japan's media assistance to Afghanistan in 2002 helped broadcast the country's Loya Jirga, or national assembly, on TV via satellite. Its aim was to show the discussion at the national assembly and the process of choosing the interim president of the country to increase the legitimacy of the new administration (JICA 2004a). The political character of this assistance project was distinct compared with Japan's media assistance until then. However, the project assisted only a state hroadcasting station and did not intend to Increase the capacity of primate media's watchdog functions. In this sense, the actual content of this assistance project was state, not civil society assistance. In addition, the contents of this assistance were to upgrade broadcasting in frastructure and provide equipment and training on how to use the equipment. No assistance was provided in terms of the content of the broadcasting. No expert on free and fair broadcasting was included in its preliminary study group, and all the experts were broadcasting technical specialists, which shows the weakness of Japan's interest in supporting the role of media in democracy (JICA 2002). The project document did not set contribution to democracy as an evaluation criterion of the project, either (Sakashita 2006, 124)." (Pages 51-53) more

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The exposure to traumatic events and symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder among Korean journalists

Mina Lee, Eun Hye Ha, Jung Kun Pae

Journalism, volume 19, issue 9-10 (2017), pp. 1308-1325

"This study investigated posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms on Korean journalists and the contributing variables. Predicting variables included the exposure to traumatic events, coping strategy, social support, optimism, negative beliefs, and the journalists’ occupational perspectives. ... more

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Monitor, harass and discredit with Chinese characteristics: Foreign correspondents’ working condition in China

Yuan Zeng

Media Asia, volume 44, issue 1 (2017), pp. 48-54

"Yuan Zeng analyses the mixed uncodified strategies that Chinese authorities use to obstruct the work of foreign journalists." (Abstract)

Compromising Connectivity: Information Dynamics Between the State and Society in a Digitizing North Korea

Nat Kretchun, Catherine Lee, Seamus Tuohy

Washington, DC: Intermedia (2017), 97 pp.

"The information and media environment in North Korea continues to evolve quickly. This report demonstrates that the depth and diversity of information and media access channels have grown markedly since the release of A Quiet Opening in 2012. More North Koreans have greater access to a larger varie ... more

Digital Environments: Ethnographic Perspectives Across Global Online and Offline Spaces

Urte Undine Frömming, Steffen Köhn, Samantha Fox, Mike Terry (eds.)

Bielefeld: transcript (2017), 267 pp.

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Africa's Media Image in the 21st Century: From the "Heart of Darkness" to "Africa Rising"
Top Insights

Mel Bunce, Suzanne Franks, Chris Paterson (eds.)

London; New York: Routledge (2017), xvii, 239 pp.

"Africa’s Media Image in the 21st Century is the first book in over twenty years to examine the international media’s coverage of sub-Saharan Africa. It brings together leading researchers and prominent journalists to explore representation of the continent, and the production of that image, esp ... more

Cyber China: Upgrading Propaganda, Public Opinion Work and Social Management for the Twenty-First Century

Rogier Creemers

Journal of Contemporary China, volume 26, issue 103 (2017), pp. 85-100

"The first two years of the Xi Jinping administration saw a thorough reconfiguration of Internet governance. This reconfiguration created a centralized and integrated institutional framework for information technologies, in support of an ambitious agenda to place digital technologies at the heart of ... more

Defamation and Insult Laws in the OSCE Region: A Comparative Study

Scott Griffen

Barbara Trionfi (ed.)

Vienna: OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media (2017), 267 pp.

"This study examines the existence of criminal defamation and insult laws in the territory of the 57 participating States of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). In doing so, it offers a broad, comparative overview of the compliance of OSCE participating States’ legislat ... more

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China's Media in the Emerging World Order
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Hugo de Burgh

Buckingham: University of Buckingham Press (2017), 259 pp.

"China is challenging the mighty behemoths, Google and Facebook, and creating alternative New Media. 750 million people are active on its Social Mediascape and there are a billion mobile phones deploying the innovative apps with which the Chinese conduct their lives. Though late starters, already fo ... more

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Media and Society in Networked China

Jack Linchuan Qiu (ed.)

Leiden; Boston: Brill (2017), xiii, 226 pp.

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Holocaust memory in a globalizing world

Jacob S. Eder, Philipp Gassert, Alan E. Steinweis (eds.)

Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag (2017), 278 pp.

"Remembering the Holocaust is a central part of historical awareness and political culture in reunified Germany, Israel, and the United States. But can the same be said for other parts of the world? How have societies that were not affected by occupation and extermination measures under the Nazi reg ... more

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Media Development, DAC, and China: Different Approaches, Same Public Diplomacy

Valerie A. Cooper

Journal of Media Business Studies, volume 14, issue 1 (2017), pp. 25-37

"More than US $441 million was spent on media development worldwide in 2012, with African countries receiving 28% of that amount. This funding came from a variety of sources, including both established Development Assistance Committee (DAC) countries and emerging donors such as China. These countrie ... more

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Freedom on the Net 2017: Manipulating Social Media to Undermine Democracy
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Sanja Kelly, Mai Truong, Adrian Shahbaz, Madeline Earp, Jessica White (eds.)

Washington, DC; New York: Freedom House (2017), 1060 pp.

"Governments around the world have dramatically increased their efforts to manipulate information on social media over the past year. The Chinese and Russian regimes pioneered the use of surreptitious methods to distort online discussions and suppress dissent more than a decade ago, but the practice ... more