ASIA MEDIA WRITES: NYU’S Jay Rosen has been analyzing the American media for decades. He may be the best mind the U.S. has on this important beat. A recent post by Professor Rosen, however, raised our eyebrows. It praised the New York Times for ‘flooding’ the Ukraine story, calling the…
Month: February 2014
BANGKOK: THE GRAVE DARKNESS DESCENDING OVER THAILAND
TOM PLATE WRITES: The stakes in the outcome of the ongoing Thai Crisis are huge and go beyond the strict parameters of the country itself. Geopolitically, Thailand has been a solid U.S. ally, particularly during the Cold War and the Vietnam War. Economically, it has been a vital force amid…
THAILAND: Is the South a Tourist Destination? Sadly, Not Right Now
ELIZABETH NAAI WRITES – Religious violence taints Thailand’s picturesque south shores. Most Thais are Buddhist, but the south hosts a large Muslim Malay population near neighboring Malaysia. Both religions renounce violence, but attacks have claimed 5,700 lives since ethnic religious conflict began there in 2004. Recently, eight minutes of raining…
HONG KONG: Reporters Without Borders — Media Watchdog of the World
LAUREN CHEN WRITES–Hong Kong’s media independence is in jeopardy, according to the annual 2014 World Press Freedom Index. Reporters Without Borders released its latest study, considered an objective reference tool measuring press freedom, and ranked 180 countries based on aspects such as levels of censorship, number of attacks on journalists,…
POVERTY PROJECT: Measuring Inequality, How Asia Stacks Up
AUSTIN SZABO WRITES: When you want to know the economics of a country, you usually look at its gross domestic product — the amount of wealth it produced over the course of a year. But GDP tells only part of the story; it leaves out how the wealth is distributed.…
AFGHANISTAN: U.S. Paints a Positive Picture of its Presence
VITTO BANEZ WRITES – Because of its unique, soap-box position, the media has an outsized ability to influence. But when it stops objectively calling things as it sees them, it becomes a propaganda tool for the powers that be. Recently, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) proposed paying journalists…
VIETNAM: Flap Your Way Into a Lawsuit Pipe
YVONNE EPPS WRITES — Ah, Flappy Bird. You’ve soared into the mainstream’s heart as millions potentially tapped holes into their iOS and Android devices, driven by addiction. You may not flap anymore, but your existence and death is a good sign within Vietnam’s constrictive media. The Vietnamese-developed mobile game Flappy…
CAMBODIA: Something’s Fishy About Cambodian Authorities
ARACELI PALAFOX WRITES – There’s something fishy about the recent murder of journalist Suon Chon, and it’s not his series of reports on illegal fishing. Earlier this month, The Phnom Penh Post reported the death of the forty-four year old Cambodian, who wrote for The Meakea Kampuchea Newspaper. It said Chon…
BANGLADESH: From Blog to Arrest
KIARA BRAMASCO WRITES – On February 18, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), an anti-crime and anti-terrorism unit of the Bangladeshi Police force, arrested 21-year-old Rasel Bin Sattar Khan for circulating an audiovisual message online. According to The Hindu, the message is believed to be from al-Qaeda chief Ayman Al-Zawahiri who…
TAIWAN: News Media is a Bit too Starry Eyed
BRIAN CANAVE WRITES — The English-language newspaper The China Post recently criticized local news media in Taiwan. At Asia Media, we couldn’t agree more with what it had to say. In a recent editorial, the Post laments over local coverage of the second Taipei International Comics & Animation Festival. Their complaint centers…
WOMEN IN ASIA: A Game Changer for Saudi Women- Wadjda
ANGELINA PRAT, LAUREN SAYLOR, AND ELODIE INTROIA WRITE – In a patriarchal society that has fought to keep women unheard, Haifaa al-Mansour has found her voice. The film Wadjda was not only the first Saudi film to be written and directed by a woman, but also was the first to be…
AUSTRALIA: The Abbott Government Has Sent You a Friend Request
AMBER VERNETTI WRITES: The Abbott government spent $4.3 million in social media research to measure public opinion concerning its immigration strategies, according to Fairfax Media. Further, the government has doled out over $65,000 to monitor the public’s thoughts regarding the “no boat, no visa” movement that aims at keeping asylum seekers at…
MALAYSIA: Valentine’s Day is a Bust
MARLENA NIP WRITES – Bitter officials did their best again this year to turn Malaysian youth against the tradition of Valentine’s Day. While in the West we poke fun at February 14 as a ‘Hallmark holiday,’ turn it into a femme-positive ‘Galentine’s Day,’ or throw anti-Valentine’s Day parties to celebrate being single,…
JAPAN: Language and Gender Spark Debate at 2020 Olympic Press Conference
LEXIE TUCKER WRITES – Is it English or ego? Former Prime Minister and Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Organizing Committee President Yoshiro Mori sparked controversy at a news conference held at the Main Media Center for the Sochi Games when questioned about why he spoke in Japanese rather than English. Mori,…
NORTH KOREA: It’s Not What You Know, It’s Who You Know
RYAN LIPPERT WRITES – In today’s world, connections are everything. Knowing the right people can get you job offers and admission into prestigious schools. Or it can get you a prison sentence in North Korea. Forty performers were arrested and imprisoned in North Korea just for knowing Jang Son Thaek,…
SOUTH KOREA: A Bittersweet Win for South Korea
CATHERINE KIM WRITES – Victor Ahn, a.k.a. Ahn Hyun-Soo, is now a Russian hero after winning the nation’s first-ever gold medal in the 1,000 meters short-track speed skating at the Sochi Winter Olympics. After winning first place, Ahn skated to the center of the ice, got down on all fours and…