ALEXIS CRUZ WRITES – Social media sites give users a platform to voice their opinions. They provide a means to communicate with others and express whatever they wish. Some people post disrespectful material, and that’s when censorship and social media ethics enter into the equation. This is a problem Qatar is mulling…
ADRIAN NARAYAN WRITES – On Nov. 16, “India’s Daughter” will air at 10 p.m. ET on PBS’ “Independent Lens.” This critically acclaimed documentary originally aired on March 8, 2015 in a number of countries, but was banned from Indian TV. British filmmaker Leslee Udwin’s film exposes the Dec. 2012 incident of a 23-year-old female…
MIRANDA PAK WRITES – China’s biggest e-commerce company, Alibaba is rumored to be in talks about investing in SCMP Group Ltd, which publishes Hong Kong’s leading English newspaper the South China Morning Post. According to China Daily, Alibaba is trying to expand into the media and entertainment industries. More specifically, the e-commerce entity…
ADRIAN NARAYAN WRITES– Can online declarations of love defeat real-world violence and intolerance? A few thousand Indian and Pakistani social media users are trying to find out. Connected by a mutual concern about the current state of Indian-Pakistani relations, internet users have been posting photos of themselves and short statements of peace…
SABRINA VERDUZCO WRITES – Smart Sheriff, the most widely used child-monitoring app in South Korea, has been pulled from the market and public sphere altogether, after issues with privacy and security raised concerns about the program’s safety. Initially, the surveillance app was created with the intent to serve as a pseudo-babysitter, where parents…
MARY GRACE COSTA WRITES – In the mood to binge-watch a Filipino TV drama for a long afternoon of frustration, confusion, and catharsis? Look no further than the #DuterteSerye hashtag on Twitter. Rodrigo Duterte left his supporters on a cliffhanger the week before October 16 as they waited for the…
EMILY ROCHA WRITES – A new study has exposed further censorship of Chinese citizens. Following the release of a documentary exposing the high levels of air pollution in China earlier this year, it was found that users on the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, called Weibo, were censored as they discussed the…
MIRANDA PAK WRITES – A year ago, as he perceived local media outlets to be bowing to editorial pressure from the mainland, British expat Tom Grundy thought Hong Kong could use an independent English-language news source. Spurred by events surrounding the Umbrella Movement, the Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP) became…
LEXIE TUCKER WRITES – BuzzFeed, a site that every millennial is well aware of, has finally made a move to provide quizzes, funny cat gifs, and “would you rather” polls to Japan. At the helm of the site will be founding editor Daisuke Furuta. As a former member of the digital…
RYAN LIPPERT WRITES – When the state controls the media, what viewers get out of each story depends heavily on whether they live in the country or not. There is no better example of this than North Korea. Earlier this month, North Korea celebrated the 70th anniversary of the ruling Korean…
JAMES ROYCE WRITES — Piracy rates in Australia have dropped in recent months, and the introduction of Netflix this March might be the culprit. The video streaming giant sees itself as a key competitor to the many pirate sites and services that offer video content illegally around the world. By…
SABRINA VERDUZCO WRITES – The United States and South Korea displayed a new desire to cement a lasting relationship between the two countries on October 16. Obama and South Korean President Park Geun-Hye demonstrated an eagerness to strengthen the US-South Korea alliance on October 16. In a statement from the White…
ALEXIS CRUZ WRITES – The Al Jazeera journalists who were jailed in Egypt are now free and out of the country. Australian Peter Greste was deported in February 2015 and in September his colleagues Baher Mohamed and Mohamed Fahmy were finally pardoned by the Egyptian government and released from prison.…
JAMES ROYCE WRITES – Australian Al Jazeera journalist Peter Greste may have been freed from Egyptian prison last February, but his name was not present on a list of 100 pardons released by Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi earlier this week. The decision made by President Sisi came a day…
MARY GRACE COSTA WRITES – Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but blatant plagiarism is the sign of an uncreative mind. It’s unfortunate, then, that the Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) – supposedly a celebration of creative expression through film – has found itself in the embarrassing situation of…
LEXIE TUCKER WRITES – As of September 2, the citizens of Japan have been able to “Netflix and chill” to their heart’s content. Be that as it may, it looks as though they aren’t really into binge-watching uber popular, original series such as “House of Cards” or “Orange in the…
