KAYLA DE BONDT WRITES – The Australian high court has cleared the way for a Sydney radio station to face charges for an on-air stunt which ultimately led to the suicide of a pranked nurse. In the process, the court backed the power of the country’s media watchdog to identify criminal…
Full Article AUSTRALIA: Pranking Leads to Chilled Speech
NICK ARMER WRITES – While members of the media and politicians of both Iran and Israel continue to preach suspicion and rivalry between the two nations, their citizens have begun a new conversation online. An unexpected campaign for love and respect between Iranians and Israelis all began with a single…
Full Article IRAN: Spreading the Love One Facebook Post at a Time
ANNIE LUNDGREN WRITES – ABC’s newest primetime show, Fresh Off the Boat, reminds us that America’s complicated race relations can be funny, too. Set in 1995, the sitcom follows a Taiwanese-American family’s move from D.C.’s Chinatown to a white middle-class suburb in Orlando, Florida, where they learn how to fit in…
Full Article TELEVISION: Fresh Off the Boat is a Fresh Look at the Asian-American Experience
NICK ARMER WRITES -The Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy announced that the 2015 Women’s Rights Award would be given to Iranian journalist Masih Alinejad. Yet, this victory has not come without severe backlash from Iranian authorities. On February 24, Alinejad was presented with the award in a public ceremony…
Full Article IRAN: Female Journalist Lets Her Hair Down
Ever wanted to meet a VIP from Japan and exchange views? Here’s a chance you don’t want to miss out on! On March 11, 2015, Loyola Marymount University will be hosting a panel in the McIntosh Conference Room located in University Hall from 3:00PM to 4:15PM, where you will have…
Full Article LOS ANGELES: Understanding Japan Through Japanese Eyes
LEXIE TUCKER WRITES – Most people are lucky enough to enjoy twitter fame while they are still among the living. Unfortunately, recently deceased Japanese journalist Kenji Goto will not have this luxury. A 4-year-old tweet from Sept. 7, 2010 has spread across major social networking sites like wildfire, letting the…
Full Article JAPAN: Rest in Tweet
RYAN LIPPERT WRITES – After opening in the UK last Friday, being scheduled for an unofficial North Korean release via balloon airdrop, and possibly helping to bring the Hermit Kingdom into popular culture, The Interview has once again shown the world that it is Kim Jong-unstoppable. When hackers and the…
Full Article NORTH KOREA: The Kim Jong-unstoppable Force
MICHELLE VARINATA WRITES – With a license to drive and big birthday plans, nothing is more blissful than being 16. Throw in a wedding ring and all of a sudden, being 16-years-old is equivalent to being an adult. Welcome to Indonesia, a country where children as young as 16 can legally…
Full Article INDONESIA: Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman
RYAN LIPPERT WRITES – Shin Dong-hyuk, whose experiences in a North Korean concentration camp are chronicled in 2012’s “Escape from Camp 14,” announced last week that parts of the story portrayed in the book are not completely true. He stated, for example, that most of his time in the camps…
Full Article NORTH KOREA: Camp of Lies?!
SHUTING LI WRITES – In a country of 1.4 billion, with an extreme gender imbalance of 117.6 boys to every 100 girls, competition for love is fierce. But what do Chinese men think of when they imagine a traditionally beautiful woman? The primary factor to be considered is white skin. The…
Full Article CHINA: Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder
In a nation where homosexuality is shunned, journalists rise up to defend the rights and dignity of gay, lesbian and transgender people against verbal and sometimes physical assault from invasive television media. Here’s the kicker: this nation is Pakistan. The country is known for having the highest Muslim population in…
Full Article PAKISTAN: The Rocky Road to Acceptance
ASIA MEDIA WRITES – Julien Blanc and his company Real Social Dynamics (RSD), have been banned from entering Singapore. The cause? A petition started by a local on change.org. Blanc and his company RSD, based in California, promote the use of violence and threats to seduce women to have sex. As…
Full Article SINGAPORE: Abuse is Not Attractive
MICHELLE VARINATA WRITES – Not a single person thinks that being Chinese and Christian in a homogeneously Muslim majority will make history in Indonesia’s political sphere. Basuki Tjahaja Purnarma, otherwise known as Ahok, is Jakarta’s first governor of Chinese descent. While Jokowi has already left his position as Governor of…
Full Article INDONESIA: And God Said…Let There Be a Chinese-Christian Governor!
SHUTING LI WRITES – China’s most viewed dating show “Fei Cheng Wu Rao” (“If You Are The One”) is produced by Jiangsu Satellite Television to satisfy Chinese women’s desperate need for the perfect man. And it’s a huge hit. America’s most popular dating show, “The Bachelor” on ABC, has about 7.75…
Full Article CHINA: All the Single Ladies
ASIA MEDIA INTERNATIONAL WRITES: As the compellingly dramatic protests in Hong Kong intensify, some reporters have been caught in the melee. But for Hong Kong’s journalists, there is more at stake than run-ins with the riot police. The following timely and incisive article on this issue appears courtesy of the…
Full Article HONG KONG: SQUEEZING THE JOURNALISTS
JEREMIAH FAJARDO WRITES – From potato salad to Oscar nominated films, the popular crowd-funding site Kickstarter has been at the forefront of rethinking project funding. Surprisingly, some of the most successful campaigns have come from Japan’s risk-averse entertainment industry. The time for change has come and it’s in the hands…
Full Article YOUNG JAPAN: Looking Westward – The Kickstarter Phenomenon