墨西哥政治经济改革对传媒业影响探微

20世纪 8 0年代中后期是战后墨西哥政治经济发展的分水岭 ,从这一时期始 ,墨西哥经济上全面推行以私有化和贸易自由化为主的新自由主义经济改革 ,政治上为多元化、民主化拓宽道路。经济改革加深了墨西哥传媒业“身不由己”依附美国的态势 ,将传媒业的私有化、垄断化程度推向一个新的高度 ;政治改革改写了“政府引而不发 ,报纸明哲保身”的定势 ,传媒界该出手时就出手     

Globalization and change in Taiwan's media the interplay of political and economic forces

For decades prior to the late 1980s, Taiwan's authoritarian government tightly controlled the media and used it as a political tool and ideological apparatus. However, the globalization and liberalization trends of recent years have had their influence, and since the 1990's Taiwan's media has been liberalized at a much faster pace than much of the rest of Asia.

Employing an historical analysis approach and a globalization theoretical framework, this study examines how the media in Taiwan has evolved in the era of globalization, and the significance and implications of this evolution. Specifically, this paper explores how Taiwan's media was liberalized, how the major functions of the media shifted, how the media environments were changed, and how the ‘closed’ media system was integrated with the global media system. It also discusses the new challenges and problems facing Taiwan following its liberalization.     

Cybertroopers and tea parties: government use of the Internet in Malaysia

The advent of the Internet has enabled a disruption of the Malaysian government's long-standing control of media content. However, there are also opportunities for the government to extend into the Internet what Cherian George has called ‘narrow tailoring’ policies, designed to ensure ‘hegemonic consensus.’ Demonstrating the interconnections of intraparty factional rivalry, blogging and newspaper management, as well as the extension of government influence into online content, this paper discusses three cases: the transformation of a bloggers association; the organisation of ‘cybertroopers’ by the dominant governing party; and, the use of a blog, Facebook, and Twitter by the prime minister (PM), Najib Razak. Each of the cases highlights particular ‘blog affordances’, a concept used to parse the potentials and limitations of blogs and other social media with regards to state hegemonic control through media ownership. In addition, an adapted concept of ‘extended parasocial relations’ is proposed in relation to Najib's blog and social media presence. Overall, these cases demonstrate the continuity and complementarity of on- and offline activities, which form a relatively stabilised assemblage of political activity.     

Influences of politics and economics upon photographic content in Chinese newspapers

During the mid‐1980s political pressure upon Chinese journalists decreased, financial pressure upon their newspapers increased and photojournalism gained importance. This study compares the content of photographs in three ‘official’ and three hybrid ‘official‐commercial’ Chinese newspapers. Photographs were found to be less important in ‘official’ newspapers. Subjects and values of concern to government and Party leaders appeared more frequently in ‘official‐commercial’ papers. This study also shows that in a period of political and economic reform, diversity exists in photographic news content and that photographs frequently serve public interests.     

Participatory Populism: Online Discussion Forums on Mainstream News Sites During the 2014 European Parliament Election

ABSTRACT

Online media have transformed the political news landscapes, changing not only professional journalistic practices but also the way in which citizens participate in political communication. In the debate about the impact of the Internet on democratic practices, some scholars emphasize the potential of digital media platforms to establish a medium for deliberative and inclusive democratic participation, whereas others underline the development of fragmented “echo chambers” driven by the interests of mainstream news organizations. We point to an alternative scenario in which online political communication develops in the direction of “participatory populism”, involving an unrepresentative group of users actively engaging in the delegitimization of democratic institutions. This engagement results in a collective voice that expresses high levels of negativity towards mainstream democratic politics. Through a study of user comments relating to the 2014 European Parliament election in Germany and the UK, we show how commenters express predominantly negative views towards not just the EU but also national government and mainstream opposition parties. We find, however, that the relationship between user comments and news platforms is highly contextualized. The nature of the relationship between comments and news platforms across countries thus warrants further investigation.     

First and second-level agenda-setting in the 2014 Indian general election: a time-series analysis of party-media relation

The role of the press as a political watchdog is crucial to the functioning of democracy. Especially in the run-up to elections, voters depend on the media's presentation of parties and candidates to make informed, responsible choices at the ballot box. But who, then, influences the news media? Empirical evidence in the United States and Europe suggests that political party campaigns and election coverage in the news media are interconnected and influence each other. This study tests whether such agenda-setting effects between party campaigns and the media also take place in the general elections in the world's largest democracy, India. India's western-type political system has a distinct media system characterized by high competition, diversification, non-consolidation and formal and informal ties between the media, commercial interests and political actors. Content analysis and Granger's causality test of newspaper coverage (N?=?716) and party campaign messages (N?=?458) found that agenda-setting effects do occur in India, but are largely bi-directional. We also found an overwhelming focus of both newspapers’ election coverage and of all major party campaigns on one single candidate, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s Narendra Modi. This, we argue, is a result of the broader trends that have shaped Indian politics in recent years. The significant correlations and non-significant causal effects between party campaign and media coverage also indicate a trade-off situation between political power negotiation and political balance in the press.     

Framing Falun Gong: Xinhua news agency's coverage of the new religious movement in China

Falun Gong caught the eyes of the Beijing leadership when more than 10,000 of its practitioners gathered at the Zhongnanhai government compound in Beijing on April 25, 1999. It attracted the attention of the world when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started cracking down on the group three months later, claiming this to be the most serious political incident since the student uprising at Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989. Scholars have attempted to contextualize the cultural, political, and economic climate in contemporary China that allowed this group to rise in a relatively short period and to assess the causes of the CCP's nationwide campaign oppressing the group. Relatively little attention, however, has been paid to exploring the media's role in supporting the government's cause in this campaign. This study examines journalistic narrative and framing of Falun Gong as a social threat in one news organization's attempt to legitimize the government's crackdown against the group. Although the economic reforms and political relaxation since the 1980s might have expanded the media's latitude, the press, especially state-owned media outlets, still functions as an agent for the Beijing regime in important political and social issues. This paper shows how journalists, through news frames, construct particular parameters within which to assess the ‘reality’ about Falun Gong.     

Mass media,elective politics and multi‐party democracy in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka has practised elective politics of varying degrees for almost a century, and with adult universal franchise since 1930. During this period the mass media have played their role, at times controversial, in trying to influence elective politics. With multi‐party democracy, the tempo of elective politics has intensified, and it has been matched by greater proliferation, sophistication, and broader ownership of the media, TV in particular. The emergence of the independent weeklies or tabloids has added a new dimension to the scene.

This article attempts to place in a historical and critical perspective the nature and the complexities of the nexus between the mass media and the electoral process in Sri Lanka, with a focus on the elections in 1994.     

Mass media and cultural identity: Issues of ethnic co‐existence in India

This study aimed to analyze the respective effects of cognitive and emotional elements on political judgments, and the effects of media use and political talk on those two elements. Along with the cognitive judgment about political and economic issues/policies, we explored the effect of emotional responses to political and economic situations. During this process, we also looked at the effect of media use and interpersonal communication channels. By analyzing survey data gathered in December 2007, it was first found that voters' cognitive judgment and emotional responses to political and economic situations, respectively, affected their evaluation of the incumbent president. Second, emotional reactions such as ‘pride’ in politics, and ‘hope’ and ‘anger’ for economics, showed significant influence on their evaluation of the president's performance. Third, voters' patterns of media use and interpersonal talk appeared to exert significant influences on those cognitive judgments and emotional responses to political and economic reality.     

Whose interactive' channel? Exploring the concept of interactivity defined in Taiwan's 2000 presidential election online campaigns

This study bases on two theorized aspects of web interactivity, human‐to‐online‐media interaction, and human‐to‐human‐via‐online‐media interaction, aiming to explore how the concept of ‘interactivity’ was defined and realized by primary candidates' websites in Taiwan's 2000 presidential election. Measured by an Interactivity Index Scale developed in this study, the research findings indicate that candidates' websites performed better in offering human‐to‐online‐media interaction; however, the human‐to‐human interaction via online media was not realized as the primary objective of the online campaigns. Further analysis revealed that even in the perspectives of human‐to‐online media interaction, candidates tended to define web interactivity in terms of working towards their interest, not towards those of the voters. The implication of such findings is provided for future studies on online political communication.     

‘No Reefer Madness Please—We're British’: accounting for the remarkable absence of mediated drugs education in post-war britain 1945–1985

This paper draws upon archive material to explore the reasons for the absence of any drugs education films, or ‘mass-mediated drugs education’, during the immediate post-war period in Britain. The term ‘mass-mediated drugs education’ is used to refer to any drugs education messages communicated via the mass communication technologies of the twentieth century—the ‘high modern age’. While this might appear a rather narrowly defined interest in media history, the evidence offered in explanation provides some important insights into the assumptions made about mass media by British policy-makers and political elites during the ‘high modern age’ of mass communication. In contrast to Britain, during the same period in the United States, a plentiful supply of drugs education films was generated through the energies and interests of state agencies and moral entrepreneurs. Many of the US films of the ‘reefer madness’ era of the 1930s and the short ‘social guidance’ films of the fifties and sixties still remain in circulation, thanks to YouTube and other video file sharing sites where they are widely relished for their hysterical and wildly exaggerated treatment of the dangers of illicit drug use. However, in Britain there is an absence of any drugs education films or mass-mediated drugs education during the fifties and sixties, while the first government-sponsored mass-mediated drugs education was not produced until the mid-1980s, five decades after the first US films appeared.     

Heshang (River Elegy) a television orchestration of a new ideology in China

This paper analyses the extensive reactions and intensive discussions generated by Heshang, a six‐part documentary series aired in June 1988 in China. The documentary, advocating a ‘full‐scale adoption of Western ideas’, and ‘total abandoning of Chinese traditional culture’, stirred up party leaders' displeasure.

Furthermore, the paper also analyses the presentation rationale and strategy (such as use of symbols, emotional appeal, etc.) used in Heshang. The analysis suggests that the programme producers' experiment of conveying complex social, cultural and historical contents in a documentary format is successful and innovative. Additionally, Heshang has enormous implications for contemporary Chinese politics, in particular the use of television as a public forum on controversial issues. As such, this paper enhances our understanding of the role and impact of the mass media in China.     

Deregulation of television broadcast in India: Cultural and informational impacts

Satellite broadcasting in India can be seen as a metaphor for an integrated national agenda, but the newly deregulated marketplace appears to be setting new agendas for satellite broadcasting by government‐controlled Doordarshan. This qualitative analysis argues that moving to total free market may lead to too little development communication. On the other hand, controlled information may lead to cultural domination ('internal media imperialism') over either one of, or both, rural and urban societies. Diffusion of information may work for rural areas, while urban audiences can afford to spend more time on mass entertainers. There is a need to redefine ‘modernization’ in a non‐global context, and that definition should lead a government towards developmental media policy goals. Further, media policies should be bifurcated to address different developmental goals.     

The Role of Political Identity and Media Selection on Perceptions of Hostile Media Bias During the 2012 Presidential Campaign

Viewing a hostile media bias against one’s group (e.g., political party) is a perceptual effect of media use. When it comes to the portrayal of political parties in the United States, prior research suggests that both Democrats and Republicans see mainstream media coverage as favoring the other side, regardless of the orientation of the political news coverage. Although prior research has not identified all factors that make this perceptual bias more likely, or at explaining how or why this perceptual effect occurs, we do know that it is related to one’s group identity. In this study, we examined salient predictors of hostile media bias during the 2012 presidential campaign. Individual (i.e., political cynicism) and group identity related (i.e., group status, intergroup bias, political ideology) differences of media users predicted such perceptions. But, the medium selected for political information about the campaign also mattered. The use of two media in particular—TV and social networking sites—appear to have blunted hostile media bias perceptions, whereas the use of two other media—radio and video sharing sites—appear to have accentuated perceptions that the media were biased against one’s party     

Interpreting and shaping geopolitics in Chinese media: the discourse of the ‘New style of great power relations’

Chinese leaders have attempted to alleviate international anxiety about its rise to global prominence describing its development as a ‘peaceful rise’ or ‘peaceful development’. Most recently, Chinese leaders have begun deploying a new term, the ‘New Style of Great Power Relations’ (新型大国关系). The purpose of this study is to examine the treatment of the ‘New Style of Great Power Relations’ as a political slogan within the Chinese media as a means to shape a geopolitical worldview among Chinese citizens and international actors. Researchers identified 541 articles from 25 different Chinese media sources selected to represent varying levels of government influence and editorial perspectives. This study found the concept primarily intended to engage the United States by stressing cooperative aspects of U.S.–China relations, but also challenges specific U.S. actions. Those U.S. policies challenged within the Chinese media are portrayed as inconsistent with the ‘new style’ concept’s principles. This forms a ‘rhetorical trap’, as it were for the United States, in that the framing of the discourse implicates U.S. intentions and policies as disingenuous unless the United States changes its policy stances. The essay examines the implications of the discourse for understanding Chinese political communication.     

The Politics of Small Things

A distinctive dimension of political life, power as the capacity for people to act in concert, was a key in understanding one of the major transformations of the late twentieth century—the democratic aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet empire in central Europe. In this paper, the way this dimension—the politics of small things—provides alternatives in the United States is analyzed. A new media regime, with significant interactions between virtual and embodied social interactions, has opened up the opportunity for a new democratic politics. The antiwar movement and the Dean campaign are shown to have constituted alternative political possibilities for those critical of hegemonic discourses and practices.     

Perceived party polarization,news attentiveness,and political participation: a mediated moderation model

Perception of party polarization has a positive impact on political participation. While past research suggests that such impact depends upon people’s information use, empirical evidence is lacking. We used a mediated moderation model to test the multiplicative effect between polarization perception and media use on political participation. The data for analysis came from a survey of 625 representative Hong Kong residents in 2015. Findings show that the impact of perceived party polarization on political participation is contingent upon one’s news attentiveness, and that internal political efficacy serves as a mediator that partially explains the interaction effect. Narrowed gaps in political knowledge, efficacy, and participation were observed between light and heavy news users as perceived party polarization rises. The implications of the findings with respect to political participation, role of news media use, and the formation of efficacy beliefs in the context of party polarization are discussed.     

EARLY POLITICAL PARTIES AS MEDIATED COMMUNITIES

It has been well documented that forms of media help create new communities, such as the public sphere and the nation. However, the origin of one major political institution has rarely been considered in this light: the political party. This paper brings together the theory on early party formation in North America and the theory on mediated communities to argue that the first public political organizations in Canada, which resembled modern parties in many ways, should be seen as constituted by the media. The paper presents the case of Upper Canada (1820–1841) where newspaper distribution linked partisans into new communities, and editors and politicians ‘imagined’ new political communities in the pages of their newspapers. Modern political parties should thus be seen as essentially mediated communities.     

When virtual reality meets realpolitik: Social media shaping the Arab government–citizen relationship

Since most activists participating in the recent uprisings in Arab countries have been using social media to an unprecedented extent, public analyst and researchers have rushed to reflect on and explain the phenomena, often attributing a ‘change agency’ to social media as such. This argumentative research collects evidence from literature, recent surveys and focus groups in order to contextualize our understanding of the role of social media and its usage in reshaping the Arab government–citizen relationship: Are the traits of social media significant enough to single them out and discuss their specific impact on the government–citizen relationship? Are we well advised to attribute an ‘agency’ of social media in shaping politics and inducing political change? And in view of the actual use of social media: What are the options of containing emerging ‘destructive’ phenomena and ‘improving’ the government–citizen relationship? Answers are outlined to support contextualized design of social media technology and regulation: (1) Arab citizens basically support democratic concepts; however (2) social media as such do not act and therefore do not ‘create’ e.g. democracy; rather (3) social media enable a new political sphere for Arab citizens, nevertheless challenged by realpolitik; and (4) social media need care taking in terms of shaping political communication and shaping the media itself in order to serve well as mediator among citizens and between citizens and government.     

当今日本新闻业的实用主义

当今日本的新闻业看上去充满了民主之风,实际上却出现了一些问题,原因在于日本政府的政策和媒体自身。文章分析了日本新闻业和政治的相互关系,揭示了日本新闻业实用主义风潮的本质,对新闻业唯政治马首是瞻的情况进行了批评并分析了问题产生的原因和目前的解决措施。