Eddie C.Y. Kuo

Internet and Displacement Effect: Children's Media Use and Activities in Singapore

This paper examines the relationship between Internet use and six activities that are important to childhood development: television viewing, newspaper reading, radio listening, sports and physical exercise, interaction with family, and socializing with friends. Perceived importance of the Internet, television, newspaper, and radio as information sources was also included. A panel of 1,251 secondary-one students was surveyed in 1999, and was revisited in 2000. A total of 817 students remained in the 2000 survey, giving an attrition rate of 34.7%. Results showed that an increase in Internet use depressed television viewing, but stimulated newspaper reading, radio listening, and socializing with friends. However, it had no significant impact on physical activities and interaction with family members. Change in the perception of the importance of the Internet as an information source was also found to be related to the perceived importance of two other media sources. Limitations of the study were included in the discussion section.

The Asian communication debate: culture-specificity, culture-generality, and beyond

Critical discussion of Asian communication theory began in the 1980s, fermented in the 1990s, and in recent years was enriched by the criticism of Eurocentrism. Significant progress has been made in the pursuit of theory construction, especially in areas that closely deal with culture and communication issues, e.g., intercultural communication, postcolonial or cultural studies. While greater attention was paid to the cultural contexts of communication research in Asia, a number of crucial issues seem to have remained unsettled, among them the need and possibility of de-Westernization, and the pros and cons of culture-specific and culture-general approaches. In this article we make an attempt to tease through layers of arguments and sift proposals and possibilities, with the hope that a more viable future direction could emerge to reconcile the tension between culture-specificity and culture-generality. Our discussion focuses on the concept of cultural commensurability, which stresses similarity and equivalence, and not commonality and uniformity. Taking note of the inherent openness of culture, language and meaning, it is argued that the concept of cultural commensurability will open the indigenization issue to a broader horizon for future discourse.

Beyond ethnocentrism in communication theory: towards a culture-centric approach

Communications scholars have been challenging the universality of Eurocentric scholarship, which they argue to be a form of intellectual imperialism imposing its provincial ideals and masquerading these as universal. As an answer to Eurocentricity, Asiacentricity proposes to place Asian values and ideals at the center of inquiry to see Asian phenomena from the standpoint of Asians as subjects and agents. This article critiques this Asiacentric agenda and critically examines the implications and premises of this paradigm. It suggests instead that a culture-centric paradigm be adopted to avoid an Asian version of the Eurocentricity crisis. The article advocates the adoption of a more harmonious perspective in light of the convergence of global cultures and calls for approaching research deficiencies as a global community of communication scholars rather than one divided along ethnic fault lines. The culture-centric approach is proposed as a meta-theory that is non-polarizing by nature through its placement of culture at the center of inquiry. To avoid the creation of polarity, culture-centricity seeks to encompass the contradictions and ambivalences as well as other diverse cultural representations. This article argues for a non-polarizing approach so that communication scholars can theorize without ideological bias or artificial boundaries created by arbitrary definitions of what constitutes East or West.

Telecommunications and economic development in Singapore

The existing research of aggregate statistical analysis on the relationship between telecommunications and economic development is largely organized around the hypothesis that telephone growth fosters economic development. Although considerable evidence supports that hypothesis, there is also a growing realization that the growth of telecommunications, in turn, requires a sound economy. The existing research, however, ignores the reciprocal relationship between these two variables. Employing Singapore data, this article formulates a simultaneous equation model to assess the reciprocal relationship between telecommunications and economic development. These data support the reciprocal relationship hypothesis. Policy implications of the findings are also discussed.

Toward an Information Society: Changing Occupational Structure in Singapore

The impact of industrialization on the occupational structure of modern society has long been one of the major focuses in sociology. To the sociologist, a change in the occupational structure reflects not only changes in the economic relations of employment and the labor force but often significant transformations in social structure and social relations because occupation is generally regarded as the most important indicator of a persons social status and life style. A changing occupational structure mirrors changes in social organization and human relationships. The general trend of social change in the industrialization process has been a major theme of the classic theories of sociology. For example, Marx argued that in a capitalist society, the occupational roles would inevitably polarize into two antagonistic classes: the capitalist and the proletariat. Class struggle is inevitable. Durkheim believed that changes in occupational structure lead to qualitative changes in the nature of social solidarity. Social order is maintained through mechanical solidarity in a simple society with members of the society sharing common customs and values. With increasing division of labor, the society with a complex occupational structure is integrated on the basis of organic solidarity. In Webers view, the key to development, as demonstrated by western history, is rationalization: the tendency to be calculative and functionally

Language Status and Literacy Trend in a Multilingual Society - Singapore.

Because of both its historical background and geographical location, Singapore is characterized by a population of substantial ethnic heterogeneity and language diversity. Since the time of its inception. in the early 19th century, Singapore has grown from a small village of only a few hundred inhibitants to a modem city of over 2 million population. Each influx of immigrants in the past 150 years has added to the ethnic and linguistic complexity of the island-city. As is shown in Table 1, the population of Singapore in 1970 was composed of about 76% Chinese, 15 % Malays, 7’io Indians, and less than 2°o from other ethnic origins. The &dquo;others&dquo; category was composed of mainly Europeans (0’ 9 %) and Eurasian (0’ 5 %), but included also other smaller nationality groups such as Arabs, Japanese, and Nepalese.

Upsetting the agenda: media and the 1991 Singapore election*

This attempt to apply an agenda setting design to the 1991 Singapore election reveals a pattern of voter awareness different from that reported for US studies. The aim of agenda setting research has been to prove that the media agenda determines what voters think about. This study concludes that in Singapore there is a relation between what is not in the media and what Singaporean voters think about. Time frame and voters critical ability are taken into account.

Literacy in Singapore, 1970 -1980

Comparing literacy statistics in the 1970 and 1980 censuses, the paper analyses the literacy trend in Singapore with the following major findings: (1) There has been a substantial growth in general literacy in the Republic from 1970 to 1980. Concurrently and more significantly, there has also been a distinct trend toward equality in literacy among various ethnic groups and between males and females. (2) The percentage of population with bi-literate or multi-literate ability increased tremendously, testifying to the success of the bilingual educational programme in Singapore. (3) English and Chinese both made parallel growth in literacy during the intercensal years. Literacy in Chinese remained in 1980 the language with the largest number of literates in population. But English is known by large numbers of persons from all ethnic communities. (4) While Malay and Tamil did not make much gain in literacy population-wise, both have made some progress within the Malay and the Indian communities respec tively.

Videotex developments in the Asia‐Pacific: Some policy and marketing issues

The launch of the first public videotex system in 1979 was met with mixed feelings. The prognosis grew progressively worse in the face of its continued failure to take off commercially. Although videotex was declared dead by the 1980s, recent developments indicate that the revitalization of this technology is underway at least in some countries. This article reviews the past, present, and future of videotex from the Asia‐Pacific perspective.